[sdiy] Ways for innovation

[Neil Johnson]

Interesting discussion!

Rutger Vlek wrote:
> 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. ... 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.

That is but one explanation for the current price.

> 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).

The Minimoog was arguably an innovation, yes, but not a technical
innovation.  It was a packaging innovation: putting that "Moog" sound
in a small, portable, convenient package ideal for lugging onto stage.
It appealed to the non-modular market, to the working musician who
wants the sound without the patch leads.

>  This also means, financially, there's very little motivation for companies to innovate.

Why?  Surely that's the whole point of a company?  It innovates a new
product or service, better than the competition, and sells stuff to
make a profit.  Sometimes it's technical innovation, but it doesn't
have to be.  Let's face it, did Starbucks innovate coffee to improve
it, or did they innovate the cafe experience and develop a brand that
attracts people who have no taste?

> 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"!

See: SoundArt Chameleon.

> 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?

There is the HD-MIDI proposal.  If you feel sufficiently motivated why
not get involved in the MMA and try to push it forwards.  There
are/were other technologies as alternatives - Yamaha had the
MIDI+Audio over FireWire, there's that CopperLan thing, and so on.

> 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?

See: SoundArt Chameleon.

> Why does my 150 dollar phone have a better screen than my 3000 dollar synth?

Because you don't understand the dynamics and scales involved in
production.  Parts of this post from MW a couple of years ago:
https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1351589&highlight=#1351589

On the way home this evening I thought about a different perspective.
Lets assume that so far, since the beginning of time, about 1 million
synthesizers and synthesizer modules have been made.  From the above
page the average rate of mobile phone production is about 110 per
second.  So in three hours more mobile phones have been made than the
total number of synthesizers ever built.  The scale is staggering, and
with scale comes cost reduction.

For example, lets take your Nucleus VCF in ready-made format.  You
charge 225 Euros for it according to the page on MW.  In high volume
(>100k per week) that would cost about 5 Euros to make, test, put in a
box, on a pallete, ready to ship from the factory in China.  Maybe a
bit more, maybe a bit less.  But only if you buy in those kinds of
quantities.

> 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?

Because you're asking for the wrong thing.  What about past commercial
products, like an Elka Synthex or an Oberheim Matrix-12 or a monster
Moog Modular.  Can you upgrade those with the latest audio quality and
algorithms?  No.  To be honest anything with "CPU-hogging new
algorithms" will have a life expectancy of a mayfly in a tornado.
Because soon after you've upgraded the CPU it will be too slow to run
the next generation of algorithms.  You seen to be a bit mixed up: you
want products that last a lifetime, yet you also want those products
to be inherently short-lived.  Choose.

> I like to be realistic about things financially, but this is my musicians heart speaking.

It's good to dream!

Cheers,
Neil
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