Dirk Ulrich just took back the reins on Plugin Alliance and Brainworx, and this whole saga somehow ended up being a full circle moment for the guy who built them in the first place. He dropped the news straight from his own social accounts, confirming both brands officially sit under his ownership again as of mid-July.
This isn't some standalone move either. Ulrich's folding both companies into a fresh outfit called RCKFRC, which already had Manley and Apogee sitting in the hardware lineup, so now plugins and hardware live under one roof.
Timing here matters a ton. InMusic scooping up Native Instruments and iZotope bouncing over to Boris FX had the whole audio plugin crowd on edge, and Plugin Alliance users specifically were spamming social media asking whether their licenses would still function or if their gear was about to get orphaned.
Ulrich addressed that head on, framing this less like some reboot and more like picking the story back up with sharper focus. His stated priorities cover keeping existing products running, pouring resources into engineering, patching whatever's been broken, and growing both brands inside the RCKFRC setup alongside Apogee and Manley.
He's promising rolling updates over the coming weeks, including introducing the people steering this next phase, and asked users for a little patience while everything settles. He capped it off saying he's genuinely thrilled about how this turned out and thanked the community for sticking around through the uncertainty.
This isn't some standalone move either. Ulrich's folding both companies into a fresh outfit called RCKFRC, which already had Manley and Apogee sitting in the hardware lineup, so now plugins and hardware live under one roof.
Timing here matters a ton. InMusic scooping up Native Instruments and iZotope bouncing over to Boris FX had the whole audio plugin crowd on edge, and Plugin Alliance users specifically were spamming social media asking whether their licenses would still function or if their gear was about to get orphaned.
Ulrich addressed that head on, framing this less like some reboot and more like picking the story back up with sharper focus. His stated priorities cover keeping existing products running, pouring resources into engineering, patching whatever's been broken, and growing both brands inside the RCKFRC setup alongside Apogee and Manley.
He's promising rolling updates over the coming weeks, including introducing the people steering this next phase, and asked users for a little patience while everything settles. He capped it off saying he's genuinely thrilled about how this turned out and thanked the community for sticking around through the uncertainty.
