Intuitive Instruments Exquis MPE + CV controller and app

The Lounge Other Gear
#21

@pmags thank you for your interest.

It seems that the Kickstarter has failed to hit it’s estimated delivery target – that’s true of a lot of kickstarter projects but is still a concern

We have explained the reason why, with a lot of transparency, on our blog. I invite you to dig into, you will find many answers.
But the best answer are all the supportive messages from our backers, who prefers to wait to have the best instrument, and who invites us to take the time to do our best. And we are going to have 4 months late, which is far less than many other Kickstarter projects.

#22

There seems to be an ongoing discussion in the Kickstarter comments that suggests that the maker’s have downgraded what they promised to deliver. I can’t follow all the discussion as a significant portion is in French, but the root of the issue seems to be people now asking to switch their orders from “Deluxe” to “Standard” because some key software features will not be delivered. See: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dualointuitiveinstru/exquis-the-smartest-way-to-create-expressive-music/comments

It’s not the precise reason. They estimate the final customisation of Exquis’ Deluxe version is not as important as in the previous design introduced in the Kickstarter. We said we will offer to change the color and the material of all the case, and finally we had to simplify it to a pair of side rod. There is nothing about key features in the software.
Also I should precise we are talking about 3 people complaining, to compare to more than a thousand backers. And on the other side, more than a hundred backers ask for upgrading to the Deluxe version.

There are always people complaining, because it’s part of human nature. And the downside of a Kickstarter project, is that sometimes people forget we are building the instrument we have invented, not the instrument they have in their mind. And they don’t understand why we don’t execute every single comment they kindly provide to us.

We are making huge efforts to offer something unique with Exquis. We offer 8 different variations with the Deluxe version. It’s a lot. People who are complaining have no idea of the complexity and cost of such an audacious promise. Does Roland, Behringer, Korg or Arturia offers 8 variations of the casing of their synths?

Two of the backers we are talking about were already complaining when we announced we have increased the number of keys on Exquis from 54 to 61 for musical reasons. Why? Because they prefer the first design, which looks like a little thiner. Even when we explained the casing width is exactly the same, and the length is shorter on the new version, they answered they feel cheated because they want the Kickstarter design. On the other hand, dozens of contributors have praised us for continuing to improve our instrument even after the Kickstarter.

#23

Dear @bruno.intuitive, thank you for engaging and sharing your point of view. I did not realize that you were (according to your LinkedIn profile) the co-founder and managing director of Dualo.
Please allow me to share my side of the story:

Timeline
  • March 2017: I ordered a du-touch L on your website (order no. 2363) - this was a regular order with prepayment of 893 EUR for a product, not a kickstarter pledge or unspecific backing of a project. Delivery of the du-touch-L was announced for autumn 2017.
  • 2 Oct 2017: Project update marketing email by Dualo announcing design changes.
  • Late October 2017 - I received a phone call by your co-founder J. Hotrique announcing that the du-touch L would be delivered in early 2018 - this call was unsollicited, and I was positively surprised by the effort of reaching out to clients.
  • 23 March 2018 - Being without any news, I sent an email to Dualo inquiring about the delivery of the device.
  • 24 March 2018 - Response by Serguï B. (Dualo Team) confirming delivery in Summer 2018 and proposing to lend me a smaller and less developed du-touch S to get to know the interface (it was clearly stated that this was an intermediary solution while I wait for the instrument I had ordered).
  • 20 September 2018 - Being without any news, I sent you a message in which I demand to cancel my order and ask for refunding (retraction from an online purchase being a fundamental EU consumer right). The receipt of my message was acknowledged by Dualo on 4 October 2018.
  • 7 October 2018 - Reception of a letter sent by a law firm appointed as administrator (Me Danguy) announcing the liquidation (“liquidation judiciaire”) of Dualo and informing me that my claim of 893 EUR against your company (dossier no. 6381) was registered as unpriviliged claim (“à titre chirographaire”).
  • Since then you have founded Intuitive Instruments as a successor to Dualo. However, I have not received any information nor compensation offer by you, the administrator, or your company. I still have your du-touch S which I did not wish to keep in the first place (and whose used market value is around 240 EUR on the French website Audiofanzine).

To make a long story short: you took 893 EUR from me, did not deliver the product I had ordered, and neither reached out to me nor offered any compensation. Moreover you state above that some customers have actually received compensation and you even hint at the fact that this may have been illegal… Honestly, I think you may understand that I would need to think twice before doing any business with you or your company again.

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#24
1 Like
#25

Hey guys !

Wouldn’t it be time to unveil more information about the app coming along the exquis ?

For the moment, questions are vaguely answered one by one on the discord but not in a really clear fashion. Most of the answers are along : “not at release but soon after…”

  • Can we have more info on the sequencer for exemple ? Number of steps, time division, microtiming, swing, seq resolution, independant duration between instruments ?

  • Exquis has cv/gate/mod out : could you elaborate on that, are their lfos ? Randoms ? S&H ?

  • Midi in/out : Midi chan per track ? Midi effects ? Arp, racthet, probabilities, play directions etc…
    It seems ther will be no clock in slave at release, will we have clock out ?

  • Can we have midi out simultaneously with a plugin ? Are cc assignements configurable ?

  • One vst per track AFAIK at release so we’ll have to use internal effects. Which effects and how many of them ?

We’re supposed to be a month from release and it would be interesting to start having some sort of comprehensive informations of what we could/should expect.

Thank you !

1 Like
#26

Adding to this would be current status with custom key layouts, microtonal key layouts, and detail on the sorts of parameter controls are included with the per key information, perhaps related to microtonality, MIDI channels, and CV output. ( As discussed up-thread. )

I accept that these may not be included with a first release – you had a lot to do – but even your intents with these sorts of features in the future would be helpful with purchase decisions.

#27

Well, that doesn’t work too well because the note have a weird layout, semitones are not next to each other, nothing like the l’instrument. In the future you potentially can change the layout but not yet.
Also you end up with knobs on the side which is not very ergonomic and doesn’t mirror the app anymore …

So, turning it 90° as you suggest sounds like a good solution but it’s not.

#28

Intuitive instruments just announced that exquis is now 3 axis mpe, x,y,z.

Nice.

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#29

US start to get their UPS shipping numbers…

Still no info on the app, what we’ll get is still uncertain…

#30

Sounds like a terrible experience. I’ve lost interest in the Exquis after reading this.

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#31

It was very frustrating and indeed handled very badly by Dualo. I found the layout of the controler brillant, and I hope the people behind the project have learned from their previous failure. Since the Dualo experience, I avoid preordering.

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#32

This is good to hear. As an MPE controller this seems a compact implementation and interface.

I’ve heard other people talk about alternative keyboards allowing them to approach their playing differently, so that they can create things they might not have done otherwise. Does that fit in with the Exquis ?

#33

Yes it’s a very inspiring machine. I’m able to come up with a gorgeous 4 bar chord progression within a few minutes and then it leads to melodies on top. Highly recommend:)

And its cheap in comparison to other MPE controllers.

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#34

Yeah $300 USD, seems like a really good price for what this can do.

I am waiting for the user defined layout feature, but the software with this so far seems well done too.

I posted in the NAMM 2024 thread, with another video.

#35

It’s sad to read this.
We have been very busy to focus on delivering the Exquis as soon as we can before Christmas, and I didn’t had the time to answer properly.
M. @ccr distorted the reality because of it’s feeling of frustration. I understand, it’s human being.
If you look at the timeline, hidden in M. CCR message, it lacks the fact that a dualo du-touch S has been send to M. CCR, who acknoledge it in the end of the timeline, without making it a important point: “I still have your du-touch S …”. The value of 240 EUR on French website Audiofanzine is the 2nd hand price… please M. @ccr, if you use infos, use the right ones. Check here on Thomann, to see a dualo du-touch S is stil 473 EUR, and was before 495€. And M. @ccr has been offered a lifetime subscription worth 129€/year of the du-game.
So I feel insulted when M. @ccr says he has “not received any information nor compensation offer”.
And to close the subject: Do you think people get their money back when Lehman brothers crashed? I can understand such events are complex, but once again, I cannot accept to read such a distorted reality. We do gave compensation with a dualo du-touch S and a lifetime suscription of the du-game. They are many examples of company crash when customers didn’t get a penny in compensation. We did much more than many would have done.
Now, you can keep applying your frustration on the new team and Exquis, or face the present: Exquis have been delivered and people like playing them.

#36

Can you tell me why you need a user defined layout feature?
We are planning to release it, but I am curious about the reason this is the feature you are waiting for.

#37

PMed.

#38

Hi @bruno.intuitive - welcome back! Just a quick response from my side (even though you did not directly respond to my message from 4 months ago). This is a user forum, and it is quite common that forum participants comment upon their experiences with the companies they order from.

First of all, let me say that I am genuinely happy that the Exquis rollout goes well. I still think that the interface layout is brillant (and I stated this here already: Intuitive Instruments Exquis MPE + CV controller and app - #31 by ccr) and deserves to be more widely adopted. And it is great that you manage to deliver this time.

I decided to share my side of the story last September because your claim that you actively engaged and sought to compensate all customers who had paid their devices was untrue. As I explained in my message (Intuitive Instruments Exquis MPE + CV controller and app - #23 by ccr), the possibility to borrow a Dualo-S was proposed by your company in March 2018 as an intermediary solution while I was waiting for the model I had ordered and that was promised for the Summer. I have also never been proposed any kind of “lifetime subscription”.

Finally, I did not seek to “hide” the details, but collapsed them to avoid overburdening the forum - on the contrary, I believe that I have been very precise and complete. I have also deliberately avoided drawing parallels with banking crashes, etc. - I think we are luckily on a different scale here. I can live with the loss (luckily I have a high enough and stable income), but I found the episode quite shitty nevertheless.

#39

I would suggest @bruno.intuitive to deal with @ccr privately from now on.

As a company, saying publicly that an established user (that has been a victim) is “distorting reality” is a real bad move: passive aggressiveness is very unwelcome here, and definitely makes a company look wrong.
I understand you’ve been through hard times, but your public communication when facing a problem with a customer should always been apologetic, not aggressive.

Please don’t keep on exchanging messages on this thread, make it private. Unless you’ve reach some agreement, that is.

7 Likes
#40

And the Exquis might become another Tonnetz capable keyboard.

What i PMed to bruno.intuitive above was a very short explanation of the Tonnetz arrangement of notes. Interesting how close the Exquis is to this system. The three axis on the Exquis are minor third, major third, semitone. The axis with theTonnetz are minor third, major third, perfect fourth. It turns out if you flipped the direction of the minor third to the major third relative to each other on the Exquis you’d get the Tonnetz.

The reason anyone would want a keyboard with a Tonnetz arrangement is because of it’'s very practical use in music composition and music theory, which gets touched on in the Tonnetz thread i just started. The Tonnetz clusters musically relevant chords and triads close around each other. in a specific arrangement

There are some good music theory course videos around the Tonnetz in the first post of that thread.

Both key arrangements are isomorphic.

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