No worries, I appreciate the honesty 
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The Demon Box from Eternal Research.is on Kickstarter right now, and is already past the funding threshold.
( post )
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an update for those interested in the MIDI Goblin
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I don’t do this often, but you seem like a sound enough person. I’m willing to give your synth a go. Send me one and I’ll put it through its paces and write a three sentence, detailed, report. Again, I don’t do this for just anyone. I’m also willing to discuss it with random people I pass at the grocery store. I see that as an untapped market. I’ll need a response soon though. People beating my door down for my out-of-the-box ideas.
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Is that an electric beard trimmer next to the device? I see this company knows the target audience.
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This is new and is already funded with lots of time left.
Tiny 24 key keyboard, with a 4.3 inch color touch screen, 32 part wavetable synth, with ten note polyphony. Sequences, looping with lots of filters and effects. Battery powered. You can make your own wavetables. Much more.
Very Affordable !
Your reactions ?
I did not link the video here.
I gave away my Pro VS Mini and this sounds similar. But just for the screen alone, I’d get one of these even though I am not into tiny synths anymore.
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Also live on Kickstarter right now and also funded is Drumboy and Synthgirl from Randomwaves.
It already has a thread.
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This looks fun for the right users, and also looks quality.
I expect this will fund.
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Question about Kickstarter.
If I select an item that has some additional Add-ons to add showing on the Kickstarter page, yet I can’t add these before payment page, because there’s no way to add them, does that mean that they have expired?
Just looking at some Peak Design stuff, which isn’t music related, but I guess people might know these things?
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Considering something in the abstract.
When a crowdfunded developer, perhaps one that used Kickstarter and/or Indiegogo – the two most common, attempts to file for bankruptcy, they open themselves to review as governed by the laws in the country they are filing.
Part of the findings from this court would be the priority of the crowdfunded investors. They are not as tightly bound as secured investors, like perhaps a mortgage holder might be, or a bank with a pledged asset. But the crowdfunder is also not without a promise, which is at the least arguably a pledge of security. It would be interesting to see how a bankruptcy court would view this promise.
The court could also reject the filing for bankruptcy, if that filing does not meet the legal requirements, such as, that resolution being possible without bankruptcy, or if the filer is not eligible for other reasons, like fraud and corruption.
The bankruptcy filing exposes the filer to criminal review, and even, depending to that countries laws, legal prosecution specifically for the money obtained by crowdfunding. This could also include the crowdfund organizer. In specific deceit to obtain funding would be a criminal matter in most countries, and would make complications for a bankruptcy filing protection, and expose the principals in this business to personal responsibility as well.
This all would take time to resolve.
Some things to consider for those who may be considering going the crowdfunding route.
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That’s an interesting reflection. I do not even know how crowdfunding pledges are treated from an accounting (and legal) perspective. I think it is not the same as a prepaid purchase, but I am not sure about this. In any case, in France at least, customers have low priority when a firm is liquidated (as compared, for example to employees’ outstanding salaries).
Edit: I just read that a crowdfunding contribution is normally considered as a donation, and the counterpart as a reward. So there is not purchasing contract and therefore probably no claim at all.
2nd edit: upon further reading, my argument seems wrong: Even though it is called a “donation”, backing constitutes a sale because it is made against the promise of a reward.
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As it should be !
But what about stock holders ? I would also think there is a difference between a pre-paid order and a crowdfunded backing due to all the contractual wording and the involvement of a third party, the crowdfund facilitator. But a court would have to sort that out.
Interesting you spoke of France. I was thinking in the abstract.
ADDED in response to your addition :
There is flaw here, for instance KS gives specifically all the expectations placed on the crowdfunding receiver. So there is definitely expectation and therefore a claim.
At the extreme, if a charity is a scam, you are able to claw back your money if it is available.
Even viewed as an investment, the fraudulent part strips away the protections, including corporate protections. ( Depending on all the legal wrinkles with each countries’ laws. )
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Again hypothetically.
If someone was a backer, and the company you backed were to enter bankruptcy, it seems very reasonable ( likely ? ) that you will receive communication from the bankruptcy court, with notification of status, as a party to the procedure.
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I kept reading a bit more, and several texts I have found confirm your point (and prove my earlier understanding wrong): it seems that from a legal perspective, a reward-based crowdfunding “donation” constitutes in fact a sale because it is made in exchange for the promise to deliver the reward. So a backer should normally be considered in the bankruptcy procedure, before equity holders, but after secured loans, etc.
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If crowdfunding facilitators were to offer an optional risk management strategy, would you be more likely to back a project ?
What i am thinking of, might take the form of an optional project failure insurance. The facilitator could decide on a rate, either in general, or on a project by project basis. ( A company like Kickstarter certainly has the data to make this sort of actuarial calculation. ) It might be in the range 3% - 4% ( a loss in the range of 1 in 30 or 1 in 25, of the amounts invested ). This money is kept by the facilitator and does not go to the project developers. If after some period of time after the originally scheduled delivery date, let’s say 4 or 5 years, if the project has not been delivered, the insured customer has the option to terminate the contract, and receive the entire sum, minus the 3% - 4% insurance fee, back. This is paid entirely by the facilitator. The customer could obviously decide to continue to wait, but could opt to get their money back at any time after the “failed delivery”.
An additional benefit to this is that the facilitator then has skin in the game. This insurance should be set up to break even for the facilitator, it shouldn’t become the income generator for them, only a way to reassure some customers.
The rate could be variable, or set, between different projects, the facilitator most likely has the data to make those sorts of decisions. A variable rate also might help the customer, better understand the risk. If for instance the facilitator says the insurance will be 10% on a certain project, that might be a good indicator of a projects assessed risk.
As is typically the case, the insurer has the right to find recompense as well for the insurance paid. They might have means a single customer would not.
So back to the original question. If you had the option to take the hedge, and insure against a complete loss, would that make you more likely to buy into a crowdfunded project ?
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Dubby from Componental
Coming up soon on Kickstarter.
I like having the color options.
An extremely flexible, quadraphonic input and output plus MIDI box and with high quality easy to use controls, customizable as an audio effect and/or synthesizer, for whatever you’d like it to be, either easily set up using their algorithms, or with your own creations done in Max/Gen, C++, or PureData.
They just showed at Machina Bristronica ( post )
ADDED : Kickstarter Page
A preview to their Kickstarter page.
https://www.componental.co/kickstarter-secretlist
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NEXT :
I see that Sound Workshop is taking an alternative approach to crowdfunding. They have gotten to a fairly advanced prototype phase with their Wiggler monosynth product, but they realized they need to put it into an aggressive test feedback phase to iterate the design. I expect this will be a fairly extensive redesign. As a part of this test phase they are going to also fund raise with more financially well off donors. So they are selling five of the prototypes, along with the eventual delivery of the final product to five donors, for $5000 each. Clever approach, we’ll see how well they succeed with this. Details are described in this queued video :
Clever engineering on the three products described in this video.
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A analog magnetic pickup resonator in the form of a lute?
The ResoLute: The Lute with No Strings Attached
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https://resolutesynth.com <= listen to the Psychedelic Lead audio. Hendrix !
Neat how you get to change the Tone Springs to get different sounds.
This looks easy enough to play, with some practice, and it looks like it could be a crowd pleaser.
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