Re: Repeater Info Online/The Year 2000

[Mark Pulver <mark@redmoon-music.com>]

James Musser (03:44 PM 09.14.2000) wrote:

 >We need a new company... GODBOX, that has everything you ever wanted and
 >more (because they listen to end users). Has all the freedom, flexibility,
 >sonic quality, I/O freedom... midi control that works... and software to
 >easily program these things... realtime and preset control, and interfaces
 >flawlessly with everything else you have, and doesn't screw up! ... and of
 >course lets you save everything to disk on computer somehow...
 >
 >Is it really that difficult?

Not to launch into a business course here, but...

What are you willing to pay for your dream box? And do you think that 
someone else will pay for it as well? Will 1,000 people pay for it? Will 
30,000 people pay for it?

You can't please everyone in features *and* please them in price *and* 
make 
a return on the investment from a business perspective.

For example... Probably the single most expensive piece of gear in a large 
format pro studio is the console.

Even though, *anyone* can sit in front of a Euphonix System 5, (or SSL 
Axiom or or or) and find _something_ that they would have different. Given 
the price point at that end of the scale and the amount of time that reps 
will spend with a client that's about to drop $1mil on a bunch of sliders 
and blinky lights, the client STILL will not get what they _want_ and 
someone will be talked into making a concession.

At the other end of the mixing desk scale are the low end of the lines 
from 
folks like Mackie, Soundcraft, Behringer, etc. These guys ares used to 
environments where there is no pre-sales support, no pre-sales feedback, 
and often times the consumer doesn't even look at the board before they 
buy it.

But, the end result is the same... The consumer will no doubt find 
themselves in a point where they have to make a concession about something 
regarding that board.

My point is here that it's not a function of cash that will change the 
feature set of a product.


You mention beta testing. I beta test a lot as well... Music gear, 
operating systems, protocol stacks, compilers, computer equipment, various 
things.

As a _beta_ tester, you are rarely in a position that you can shape the 
final product _dramatically_.

I was in a test for a piece of hardware that I would LOVED to have been in 
the original design meetings TWO YEARS prior - because I thought that the 
product had a much steeper learning curve than necessary just to deal with 
the physical UI.

But, there's no way that anything I said during the beta could of changed 
the fact that the cosmetics, silkscreen, manuals, manufacturing line, etc. 
were all tooled and ready to run.

As a beta tester, I'm was looking for bugs in the OS and, I did have a 
voice in giving feedback about how the software side of the UI was running 
and offer-up ideas for change. But even those wouldn't of seen the light 
of 
day until the second major rev of the code.

Beta testing is just too late...

If you're lucky enough to hit on an _alpha_ test and working on a 
simulator 
(i.e., before the hardware tooling is complete) then you're in a better 
spot to shape the world.

For the most part, in this day and age, the timeline from beta test to 
production was decided on paper a year ago. It was also long ago decided 
that the physical product out for test wouldn't be changed.


Another part is trolling during the "I got an idea" stage.. For a company 
to _actively_ poll a user base for ideas can be horrendous. Once a company 
comes out with the questions, "the jig is up" and the company is basically 
showing it's cards to the world on what it's thinking.

The market in the music world is cut throat. The time to turn-around a 
design is very short in the grand scheme of things, and the time is even 
shorter for the *competition* to turn a design.

Say someone comes here and says "what do you want in a MIDI pedal board", 
they will undoubtedly get a slew of answers. If that person is John Smith 
(i.e., not affiliated with a company) then _someone_ might take note, but 
for the most part folks will think that he's an independent with a dream 
and wish him luck.

But, if a named company comes public with questions about a new idea, you 
can bet that people figure that something is up, and they will take a bit 
more notice. In fact, "they" may be another manufacturer listening in on 
the ensuing conversation. And... They may take enough notice of the 
conversation to start down a similar development path themselves. In fact, 
they may BEAT the first company to market.

That's competition, and all the companies deal with it all the time. But, 
that's a _form_ of competition also breeds methods of combating against 
it. 
For example, you camp out on a mailing list and watch the comments of 
folks 
about various topics; you drop in as a private user and ask questions; you 
look to the outside world, tap a working musician on the shoulder and say 
"hey, can I talk to you for a minute?". But _rarely_ do you come out in 
public showing your cards.

Most companies these days keep their ideas and thinking process under 
tighter control than their schematics or source code. The money is in 
tomorrow's idea, but they have to sell yesterday's in order to pay for it.

If you have an unlimited bankroll, then in this case you can certainly get 
what you want. You can always have something custom built.

But in the meantime, there's the rest of us out that generally have to 
look 
at the market and decide which of someone else's ideas best suits our 
needs. :)


Yikes... I soapboxed.

Sorry... Thanks for reading. :)

Mark