Korg Forums

[Koekepan]

[spaceman3]

I predict within about a decade, analogue synths will die out.
I predict KORG will not anounce a new workstation this summer, because workstations are already dead.
Synthesizers in the near future will all be just software on a pc.


I really hope my crap prediction is wrong.

[Sharp]

[SanderXpander]

[jimknopf]

[spaceman3]

[SanderXpander]

Actually records and tape are both experiencing an upward trend and the analogs of today are themselves part of a healthy revival. I'm sure all of that will decline again too but something that sounds good or different will ultimately always come back again. What's interesting to me is that there are also "classics" emerging in software here and there - Sylenth1 is iconic, as is Massive, and in the FX section the Waves Renaissance series is still popular 15(?) years after its launch. The synths especially have helped to define the sound of today, you gotta wonder if, in thirty years, people will be hooking up by-then-ancient Windows 7 systems to get the sound of the 2010s.

[spaceman3]

Records and tape might have an upward trend in a nieche market, but the masses are not going back to using them.
And young people are not beating a path to obtain that old media, or at least the general masses.
There might be alot of older analogue synth users, but most newer young people are gravitating towards software.
If there is a way to prove or disprove what im saying,i would welcome the data/info to be posted.

[Koekepan]

I don't know what you mean by a new workstation out this Summer, but I would argue that Akai is putting one out, in the form of the MPC X/Live.

Workstation? Check. MIDI in and out? Lots of it. Audio carving, shaping and effects? Absolutely. Recording? Yes, and yes.

Standalone? Yes, although capable of making things better with a computer.

Right now, I would say that Akai is as close as any manufacturer on the planet to Getting It Right. Add a MIDI synthesis device (possibly even multi-engine!) and MIDI clip features, and they'll be on a par with just about anybody.

Now, it's possible that they will take a massive bath on this whole thing, lose their shirts and go bankrupt, but based on preorder rates, it seems very unlikely. In their target audience the response has been practically rapturous.

[spaceman3]

Summer, winter, fall, whenever.
Those new AKAI's are probably mostly apealing to those old school guys, who can probably aford tha price, but new younger artist would probably go with the software and save some money.
I would like to see AKAI's preorders for their new workstation in comparrison to just buying the AKAI software.
I bet the software is way out selling their new workstation.
But considering neither me or you work for AKAI i guess we just dont know at this time.

[Koekepan]

No, I don't work for Akai, but I have had an in-depth conversation with a sales rep who should know. He assured me that their pre-order book for the MPC Live and X is quite active, and in fact that more people are ordering the X than the live. Supposedly, the CV controls are the deciding factor there.

Akai's software might be outselling their hardware, but really, does that matter? Toyotas outsell Lamborghinis by several orders of magnitude, but that hasn't wiped Lamborghini off the map, any more than Native Instruments destroyed the Kronos.

A large number of the people who apparently want the hardware, standalone MPCs, want them for performance. They don't want general purpose computers on stage, for generally sound reasons.

A whole other class of people are getting things to run their rigs live, without computers. The Social Entropy Engine, the Squarp Pyramid, hell, even the Beatstep/Keystep family from Arturia are all finding use. And they aren't the only ones in town; the Kilpatrick Carbon is also a credible entrant, and there are others around depending on your appetite for expense and features. (Elektron, take a bow.)


Now it's possible that you're quite right, and the MPCs will flop because they are truly the last hurrah of the independent workstation. But based on the evidence at hand, I don't see it. Even if the workstation as an all-in-one device fades, the dedicated music hardware market shows no sign of dying at all.

[spaceman3]

I never put much stock in what a sales rep would tell me about product.
They could say a product is selling like hotcakes, because they want to turn product.
So they often hype.
Untill one see's the actual sales figures as a whole, one really has no way of knowing.
A generaly good business model is, if you can sell it cheap, you will sell alot.
In turn the business will have more profits.
Software is becoming better virtually everyday.
If AKAI was making more profits off of thier new hardware mpc, over the software controller versions, then AKAI would be ready to do away with the software versions, but that aint gonna happen.
As far as the artist's you mention.
I havent heard of any of them.
Thats all good, but that is now.
Give it ten years or so, and software, software synths, controllers for soft synths, and small pc tablets and the likes,
will dominate the electronic mainstream music scene.

[SanderXpander]

Far be it from me to deny that software is an integral part of the studio these days. But I don't think I need to prove the sales figures if modern analog synths. You do realize there were virtually no analogs from the nineties till about 2010? Right now there is a lot of choice. It really isn't just old guys buying them, or at least I don't know what you call old but I know plenty of young musicians with Moogs, Bass Stations, Mopho's, etc.

It's also an illusion to think software is always cheaper. If you are building a studio then yes, you're almost certainly building a DAW and the cost of adding a single synth plugin of, say, 150 bucks, isn't so great. But trying to replace a live instrument? You'd need a current laptop (1000 bucks for something decent?), a good audio interface (200/300 bucks minimum?), a controller (maybe 400?) and the actual software (host plus synth 250 minimum). That's 1850 minimum and then you have the most basic of setups, my laptop alone costs about that much and I've invested at least twice as much in software. If you're playing live you'd be much better off getting hardware.

[Koekepan]

Also, look at the reverb.com numbers for sales.

Among other things, Volcas selling like hotcakes. I don't think that can plausibly be construed as a mafia of old musical geezers stroking the analogue units and crying themselves to sleep. They're cheap, and lots of young musicians want that sound for cheap.

The higher dollar items sell in smaller numbers, of course, but those sales looked pretty healthy by eyeball. Again, I doubt it's only old geezers (most of whom already have fairly well stocked studios and rigs).

[Jan1]

This debate of hardware vs. software has been done to death, and the hardware workstation was declared dead ages ago.
And yet, today there still is such a thing as the KRONOS, a workstation selling well enough to warrant at least a V3.x upgrade of the software as well as a recent diversification of the product line.
Still there's a new MPC on the block which takes advantage of both the hard- and software environment, a symbiotic approach rather than a one vs. the other.

Workstations simply refuse to die, even if Yamaha insists they are dead and decided to 'outsource' the sequencer functionality in the latest greatest Montage...and loses a part of their customer base as a result, but they don't seem to care.
All the better for KORG.

Whether or not hardware workstations still have a future, I believe so, but time will tell.