[sdiy] Korg shows us how to sell more synths for less and make more money

[Neil Johnson]

> Some time ago I've spoken with EveAnna Manley about what her biggest
> complaint was when trying to price her products and she said "the cost
> of raw iron going up". True enough, there's a lot of that in every
> enclosure, mechanical part, potentiometer, and jack. We weren't even
> talking about the transformer. Parts suppliers follow the price of raw
> materials very closely, floating the price of parts off of that. I've
> gotten fairly scared myself when I was looking at prototyping some
> front panels.

Stuff costs money. No surprise there.  Prototype parts cost
significantly more than volume-produced parts.  E.g., plastic
injection moulding or panel punching vs. CNC machining, silk screen
printing vs. engraving and infilling.

> I conjecture that in the long run it'll be a better idea to just have
> a few sets of front-panel stencils to use, and have to use two panels
> for a single module every now and then - rather than have
> purpose-made, artisan metal-work supplied by companies who aren't in
> the business.

Serge did this way back in the beginning.  Standard panel with holes
on a regular grid.  Then you stuck a paper faceplate for the specific
module you were making, which had the artwork and told you which holes
to use.  The unused holes remained covered with paper.

> I'm interested what you guys think. Do you see the front panel,
> fasteners, and mechanical bits as taking up an unnecessary amount of
> your product's price? Would you like to forget about that and get on
> with your synth designs? Do you think your business could work better
> if a standard like this existed? What panel formats do you think are
> necessary in order to satisfy 80% of all needs? E.g. 16 round holes, 6
> round holes plus rectangular cutout, 6 round holes plus three large
> round holes, you name it? Do you think this can be reconciled with one
> of the popular modular formats - or do you think it'll work with all
> of them?

"unnecessary" is a relative term.  Some people will find something
unnecessary, others will find the same thing absolutely essential.
Find your target market and go for it.

Neil
--
http://www.njohnson.co.uk