New York, NY (July 16, 2026)—A pair of major players in the pro audio software industry have come home, as yesterday, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx were re-acquired by their founder, Dirk Ulrich. The two audio software brands join Manley Labs and Apogee Electronics—both which Ulrich also purchased in the last year—under his family-owned umbrella company RCKFRC.
With the re-acquisition in place, former Brainworx CEO Winni Schapitz will return to that role again for the brands, while Mark Ulrich (Dirk’s brother) will take on marketing and sales.
While Dirk Ulrich founded Brainworx in the mid-2000s and Plugin Alliance in 2012, he sold the companies to Francisco Partners in April, 2022. The public equity firm placed the two brands under Berlin-based Native Instruments, where they joined iZotope which Francisco Partners had purchased the year before.
Native Instruments entered preliminary administration proceedings earlier this year in January, however, and all four businesses have since landed at new homes. Rhode Island-based DJ/prosumer audio manufacturer inMusic Brands announced in May that it was purchasing Native Instruments, and then last week, visual effects software and plug-in house Boris FX announced it had acquired iZotope in a coordinated transaction completed alongside the inMusic purchase.
In a public post on his Facebook account, Ulrich described the intervening years between his sale and re-acquisition of the companies, noting, “I am genuinely happy to be back, even though it’s bittersweet after passively witnessing the damage that was done in the last 3 years in awe/disbelief. Even though I offered to help without compensation, at some point, I was basically told that I was neither needed nor wanted anymore.”
With the re-acquisition, RCKFRC now has the all the parts for a burgeoning pro audio conglomerate in place, combining industry-respected hardware and software entities under one roof while having the opportunity to maintain the entrepreneur-led corporate cultures that each brand built its products and industry reputations on.
In a separate letter to customers, posted on the Plugin Alliance website, Ulrich wrote, “When the opportunity came to bring Brainworx and Plugin Alliance back under founder leadership, I didn’t hesitate. This isn’t a restart. It’s a continuation—with renewed focus and renewed responsibility. I’m not looking to recreate the past. I’m looking to build the future.”
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In his Facebook post, Ulrich expanded on those plans, noting, “We have plenty of ideas for new products which will include real-time [Plugin Alliance] plugins that will run on Apogee interfaces, new Manley plugins, Apogee joining the Plugin Alliance and more. The various teams have just started to get to know each other and we will announce more product details and roadmap info soon.”
