After nearly a decade of creating innovative Kontakt instruments and sound design tools, Rigid Audio has announced its closure by the end of 2024. Founded in 2015, this one-man operation led by Dennis Lenz has been known for delivering feature-rich libraries at accessible price points. In this exclusive interview, Dennis shares insights about this difficult decision and reflects on his journey in the music technology industry.
Worth knowing: Rigid Audio is running a final sale until the end of the year, offering the entire catalog (38 products – 70 Gb) for only €29.80!
- After a decade of developing Kontakt instruments and sound design tools, what factors ultimately led to the decision to close Rigid Audio?
Several factors, I’d say. The main reason is (or was) that it was more and more difficult to compete with others in a nowadays pretty saturated market. Since Rigid Audio is a one-man-show (just me) it wasn’t simply possible anymore to get all the tasks involved of continuing to be successful done in a timely manner. So I finally decided to pull the plug and look out for new adventures in the media and entertainment market – as I don’t want to rush out “half-done” products that I am not fond of just to be able to keep Rigid Audio in business.
- Throughout your journey, you’ve created unique libraries focusing on synthesizer and electronic sounds. Which of your products are you most proud of and why?
I tried to make all my software instruments unique somehow and whilst that did work sometimes better and sometimes not, I personally am very proud of my latest biggest loop-player/drum-sampler hybrid ever, which is called “Interference.”
Somehow that was the moment where everything I’ve learned over all the years and taught myself in terms of sound design, art and programming did come together. I was finally able to literally put all of my ideas that I had and always dreamed of together into a single product.
In the end (and to my surprise) it didn’t work and sell well but nevertheless I had tons of fun creating it and that was very fulfilling to me.
- The Kontakt GUI maker was quite an innovative tool for developers. How did this project come about, and what challenges did you face in creating development tools for the community?
The idea for a Kontakt instrument building kit came into my mind after getting many emails from people over the years that all asked for help in terms of how to develop Kontakt instruments, how to do scripting and basically wanting to get the grasp on the whole process. Several people also mentioned that they would love to be able to create their own instruments but do mainly lack the coding skills. That was the moment where Kontakt GUI Maker was born!
My goal was to have one single software that could help the user in creating his/her first very own Kontakt instrument – and that without the need to code and/or to dive deep into the Kontakt instrument architecture with all its little quirks and challenges. In the end I am quite happy with the result, but now of course its future is a bit uncertain.
Concerning difficulties: I guess the main difficulty here is to make everyone happy, or at least try to do so. But I quickly realized that this is nearly impossible and more or less above my head. Even implementing simple things and fixing bugs afterwards takes so much time, especially with a large project like this.
- You’ve maintained a reputation for offering feature-rich libraries at accessible price points. How has this pricing philosophy influenced your business model over the years?
Well, initially I thought that a good product could easily ask for a good amount of money. But over the years I realized that the market is dictating what a product is worth or, in other words, what does work and what doesn’t. To sum it up: It soon became clear to me that if I want to compete with others, I would have to cut down and adapt my prices or shell out huge amounts of money into marketing, which in the beginning of course wasn’t really possible.
And since there are tons of excellent products out there already with many of them being free, I quickly decided to go with very accessible price points together with various offers and discounts. A lot of customers also thanked me for making my products easy on their budget. After all I think I would do it again like this but I would focus way more on marketing and social media. I always underestimate the power of that!
- Looking back at Rigid Audio’s evolution since 2015, what would you consider your biggest achievement and your most valuable lesson learned?
In terms of my releases, the biggest achievements were (ironically) the smaller, more focused ones like my loop-based products Cinematrix or Synferno. These do sell very well even until today! And yes, if you’d ask me what I have learned over all these years then I would answer: Do not overthink and do not overcomplicate things. Just create an instrument that does focus on one main thing and then perfect that in any way possible.
- The music technology industry has changed significantly since you started. How have these changes affected small-to-medium-sized developers like Rigid Audio?
Well, we see today how it did affect me – I had to close doors! But of course I would never dare to blame anyone for that except myself, since I think after all you have to constantly improve, adapt and be on “top of the edge” if you want to survive. Surely that does apply to many business segments, not only the music software and technology industry alone.
- Your work has spanned various types of sound design. As you move forward, do you plan to continue working in sound design or music technology in some capacity?
I am currently not sure to be honest! I have and always had a strong passion for everything music and computer related, though.
Besides Rigid Audio, I did also release my own music and compositions that I made with friends online in a few places. But since I tried and failed many many years to create some attention and to make some income with that, I really think that it’s finally time to dive into different adventures. Believe it or not: I am going into video game development. Wish me luck!
- As you prepare for this transition, what message would you like to share with the music production community that has supported Rigid Audio over the years?
I can only say: Thanks so much to each one of you! Without you there would’ve been no Rigid Audio. There have been good times and there have been bad times but after all it was an exciting journey. Never ever stop making music!
