Crowdfunding — The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

No doubt it’s got MIDI out, but the reason i wonder about a synth part is that Adoyo’s first product Sylphyo started as controller only, but evolved to have a synth part too. Adoyo has developed the expertise to design a good sounding if simplistic synth, simplistic judging from the tiny interface screen.

They already have a large synth code base – it would be easy for them to spin off a nice sounding synth engine almost for free.

Don’t know it could go either way.

Im just judging by the voicings on the sample . It looks a bit small to be that powerful a synth.

I don’t agree, small is big when it is digital.

Well if they can replicate that sound from a small engine id be all over it.

Worth it’s own dedicated thread maybe ?

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I started the thread.

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Good practice for crowdfunding developers is to :
Under promise and over deliver.

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It’s funny to think about the phases on a crowdfunding project.

I suppose a marker coming up for the Loom is April 11th, when the pledges close and your money gets taken and you’re locked in. Is that the start of the Anxiety Phase ?

I guess we don’t stop speculating, just how and what gets speculated over.

It’s an individual thing, but there is plenty of people that flip over to the Anger Phase next.

A favorite post for me was when Expressive E was called, “Those chiselers”.

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“Anxiety phase” is a good word for it. It’s a very thin line between the FOMO of getting in on early bird pricing and the “OMG what have I done?” of plunking down several hundred dollars on a thing that might not work how you like (or, indeed, actually exist)!

Personally, I really like getting to help fund projects that have made thoughtful design decisions and solid planning (and I think the OP is that sort of project, FWIW). It feels like making a tiny step toward a world where that sort of work gets recognized over the potential profit margin — and, not coincidentally, this sort of project tends to actually deliver. But I also get people being anxious about it. Especially for anything over $100.

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Nanoloop still has yet to deliver on the second option. About a year ago he emailed me saying it was about it was about to ship and then went silent. Kind of accepted that I will probably never see a product at this point.

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myTracks from Blipblox going on KickStarter.

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Interesting one from the folks behind Hungry Robot pedals: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artiuminstruments/artium-instruments-the-swarm

I have liked their guitar pedals for a good long while and this seems like a simple, well thought out product. Immediately seems like it would be great for live use, as you can easily route external things through the effects in parallel. Can see pairing this with my Rytm and maybe Oxi One as a fun setup for performance.

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Enormous bang for buck with The Swarm !

  • 8-note polyphony
  • Versatile Monophonic Arpeggiator
  • Detunable SuperSaw Oscillator
  • Onboard effects including Freeze, Delay, Chorus, and Reverb

For all those who gripe about not have the space for … , this takes care of that.

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FWIW, this appears to be, amongst other things, a new midi keyboard. Hard to figure out more than that, though.

Guesswork:

  • big buttons are white keys
  • small buttons are black keys
  • red yellow and blue buttons are ‘C’
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Kickstarter starts on April 23 and there are some videos. Looks like targeted for kids? Although some adults might take advantage of the small form factor and MIDI…

EDIT: ah, here is the shorter promo video for adults to scratch their pockets: :slight_smile:

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Muro Box N40 Standard & Sublime Tone Music Box

MIDI controlled 40 note mechanical music box. On Indiegogo.

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The Sublime version plays two separate sets of tines together at the same time, but they are detuned 14 cents from each other, giving an extra richness to the sound.

Here’s a video where you can compare the sound between the two versions.

They also sell an N20 version, that they crowdfunded 4 years ago. The N40 has two of those mechanisms, tuned to give a wider note range. So the Standard N40 has two tine sets, the Sublime version has four.

In addition to MIDI, it also allows you to preload songs, or sequences if you want to think of it that way, though no idea about looping or syncing. Not that that really matters obviously you could sync in MIDI.

A little pricey, but i like the idea of setting this up next to a keyboard, and playing acoustic with this, or perhaps adding some effects after this. ( See this post. )

Note : This is not 100% chromatic, there are some gaps in the bass notes, so it wouldn’t play in any key if you are looking for “bass” notes.

Also : As this is mechanical there is a small restart delay when playing the same note again. Not clear how this might respond.

Looks good quality, and given that the original N20 has been around a few years it should have a track record.

You’ll have to add your own twirling ballerina.

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ALT – Analog five voice pin grid synth

Made by French startup Cyma Forma, this looks potentially something of interest to those in this forum.

They will launch on Kickstarter on May 22nd, right after Superbooth ( thread ), where they will be exhibiting.

No sound samples or videos that i know of, yet.

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Some sounds in their instagram:

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It’s live now on KS, and is going gangbusters.

Are people buying for kids, or themselves ? At the price it certainly can be an impulse buy.

They say in their newsletter that it will be $99 the first three days and then (if I read this correctly) $199.

There is a review from a musician who usually reviews Raspberry Pi / open source music products (no idea if there is a relation):