On-demand manufacturing - the future of gear?

The Lounge General Discussion
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What do you reckon, how close are we to being able to specify exactly the gear we want and through a combination of robotics, 3D printing, generalised skilled assemblers, have it made at a relatively reasonable price?

A lot of us can get pretty niche in what we want from gear and how we want to use it. You know, if only that mixer had two extra stereo channels, or if both the sends could be pre/post switched rather than just one of them, it would be perfect.

I know there are a few quite expensive modular mixer concepts.

But I’m more thinking of a software environment where you can, in a relatively user friendly way, map out what you want. It will suggest compatible components and all that. Like a software modular synth environment that has an order button on the end of it. Maybe it comes with a Lego Ideas style voting system, or users can create and sell proven designs.

Or is making the niche less niche too niche?

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Are you specifically talking about mixers or thinking about all kinds of gear?

At present there are things like controllers which you can buy custom made / customer configured on etsy or elsewhere that you can specify things like buttons, sliders or potentiometers and the arrangement, but a lot of equipment which is reliant on the UI remains locked behind development and custom software.

I think with something like a controller or a mixer which unless it has a special feature set is mostly just parts and plumbing, there’s a distinct possibility that self-designed or made to order will become more accessible to the consumer.

This may require some integration of AI into the design program interface in order to allow a normal person to access and create that which currently takes experience and a specific skillset to achieve, but even currently for people who have experience or skills a lot of tools are already available online to design 3d enclosures, have face panels cut, custom PCB or even pre-built circuit boards delivered to your door in a matter of days.

Whether these products will have any escalated value (of use) beyond that which is made for mass consumption is debatable. A one-off product will never be less expensive cost wise than something prefab, and I’d like to think that 8 times out of 10 a person with professional design experience who is acutely aware of certain pitfalls to watch out for will design a better specialized product than someone who hasn’t already experimented with ideas in the past on someone else’s coin.

As far as how close we are to it? I mean you can do it now to a certain degree but it’s potentially going to be quite costly. How close are we to it being affordable? Technology is moving at an astonishing rate, something that in my mind seems 25 years away could be like 5 years away or less. I think this will come down to actual demand and whether or not someone figures out how they can operate such a business with a low enough overhead to make a significant profit.

In reality, no one is going to set this type of business up out of the goodness of their heart, they’re going to aim to make money off it. To be affordable, the products would probably be made and assembled by the same underpaid skilled workforce in China who currently works for say, behringer, because anything else just won’t have any profit attached at a price tag that we as average consumers would call relatively reasonable.

I didn’t mean to have so many thoughts on this, but I’d personally love to be able to design and have products made on demand so it’s something I’ve thought a little bit about before.

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Anything really, mixers was just something that came to mind as an example. It could be any type of gear, music or otherwise, was just spitballing into the future around manufacturing being able to support fairly complex customisation (within fairly well defined limits).

And if I’m being honest, I was supposed to be working, but was getting distracted by watching a video on brick repointing, and then distracted myself thinking about this.

All thoughts welcome.

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I love how Yaeltex does that. Just use the online configurator to create your dream controller and see the (high) price immediately.

I’d argue that the nature of mass production often forces the manufacturer to play safe and go the one size fits all way. And the user ends having to saw the keyboard off.
In many cases the production model is just a compromise, since not every manufacturer can go full ASM or Modal and make multiple versions to satisfy the needs of different customers. And look where it got Modal, by the way.

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I wrote this a short while back. Now looking back i don’t think i was optimistic enough.

Obviously a one off will be more expensive, but since robots don’t get paid, only the company that owns the robots do, it’s likely to not cost a fortune to do custom work.

And really an AI system will also be able to creatively generate new design concepts as well.

So soon. A dozen years maybe.

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A good chunk of modular hardware, in the sense of individual kit components that a user assembles to spec, is always going to have some risk of bottleneck when it comes to general lifecycle. Some modules are a safe bet, whereas others, because the underlying technology can change so quickly, are risky. Stepping outside the world of synthesizers you can see why concepts of devices like modular phones or laptops have not picked up traction. There is also the discussion of resulting e-waste.

Things like PCB fabrication are moving back to the US & Europe. Companies like Newmatik already have a lot of customers in the music space specifically and that continues to grow as the production trend moves away from Asia. That being said you still have the realities of ROI to deal with, so typically you are expected to have a minimum order of 100 boards etc.

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I think it definitely will and to a certain degree already can, at this point the only real barrier is cost. The music technoloy industry in particular has a long history of customizing gear for people willing to pay, I don’t know how much the dishwasher and appliance industry supports customization but one day it might with, as you said, fairly well defined limits.

Just to clarify, my meaning was more along the lines of ergonomics. Just as an example if a company had data about whether people are more prone to using a certain encoder with the right or left hand and which orientation was perceived as more useful, it might be very deliberately placed. I think the nature of the design it yourself model is that it’s partially mimicking what you like in other products and partially experimenting with what you think you might prefer that you aren’t finding off the shelf. The ergonomics in hands on products are super important, imagine a walkie talkie with the call button on the bottom instead of the side.

I agree that there’s an a major element of one size fits all which makes some products (not just music) less useful or impossible to use in a person’s given use case but where one or several tasteful modifications could change that.