MOTM

Synthgeeks and musicians thirsting for new tech are impatient. IMHO you now sell 70 modules a year due to simple supply and demand. The demand was there. 1200 modules a year worth. Then supply dried up due to the supplier issues, job changes, shipping difficulty, and I shudder saying it "the backlog". Hands down you gave always had the most interesting modern module ideas for me, but during the move from 4-5 new modules a year to the current 1 per others caught on and moved to miniature Euro and .com.

I sincerely appreciate you for sharing your thoughts and making your situation understandable to us all. Others like Cynthia and Grenader simply disappear. Send it all to China, no wires, have robots build it, whatever. Just please don't throw in the towel anytime soon. As one of your longest running customers I hold out hope for the new stuff with excitement. The delay mentioned that is being developed with Mr.Rich has me most excited. Build it and the CG, MT with no wires. The solution is right there and will help modules move out and money in. Make the boards 1 board for all formats that connect to a pot board per format. The pot board can also have the power connection and jacks. Two pieces to stick together behind the panel and a modular way of going about it. What do you think?    

Thomas White
Natural Rhythm Music
www.naturalrhythmmusic.com

On May 1, 2010, at 10:01 PM, "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@airmail.net> wrote:

> The problem is that you're wasting your time soldering together 
> oscillators and filters instead of engineering new products. I think 
> everyone would be much happier if you found someone to do your module 
> manufacturing for you, even if they aren't up to your NASA-quality 
> soldering skills. I don't think my Minimoog could be launched into space, 
> but through-hole soldering doesn't require that much precision. Hell, if 
> my dumb monkey-ass soldering can put together your modules, anyone can. 
> Get someone to build your modules and spend your time on R&D to release 
> new models.
>
> You've shipped more modules than Bob ever did with one to two employees. 
> What's wrong with this picture? :)
>

Well for one a moderate MOTM system doesn't cost the same a new car like a 
Moog 35 did in 1971.

The only way to get really short lead times is to go SMT *and* to take out 
all the front panel wiring. This is what I did for Frac, Euro and the MOTM 
650 and '730. I can now build up 1 Euro module (not counting the 
calibration, just the building) in 13 minutes. The average time for a MOTM 
through-hole module is 2 hours. For the '320 and '480 it's 3 hours.

Had I known in say 2002 what I know today, I would have converted over to 
this method YEARS ago. Paul Haneberg essentially talked me out of it and 
took over the kits for ~ 18 months but then his stroke ended that 
unexpectedly. I then decided to try the MOTM 2.0 route and although it was 
slow to take off, it eventually did mostly to Will & Bill's wonderful 
dragonflyalley.com site. BrideChamber also help continue the legacy of the 
original pc boards. But then 2 major, relatively recent drawbacks happened 
in quick succession:

a) I had to change jobs and the new job has a LOT of travel
b) my wire supplier (since Day 1) went tits up *without any warning at all*, 
just a "thanks for your business and good luck to you" email the day the 
phone was disconnected. Great.....

I am still gathering data and thinking long and hard about everyone's 
comments (even if I disagree I still save them all) and trying to decide 
what to do (if anything). There is R&D going on "in the background", in fact 
I am starting a new DSP design (the mini-AudioEngine) on Monday that can be 
used cross-platform for some low-cost, simple DSP functions (including 
replacing the MOTM-510 WaveWarper). I plan to use Euro to test & fund the 5U 
much the same way I used the CEM chips to fund the 5U when I had them for 
sale (I think I'm down to my last 4 ICs or so). Now that I can predict when 
my new pot supplier can ship to schedule, I can think about what it would 
take to start moving the current through-hole designs over to SMT. I would 
still offer blank boards of the through-hole designs, I have PILES of them 
(thank you China).

I have to figure out what the cost would be and decide if I could even 
recover that cost. One point that was made that I am taking to heart: that 
even if I offer a "box full of modules" for say $1500 ready to ship, < 1 
week delivery that *unless* I also have a case and power supply with the 
modules stuck in there that .com will still get that level of customer 
business. Well, as of right now I have no desire to load up the garage with 
wood cabinets and all the stuff required to ship them. Then, this begs the 
question: why don't you let Roger build your stuff? The answer is easy: he 
doesn't want to. Why should he, he has *2* of his own businesses to worry 
about before taking me on. And there is no guarantee that the MOTM 5U 
business will ever "take off" like it did between 2000-2004 when I was 
selling 1200 modules/year. Right now I'm selling about 70 modules/year. See 
my dilemma?

Sure, it may boil down to "you'll never know until you try!" but it's an 
expensive gamble, and I *don't* like gambles.

Paul S.