KVR Audio

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:46 pm

Gee, I wonder why Apple would have bought any company since they're all just a bunch of programmers and electronics engineers and designers. There are plenty of other companies who have programmers and electronics engineers and designers, why those ones?
I dcannt understand why they picked the ones they picked because clearly those companies could have been any roughly similar company because they're all, like, basically exactly the same, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_me ... s_by_Apple

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:46 pm

whyterabbyt wrote:
wagtunes wrote:Look at all the companies that also make Audio+DSP products. You can't say that CA was the only one or for that matter even the best.
Clearly they were one of the best at whatever Apple was interested in.

Its only been mentioned a couple hundred times here, so I can see why you;d have missed it, but you might start by contemplating what Camel Audio actually specialised in.

You know, beyond your crass simplification of 'they were just programmers who made synths'.

Apart from that, Apple also erased their Windows market share, so people who really want CA's stuff probably would have to buy a Mac and Logic now. Not that i really think many would do so just because of that, but nonetheless they weakened the Windows market a bit there which is probably always something Apple is keen on.

Ben H · Post by **Ben H** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:49 pm

wagtunes wrote:I am having a very hard time understanding

We noticed.

There are numerous other things which probably add to the desirability of the CA purchase.

Business acumen - Ben built a highly successful and profitable company from scratch
Passion - not every coder is as passionate and enthusiastic about their job.
Culture fit - young, trendy, savvy etc...

I'm sure that Apple "get it" though... hence why they are the successful company that they are.

whyterabbyt's Wikipedia link clearly explains their M.O.

Apple's business philosophy is to acquire small companies that can be easily integrated into existing company projects. For instance, Apple acquired Emagic and its professional music software, Logic Pro, in 2002. The acquisition was incorporated in the creation of the digital audio workstation software GarageBand, now part of the iLife software suite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_me ... s_by_Apple

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:50 pm

wagtunes wrote:Alchemy was great. News flash. There is a ton of great software out there. What was it about this particular company that Apple had to gut it?

How do you know Alchemy is great? Why are people who own and appreciate it fanboys?

Alchemy is like Zebra - it's an outstanding and unique environment for sound design. As I said earlier what I consider the most revolutionary thing about Alchemy is the workflow, nothing comes close imo, and that makes CA very special as it's a very unique skill to achieve it with software this complex. That's not even taking into account the dsp/coding which is also unbelievably light on cpu vs sound/capabilities. I think Ben would be a major asset to Apple's products, especially for a company that prides/sells themselves on ease of use/end user experience.

but I do hope that the miracle happens and they release Alchemy 2, but it seems very unlikely considering their history.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:58 pm

chk071 wrote:
whyterabbyt wrote:
wagtunes wrote:Look at all the companies that also make Audio+DSP products. You can't say that CA was the only one or for that matter even the best.
Clearly they were one of the best at whatever Apple was interested in.

Its only been mentioned a couple hundred times here, so I can see why you;d have missed it, but you might start by contemplating what Camel Audio actually specialised in.

You know, beyond your crass simplification of 'they were just programmers who made synths'.
Apart from that, Apple also erased their Windows market share, so people who really want CA's stuff probably would have to buy a Mac and Logic now. Not that i really think many would do so just because of that, but nonetheless they weakened the Windows market a bit there which is probably always something Apple is keen on.

Personally, I suspect that's filed under 'unintended benefit'; Apple weren't after another softsynth. As said before, CA's core specialism was realtime additive resynthesis for audio, and that has a lot of applications. They'd come to the end of a very lengthy R&D cycle for Alchemy2, and, by all accounts upped their technology considerably, and Apple's response would, to me, indicate that they clearly reached 'world class' with it.

But hey, some guy who knows nothing about code, or dsp, or software development, or technology businesses thinks any bunch of programmers are basically interchangeable, so clearly Apple just stuck a pin in a list and said 'oooh, we'll have that one'.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:41 pm

Really happy that I got to buy CamelSpace for such a nice price.

Works rock solid in Win7 so will have the enjoyment of it for several years still.

But I don't quite get why it is called CamelSpace, CamelGater or CamelRhythm would be a better name, as even the pad presets are mostly gates/rhythmic

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:43 pm

Well I apologize too, but perhaps you could start thinking before insulting/generalizing people in the future that are actually replying to you with serious comments.

Astralp · Post by **Astralp** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:45 pm

Numanoid wrote:Really happy that I got to buy CamelSpace for such a nice price.

Works rock solid in Win7 so will have the enjoyment of it for several years still.

But I don't quite get why it is called CamelSpace, CamelGater or CamelRhythm would be a better name, as even the pad presets are mostly gates/rhythmic

I picked it up too, it was always on my wants list, it's a nice plug-in.

gnosis123 · Post by **gnosis123** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:48 pm

(A thought I haven't seen in this or the other mega-thread): maybe Apple acquired CA not to make a new AU, Mac-only version, but as a prelude to selling their plugs outside Logic (the way Steinberg did an AU version of Padshop Pro, etc).

Everybody assumes Apple is spending all this money on Alchemy 2 to spiff up Logic - as a loss-leader for a $200 DAW that is itself probably a loss-leader for their hardware. Maybe so. Okay, probably (given what happened with Redmatica).

But they might take it in the other direction. I hope they do, since I dropped Logic years ago and don't want to go back. If they came out with VST versions of Alchemy 2, Space Designer and Sculpture, I'd totally buy them. And they'd make more money than they're currently asking for all of Logic.

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:54 pm

The only thing I see that Apple makes that is PC compatible is iTunes for PC , I guess to sync your iPod with your PC ? I don't see them buying out Camel/Alchemy and then releasing PC VSTs ....sorry don't see it .

gnosis123 · Post by **gnosis123** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:35 pm

fedexnman wrote:The only thing I see that Apple makes that is PC compatible is iTunes for PC , I guess to sync your iPod with your PC ? I don't see them buying out Camel/Alchemy and then releasing PC VSTs ....sorry don't see it .

Yeah, plugins for the PC would probably be a step too far. But VSTs for the Mac would at least be a remote possibility. There must be money in it when Steinberg, for example, sells AU versions of Padshop to run in their arch-competitor's DAW.

In any case, it would be really interesting to know the sales numbers for Logic. Apple must believe it helps move an awful lot of hardware to justify buying these companies to enhance an end product that costs $200.

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:07 pm

beely wrote:
VitaminD wrote:I strongly don't think we will until the deadline for license transfers and downloads is over this Summer.
And what do you expect to happen then? That week Apple announce a press release and say "Oh yeah, we bought this little Camel company last year"..? Seriously... if there was going to be anything "official" announced by Apple, it would have happened by now. My feeling is, they don't intend to say anything about it, and there won't be any official announcements about it, ever.

Just like Redmatica. As I've been saying all along...

Well.. After the deadline to download your CA products is expired, the scary assumption (because assumptions are scary) is this was also the expiration date for being silent on the issue. If Apple is re-releasing the CA sample/instrument libraries for some form of Mac-only version of Alchemy, of course they wouldn't announce this now when they are still allowing them to be transferred until the deadline under the old CA name. I'm not claiming we will see an official statement about the buy from Apple (even though we might), I am saying conditions are much more favorable for hearing SOMETHING after the deadline.

beely · Post by **beely** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:20 pm

VitaminD wrote:I'm not claiming we will see an official statement about the buy from Apple (even though we might), I am saying conditions are much more favorable for hearing SOMETHING after the deadline.

I don't think so - I think the date is to fulfill legal obligations only. Apple generally have zero interest in announcing what they are doing or why, they only like to anounce what you can buy...

drunken jesus · Post by **drunken jesus** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:16 pm

does anybody have the installer for the 50 free presets for Alchemy Player?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:20 pm

About 1GB of patches for Alchemy can be picked up for free at PatchArena:

http://patcharena.com/downloads/index.p ... b793c79f4f

Apple Acquires Camel Audio