Yes, Neo, Ricard makes a great many good points in this well-considered post, but the above bears repeating. The industry is littered with names of synth makers who have gone under, notably including the folks who invented midi in the first place. I can't help thinking that those who believe they have a better idea about how to build synths should try opening up shop for themselves and see how that goes.ricard wrote:Quite frankly, Clavia have been in business since 1983 without going under, which is truly impressive for such a small company in the synth business. Waldorf flopped in the meantime (but got up again). Where did Quasimidi go? Alesis had a stunt at synths with the Andromeda, Ion and Micron but then gave it up. There are numerous other examples. Apparently, Clavia know what they are doing. I think part of that equation is not to take too large risks. I've been led to believe that the Nord Modular G2 and Nord Lead 3 almost sunk the company. Too expensive and/or too few customers, but brilliant and forward looking products. It's a tricky business.
These Wizards of Nord are Masters at cooking up these hardware contraptions that spit out pleasing sound. When I go out to eat, I make it a rule to refrain from barging into the kitchen to instruct the chef on little improvements which I think can be made to his recipes or menus (they've got many sharp knives in there). Certainly as playing musicians we all may have clever little ideas which we would like to see implemented, but as Ricard also points out, ten of us musos may have twenty different "clever little ideas" in mind, all wildly disparate. And each of us may believe these "clever little ideas" to be 1) earth-shatteringly important, and 2) ridiculously easy to accomplish. They are usually neither. Implementation of all these things would cause the instrument to drift away from basic design principles of keeping it simple and straighforward.
There will necessarily be something of a symbiotic link between the synth maker and the community of musos which play those synths, and the maker's self-interest dictates that the opinions of the musos who are prospective buyers of those synths be considered. But when someone comes along who starts talking about grabbing the pitchforks and torches and storming the castle gates to demand rights of control over design decisions (recent examples include 'let's all get together and spam their server to death,' and 'my having purchased one or two of these should afford me a seat at the table at their design meetings')...this "Rise, Proletariats" advocacy is just plain moronic.
There's nothing wrong with dropping little slips of paper in the suggestion box, but such things are more likely to be well-received if submitted with a smile and a thank you than with angry threats of coercion. Sure, vote with your dollars. If you don't like what's on the menu...there are other restaurants in town (I wonder how those other chefs feel about customers barging into the kitchen...)
Bless,
Pablo
synth like A1, 'cause a function like that is selectable in the Eventide Stompboxes (it's called CATCHUP) that cost 1/3 of A1.
