Might yet be a bit early to be declaring the SB01 a success, or any product wherein the backers haven't received an actual unit 5 years after funding it.
You are not wrong. I thought about if I should include the SB01 or not. But since he is showing progress and shares pictures of the construction, I decided to include it. At least - the Kickstarter was successful by its very definition.
I'm quite surprised how many of these I was familiar with! I guess that's what you have to expect from following Sonicstate, Loopop, Synth Anatomy, and Plughugger! :-) I'm a sucker for small desktop synths. Thank you for keeping these great projects alive in the minds of us gear GAS heads!
So happy with how the Chompi turned out. It was my first kickstarter project, and I have been so pleased with it. It did everything advertised right out of the box, but as mentioned in the video, the developers have been listening to feedback and making adjustments and improvements on it since launch. I believe we're on the third major firmware upgrade since launch, and the added functionality/flexibility (two new sets of banks!) is huge. The customization is very cool, allowing you to make your Chompi truly YOURS. And eventually they plan to release the source code so that other developers can create their own firmwares for the platform, so you could choose to boot it up in classic mode, or load up a new firmware and get a completely different synth in the same form factor. Did I mention the discord is a lot of fun and very welcoming? Not a paid spokesperson, just a big fan ;)
Most of it is direct-to-bad-gear made. But hey aren't they all? And modular is out of "synthesizer" category, for me. There's so many of it everywhere made by enthusiasts so modular basically is kinda already free from market limitation. Nobody seriously waits for let's say Roland modular.
Curious there's no mention of the Futuresonus Parva, whose kickstarter netted just under $96K US with 127 backers. No longer available but it lives on in a vastly updated design as ISLA Instruments Caladan. I'll also share my annoyance at you giving Superlative and the SB-01 any sort of coverage -- they've strung their paid customers along for nearly 5 years and announced another product in the interim. Nothing but poor communication, broken promises and tons of excuses from them. We should not be giving any oxygen or free advertising to bad actors like that in the synth world when there are plenty of other smaller outfits who are more deserving.
For my selection I had three times more projects to choose from, and the Parva did not come up. I am sure it's there somewhere, but finding things on Kickstarter is not always a walk in the park. Regarding the SB01 - I understand your point. But what "air" do you feel I am giving them? I think I was clear bringing up the issues with delays. Let me put it this way, if the developer would have no intention of finishing this project, why would he post updates on the progress? There are no more financial incentives for him to do so. You cannot order the SB01 from anywhere. Not Kickstarter or their web page.
@@ThePlughugger RE: Parva, yeah even I couldn't find the goal value on KS (and I was a backer!). RE: SB01, even their KS page has numerous complaints and deleted comments. I think what got my hackles up everything else on the list was spot on and every one of those manufacturers has remained open with their customers and honest when there were delays. Futuresonus was about 6 months late with Parva and there were some firmware growing pains after delivery but they kept everyone up to date every step of the way. Andrew Kilpatrick unfortunately lost money on Phenol when the US/CAN$ exchange rate changed significantly between KS and fulfillment yet he powered through and delivered (a month early, in fact). When customers were angrily asking on KS and in other forums for an SB01 update Superlative instead posted pictures of their new coffee machine. They showed off a completely new and different synth at Superbooth '23 and dodged any questions about the SB01 other than to say it was complete and all ready to ship. Getting behind or overestimating timelines happens to almost every boutique synth maker but it's how they handle and communicate it that really matters. SB01 backers have had nearly 5 years of "ready to ship" announcements (and the latest pictures are simply a new version of that fib, IMO). If/when it does indeed ship I wouldn't hold out much hope for bug fixes and firmware updates from Superlative.
Are any of these available through normal or specialty retail channels? I've loved some of the more boutique brands that aren't too hard to find - Critter and guitari, Bastl, 1010music. It seems like this is where actual innovation and practicality meet, like a bigger budget indie
Might yet be a bit early to be declaring the SB01 a success, or any product wherein the backers haven't received an actual unit 5 years after funding it.
You are not wrong. I thought about if I should include the SB01 or not. But since he is showing progress and shares pictures of the construction, I decided to include it. At least - the Kickstarter was successful by its very definition.
A fool and their money are often parted.
@@BlackMan614 Often. Star Citizen anyone? 😆
I'm quite surprised how many of these I was familiar with! I guess that's what you have to expect from following Sonicstate, Loopop, Synth Anatomy, and Plughugger! :-)
I'm a sucker for small desktop synths.
Thank you for keeping these great projects alive in the minds of us gear GAS heads!
I could have made a much longer list but I had to say stop at some point. There have been some incredibly fun projects born at Kickstarter.
@@ThePlughuggerit might be interesting to twist the concept to cover low budget success products, if they exist
@@CookinBeatloaf That's a really good idea. No idea if there is enough of them, but it's definitely a highly interesting point of view.
Fred’s Lab is amazing - a single very talented electronics and synth developer!
I honestly didn't know about Freds Lab before I started to look into Kickstarters. He is definitely on my radar now!
So happy with how the Chompi turned out. It was my first kickstarter project, and I have been so pleased with it. It did everything advertised right out of the box, but as mentioned in the video, the developers have been listening to feedback and making adjustments and improvements on it since launch. I believe we're on the third major firmware upgrade since launch, and the added functionality/flexibility (two new sets of banks!) is huge. The customization is very cool, allowing you to make your Chompi truly YOURS. And eventually they plan to release the source code so that other developers can create their own firmwares for the platform, so you could choose to boot it up in classic mode, or load up a new firmware and get a completely different synth in the same form factor. Did I mention the discord is a lot of fun and very welcoming? Not a paid spokesperson, just a big fan ;)
Making the Chompi code open source is a fantastic idea. Just like with the Deluge. Not a bad idea at all!
Great topic! Will watch properly later 👌
Love eclectic gear.
2:13 I feel attacked
I backed the ALT, so excited for next year
Yes, ALT looks like one of those inspirational machines you can sit down with and just play around forever.
Is this BoBeats voice?
Haha... no. But we both come from the same country.
@@ThePlughugger Nåväl, då är vi kanske tre…
@@daionsavage Then, according to my calculations, we are at least three Scandinavians loose on UA-cam.
@@ThePlughugger 😂
@7:01 And what the rest of the world calls a semi-modular synthesizer :-)
Most of it is direct-to-bad-gear made. But hey aren't they all?
And modular is out of "synthesizer" category, for me. There's so many of it everywhere made by enthusiasts so modular basically is kinda already free from market limitation. Nobody seriously waits for let's say Roland modular.
Lol! Direct-To-Bad-Gear :) I am sure Florian would love to go down the Kickstarter rabbit hole!
@@ThePlughugger and i bet we all wanna see that!
@@djkanyon I'm actually a bit surprised he haven't done an episode with Chompi yet. Feels like a perfect fit :)
@@ThePlughugger It ticks all the boxes!
@@EannaButler 🤣
Curious there's no mention of the Futuresonus Parva, whose kickstarter netted just under $96K US with 127 backers. No longer available but it lives on in a vastly updated design as ISLA Instruments Caladan. I'll also share my annoyance at you giving Superlative and the SB-01 any sort of coverage -- they've strung their paid customers along for nearly 5 years and announced another product in the interim. Nothing but poor communication, broken promises and tons of excuses from them. We should not be giving any oxygen or free advertising to bad actors like that in the synth world when there are plenty of other smaller outfits who are more deserving.
For my selection I had three times more projects to choose from, and the Parva did not come up. I am sure it's there somewhere, but finding things on Kickstarter is not always a walk in the park. Regarding the SB01 - I understand your point. But what "air" do you feel I am giving them? I think I was clear bringing up the issues with delays. Let me put it this way, if the developer would have no intention of finishing this project, why would he post updates on the progress? There are no more financial incentives for him to do so. You cannot order the SB01 from anywhere. Not Kickstarter or their web page.
@@ThePlughugger RE: Parva, yeah even I couldn't find the goal value on KS (and I was a backer!). RE: SB01, even their KS page has numerous complaints and deleted comments. I think what got my hackles up everything else on the list was spot on and every one of those manufacturers has remained open with their customers and honest when there were delays. Futuresonus was about 6 months late with Parva and there were some firmware growing pains after delivery but they kept everyone up to date every step of the way. Andrew Kilpatrick unfortunately lost money on Phenol when the US/CAN$ exchange rate changed significantly between KS and fulfillment yet he powered through and delivered (a month early, in fact). When customers were angrily asking on KS and in other forums for an SB01 update Superlative instead posted pictures of their new coffee machine. They showed off a completely new and different synth at Superbooth '23 and dodged any questions about the SB01 other than to say it was complete and all ready to ship. Getting behind or overestimating timelines happens to almost every boutique synth maker but it's how they handle and communicate it that really matters. SB01 backers have had nearly 5 years of "ready to ship" announcements (and the latest pictures are simply a new version of that fib, IMO). If/when it does indeed ship I wouldn't hold out much hope for bug fixes and firmware updates from Superlative.
Kick Starter is a graveyard of failed ideas? How about incubator of prolific money grabs without explanation?
Yeah. That happens as well. But most of the people starting Kickstarters seem to be decent people.
Are any of these available through normal or specialty retail channels? I've loved some of the more boutique brands that aren't too hard to find - Critter and guitari, Bastl, 1010music. It seems like this is where actual innovation and practicality meet, like a bigger budget indie
Some of the projects actually end up in bigger retail channels. Like the Chompi. I think Sonicware is also being sold by Thomann.