From Giles Ward Sent Fri, Feb 16th 2018, 15:47
From Gearslutz. The three octave VP330 clone gets the green light. Price at the end: I'd definitely buy one of these if we were living in normal times. But Uli, you are your greatest competitor. It's 20 more synths on the way? I'd hate to blow a thousand on this then have the Arp 2600 released the next day. In order of GAS .... Synthi, 2600, Wasp. If any of these are announced soon, I'll be keeping my powder dry. Maybe I'm not the only one thinking this way?- --- Hi Tricera, that's a fair point but frankly it doesn't really matter to us. Allow me to explain the motivation behind our synth journey: After 30 years of running a business, I decided to fulfill my lifelong dream - to build all the synths and drum machines I could never afford when I was a kid. Looking at all the feedback, I believe I am not alone. As you can see we are selling these synths at very low prices and in return it will hopefully create some really happy people. Consider this - if it was such a lucrative business, many other companies would have jumped on this train long ago. Instead, many competitors use DSPs to keep the component and manufacturing cost real low and instead spend their effort and money on marketing by trying to convince you that “virtual analog” sounds the same as analog when in fact it is digital technology. As you may have noticed we don't advertise at all, simply because we don't believe in "pay to play" which means getting "great" reviews in return for advertisement dollars. Instead we believe in honest reviews from real customers and in return we love to pass these marketing savings to our customers. Our mission is to build popular synths such as the Model D but also exotic ones like the VC340. If profit was our purpose, it would be much smarter to stretch the launch of these many synths over a longer period of time. Exactly as you suggested. We now have 4 incredibly motivated engineering teams and all they care is to showcase their new products. Why would I stop them? I've read many comments where people believe that recreating these synths is a walk in the forest. Frankly, these statements couldn't be further from the truth and the engineers among you will appreciate that replicating the analog circuitry from these synths is a very small aspect of the actual work. The majority of the effort goes into creating a complete new digital control platform including writing new firmware, designing all mechanical parts and PCB's including prototyping and trouble shooting. Then comes the serious investment in tooling, test jigs, test software and finally compliance testing, spare parts and after-sale service. I am the first to admit that this is a crazy journey by traditional business means. But I can also tell you it's the most fun we've ever had - and for our people and me that's priceless. The incredible feedback we're receiving from you is so overwhelming that it's worth every effort:-) Thanks for all your support! Uli P.S. Even though we haven't collected orders for 1,000 units yet, I have decided to produce the VC340 regardless and at a MAP of US$ 799.99. Hopefully we won’t lose too much money!