Why do people buy Receptor?

[Watto]

The concept is good; but the implimentation is poor.

1) Too expensive
2) No included "premium VSTI"
3) Dongle


Why would someone spend $1400 for an empty box, then spend another $500+ on dongled soft synths ? For that money, one could buy a real keyboard instrument; something with intrinsic and resale value.

The hole in the receptor logic is the implicit assumption that software synthesizers are "as good as" hareware synthesisers. They are not. They could be, but the economics are not there to support it. Typically, a softsynth is nothing more than the product of an individual's hobby, with perhaps NI and one or two others being the exceptions.

Meanwhile, the big hardware names have the resources, financial and otherwise, to build real hardware, write real software, and include quality samples / presets. (This last point is not to be understated, because a synth without quality presets is nothing but a sound designers toy.) The hardware itself becomes the dongle.

In my opinion, for a receptor-like concept to be viable, it needs to be price competitive with what it wants to displace; either PC (with freeware) or keyboard (with premium software). For the price of a Receptor, I could have a Yamaha P60 midied to an Alesis QS6.2. I know which choice I would make.

I genuinely think that a lot of Receptor owners (like myself) don't want to rave about it just yet, as some of the major features aren't implemented or integrated properly. It will end up being a fantastic machine, but it's still in "beta" stage as far as I'm concerned. That's not to say it's not useful as it is, but it will be great once some bugs get ironed out, and some features are added! It's an elegant concept IMO, and one I've always wished existed for live performance. It's also a handy addition to the studio!

As far as the price goes, I've always found it bizarre that so many people think it's outrageous. I investigated rack mount PC's and laptops, and here in Brisbane, Australia, it ain't THAT much different! Sure, it's a BIT more, but you'd expect that with a custom OS etc.

As for going for the Yamie and Alesis (?) I have only one question - what the hell are you doing on KVR????

[james0tucson]

As for going for the Yamie and Alesis (?) I have only one question - what the hell are you doing on KVR????

My Alesis QS6.1 is an amazing synth and a great MIDI controller. My Yamaha P80 still has the only piano sound I've ever truly liked, and superb action. (although I would like to put an 88-key Motif in its place.) I'm serious about piano though, other people have different considerations.

[Watto]

No doubt - I'm a piano player first and foremost. My point was meant to be that KVR is heavily VST/DAW based... and it was a joke, anyway

[xander]

...As far as the price goes, I've always found it bizarre that so many people think it's outrageous. I investigated rack mount PC's and laptops, and here in Brisbane, Australia, it ain't THAT much different! Sure, it's a BIT more, but you'd expect that with a custom OS etc.

Well, not so bizarre or outrageous in the context of having a limited budget and then having to decide what purchases are a priority -- at least for most musicians.

MOST musicians/artists have to make some hard choices money wise -- and I think that's really the sore point. In other words, there doesn't seem to be enough oomph or flexibility in Receptor (yet) to justify the cost (IMHO).

I have to think: "What would it really replace and/or add to my existing performance/studio setup?" and "Is it worth it?"

As someone said, it's worth realistically (relatively then) around $500.00 (about $800.00 Aussie?) and for that I'd buy it and maybe so would a zillion others... maybe.

Anyway, it is indeed a great idea and maybe in some time it will find it's place in more and more people's setups.

[xander]

I also forgot to add that if I were a live DJ, I would be very interested in using Receptor (I always forget about them guys ), and it may also have lots of potential in the broadcasting industry too.

[Caleb]

As far as the price goes, I've always found it bizarre that so many people think it's outrageous. I investigated rack mount PC's and laptops, and here in Brisbane, Australia, it ain't THAT much different! Sure, it's a BIT more, but you'd expect that with a custom OS etc.

That's interesting. Want to give a fellow Aussie a price comparison?

On www.innovativemusic.com.au the price is $3,299 Australian.

What were you looking at for rack-mounted PC's. I have to admit that I haven't done much research on that.

Caleb

[Caleb]

Ok - I checked out Carillon rack-mounted PC's. I don't know if these are boutique or not, but I've heard of them and their tailored to suit audio needs.

I didn't pick the cheapest package because I think these days you'd be steering towards 1Gig RAM rather than 512MB.

Intel P4 3.2 GHz / 800 FSB
INTEL D915PBL MOTHERBOARD
Radeon X300 128 Mb Dual Head Video Card
1024 Mb DDR2 RAM
80 Gb Seagate SATA
160 Gb Seagate SATA
Black CDRW / DVDRW
1 x Port Built-in Firewire
3 x Port Firewire Card
Microsoft Windows XP Home
Additional software including...Steinberg Clean, Steinberg Wavelab Lite, Norton Ghost, VST Plug-in pack (whatever that is).
Keyboard and Mouse (no screen though).
5000 samples and sample search engine software
Hardwired XLR Audio Input for direct connection to soundcard

I'm not sure if after all that it actually has a sound card so you would need to consider that extra

Additionally, it doesn't have a front-panel interface like Receptor so you would definitely need a monitor (although you'd probably have this for receptor anyway).

The price for this is $3099 Australian.

So the prices (in Australian anyway) are reasonably comparable.

Of course a rack-mounted PC is wildly more flexible than Receptor covering sequencing, multi-track recording, audio editing and a million other non-VSTi related activities. To get the same flexibility for Receptor an investment in a computer might need to occur anyway and then the price comparison is quite different.

For me the difference is that looking at the two options, I'm starting to say to myself - "Jeez - that Carillon solution looks really sweet! I can imagine saving up for that!"

Caleb

[Watto]

Yeah, although it has no built-in soundcard, as far as I can see - one of the main reasons I always avoided the laptop setup was the midi interface/audio interface problem - a friend has that setup and it's clumsy IMO.

I completely agree about the limitations (ie no hard disk recording etc) but I personally have no need to record live atm, and this is much more elegant for my needs.

Oh, and btw, I paid a fair bit less than that, I'm sure - wonder if I can find my receipt...

And g'day to all the Aussies on here - there seem to be hundreds of us bloody mongrels!

[xander]

.. on ya cobber

[stefancrs]

What do you people have against small desktop computers anyway? Carrying a shuttle around is no biggie, it's not like you need a couple of rodders for it

I mean, you can get a shuttle setup that is "powerful enough" (as an extra music pc, for live use or freeing your main one of cpu etc, see it as an instrument) for around 1000USD, go up to add stuff.
AthlonXP 3000+, 1gig DDR RAM, 250gigs hdd, 17" TFT, Mouse, Keyboard. Builtin networking stuff and asio support. Results in about 1100USD eventhough I'd strip a lot of the stuff out (I don't need the screen, mouse or keyboard for instance, already got that stuff )

[xander]

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[AndrewSimon]

UNIWIRE looks very interesting.
I wonder if there will be any latency with it.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Watto]

Yes, Uniwire is one big carrot.

@stefancrs: You didn't mention soundcard, I noticed