Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 11:17:27AM +0900, Miles Bader wrote:
> Crackpot <shifty@...> writes:
> > On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 11:32:44AM +0900, Miles Bader wrote:
> > > [I wonder what proportion of the cost is in the actual voice (as opposed
> > > to stuff like case/interface/midi that could be shared among all voices
> > > in a polyphonic instrument)...]
> > 
> > ***rough*** estimate
> > "User Intf"/one-time costs
> > encoders 8x*3= $24
> > plastic knobs 8x*2=16
> > buttons w/caps 20*1= $20
> > LED display + controller chip 5$
> > PIC $10
> > metal case $50
> > 
> > "voice" costs
> > DSP chip $25
> > scads of analog ~$100
> 
> Do you think it's really that much?  The sum of the above is $250, and I
> thought typically materials costs were only 25-30% of the final price.
> It will be interesting to see what the `store cost' is, since his web site
> says they're finally going to be available through normal retail channels.

It's rough, but maybe some other hobbyists could chime in on my accuracy.
I actually mistakenly truncated that e-mail early before I could add more
things.  For example, he said in the AES talk that he spent $6,000 getting
it Fcc part 15 tested.  That would have to be repeated, although perhaps
with more initial success, making it cheaper, in a 2nd model.

Then, there are the manual-printing costs costs,
the design software costs ($300 dev board from ADI), the website, 
he probably does need some kind of accountant.

I should know about this, I've been planning how to leave my job
and sell my own homebuilt device for a few months now.  (An
effect processor!)


> For an 8-voice instrument, that'd be $250 + 8 * $100 = $1050.  If he
> sold them for ~$2000, he could keep the same profit margin.  OTOH, the
> andromeda's only about $2500 new these days (that's one thing that makes
> me think the above price estimates might be a bit high), and perhaps
> that would be viewed as the competition.

I don't understand how the andromeda can be so cheap- they custom-made
analog voice ASICs for it.  Those chips can be very efficient for
lots of voices, but the initial costs for them are very high!

-N



-- 
        different MP3 every day!     http://gweep.net/~shifty/snackmaster
     .        .       .      .     .    .   .  . ... .  .   .    .     .      .
"La la la laaa laaa laaa                   "      |     Niente 
 La la la laaa laaa laaa."  -Stereolab            | shifty@...