I just watched the video and to be fair, the $30K price was clearly a pithy response purely in relation to the prototype to a journalist who kept pressing for a price after he said it's not been decided yet. I think it's a shame he fell into that trap, because the headline is now going to become 'Monster Synth Will Cost $30K' and I suspect that's not what he intended to say nor bears any relation to what he would like to be able to sell it for!
So let's say it's half that. How many people would pay 15k for a boutique synth? That equates to about 10k gbp and you could build one helluva modular for 10 grand.
I'm sure it's lovely. But then, I hear the Bugatti Veyron is awesome to drive...
The 30K is clearly not realistic and I would have said the same. The guy worked for many years on a very complex machine and came up with a great analog synth that seams to be without major compromises. And then somebody asks "What would you charge for this (prototype) if I want to have it now?"... Taking into account the working hours alone, 30K is not much money!
It all becomes different when you are going to mass produce a synth like that. Then you do marketing research and determine a the number of synths you think you can sell at different prices for different consumer groups. lets say €15000 for a small elite group, €7500 for a bigger professional group or maybe €5500 for even more professional musicians. An other option is to create a cheaper version: cut a few corners like a simple housing that's easy to mass produce and combining controls or working with a touch screen to replace half of the controls. Then it could even end up in the category of Dave Smith's Poly Evolver and Prophet08...
Let's see what happens, although I think the last option is most likely to succeed!
I think the main important thing is that,
when the guy in the video was showing off the sounds,
he DIDN'T play some gawdawfully cheesy american jazz wank loungue blues crap,
but instead just made a load of mental tangy noises
(Does my HEAD in the way all the synth demos you see usually do gawdawfully cheesy american jazz wank loungue blues crap, y'know?)
They're certainly taking their sweet tim about marketing this machine.. they unveiled it at Frankfurt last year in April.. I can understand they want American reaction to it, but they were quoting €10,000-20,000 last year.
It is rather lovely though with fantastic build quality and attention to detail.
The sound is out of this world an will certainly be bought in small numbers by celebrities with megasynth money in the same way the Waldorf Wave sold for £10,000 twenty years ago.
Dave B wrote:So let's say it's half that. How many people would pay 15k for a boutique synth? That equates to about 10k gbp and you could build one helluva modular for 10 grand.
I'm sure it's lovely. But then, I hear the Bugatti Veyron is awesome to drive...
Dave B wrote:So let's say it's half that. How many people would pay 15k for a boutique synth? That equates to about 10k gbp and you could build one helluva modular for 10 grand.
I'm sure it's lovely. But then, I hear the Bugatti Veyron is awesome to drive...
