Re: Looper development and production costs?

[Travis Hartnett <tiktok@sprintmail.com>]

>It'd boost flagging sales, it'd encourage people who
>already had one to get another, it'd boost people who
>are turned on to looping by the Repeater to look
>at a very different alternative.

...except that there are no "flagging sales".  Remember, Gibson sells all
they can make without advertising.  They've got a tidy little profit 
center.

My experience is that the EDP lives in a niche--a bunch of people hear 
about
it and decide that it's too complicated and/or expensive for their taste.
The Line6 covers most of what they want out of a looping device and costs
about a third the price.  Plus, it's a pedal, and a lot of people prefer
pedals over racks. 

Other people decide that they'd prefer a full-on sampler, or a
software-based system since the extensive real-time features of the EDP
aren't needed for what they're doing.

In the middle, you've got people who have a specific need for what the EDP
uniquely offers, AND are willing to pay for it.  Taking a cue from the
Focusrite folks in faceplate design isn't going to significantly change the
size of that group.  Maybe if you were designing the EDP from the ground up
it'd make sense to pretty up the faceplate, but at this point we're talking
about something that's been around for what--six, seven years?  It's not
going to happen.  It's so rare to get a piece of gear right from a
functional standpoint, worrying about this sort of thing seems silly.


TH