Already posted.
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Yeah, I thought Iād heard him doing those things, but this one was dated today on YouTube, so I thought I must be confused. I canāt get enough Matt Johnson in any case.
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And still good to be refreshed.
Different videos, different addresses, different lengths, one is three times as long. Canāt say if some content is repeated. One has talking the other doesnāt.
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Itās not simply a matter of every personās experience being different as if it comes down to some standard aspect of luck.
As we all know, reports of defective units are disproportionally represented on the internet compared to good units. All things equal, though, the proportion of bad reports to good should be about the same. In other words, the ratio of good to bad is still a proxy for quality control unless thereās some sort of inauthentic behavior (a campaign of Waldorf-haters or trolls of some kind), trying to affect opinion rather than vent sincere opinions. A company could, of course, publish defect rates so that buyers could assess risk with complete information rather than a proxy, but the greater the sample size of anecdotal reports, the more reasonable a proxy.
Itās not that actual would-be buyers shy away from the Iridium because it might have problems, but because the proportion of defective new Iridiums is markedly greater than other synths, according to the best information we have. I myself shied away for exactly that reason, canceling an order about a year or so ago because the bad-to-good ratio was significantly worse than other synths at the time I canceled the order. It was paid, promised to be in stock within the week, but then a few subsequent new bad reports during those few days made the risk seem intolerable, and I bailed.
Arenāt you burying the headline here blipson ?
What do you think of your new WIK ?
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Ha ha, yes, guilty. I did want to emphasize that thereās usually real value to anecdotal reports. Theyāre the best info we have until some company has the stones and integrity to publish QC info. The vendors wonāt do it, I guess, but they do publish how many people bought the item being looked at and what some people bought instead. Why not publish the percentage of returns broken down by reasons?
The IK is great, really. It meant and exceeded every expectation built up over the past couple of years. Not just the sonic territory, but the niche it fills in the rig. I mean, what else is going to do this? When the initial novelty wears off, I can see keeping it around long term even if it gets swapped out. Iām not sure I can say that now about my HS (sorry, Jukka).
People can hear the sonic stuff for themselves before buying, so Iāll emphasize how delightful the workflow is. I expect youāre paying a nice premium for having, basically, an iPad for a screen. Thatās got to add at least $500 to the price beyond even the detailed UI of my Sequentials. As a fully functional pad, you get all the fast selection and navigation of a pad, yet with all the tactility of a whole slew of surrounding knobs and buttons that integrate with the screen. I think we only hate a padās lack of tactility when it comes to adjusting values, but not when it comes to tapping around to select and navigate. A mouse, though, saps the joy out of everything.
The interfaceās redundancy (and when you include the panel knobs) is also welcome. I feel like the screen is always showing me, not just what I want, but related info. I, at least, find it intuitive in an initial way before I have time to get into the depth of it. Iām still in preset land, trying to reverse-engineer presets to see if I can guess approximately right how to get the sound Iām hearing. There are quirks, sometimes not the kind of visual feedback I want or an apparent lack of response, but the overall UX of the whole deviceāand I take it Quantum and Iridiumāis top notch. Iād hardly call it perfect because I imagine a total pad UI redesign by a guru mind reader could come up with a better feel, but since this is on three devices, I expect thereās a lot of UI refinement to look forward to before it all gets abandoned.
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And the poly-aftertouch keyboard ? Youāre the first real report from someone with their hands on the new Fatar.
( If you had / have the Hydrasynth keyboard to compare it to, iād love to hear about the comparison, but iām pretty sure you got the desktop. )
Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. Unfortunately, my HS is in my other space, so I canāt directly A/B, which I absolutely require to make an worthwhile comparison. At least that indicates that the Fatar isnāt somehow worlds apart when it comes to PAT. I think Iām much less picky when it comes to synth keyboards than most people because I generally donāt like them, experiencing only pianos as the real deal. The Fatar is fine and does what I want, though I havenāt had time to see what I might accomplish by calibrating it to my tastes. Iāll at least say that I was right (for me) to not buy into the Q-I-IK world without the PAT. So thatās two thumbs up.
Butā¦
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ā¦itās Yet Another Defective Iridium.
Thomann agrees, and itās now officially RMAāed.
Within half a day, this Iridium Keyboard became unusable, with constant streams of data from this row of consecutive knobs: the four amp envelope knobs, Velocity, and Master Volume. When you wiggle those knobs, their full range is limited to 10%-30% effect. You can change those parameters via the screen, but then the spurious transmissions come and clobber what you did and steal the screenās attention to boot.
Iām told that Iām entitled to a refund of the customs duty when I return it, and also that no one ever succeeds in getting that refund, so thatās $600 burnt. If Thomann is true to form, theyāll lowball me on the shipping refund so that Iāll have to pay another $150 of my own money to return via courier, or else use the postal service, which is all Thomann budgets for RMAs. Postal service will take three months, and Thomann wonāt refund my $2700 until they take delivery of the goods. While my moneyās frozen, inflation can wear it down another 2%, which is $54.
Really, it was a great synth for the 12 hours it worked. You can watch my videos demonstrating the malfunction here:
Really sorry to hear about this blipson.
Iām changing my mind on this. Youāll have to total up your out of pocket on this blipson, when the smoke clears in a couple weeks or so.
Thomann actually budgeted more for shipping on this RMA so that it looks like I can use DHL without any out of pocket. Thatās a big help. I guess their contribution depends on the value of the goods. I had to ship a faulty $700 mixer back to them last year which was heavy and bulky, though not like a synth. Their stingy budget made me wait the full three months for delivery and refund.
As an owner of an Iridium desktop, and someone who had to return a faulty unit before getting one that functioned properly, this is very disheartening news. I do realized that the internet reports of anything are āanecdotalā without sample size comparisons and analysis, but it does seem like Waldorf has a larger number of units that fail right out of the gate than any company should (like mineādidnāt even properly boot up after taking it out of the box, and then had problems from day 1). I really cannot understand how a technology company (Waldorf) can release any units out into the wild without serious testing of everything. I do hope you are able to get this resolved, and now that I am past the return period for mine, I hope I donāt start to see any issues (others have said theyāve had theirs for a year or more without any issues, so I am crossing my fingers). I also wonder about the viability of Waldorf with so many issues on these.
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Such a beautiful and feature rich device. Iāve been saving up for an Iridium and now im saving more for the Keyboard version I really hope Waldorf sorts out Iridium quality control issues soon. The 60 Month Pro Coverage on an Iridium Keyboard from Guitar Center is about $1kā¦ seems like alot but might be worth it in this instance?
The precaution iād take would be to having my retailer, either local, or easy to get to. Also having experience and a relationship with them, usually gives you a little better service.
Guitar Center is nice being there are ~300 locations across the US.
As to an extended warranty, thatās up to you. What i found on-line at Waldorf Music is they give a 24 month warranty, against product defect. I know a retailer in the USA, like Sweetwater gives 24 months on everything they sell as well, plus they do most service in house.
I posted elsewhere about the ābathtub curveā for product failure. If you make it through the first 24 months you are less likely to face a spontaneous product failure, until much later on.
Of course if the Guitar Center Pro Coverage covers things like spilt coffee, that matters too.
Myself iād be comfortable with 24 months, and $1000 in pocket towards any potential repair beyond that.
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When I bought my Iridium desktop from GC, I bought the āproā coverage for two years for this very reason. I donāt want to have to send it back to Germany for repair if possible. Also, I got a good deal on the price for the Iridium, and then traded in an old synth I wasnāt really using that paid for the warranty. I had not purchased a pro warranty on any other music gear, but give the high cost of this synth and the reported problems, it has given me some peace of mind.
The standard 24 month Waldorf ( included at no addition cost ) warranty is handled through the retailer as well.
Or it was as of 2019 or so, has that changed ?
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I donāt really know. I had heard over at Gearspace that other Iridium owners had to go through Korg USA, the Waldorf distributor, and it took a long time and a lot of hassle to get their units repaired. TBH, I am not sure how much, if any, extra protection I got with the Pro coverage, other than accidentally damage, but like I said, it gave me peace of mind (also I do have it at my Cabin right now, so I guess even accidental coverage is not a bad idea).
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