[sdiy] Ways for innovation

[Simon Brouwer]

Hi,
 
But you have to consider the low cost of those "toy" instruments...
 
I found mention of the original price tag of a Minimoog, in 1975: "$1795 CDN
(which would be roughly equivalent to US dollars in those days)."
According to
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1795&year1=1975&year2=2015 that
amount, corrected for inflation, would amount to almost 8000$.
 
Even for the original 1795$ you can still buy pretty serious musical
instruments, let alone for 8000$.
 
Best regards
 

> Op 22 januari 2016 om 16:27 schreef spivkurl at wearerecords.com:
> 
>  My feelings on this are definitely related to the mobile, single serve, throw
> away culture which has taken over. There a far more people creating music
> (with varying degrees of success) on their phones and laptops, than there are
> people using real hands on instruments these days. No matter how often I try
> to explain to people that a piece of software cannot recreate a performance on
> a real instrument, I always have a bunch of people snapping at me... they
> express their unfounded claims about how a digital waveform is that same or
> "higher resolution" (uh I hate that) than an analog waveform... they talk
> about the challenges of recording a real instrument... they talk about the
> cost. For me, it all seems like bad priorities, both for the musicians and the
> companies selling things for making music. Being a hobbyist and being a
> serious musician are generally two different things (money making completely
> aside). A huge amount of people want to skip from being a hobbyist to being a
> famous "producer" (I hate that too), and they don't seem to know the first
> thing about the process to get from point A to point B, nor are they willing
> to make investments of time, practise, and money. These things will have to
> change for the whole idea of electronic music/instruments to change. I can see
> glimpses of it from time to time, for example the resurgence and
> diversification of synth modules available. Many electronic instruments made
> recently seem barely better than toys, and sometimes worse (in the case of
> vintage toys). If you can't even bother to put a line out on your synthesizer,
> then maybe you should not to be making synthesizers... am I right?
> 
> 
>    > >    -------- Original Message --------
> >    Subject: [sdiy] Ways for innovation
> >    From: Rutger Vlek <rutgervlek at gmail.com mailto:rutgervlek at gmail.com >
> >    Date: Fri, January 22, 2016 8:32 am
> >    To: synth-diy DIY <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> > mailto:synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl >
> > 
> >    Hi guys,
> > 
> >    I've been reflecting on business and innovation in the music branch a lot
> > lately, and also discussing with friends and I thought it might be nice to
> > see how people respond here.
> > 
> >    The thoughts were basically coming from an evening of joy with my Nord
> > Modular G2, which I think is one of the most ground braking synths in recent
> > years. With ground braking I mean... musically. Recently synths have become
> > more affordable and more portable, but that's not what I'm talking about.
> > I'm talking about really new sounds, new ways of musical expression, a next
> > step for the synthesizer as a musical instrument. However, the Nord Modular
> > G2 sold rather badly, and production was stopped prematurely if my sources
> > are correct. Recently, prices on the second hand market have been going up
> > again, so in time the innovation is appreciated.
> > 
> >    This leads me to believe that the market for an truly innovative product
> > is very small, until it has really been adopted as the new standard
> > (MiniMoog anyone). This also means, financially, there's very little
> > motivation for companies to innovate. So I was thinking, what about
> > crowd-sourcing innovation or making a platform that supports this? In a way,
> > this is already happening with all the open-source projects and knowledge
> > sharing on fora like muffwiggler. But I feel a hardware platform is lacking
> > for these innovations to reach the less scientific of us who just like to
> > "play"!
> > 
> >    One of my personal pains is the lack of alternative to MIDI. Why, in this
> > modern era, is there still no high-resolution version of MIDI standardized?
> > 
> >    The other is: why is there so little hardware that helps integrating the
> > hard work of the many DSP hobbyist making great code. Where is that hybrid
> > synth with an open-sourced FX engine?
> > 
> >    Why does my 150 dollar phone have a better screen than my 3000 dollar
> > synth?
> > 
> >    And my last personal pain: why is hardware life span so short on present
> > commercial products? If I have a synth with a great keyboard with aftertouch
> > (which is removed from more and more keyboards as a cost-saving measure) and
> > a lovely set of controllers, why throw the hole thing, while the only part
> > that needs an upgrade is the CPU board + DAC to support the latest audio
> > quality and CPU-hogging new algorithms?
> > 
> >    I like to be realistic about things financially, but this is my musicians
> > heart speaking.
> > 
> >    I'd be interested to hear your thoughts!
> > 
> >    Rutger
> >    _______________________________________________
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> > 
> >  > 

 

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