Have synths long been overpriced? Im pretty sure they havent been. Even before copygate, synths were cheaper than they ever had been.
I think most synth stuff is fairly priced. It has to be, synth sales arent exactly enormous compared to other musical equipment. Dont overestimate the popularity of synthesizers…
People pay way more for premium guitars than they do for synths. Synths are cheap compared to top shelf drum kits. I could continue but the cult of Bith is not interested.
Regarding CoolAudio… what are folks feelings on this arm of the B empire? I saw mention of Doug Curtis’ wife further up the thread and it reminded me of the re release of the CEM3340 by OnChip (the successor to CEM). At the time they released a press statement detailing how, out of respect for Doug, they were going to re release a classic design of his widows choosing and she opted for the 3340. At the time I bought some stock from them because A) I wanted to support the rerelease and B) some spare 3340’s would be very handy!
Anyway at any point over the last 30 or so years I’m guessing OnChip could have re released some or all of the CEM back catalogue but the general consensus was that it was prob too cost intensive for them to restart manufacture just to keep collectors, repairers and DIYers happy. Roll on a few years and patent expired designs are being remade by CoolAudio. I get that for them to be cost effective they need big clients, effectively Behringer, but they supply plenty of other manufacturers too. My limited understanding of the IC world is that it’s common for companies to second source designs and fab them and after a certain period those designs effectively become patent free so isn’t something similar happening here? Genuine question… Do for example NXP still pay Texas for the rights to sell their version of the CD4011? (Prob completely the wrong manufacturers but the point stands!), a design that must be out of patent by now?
The point I’m getting at is those CoolAudio chips don’t just power the current B clones but they also enable a host of other manufacturers, not least boutique ones, to build and sell their wares and not just clones. I bet that SSM Quad VCA of theirs is in everything from pedals to high end synths. They also keep a lot of those classic instruments working… it wasn’t all that long ago that original CEM chips were fetching silly money… great for those guys with a stash, for the rest of us it meant classic pieces of gear languishing for want of one or two IC’s and that was if you could find spares in the first place.
Who decides if that’s overpriced. You, just because you can’t afford it?
How do you know if that is overpriced? Do you ever visited Moog factory to assume that?
That’d be called Uchli…
It’s pretty well documented what the parts for a Minimoog cost. There is also no R&D involved since it was designed by Bob Moog 50 years ago. I don’t need to visit Moog factory to know that 4000 for a monosynth is overpriced.
Actually it’s a lot less than half of its original price: $1459 in 1971 is almost $9300 today.
Yeah, well it’s not 1971. Some advancements have been made since then.
Again. Maybe overpriced for you. Other ppl might have that cash and raving about the possibility to buy an instrument they always wanted and give a rats ass about the price. Who’s right?
Seems like the Moog is your only “trump card” here. Any more examples?
Also your only argument seems to be “its legal”. Tell you what, I worked for a company which was then bought by a big concern. They upped the working hours from 35hrs a week to 42 hrs a week (without paying the extra hours of course).
Is it legal? Yes. Is it right? No. Should they get shamed for this behavior? absolutely, imo
Right. Which is why it’s less than half.
Exploitive costs and labor is not an “advancement” to praise.
Absolutely. And the Minimoog. The M32 (Crave) and others are absolutely reasonable.
And I agree with you.
We don’t.
That’s surely legally ok
If it costs 5% of the asking price to make, the asking price is overpriced. It is irrelevant if I can afford it or not.
I’d say most audio hardware is overpriced.
One other good example is Teenage Engineering OP-1. It uses 10 year old mobile phone tech and they are raising its price.
The reason they can do it is there is no competition.
Where you got that number from? Evidenced? Assuming again? With or without employees wages?
Any other overpriced examples than Moog? Strangely that’s your only argument.
I just posted another example in my previous post.
Anyway, it is kind of pointless to discuss this further. Maybe it’s time to return this discussion to calling Uli Sith lord etc?
Imma do it: totally agree with you that TE is overpriced. That doesn’t give anyone the right to rip them off.
This is soo true, but they dont have the cost of R&D and marketing as they just reverse engineer popular in-demand classic synths people already know, and they try hard to make it look as close as possible. And even though they add current functionality to all the synths, that doesn’t justify the way they do it.
