Clavia/Nord Financial Information

[analogika]

Your "behind the curve" comment prompted me to look, and it turns out Yamaha has an app that even supports my aging Motif XS6 synth!

Thanks!

I must say, though, that a massive global company like Yamaha works on an utterly different scale and has literally about one thousand times the number human resources to throw at the subject matter — as of 2017, they had roughly 28,000 employees (including 7,500 temps), vs. Clavia's 35 (not thousand).

For a three-man (AFAIK) developer division to be in charge not only of the operating software for four lines of machines (including adding sample back-support for a decade-old platform) and the management software for two different major platforms is stretching it awfully thin, and adding an additional platform to support (or two, if Android is to be considered) is a serious matter.

I'm pretty sure we can expect it at some point (especially with the new tools to unify iOS and macOS development), but it's a major hurdle for a company this tiny.

[Gambold]

Yeah, it's not a judgment, just an apparent fact of being a small company. Clavia has thrived (in my view) because they make very well-built boards that are easy to use and provide high-quality samples. They are expensive but not prohibitively so.

Others have commented on the Fatar keybed being a drawback with the line - I don't know enough about keybeds to comment. The Electro 6 keys are a bit noisy and they could be a hair longer, but it's a nitpick. I'd like a little more flexibility with the screen navigation (I'd prefer that when I was on E:33 that the page button took me to E:43, not E:41, etc), and I've noticed that when I'm playing a sample, I have to hit shift when adding an effect on the fly, or the effect defaults to the piano and so doesn't come on - little things like that take two hands instead of one.

[analogika]

I have to hit shift when adding an effect on the fly, or the effect defaults to the piano and so doesn't come on - little things like that take two hands instead of one.

quick double-tap?

I hear you on the page buttons. I'd prefer it stay on the slot (M:33 —> M:43), rather than switch to the first patch of a page, I agree.

[taxman]

Coonsidering Clavia’s very limited number of employees (uhh I hate the words “Human Resources “) versus the massive workforce of companies like Yamaha or Roland, and comparing the output, Clavia is doing a tremendous and highly effective job with product updates, software updates, new samples and others. Yes I know we all wish to get for example much more and updated pianos or additional functionalities in the software of the Nords but I bet Clavia’s productivity is already way ahead of their competitors, and they seem to have a very solid financial management to keep them up and running while growing carefully. Chapeau, Clavia

[be lee vit]

[quote="analogika"]
I must say, though, that a massive global company like Yamaha works on an utterly different scale and has literally about one thousand times the number human resources to throw at the subject matter — as of 2017, they had roughly 28,000 employees (including 7,500 temps), vs. Clavia's 35 (not thousand).

I'm curious as to whether that 28,000 number is the music division or if that includes the other things they do like motorcycles...do you know?

[Greg88]

Unless I'm doing my math wrong, Clavia revenue-per-employee is on par with the best high-tech companies in the World.

[lawman]

be lee vit,
Yamaha Corporation, according to its 2018 Annual Report (for its fiscal year ended 03/31/2018), received 63% of its revenues from musical instruments, 28% from audio equipment, and 8-9% from industrial machinery. Motorcycles and the like are made and sold by Yamaha Motor Company, a separate company. As of 03/31/2018, Yamaha Corporation reported total worldwide employees of 20,228, excluding the average number of temporary employees (7,558). Employee numbers were not given for the separate divisions, unless those numbers are buried somewhere in the Annual Report that didn't pop out upon my quick review. I didn't try to translate revenue and profit numbers into US Dollars, but if you want to pursue this a little further the 2018 Annual Report is available online.

[analogika]

.

[Gambold]

(I'd prefer that when I was on E:33 that the page button took me to E:43, not E:41, etc), and I've noticed that when I'm playing a sample, I have to hit shift when adding an effect on the fly, or the effect defaults to the piano and so doesn't come on - little things like that take two hands instead of one.

this is an aside to the main post topic, but:

1) totally agree on the page movement thing

2) nothing really "defaults" to anything per se. There are parameter values which are inherited through the factory programming. If you want an effect to go straight to Synth instead of Piano upon activation, then activate the effect, switch to Synth, de-activate the effect, and STORE the program. Next time around it will default to Synth.

[Woodyeyes]

When a small but successful and profitable company makes products that other much larger competitors may wish to copy, its sometimes simpler to take them over.
On the other hand if they did go bust, I’m sure this forum would continue in some form.