Readers will know that I'm
predisposed to write about musical instruments, so I want to share a few
thoughts that draw trends in consumer
culture by looking at a product category that I like
In this case, synthesisers.
There are three broad ideas to identify: cloud-based products, cheap knock-offs and declining quality among established brands.
The first concerns those subscription-based services one can access online and you might be surprised that synthesisers are a thing to rent in your internet browser.
My favourite recent commentator
about synthesisers is Florian Pilz and he says that cloud instruments
are a bad idea, so that's good enough for me because I love buying good
musical gear.
A benefit of having physical hardware is having something to sell when the good gear is not as good as you hoped it to be.
It's
getting harder to find the good stuff among all the Bad Gear that
Florian reviews among the jokes he doesn't make about Uli Behringer,
whose company has been making cheap versions of classic and contemporary
synthesisers and drum machines.
Behringer is
notoriously litigious but has been successful in making new models of
popular secondhand gear, some of which is stuff like the synths that a
company like Roland rents in their cloud subscription.
For
many consumers Behringer is the answer to the question why Roland
aren't selling versions of the classic TR-909 and TB-303 machines.
Critics have quoted the weirdly translated words of
Roland's CEO that the company "doesn't chase ghosts" as a way of
explaining that they've moved on, but others point out that the engineers who designed analogue intruments have probably all retired.
I
have Roland's "Boutique" range and also Behringer's colourful copies of
these XOX-boxes that gave rise to genres like Acid and Techno, as well
as all the subgenres that emerged under them.
Given
how those musical styles developed beyond the scope of Roland imagining
these little machines to play basslines and drums, it shouldn't be a
surprise that the company hasn't been able to read the marketplace.
It's said that the 909 drum machine was discontinued before it found a role in the rave revolution.
However, what surprises me is how often I reach for the Behringer models, despite them being cheaper and sounding rougher.
So
I think Behringer is providing a great service for people who want to
make electronic music and who doesn't? I think it was Uwe Schmidt who
described techno as modern folk music.
One
of the key observations that Pilz makes in the Bad Gear episode above is
that Roland probably doesn't care too much about these products.
The
company that makes Cadbury is clearly making a different product to the
confectionery that I ate in previous decades, which goes some way to
explain why I still have my TR-707 as it hasn't had a reissue or
imitation yet.
In conclusion I realise the
declining brands are a factor in the decision of Roland to make software
imitations for the cloud and watch as other companies make the products
that consumers want to buy.
It leads me to wonder what other celebrated brands are letting their legacy and IP go to waste?
