dang thats cool, where can i order one
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They put up an update yesterday on KS that manufacturing is going smoothly, they shipped a handful of units that were made in a test run, and will ship the rest of units to all their KS backers ( Jukka Snark : still living ), by the end of this month.
They also mention having some first run Monolab units at Superbooth which you can see in the video.
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Frankly, it’s a beautiful piece of equipment and I only wish they had been more transparent with investors so that I would not feel so conflicted by saying it.
With that said, I cannot imagine that the ultimate price point will be in parallel with it’s usefulness to most people.
Yet another piece of equipment reserved for the elite and for those with the deepest pockets.
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What is the last known price point?
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This was in 2023, I have not heard a specific number since that time.
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Ay yi yi, perhaps with the combination of legitimate interest and not over-promising final cost so early on this might still be moderately achievable.
“We’re going to do all these things and undercut everything else on the market” kickstarters do burn out for reasons that might not map to the Bee, but since I have no skin in the game I wish everyone best of luck in it working out.
Yet another piece of equipment reserved for the elite and for those with the deepest pockets.
Eh, I can’t worry about everything I can’t afford in the context of other things I own. I do a lot of things for myself I should really pay others to offload, I put proceeds of theatrical performances towards my moderate studio, and I regularly flip things that are great but I don’t click with. People are mad about vintage Roland sound, and there are so many price points to achieve it!
i’m happier when things don’t click with me, even if I occasionally try out “the real thing” and realize that
- it’s usually the context of how it’s used, blah blah fast envelopes blah
- i can often arrange that context with other devices (though i do need to figure out an easier way to do trigger in on other synths)
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Until the kickstarter backers in masses receive this, I think it’s just as possible this guy is a compulsive liar and it will never be completed.
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I doubt he would show his face at SuperBooth then if he was just gonna take the money and run. nor would he have given all these updates over the years.
still… for the price, I’d just buy a serviced SH-101 with the Tubbutec mod and call it a day. could’ve done that six years ago and been using it ever since.
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He’s been showing his face at trade shows this entire time. You don’t remember a couple years ago when he debuted his monolab product?
I don’t follow this topic or this man religiously. I already have the aforementioned SH-101.
Sure, that happens. It’s not my skin in the game so I’ll just hope for the best (for others) in the absence of currently shipping units.
Alright the point is simply that the person has not earned our trust, that will take time and adherence to the actions promised years ago in their initial campaign. I also have no stake in it but I really feel for the backers of this project, who bought into a lie which has only become somewhat true over many years, delays, and apparently price increases.
At this juncture, nobody can see the future, but the immediate status is “unit in production, some product has already been shipped”. One must assume that since the update was posted on kickstarter, it is the kickstarter backers receiving the first units so at least there was not an immediate cash grab as soon as some synths were in boxes and ready to go.
There is no reason to trust this person or this company, but to disregard the perseverance and that they didn’t just declare bankruptcy then change their name with a different principal investor behind the masthead says that this person does not want to give up and likely wants / intends to make good.
It now only proves to be seen whether or not this person is dedicated or simply delusional, but again, I think that mostly I feel for the investors and I hope most of all that they receive a genuine apology along with the product which was promised to them.
I think it’s a very cool synth when you put it out on the floor and show it as a real product, but the fact that the same thing happened how many years ago? Makes it impossible for many people to take this seriously until there is some definitive proof that the core issue is resolved, as much as you can resolve something of a long-term farce like this.
It does take a lot of balls and arrogance to continue showing your face at trade shows during all this, but maybe that’s what it takes to succeed in business. I’d just like to see some of the elektronauts backers get their hands on it so they can finally own it or sell it at a profit to make up for some of their lost time.
At this point, there is more progress on this project in the last 6 months than there was in 6 or more years, so maybe we should focus on that and see what happens.
I wouldn’t trade my 101 for it either, frankly, but had this been available at the price point originally promised before I had bought mine and gotten attached to it, then maybe.
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Yeah, I think this is a classic case of someone biting off way more than they can chew with a kickstarter. I don’t think this was ever a scam, but I also don’t think that the person behind it had any of the expertise necessary to actually pull off something this ambitious in any timescale they or the backers would have thought was reasonable initially.
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Ok, well, he was showing off a new product a couple years ago and has made trade show appearances with many joking he should have bodyguards. I didn’t back the product, but it’s an important precautionary tale, and unfortunately there have been several synth kickstarter / start ups in the last years that either badly didn’t meet expectations or still haven’t produced something.
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I feel the same way, in addition to all the electronics work, the SB-1 had a very involved industrial design with a lot of custom parts like injection molded knobs. Most small synth companies will use off the shelf components to reduce the complexity.
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I think it’s fair to say that a person with some previous experience probably would not believe $178k USD was sufficient to see this specific design completed and deliver 202 kickstarter rewards on top of it. It was either a gross miscalculation or something in the opposite direction which is why people are entitled to the opinion that transparency may have been a bit obscured.
At this point, the specifics matter less than the proof of fulfilment. That is the aspect that can make or break them as a company and at this point, I’m certain they must know that. So far, their track record is not good, but the present status of the project bearing fruit may form a better picture of who they will be in the present and coming times than who they were in the past.
Of course, if this product shows up at people’s doorstep buggy and falling apart, then that’s another story altogether. Only (more) time will tell.
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I know that the owner previously worked at Formlabs, so they are from a Silicon Valley background. I would be willing to bet that their plan was to use the kickstarter to prove demand to investors to raise further capital for the project, which is how they have kept it going for so long after the initial kickstarter money surely ran out.
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That may be the case and would make sense, but would also veer dangerously towards ponzi scheme territory. Sometimes the only difference is the end result so, again, you can see why people might have some lingering doubts.
At a minimum, backers are entitled to some skepticism.
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I learned two things, never support a Kickstarter over one hundred dollars.
Never buy or support anything made by that guy.
The last thing the world needs in 2025 is another boring monosynth 
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I want to know what the hell kind of battery they used that lasts 24 hours on a charge. Sounds like something out of science fiction.
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