MOTM

I'd love to get a 730, but I have to throw it into the queue of stuff to save up for & hope it's available when I can gather funds. To be honest, I don't know if I ever would have gotten into modulars if it weren't for the dotcom entry system. I'm sure it's hard to keep track, but I wish more companies were down with partial payments and deposits. It's a lot easier to pay out $120 a month than try to save up $400. Something always comes up, like a car or home repair, an unexpected bill or whatever. Like a lot of people, I don't want to go further into debt. I'd rather get rid of the debt. But it's tough reaching the milestones. It's also tough to buy knowing how bad things are going to get at my work come June or August. Of course, I still plan to buy at least a half-dozen MOTM modules over the next year or two.  

I'm kind of coming full-cirlce from hardware to computer & software back to hardware again. I'm tired of the vicious upgrade cycle... that what I could do yesterday, I somehow can't do today because Windows updated itself or the new version requires a new machine. I love that my 440 & 485 will always work (provided no surges or frying), and if they break, they can be fixed. Sometimes more is just more. I'll be honest, I just don't feel creative at a screen after 10 hours of staring at a screen at work. I just want to twist knobs & plug in & drive neighbors crazy. I know modulars encourage experimentation and exploration. But modules can be fine instruments too (as pointed out by others here). Keep investing your energy in your great designs, Paul. I don't know if there are enough of us to recover your investment. Only you know that. But I along with a lot of others sure love what you do and that you do it. Thanks.

Erik




________________________________
From: Paul Schreiber <synth1@...>
To: motm@yahoogroups.com; Girts R <boss@...>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 2:18:41 PM
Subject: [motm] [RANT] MOTM value?



> Sure, everyone needs a MOTM 730... but the days when MOTM was cheapest
> modular synth is over :) 21%VAT; 3,5% import tax; shipping overseas...
> not for everyone.
>

a) You will find that the VAT declared value for MOTM modules is quite a bit 
less than 'retail'.

b) I can't help the postage costs, but shipping 1 MOTM-730 to the EU is 
about $30. That's an issue?

I've never really considered MOTM 'inexpensive' at all. Rather, 
*innovative* . Does anyone else
even have anything close to this? Nope, everyone else has $3 of CMOS 
counters behind a panel
to count in powers of 2. Big deal, the MOTM-120 has that and more.

I am just now at the *break even* point for the '730. And I can break even 
just sitting here looking out
the window.

It is VERY expensive to tool up a new module, over $4,000. And truthfully, 
right now I'm starting to wonder
what to do looking forward. 95% of all new orders are MOTM 2.0 stuff. There 
are over 15 modular
providers at last count. I still feel that myself & my fellow MOTM designers 
have yet to be out-designed in
any facet. But the bad economic times, the drop in the Euro/Pound and other 
factors is making me second-guess
all the 100s of hours (and yes, it really is 100s of hours) of design time 
put into each module versus return
on investment. Those of you that have a '730, just look at how those 5 pc 
boards interconnect, the tightness of
the CPU card (4 layers, 3 ground planes, 3 power planes) and you can see 
where the time was spent. Before this
version, I spent time & $$$ on 2 other versions so that the HW & SW could be 
tested over and over again as not to
have any issues down the road.

I've got the MOTM-520/521 still to finish up. A lot of the R&D is done, and 
so are many of the part purchases (over $7,500, BTW).
But will it also be a 'break even' sort of deal? And that $7,500 is *just* 
for the '520, not for the '521. Quick math shows
that I need to sell about 25 to break even.

And to date, I have sold less than 25 MOTM-730s. Maybe I will sell 50-60 
'520s right away. But then I thought I would get at least 40 orders for 
MOTM-730s right away.

So, maybe the issue is even "deeper", that I'm trying to sell something that 
has little interest *now* (because it did have lots of interest before).

If so, then what exactly IS of interest?

Paul S.
/excuse rant, daughter's tuition due tomorrow.... sigh.....