How About Some Less Expensive Synths?

[tony10000]

However, more people would be willing to lay out some cash for a lower-priced synth ($50-100) than one costing much more, especially if they are new to the brand. That was certainly my case with Ace.

They'd have to sell 3x or 4x as many $50 plugs as they do for every Zebra or Diva sold to make the same money, leading to greater support burden and more pleas for even less expensive products from entitled cheapskates.

Not a tremendously compelling business proposition.

Maybe u-he needs to raise their prices, then!

[tony10000]

However, more people would be willing to lay out some cash for a lower-priced synth ($50-100) than one costing much more, especially if they are new to the brand. That was certainly my case with Ace.

They'd have to sell 3x or 4x as many $50 plugs as they do for every Zebra or Diva sold to make the same money, leading to greater support burden and more pleas for even less expensive products from entitled cheapskates.

Not a tremendously compelling business proposition.

Maybe u-he needs to raise their prices, then!

[tony10000]

However, more people would be willing to lay out some cash for a lower-priced synth ($50-100) than one costing much more, especially if they are new to the brand. That was certainly my case with Ace.

They'd have to sell 3x or 4x as many $50 plugs as they do for every Zebra or Diva sold to make the same money, leading to greater support burden and more pleas for even less expensive products from entitled cheapskates.

Not a tremendously compelling business proposition.

Maybe u-he needs to raise their prices, then!

[experimental.crow]

However, more people would be willing to lay out some cash for a lower-priced synth ($50-100) than one costing much more, especially if they are new to the brand. That was certainly my case with Ace.

They'd have to sell 3x or 4x as many $50 plugs as they do for every Zebra or Diva sold to make the same money, leading to greater support burden and more pleas for even less expensive products from entitled cheapskates.

Not a tremendously compelling business proposition.

Maybe u-he needs to raise their prices, then!

However, more people would be willing to lay out some cash for a lower-priced synth ($50-100) than one costing much more, especially if they are new to the brand. That was certainly my case with Ace.

They'd have to sell 3x or 4x as many $50 plugs as they do for every Zebra or Diva sold to make the same money, leading to greater support burden and more pleas for even less expensive products from entitled cheapskates.

Not a tremendously compelling business proposition.

Maybe u-he needs to raise their prices, then!

However, more people would be willing to lay out some cash for a lower-priced synth ($50-100) than one costing much more, especially if they are new to the brand. That was certainly my case with Ace.

They'd have to sell 3x or 4x as many $50 plugs as they do for every Zebra or Diva sold to make the same money, leading to greater support burden and more pleas for even less expensive products from entitled cheapskates.

Not a tremendously compelling business proposition.

Maybe u-he needs to raise their prices, then!

[Elektronisch]

"This shows what I think this is usually about: People want expensive stuff cheap. Cheap stuff (as in: not marked down) is like, you know, not really interesting."

Urs,

As I have bought all of your synths (save Filterscape), that isn't me.

However, I do admit that I became hooked on u-he at first due to your free synths. They are true "loss leaders" and a prime gateway into the world of u-he.

The first u-he synth I purchased was Ace. It allowed me to see the quality, design detail and overall value of u-he as a brand and made me want to buy more. And more. And even more. So, I ended up buying Hive, Repro, Zebra, Bazille and Diva. Am I cheap? Add up the prices of all of those synths and do the math.

Although your free synths add nothing to your bottom line and your value-priced synths aren't the biggest sellers, they do bring customers in the door and increase sales of other synths.

Thus, I am not asking you to devalue your brand. I am not asking you to run sales on your other synths or lower their prices as I believe in their value.

What I was saying is that a "Hive Lite" or "Diva Lite" might strengthen the u-he brand image even more, provide a lot of visibility and entice even more customers to buy u-he. Brand visibility is vital as there are a lot of players vying for the same market.

But in terms of possibilities and features U-He Hive and U-He Diva are already lite in comparison to what Avenger, Zebra 2, Serum ect gives

[Elektronisch]

"OTOH, try rereading your own post. Emphasis added..."

And your point is?

Are you saying that a brand like u-he could not benefit from more exposure? Given the sales numbers Urs has posted previously compared to the total size of the market, I would say that u-he has a lot of room for growth.

Look there is a good exposure that give positive effect there is bad exposure that might give bad effect and there is useless exposure that is well useless, it does not offer anything. Your suggestion is useless, a waste of time, recources and money I read you and i feel you really even dont have any idea in general about buisiness just your own asumptions

[Urs]

Well, it is a viable request. The fact that we've thought of this scenario many times is a hint that we find it an interesting idea. The idea to do range of vintage mono synths was kind of aligned with it. However, experience shows that mono synths ain't gonna cut it. Once poly is added it isn't cheap anymore. Bubble burst.

We've tried, and it wasn't the first time. It hasn't panned out for us, we won't try again anytime soon.

[Cinebient]

Just release some iOS apps......
I bet U-he even could sell their free synths as 10 dollar app

[tony10000]

Well, it is a viable request. The fact that we've thought of this scenario many times is a hint that we find it an interesting idea. The idea to do range of vintage mono synths was kind of aligned with it. However, experience shows that mono synths ain't gonna cut it. Once poly is added it isn't cheap anymore. Bubble burst.

We've tried, and it wasn't the first time. It hasn't panned out for us, we won't try again anytime soon.

I appreciate your candid responses, Urs, and I certainly understand your rationale. Carry on!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Well, it is a viable request. The fact that we've thought of this scenario many times is a hint that we find it an interesting idea. The idea to do range of vintage mono synths was kind of aligned with it. However, experience shows that mono synths ain't gonna cut it. Once poly is added it isn't cheap anymore. Bubble burst.

We've tried, and it wasn't the first time. It hasn't panned out for us, we won't try again anytime soon.

I still love the idea of you guys putting out a series of museum quality vintage synths like the Cat, the Moog Prodigy or (to a lesser degree) a Rouge, but people are going to demand polyphony on the mono synths, and are clearly more interested in the classic poly synths of yesteryear anyway. I also sympathize entirely with the burn out factor after basically 2 years of RePro. It would be great if you could reuse elements that went into the RePro's like the voice structure, and could have some other DSP wiz on the team pump out osc, filter, and envelope models with relative speed and ease but it sounds like the reality is much more complex than that. I'm happy just knowing that Zebra3 is next, and maybe there will be some Diva love in the future and maybe the Cats after that.

Heck, maybe you guys start work on a big Diva update and figure out a way to better use Diva as a platform for more exacting emulations. I'm thinking more closely matched parameter ranges, and different LFO/Modulation modules/emulations with differing routings and ranges. For instance, load up the Minimoog osc bank and combine that with the RePro-1 LFO/Mod section with Moog Osc 1 and 2 replacing Osc A and B or maybe load in the Roland Jupiter 8 modulation/LFO section. Not sure if that makes sense, but the idea being that you could still have your Classic Diva LFO and modulations, or some pre-wired LFO/Modulation options that would be more closely modeled off the original synths. And with more closely matched paramater ranges, I'm thinking matching the different envelope, knob and fader ranges to the hardware and just accepting that they'll jump around as you change modules in Diva. Anyway, I've gone way OT and I'm not sure any of this makes practical sense.

[killmaster]

....MFM2 new UI + granular feedback, Filterscape make over....

Very much look forward to these! I'm a little slow on the uptake, but just to express a little positive anticipation

[sleepcircle]

oof, that's too bad to hear.

at least you made the repro series. i use that synth (those synths?) in everything.

if you ever make another modeled polysynth i'll certainly buy it, too.

[tony10000]

It would be cool it u-he did a low cost mono synth just dedicated to bass using Diva technology.

[Urs]

It would be cool it u-he did a low cost mono synth just dedicated to bass using Diva technology.

We did that... hasn't worked out. Had to make it poly.

[tony10000]

It would be cool it u-he did a low cost mono synth just dedicated to bass using Diva technology.

We did that... hasn't worked out. Had to make it poly.

I would think that a monster monophonic bass synth would be really popular. I guess not.