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Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

scandinavianmind.com

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Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#151

Post by wyager »

alluro2 wrote: post #104
wyager wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a reason it is so successful. Yes, because it managed to capture a self-sustaining hype cycle powered by customers who for the most part don't really know what they're buying. It's more of a status item than an actually fun or useful musical instrument, IMO. This thread reminds me, I need to sell mine.

I was curious to hear about other products that are similar, but superior to OP-1, that previous reply alluded to.

If someone said "I have a $1400 (or $2000, now that they've raised the price) budget for a lightweight portable jambox/production setup, what would you recommend?" I would tell them to get an iPad Pro, an external audio interface, and a MIDI USB peripheral of their choice.

GarageBand on iPad is perfectly fine for the type of screwing around you can do on an OP1, it's much more powerful overall, and it even supports stuff like MIDI inputs and MIDI clock master.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#152

Post by ilyt »

bookofjoe wrote: post #35
malthaus wrote: post #30

I too would live in a pinterest-ready castle filled with toys but i dont have the stomach to rip off customers as shamelessly as TE is. The B&O of our generation.

I dunno, I have always believed that something is worth exactly what someone else will pay for it. Value has no objective correlate: it is a construct agreed upon by the seller and buyer. "Overpriced," "rip-off," and their ilk seem to me ad hominem attacks by people who don't meet at "sold."

Well, it is overpriced rip-off if you target consumers that don't know any better and could get better for less.

But their customers know exactly what they are getting so it is not that.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#153

Post by ilyt »

prpl wrote: post #112
smoldesu wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Ostensibly there's nothing wrong with making pricy hipster audio equipment, but the rampant success of their marketing just makes me facepalm. People out there genuinely think the OP-1 is a $1000 product in 2023, which should inspire riots in the street. The OP-1 Field raising the price instead of lowering it is the last nail in the coffin for me. $800 is a pricy toy - $1500+ puts you in brand-new Octatrack terr…

A nice guitar costs just as much, despite being functionally equivalent to one 1/3 its price. There’s not a ton of rationality in music gear, people like what they like.

Why you are comparing guitar to a synth ?

Nice guitar (aside brand tax) has actual cost to make it, plastic toy like OP-1 is very cheap in comparison.

Hell, it's probably cheaper to make than random ass $500 behringer synth, even at unit count

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#154

Post by ilyt »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #120
sowbug wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://dirtywave.com/ Close enough.

That's a $600 product. Perhaps less expensive but not not-expensive. And it lacks knobs and piano keys.

The new OP-1 is 2000 euro. So $600 is less than half

> And it lacks knobs and piano keys

Well you can get like a dozen of various sized synths for that price but you'd then complain it has too many knobs and keys

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#155

Post by ilyt »

conradfr wrote: post #89
SideQuark wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i dont have the stomach to rip off customers as shamelessly as TE is Yet people buy their products in large quantities, for well over a decade... They are used by top tier artists and consumer alike, and are used on many hit songs. If you think they're so overpriced, there should be a massive opportunity to undercut them and sell such quality for less. But no one has... Again, for well over a decade... Maybe they u…

Where is Behringer when you need it?

They clone things people did actual known music on and not devices being known for being expensive toy.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#156

Post by ilyt »

Entinel wrote: post #63
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #55

[flagged]

> I sell overpriced aluminum audio equipment And yet everything they make sells out. Almost like it's worth the price.

Define "worth"

"Status symbol few have" like luxury car is also "worth" to people, even tho objectively might not be that off normal well-specced car.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#158

Post by grimoald »

xdfgh1112 wrote: post #94
wyager wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By what criteria is there "nothing like" it? Of course you can define "like" in a way to make this true, but I'm curious what you think are the salient differentiators.

Portable all in one groovebox with a keyboard. Even ignoring the keyboard, the creativity and fun of the OP-1s tape and synthesis modes, things like the gyro and FM radio, are fairly unique. There is a reason it is so successful.

You are of course free to have fun with the OP-1, but I found it to block my creativity when I constantly have to work around the omnipresent petty limitations like 4 tracks, 1 effect per voice, almost useless sequencers etc.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#159

Post by ilyt »

apgwoz wrote: post #34
krosaen wrote: post #21

Reminds me about my neighbor who designed and then sold a batch of portable modular synths: https://www.modernsounds.co/pluto amazing work and so cool that that sort of thing is possible from a solopreneur these days.

I’m not knowledgeable about synths and such (I wish I had more time to learn music, though), but I always look at this stuff because the devices are aesthetically beautiful — pluto as well. It’s probably almost a shoo-in that if you focused on aesthetics you could sell out a small batch of modular synths with the most basic beep / boop making capabilities.

The market is quite saturated for those. You'd have to make something pretty and doing something more than basic.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#160

Post by ilyt »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #42

Would like to know when they'll start selling their pocket operator synthesizer and sequencer again. Rumors that a chip shortage has negatively impacted on their production, but who knows! It's been months now that they've been out of stock on their website - https://teenage.engineering/store/po-20/

Same over whole synth market, it's slowly clearing out
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