Keith_W
Major Contributor
This video features Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel, who invented the Fairlight CMI ("Computer Musical Instrument"). It details how they came upon the idea, and the documentary features some music (very well known 80's pop!) which was made with Fairlight.
It was quite eye opening listening to what Kim and Peter had to say. They manufactured their own CRT and their own keyboards. Every keycap was made by them and sent off to be engraved. Because they did not use off-the-shelf parts, they had to solder their own boards and write their own operating system. The ADC was their own design. The machines were so expensive ($30k in the 80's!) that only the largest studios could afford them, and it was completely out of reach for the majority of working musicians. As a result, sales were slow. "We lived hand to mouth. The next machine was funded by the sale of the previous machine. We kept on like this until we went broke in 1989". In the meantime, Korg, Akai, Yamaha and others ate their lunch by producing smaller and cheaper synthesizers.
After watching that video, I thought - you guys are brilliant engineers and innovators. But that doesn't make you a good businessmen.
If you haven't heard of Kim Ryrie, he went on to found DEQX together with Alan Langford. What concerns me is that I see the same parallels. DEQX already almost went bust after their last product, the HDP-5. They sold nothing for a few years before they introduced their new Premate. They are using an off-the-shelf ARM chip, ADC, and DAC in DEQX, but they designed the board and wrote their own software. The DEQX thread on ASR has multiple posters complaining about the price.
I really like Kim Ryrie. He is still the same as he comes across in the video - soft spoken, gentlemanly, polite, and humble. The only difference is the white hair. I worry about the strategy they have chosen with the new DEQX, specifically to price most consumers out of the market when there are competitors like MiniDSP who are more than happy to eat their lunch. So I hope to high heaven that they have employed a good business manager.
Fairlight failed because they took on too much manufacturing responsibility and priced themselves out of the market. I hope they do not repeat the same mistake with DEQX. They have already priced themselves out of the market. Time will tell.
