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Subject: Re: [korgpolyex] Re: OT: Akai arpeggiator

From: Michael Hawkins <korgpolyex800@...>
Date: 2010-12-29

Don't get me wrong, I am quite interested in bringing out Arpeggiator.

I just think we need to be realistic when talking about the market.

I intend to start work on the arp for the HAWK and have it ready for HAWK customers no later than March.

After that, I will probably declare the HAWK project open source and will put all of my work up on the hawk800 sourceforge site. Then, it will be up to some of the more passionate customers to take my work so far and decide if they want to take it any further.

Perhaps then, I will be able to create an arp. And it may look like a real time arranger arp. Although I like working on PC related software, I also like working with "instruments" and I would love to create an arranger, arpeggiator, sequencer that brought electronic expression back into real time so that some of the music resembled adlib creation rather than the increasingly mechanised product that we see and hear today. Although I very much a lot of that computer created/edited stuff, I still like the immediacy of a "musician" making music.

Mike


From: k9k9dog <domgoold@...>
To: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, December 28, 2010 4:22:40 PM
Subject: [korgpolyex] Re: OT: Akai arpeggiator

 

i agree..better to devise some software for an arduino MIDI
self build thing. the akai arp IS not the ultimate arp, and
yes, the oberheim thing crashed, which was heartbreaking when you
spent so much time programming it/remebering how to program
it. arps are about knocking up ideas quickly, and it defeated
that objective completely, lol.

--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, Michael Hawkins <korgpolyex800@...> wrote:
>
> How about I just design/build/manufacture a new 1RU arpeggiator?
>
>
> Oh hang on, I can do a gazillion things arp-wise on a PC with any number of
> different programs.
>
> Or, how big is the market for this 1RU ARP?
>
> Tiny, I would say. I get ideas like this pitched to me quite regularly. But the
> problem is the amount of time and money required to develop them and then the
> completely unproven market. If there's one thing that developing the HAWK kits
> taught me, it's that it is very hard to make money in the arts!
>
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: zoinky420 <zoinky420@...>
> To: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Mon, December 27, 2010 1:13:50 AM
> Subject: [korgpolyex] Re: OT: Akai arpeggiator
>
>
>
>
> --- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, Gordon JC Pearce <gordon@> wrote:
> >
> > Here's someone selling the service manual:
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&&item=360298820082
> >
> > Maybe that's got some clues to how it can be adapted.
> >
>
> Well I know a lot of people have checked the service manual for an easy hack,
> and there isn't any. It would have to be a major firmware rewrite project like
> the Hawk. And if acheived, it would have to be marketed differently than the
> Hawk. People who buy the Hawk kits are already owners of Poly800s, whereas the
> people wanting to buy the clockable Akai Arp would mostly not already own the
> unit. And as far as I can tell the Hawk has not driven up costs of the Poly800,
> but if the clock-kit for the Akai arp were sold the same way the Hawk kit is,
> people would suddenly flock to ebay to buy the previously obscure Akai Arp,
> driving up the price, and that's profit that should be going to the kit maker.
> So the thing for the kit designer to do would be to buy up as many cheap Akai
> arps as he can and install the kit into them, selling it as an upgraded unit
> rather than a kit. Considering the price the Oberheim Cyclone goes for on ebay
> (and it apparently crashes frequently), there would be pretty high profit margin
> on the venture.
>