> [motm] Also....If it the 510 so good, and so many MOTM users
> do not have one yet, why is it being discontinued?
>
> Re-read your statement slowly, and you ∗just answered∗ your
> own question :)
Well, there's an implied and unanswered question there, which is why so few
of them have been purchased if they're so good.
My $0.02 on that question: bad marketing.
Seriously, I have _never_ heard one sound sample from the 510 that makes me
want to buy one. All I've heard is a lot of noisily trashed signals that
make me _not_ want to buy one, which is why I didn't buy one until the last
round of kits was put up for sale. I finally decided to buy one based on
descriptions by a (very) few other MOTM users whose opinions I trust, and
because the module is being discontinued. I realized the only way that I was
likely to be able to hear one of the things is to buy it and build it. If I
don't like it I imagine that I can sell it again for at least what I paid
for it, and only lose at most the pleasant time spent assembling it. Heck,
I'll force Chub to buy it from me if I don't like it. :-)
In other words, while it is certainly true that "esoteric" modules are
harder to sell than "basic" modules, maybe this module didn't sell well
because we (buyers) were told that "it makes an absolute mess of even the
simplest waveform. Effects range from frying bacon to a frog in a blender to
sticking your head into a jet engine." Quite frankly, that suggests to me
that this module is basically useless to me, given the musical directions I
tend to work in. The next statement, "You can warp LFOs into bizarre new
waveforms, as well as the output of MOTM-800 EGs" is more compelling, but
didn't compel me to whip out the credit card. If my only source of
information about the 510 was its web page, I certainly wouldn't have
ordered one.
> Buyers are 'fickle': of the 600+ MOTM
> customers going back 8 1/2 years, only 70 or so are 'active'
> at any given time.
> In fact, looking over the first 100 MOTM customers, only ∗7∗
> have bought a module in the last 18 months. Go figure :(
Speaking as a fickle buyer: some of us MOTM customers are actually _using_
our systems rather than expanding them indefinitely. Some of us don't have
the resources (of time, space, and/or money) to expand them indefinitely.
Some of us have created systems that are useful in their current state and
feel no need to expand them. It's a tough problem for a vendor: how do you
create ongoing demand for a product that's designed to never wear out, never
needs service, isn't rendered "obsolete" by operating system revisions or
other external changes, etc.? That's a business-model issue, not a
buyer-behavior issue. You can hardly call us fickle simply because we don't
need to keep buying stuff from you.
--Adam