Could just be me, but I do feel that peak modular happened a few years ago. Sad to be seeing the downward slope, the sound of rings into clouds will always hold a special place in my heart.
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ā¦u have not recognised any boom of hardware and heaps of small companies/module creators in particular floroushing all over the place, starting late zero years and kept constantly growing throughout the last decadeā¦!?..and by now everything starts to declineā¦?
then i must live on a different planetā¦
Yea as I say thatās not what Iāve seen - just an industry maturing. I donāt think modular synths were at a peak in the past, I think that peak is right now. There have never been more module makers and there are new modules announced every week. Intellijel just managed to release a 1U Attenuator for Ā£19.
Itās the golden age of synths my friend, modular or not - we just gotta hope the manufacturing industry can keep up with our GAS.
ā¦okā¦different planetsā¦i see, errr, hearā¦
Or just different opinions.
Be interesting to hear from the retailers. They seem to be going through a boom in the UK right now, a new one just opened up. Iād be curious to hear if they think theyāre investing in a post-hype industry.
I assume what youāre really saying is that you got bored at some point with Modular?
Thereās nothing really to āhypeā about from my perspective, itās a format that has a place in a lot of peoples setups - its not like thereās some momentary allure to patch cables.
Edit: Just thinking and maybe the hype youāre referring to is more about the ābuzzā, chatter and the excitement around the format? Youāre maybe right there, although Iām not sure that translates directly into sales figures - as an industry Iām fairly sure itās seeing stability if not growth - itās just hard to be a business right now.
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Its hard to understand boom / decline in a global economy such as this.
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ā¦sure they donāt, if theyāre still kind of fresh in the gameā¦
while mrs. mutable was an exeption of all kindsā¦
doepfer systems started that whole new, smaller format, all modular fancyness is based on, back in the 90iesā¦for a decade, only the super nerds thought, thatās a great a ideaā¦
then the world started to listenā¦
and i can assure u, from expansion numbers like from schneiders laden, one of the very early adopters of all the sonic magic for exampleā¦peaktime is over since quite a whileā¦
all maturing was yesterdayā¦
So yea we just disagree, which is what it is 
Weād need sales figures to come to any kind of conclusion.
From my perspective I see an industry growing all the time - I guess you must see modular as some kind of novelty? I donāt see the logic that it would decline any more than desktop synths would - overall as an industry music hardware is doing great (in terms of consumer demand).
Andrew Huang is about to release a modular collaboration, LMNC just released his first 3U format module. I just canāt see this āitās in the pastā mindset.
ā¦yupā¦never better indeed during the last decadeā¦
but the new 20ies are a different kind of thing for everybodyā¦
Feel like things are very different from what they were pre covid. Before it felt like every other week there was new dope stuff coming out. Now announcements are rare, everything is pre-order pay in full and wait, sometimes months or even years.
From what I have read, maybe here maybe somewhere else, the chip shortage is still a reality and niche/small groups like euro makers are bottom of the pile. Things like cars and appliances all need chips and so they get the capacity.
Am sure it will resolve over the long run but I dont think it will be any time soon, and then it will take some time for things to get back to as there were, several years I would expect.
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yeah chip shortage is still present and we see that in how there is still car shortage of parts and new vehicles as well.
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I work in PCB assembly and believe me the chip shortage is no better now than 6 months ago. I honestly donāt ever seeing it getting back to anywhere near where it was pre pandemic. Climate change and political pressures arent getting any better. I certainly wouldnāt be designing anything with the expectation that chips will become more plentiful.
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I think lots of people getting furloughed in the pandemic put a big spike into people picking up or revisiting hobbies that donāt involve going out and socialising. But now thatās passed, some of them arenāt going to keep up with it, thereās fuel cost and general living cost problems certainly in the UK and Europe, so now the pandemic-induced uptick in discretionary spending is being followed by a massive dip in discretionary spending. And to be frank, I donāt need all those synths I have, and neither do most of us. It goes in cycles, but the majority of modular manufacturers are tiny businesses and they just canāt absorb sudden change like this. I know several small record labels that just gave up when the UK left Europe because all the customs charges and delays meant it was a gigantic arse pain as well as more expensive for the customers. Most of us donāt do this to get rich, we do it because we love it. And we will continue to do it, because we love it. Aināt nobody getting especially rich though. btw, got a new album coming next January
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Saying that WMD is going out of business because of āhypeā implies that they should never have been in business in the first place (thatās what āhypeā means after all). I find that implication pretty gross to be honest. WMD says itās due to the recession and chip shortage; why not take them at their word?
Anyhow, this news is a real bummer ā WMD makes great products. I took this opportunity to pick up a few percussion modules. They mentioned on Modwiggler that they may be back someday, which I really hope is the case.
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ā¦the term āhypeā has no such negative connotation to me in generalā¦
itās the same as with all other things, tooā¦
a hype can be a good thing as it can be a bad thingā¦
while all things got their come backs, peaktimes, come and go in cycles, beginnings, ends, upās and downāsā¦
and hey, the hype of modular gear is defenitly not the same as the hype of teenage boy groupsā¦ 
while even those deserve their very own kind of hype at some pointā¦
no negative implications neededā¦
Yeah I hope theyāll be able to return when things change. I think itās a brave move to just accept their end for now, towards their employees and health as they write. Letās hope theyāll return when things change - in one way or the other
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This is likely an important data point to be looking at with regard to general trends but Iām not sure itās that relevant here.
Chip shortages have meant over the past year that half the things I (and many others) have wanted to buy simply havenāt been available. Eurorack isnāt filling warehouses, itās flying off shelves.
The problems go beyond the basic supply/demand equation that weāre probably used to dealing with in these situations, but even then the demand is healthy.
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Iād take them at the word too.
From RnD to manufacture and product delivery, it can take years.
Itās likely that supply disruptions and shortages never allowed them to take advantage of any āhypeā bubbles.
That has to be part of the stress to have more customers than product and no foreseeable way to make that profitable in months and maybe years to come.
also could be a(nother) sign of modular market being oversaturated, and industry rearranges itself
it never seemed sustainable to begin with, not at the peak level at least
Future retroā¦ now this ā¦