MOTM

I back from family Christmas vacation, and I have lots of catching up to do 
:(  So, it may take a day or two in order for me to get to people's personal 
issues, please wait until Monday to get all excited.

As the 'old timers' know, January is my month 'off', usually for NAMM. But this 
year there is no NAMM, but rather I'm doing R&D catch-up work. I also need to do 
assembled module catch-up as well. Hopefully former employee Shane will arrive 
at my doorstep with soldering iron in tow for some serious work. If not, I will 
do what I can. I do have about 25 pc boards already soldered, so that should 
help.

I'm not going anywhere: kits and modules *will still ship in Jan*. It's just 
that I'm only sticking my head up for air every 10 days or so.

I will finish the MOTM-480 'quick kits' by Monday and ship those out next week. 
Again, get those credit cards in order so when I charge them (probably Saturday) 
there will be no delays. I'll do the MOTM-485s in about 10 days. I have to get 
going on the MIDI-CV production hardware full-tilt-boogie as the remaining '480s 
are kitted up in Indiana. I *really* need to ship these to pay bills that are 
arriving daily (just got the Analog Devices bill....eeeccckkkk!).

There are still some 'glitches' in the kitting process (missing manual pages, 1 
knob short, etc) and just send me an email and I'll ship out what you need. This 
is to expected, it's a LOT of work and I've had 6 years of practice :) I'll ship 
all of this sort of thing in a day or two, Monday at the latest. The post office 
is not so scary now. Although in Belgium, the customs office held a package (2 
MOTM-800 kits) for about 9 weeks. Sigh.

As far as the "business" side of things: 2004 was about the same as 2003. The 
actual number of modules *shipped* in 2004 was down (~840 versus ~1050) due to 2 
things: my new 'real' day job and switching the kits over to Indiana. The 
*orders* for 2004 were about the same as for 2003. So, sales were 'flat' as they 
say in the business world. But heck, I'll happily take 'flat' over the other 
alternatives (what happened to Technosaurus?).

I do think that MOTM leads the way in today's modular synth world. Other 
manufacturers' sales have skyrocketed *because* of MOTM. I certainly have the 
best-behaved customers, wouldn't trade you folks for anyone else's. I don't see 
any Serge users making custom panels or any .com assistance *except* for Stooge 
Industries! Even though MOTM opinions are the most polarized out there (gladly 
my 'profile' is lower than ever), no one can argue about MOTM audio quality, 
which in the end is what matters the most.

Looking to 2005: save your pennies, there will be lots of NEW STUFF coming in 
the second 1/2 to spend it on. I'm not going to announce until it's ready to 
ship (beta testers will be used but sworn to silence). The only thing I have 
discussed so it's no secret is the Voltage-Controlled Pulse Divider which is an 
Old Crow device that I'll have info on in ~5 weeks (Crow is moving so I have to 
wait a bit).

Thanks again for supporting my little 'synth hobby', 5600 modules strong and 
maybe the mythical 10,000 some day?

Paul Schreiber
Synthesis Technology