R: Looper development and production costs?

["Luigi Meloni" <luigimeloni74@libero.it>]

Hey man, not to start a war here, but I think that we just didn't know that
Oberheim before and now GIBSON (one of the biggest companies in musical
instrument making, a design team just to create new faux abalone inlays on
guitar headstocks) couldn't afford just to think about using some different
fonts and some other colours for a pro machine like the echoplex. Not to
talk about the fact that Gibson acquired the company with all the projects
done (no Research and Development expenses here). And, namely, the white
colour all Oberheim instruments of the past few years are coloured Sucks. 
It
is not only the echoplex, but even the oberheim/viscount keyboards and
multifx processors. Same colours, same fonts...
Is the echoplex a great machine? YES!!!
Do I love it? YES!!!
Damned, I ordered it from the US years ago (and in Italy it is difficult to
get one even now), just to have the pleasure to use it!
Is it ugly in the colour and graphics? YES!!!
I don't think anybody in here has suggested to change the layout of the 
pots
and buttons and screen (except the Matthias Grob comment about the
positioning of the leds under the buttons), all I heard about was about a
change in colour and graphics. And GIBSON DOESN'T have a TINY BUDGET, with
the price of one or two of their 'limited edition' or 'vintage reissue'
guitars or basses they could pay all the graphics designers they want.

Peace
Luigi


Kim wrote:
> hypothetical scenario:
>
> ok, so we take our tiny budget and devote a significant portion of it to
> pay for industrial designers, graphic artists, NRE on custom molded
> plastics, extrusions, fancy sales literature, etc.
>
> Sadly, we now don't have enough money after that to pay for another
> software engineer and software QA person that we desperately need. We've
> already announced a shipping date and our nifty looking hardware is all
> done and ready to go, but our woefully understaffed software team is
> struggling big time.
>
> The project ends up being delayed an entire year while they try to finish
> coding and debugging. Meanwhile, some crank on the internet is harassing
us
> regularly for being incompetent and unable to deliver according to our
> schedules.
>
> We run out of cash, and have to take desperate measures to keep ourselves
> afloat long enough in order to get our product out. We hold out as long 
>as
> we can and finally ship anyway even though we know it is not really done.
> Same internet crank now berates us for shipping buggy products.
>
> And to top it all off, same crank still doesn't like the visual design of
> the product after we spend so much on it, and even complains about that!
> Apparently you can't win.
>
> hmm, wait that sounds kinda familiar....
>
>
> yet another fiscal reality check:  these are small companies doing this.
> Tiny companies really. Or maybe tiny divisions of small companies. 
>Usually
> just 3 or 4 underpaid people tops, without sufficient budget. There is 
>not
> a lot of capital available. There is not a large market available. There
> will not be a large return for your investment. You have to manage these
> issues to make money. In fact, you will be lucky not to lose money. You
> make choices.
>
> In Mike Patton's best nasal sneer:
>
> "You want it all, but you can't have it."
>
> hopefully you enjoy doing it, because you won't be getting rich in this
> business. No matter what choices you make, some people won't like it and
> they will harass you with surprising passion. A small number of them will
> even devote significant energy to trying to disrupt whatever paltry sales
> you might have made. Do they even understand that there are only two or
> three people behind the curtain, and how much damage they cause? probably
> not. But at least there are others that come by and seem to like what you
> did, and make it seem worthwhile.
>
> kim
>
> At 06:00 PM 10/15/2001, Mark Sottilaro wrote:
> >Now frankly, the look of the EDP says to me, "Small company, maybe not
> >going to be around very long.  Ran out of cash and didn't do any
> >industrial or graphic design."  I know this isn't true, but when this is
> >at your local music shop in a rack of other gear screaming for my
> >attention, unless I'm looking for it, it may be easy to pass by.  Now,
> >if it looked interesting, a young pre looper might ask the salesman,
> >"Hey, what does that thing do?"  (if it's designed correctly, the look
> >would elude to it's function as well) A quick demo, and they're running
> >visa cards.  They all live happily ever after.  Next year a stereo
> >version comes out.