KVR Audio

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 7:16 pm

Shoulda stayed small & focused on teaching people how to play the Seabord, like Roger does with Linnstrument

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:00 pm

pdxindy wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:38 pm Not at all surprising... but not a happy result to see. Still, Roli did a good job helping get MPE going. Hopefully, someone else does a Rise type controller now that the Rise is gone.

A similar foam core keyboard with a teflon coating and an internal chip to “catch” the pitch to in tune upon initial touch would solve 90% of the learning curve and prevent the hardware from being abandonware in the future. Rodger Linn could die tomorrow and the Linnstrument would be useful pretty much forever, because it has a small chip for its processes.

I give NI mass credit for adding in an internal chip to the Komplete SL keyboards. They have released and still have a few controllers that are useless without computer support, but I think they paid attention to the bricks they left behind in the past and decided to do better.

Gribs · Post by **Gribs** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:06 pm

zvenx wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:37 pm
whyterabbyt wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:51 pm ....... ....... Wonder what'll happen to FXP stuff, though.
I think that died months ago.
Check linkedin for its former head, Angus Hewitt.

rsp

I can't find him. There are several people with that name but none of them fit.

Anyway, yeah it is a shame that Roli is going through tough times. fxpansion made some good products but also allowed themselves to get into a situation where they ended up shelving some excellent products like Tremor, Bloom, and Amber. I have no idea why the continued with Strobe and Cypher but not Amber.

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:31 pm

Yeh, Tremor was amazing…still stands up now as amongst the best (or at least most interesting) software drum machines.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:26 pm

SLiC wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:31 pm Yeh, Tremor was amazing…still stands up now as amongst the best (or at least most interesting) software drum machines.

To me it was the best synthesis based drum machine. The sound was excellent and diverse.

masterhiggins · Post by **masterhiggins** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:46 pm

pdxindy wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:26 pm
SLiC wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:31 pm Yeh, Tremor was amazing…still stands up now as amongst the best (or at least most interesting) software drum machines.
To me it was the best synthesis based drum machine. The sound was excellent and diverse.

Yup. A blast to use. Transmod is the best modulation system devised thus far. The sequencer was also awesome. Such a shame.

cthonophonic · Post by **cthonophonic** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 3:34 am

Hmm, that's some unfortunate news. Seems like much of ROLI's flailing about was driven by a need to meet unrealistic growth goals imposed by their funders. Starting a company that's small and plans to stay reasonably small is not really a tenable proposition once VC types get involved.

I went with Linnstrument over ROLI, but I do worry about what this means for the support for MPE more broadly, since ROLI seemed like the biggest player and had a lot to do with popularizing the idea. I hope that their going under doesn't discourage software developers from supporting MPE in their products.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 3:58 am

cthonophonic wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 3:34 amI hope that their going under doesn't discourage software developers from supporting MPE in their products.

I think that is unlikely... The Erae Touch has just started shipping... a new MPE controller. Osmose is not far away. And MPE steadily gets added to hardware and software synths.

bermudagold · Post by **bermudagold** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 3:59 am

I cant believe it's not obvious by now that venture capital is not the route for small companies in small markets...it will always force constant pivots that will alienate a significant percentage of your customer base...and any software product that doesn't have untapped market to scale up for, VC will always force into a subscription model

Sinisterbr · Post by **Sinisterbr** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 4:11 am

This makes me wonder if NI/ Izotope are in the same route.

Alchemedia · Post by **Alchemedia** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:55 am

All your base are belong to Francisco Partners, eventually.

gaggle of hermits · Post by **gaggle of hermits** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:58 am

Gribs wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:06 pm
zvenx wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:37 pm
whyterabbyt wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:51 pm ....... ....... Wonder what'll happen to FXP stuff, though.
I think that died months ago.
Check linkedin for its former head, Angus Hewitt.

rsp
I can't find him. There are several people with that name but none of them fit.

Anyway, yeah it is a shame that Roli is going through tough times. fxpansion made some good products but also allowed themselves to get into a situation where they ended up shelving some excellent products like Tremor, Bloom, and Amber. I have no idea why the continued with Strobe and Cypher but not Amber.

they got the name wrong: Hewlett not Hewett. he’s now at image-line.

gaggle of hermits · Post by **gaggle of hermits** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 6:02 am

cthonophonic wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 3:34 am Hmm, that's some unfortunate news. Seems like much of ROLI's flailing about was driven by a need to meet unrealistic growth goals imposed by their funders. Starting a company that's small and plans to stay reasonably small is not really a tenable proposition once VC types get involved.

I’m all for giving VCs a kicking from time to time but someone at gearspace pointed to the glassdoor reviews by former employees. long story short: the CEO might be good at designing stuff but looks to be hopeless at running a company.

masterhiggins · Post by **masterhiggins** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 6:12 am

gaggle of hermits wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:58 am
Gribs wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:06 pm
zvenx wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:37 pm
whyterabbyt wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:51 pm ....... ....... Wonder what'll happen to FXP stuff, though.
I think that died months ago.
Check linkedin for its former head, Angus Hewitt.

rsp
I can't find him. There are several people with that name but none of them fit.

Anyway, yeah it is a shame that Roli is going through tough times. fxpansion made some good products but also allowed themselves to get into a situation where they ended up shelving some excellent products like Tremor, Bloom, and Amber. I have no idea why the continued with Strobe and Cypher but not Amber.
they got the name wrong: Hewlett not Hewett. he’s now at image-line.

Image Line? Lol.

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 6:21 am

gaggle of hermits wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:58 am
Gribs wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:06 pm
zvenx wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:37 pm
whyterabbyt wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:51 pm ....... ....... Wonder what'll happen to FXP stuff, though.
I think that died months ago.
Check linkedin for its former head, Angus Hewitt.

rsp
I can't find him. There are several people with that name but none of them fit.

Anyway, yeah it is a shame that Roli is going through tough times. fxpansion made some good products but also allowed themselves to get into a situation where they ended up shelving some excellent products like Tremor, Bloom, and Amber. I have no idea why the continued with Strobe and Cypher but not Amber.
they got the name wrong: Hewlett not Hewett. he’s now at image-line.

So who runs and works on Cypher 2?

IMO one of the issues with software is when the main developer leaves a company, and their code becomes a wall to someone developing it further. Absynth comes to mind.

ROLI's writing on the wall happened