KVR Audio

HanafiH · Post by **HanafiH** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:57 am

This is very good news for Yamaha. It's key technologies are OPT, mLan and Studio Manager - its first interest is selling hardware not DAWS - and historically it has largely avoided the software markets because of cracks.

The key issue is, does it intend to rebrand Steinberg as a Yamaha product. If so, the bad old days will be over. The question is, do they intend to tie the product range to its own hardware.

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:17 am

Lunch Money wrote:Yamaha is a company I really respect. Be interesting to see what (if anything) happens

At the same time, Yamaha moves very slowly (I know, having been to strategic discussions with them at NAMM and in Tokyo). If I were them, and I had been thinking of doing a thing like this, I'd done it ten years ago, when Steinberg really had new things (and a positive trend) going on. Luckily, this didn't happen then. Luck? Yes - VST would never have been an open standard if the Japanese were in control of the company, and we wouldn't have had this forum to chat in!

BTW - I have my doubts (sorry but it's maybe too early in the morning for me). The Japanese companies are very much oriented towards the consumer market, and I guess they will release many entry level products now (think Cubase-EJay or Karaoke-Cubase ("Karaqbase"?).

You might disagree with me but remeber that Yamaha has A LOT of income from entry level keyboards, electric pianos, sheet music, and the like, mostly geared towards the school (K-12) market. With Roland it's not entirely the same thing, but then again, Roland is pretty much controlled from California and not from the Japanese owners.

(I have nothing against the Japanese or Japan, it's just that they do business in other ways than European or North American companies do.)
/SparkySpark

quintosardo · Post by **quintosardo** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:33 am

I don't like when "heads" converge under a big one.
I feel like when speaking about extinction...

(anyway, 1000 times better than Pinnacle, I feel...)

quintosardo · Post by **quintosardo** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:36 am

SparkySpark wrote:
Lunch Money wrote:Yamaha is a company I really respect. Be interesting to see what (if anything) happens
At the same time, Yamaha moves very slowly (I know, having been to strategic discussions with them at NAMM and in Tokyo). If I were them, and I had been thinking of doing a thing like this, I'd done it ten years ago, when Steinberg really had new things (and a positive trend) going on. Luckily, this didn't happen then. Luck? Yes - VST would never have been an open standard if the Japanese were in control of the company, and we wouldn't have had this forum to chat in!

BTW - I have my doubts (sorry but it's maybe too early in the morning for me). The Japanese companies are very much oriented towards the consumer market, and I guess they will release many entry level products now (think Cubase-EJay or Karaoke-Cubase ("Karaqbase"?).

You might disagree with me but remeber that Yamaha has A LOT of income from entry level keyboards, electric pianos, sheet music, and the like, mostly geared towards the school (K-12) market. With Roland it's not entirely the same thing, but then again, Roland is pretty much controlled from California and not from the Japanese owners.

(I have nothing against the Japanese or Japan, it's just that they do business in other ways than European or North American companies do.)
/SparkySpark

I absolutely agree with you.

The market rules. and Yamaha will follow the market, for sure.
I the market was me, FS1R would have been the biggest success in the world.
But the market isn't me, so they produce a lot of small keyboards with auto-accompaniment...

(ok, now stop crying

)

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:37 am

Sp/Sp-- you're right about the entry-level thing to a large extent. Their entry-level guitars and band instruments are second to none.

However, as a company they do not focus exclusively on this market. Yamaha Grand pianos are some of the most sought-after, for example. While I agree that we may see CubasEJ, I still feel that they'll want to maintain the 'higher end' vibe that Steinberg has tried to culture over the years.

HHaynes · Post by **HHaynes** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:39 am

For sure - Japanese companies tend to be very deliberate when they make moves this big. I'd say that they have several major pro-level agendas lined up, starting with the Studio Connections protocol. What's interesting about this is they could conceivably combine mLAN and OPT with VST and System Link and meld it with the hardware/software interfacing they discuss on their site. That could make for a pretty compelling platform for any developer to take advantage of...

I think that this might be Yamaha's attempt to put out the next generation "MPU-401", which Roland put on the scene way back in the day, if I remember correctly. That bit of foresight tended to give Roaland a perceptual edge in the marketplace, when every sound card was presumed to have an MPU-401 on it or it wasn't a "real" sound card.

Ever since then, Yamaha has been "extending" stadards to tie their gear together, which has backfired on many of their products. They're looking for a chance at ubiquity in the 21st century marketplace, and VST gives it to them in spades.

AD80 · Post by **AD80** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:43 am

djastroboy wrote:Ugh. I'm still mad at Yamaha for buying out Sequential Circuits and then ignoring it. My poor Prophet 600's didn't deserve orphanhood.

At the same time, they brought FM synthesis to the light when other synth companies didnt believe in it.

If they start mixing their hardware with Cubase somehow in a truly intergrated way, I think it would be very

.

cptgone · Post by **cptgone** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:46 am

I stopped using my Yamaha PLG150-AN because of lack of integration with Cubase. OPT seemed to be the ticket to get that fixed...
I guess it's too late now...

Still, Yamaha is great at offering much bang for the buck. I guess we have some cool integrated hardware coming our way

george · Post by **george** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:53 am

Tight SX integration of Yamaha hardware to follow seems obvious. Good news for all those mLAN equipment owners. Not that good for their competitors

Any hopes to see hardware able to free native VSTs CPU? Who knows.

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:59 am

Lunch Money wrote:Yamaha Grand pianos are some of the most sought-after, for example.

Yes, that's why I brought up sheet music.

It's like Quintsardo says - they'll go where the market is. However, Steinberg HAS a lot of customers, and the Yamaha developers ARE good, so after all, good things might come out of this (see - now I've had my morning coffee!

).

Still, I'm sure KvR wouldn't exist if Yamaha had bought Steinberg ten or so years ago. So aren't we all lucky!

All the best
/Sp-Sp

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:01 am

Hi HHaynes - It's good to see another user who has been in this mess for a decade or two!

/Sp-Sp

soma · Post by **soma** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:15 am

hope they do a better job with ASIO than they did on my DSP factory.

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:22 am

soma wrote:hope they do a better job with ASIO than they did on my DSP factory.

Yes - otherwise the DSP F was such a cool product!

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:23 am

Now, could Roland snag Emagic off Apple's hands as well, please?

lalo · Post by **lalo** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:26 am

Sascha Franck wrote:Now, could Roland snag Emagic off Apple's hands as well, please?

agree

Yamaha Buys Steinberg