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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

#181

Post by strawpeople »

smoldesu wrote: post #38
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of which says "stylised and arty" and is a look much used in The Wire and similar publications. I'm kind of irritated by this. TA are legendary for super-expensive toy-like products that must have insanely high margins. So somehow the "I was never into money (but now I collect antique synthesizers with four or five figure price tags)" line doesn't ring entirely true.

And people fall for it. It's crazy how many people blindly buy into TE's "homestyle" marketing like they're some hibrow synth company. The OP-1 tickles every American's "Product Cortex" in their brain though, immediately associating brutalist design and Corinthian leather with quality engineering. It doesn't matter if we're not the target audience, we just want to spend money on pretty things that make us feel good.…

> I see it on someone's desk and assume that they have too much time and money on their hands.

Surely it’s suited to someone who is price insensitive but has too little time to take music seriously. Why shouldn’t there be a product aimed at such people?

> Just goes to show that you can take pretty much anything, market it to relatively affluent and bored tech workers and make a killing.

This makes no sense. The op-1 is a very unusual product. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t be discussing it.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#182

Post by strawpeople »

smoldesu wrote: post #137
psychomugs wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a fair share of dislikes of what people spend their money on, e.g. conspicuous consumption on fads, Teslas in particular, because they have or will directly impact my being as an individual through policy and regulation. The instrument someone enjoys making music on is so insignificant that it shouldn't warrant my concern. Then again, considering how little progress there is to be made with music technology an…

If you don't care about it, nobody is egging you into further conversation. I talk about this stuff because I enjoy making music, and there is intellectually gratifying criticism to be made on the gear being produced today. If you don't care about that, then admittedly I could see how this is pedantic and pointless. Like I said above, it's my mistake for criticizing consumerism on a website that lives, eats and dies…

> I talk about this stuff because I enjoy making music

Nothing about your comments in this thread convey enjoyment of music making. Instead you just seem to be expressing contempt for the op-1, it’s makers, and the people who do enjoy the product.

Your goal seems to be to condemn people who enjoy making music with the op-1, as well as a group of people who enjoy making instruments.

Does this enhance your enjoyment of making music?

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#183

Post by strawpeople »

smoldesu wrote: post #133
spamizbad wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, All low volume boutique electronic musical instruments have “insanely high margins”. The less boutique normal stuff made by Yamaha and Roland is likely priced at 4x the BOM - and they are able to get better deals from distributors than TE can. You can’t sustain a business any other way. Consumer electronics are cheap because they can sell millions worldwide. Stuff like the OP1 sells in the 10s of thous…

It's worth drawing a line between handmade instruments and mass-produced machines though. Yes, Roland and Yamaha also have high margins, but they also face steep competition from low-margin companies like Behringer who are effectively wrecking their business model. Companies like Moog were safe because their demand will always be the same, but boutique vendors everywhere are closing up shop. I'll agree that it's a ze…

> Behringer who are effectively wrecking their business model

By making knock offs without needing to do the R&D and product-market fit work for themselves.

Why isn’t there a knock-off of the op-1?

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#184

Post by eric-burel »

xdfgh1112 wrote: post #173
alluro2 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm not an expert but I suspect an iPad with some interesting groovebox apps would provide just as much fun and be more powerful.

As a beginner I think ipad + audiokit synths + impc pro is a killer setup

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#185

Post by selykg »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #95
voakbasda wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given their other marketing, they could simply be keeping it out of stock intentionally, to increase demand by creating a (false) sense of scarcity.

Yes, you get that sense alright when the $500 units all seem to be in stock no problem.

I mean, if my $500 product has better margins I’m going to take my limited supply of materials and put it into my best money makers.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#186

Post by wlonkly »

neilv wrote: post #19

The photography of this is interesting. I'm not sure I'd know how to approach this assignment (I might start with rapport and portraiture in the space), but some things I noticed on different photos: * Warm vintage color cast on the '70s-looking gear wood panel. * On-camera-flash-like directional lighting, with harsh shadow (maybe to separate person from gear background, but both in focus?). * Contrast and saturation…

It reminds me of Terry Richardson's sort of "amateur point-and-shoot portraiture" style, which also had a very 1970s-basement vibe to it which I think matches both the ideas and the gear here.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#187

Post by slater- »

sambapa wrote: post #168

It seems to me that hardware synths are like vinyls - people buy them because of connotations, a certain image. In almost all terms software is unquestionably better. And if you want to be a "quirky artsy synthesizer person", don't buy into this hardware shit, just download SunVox or Pure Data.

some people do, for sure. but i've gotten so much mileage out my Moog because of its knob twiddling interface. i hate using software, it doesn't inspire me to play in the same way. i appreciate the tactile sense and also the limitations of a piece of physical gear.

but also it makes me look quirky and artsy.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#188

Post by mattigames »

SideQuark wrote: post #176
mattigames wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The candles that "smell like my vagina" for $75 by Goop company owned by Gwyneth Paltrow also sold out at launch, doesn't mean that that there's an opportunity to undercut them with better and cheaper crotch candles, not in the slightest; to put it succinctly there is a huge amount of people that make irrational purchases and there is no need to pretend otherwise.

Your definition of irrational is not everyone's. I suspect you buy things other people would consider irrational, yet you buy anyways. Does that make you irrational? Or do different people have different utility functions? People buy what they want, not what you think they should.

Nope, its not that subjective, and not about what I think or don't think I should, food is a product category that is fully rational to buy from and its one of the reasons its prices tend to be more stable and is strongly corelated to the hardships of the production chain, not all foods but certainly a lot, certainly the most basic ones (e.g. potatos).

Just like buying a smartphone is a more rational choice than buying a rotary dial phone (assuming you have no phone beforehand), is not that subjective and is incredibly dishonest to even pretend that is so, and also you evaded the main premise that it was being discussed, meaning that you can just undercut a product by creating a cheaper/better one, because with a lot of products the line of thinking is a lot more complicated than that, sometimes predictable but irrational, in the case of Goop is due being the first one to came up with the idea and to be related to a female celebrity (and with it all the celebrity worship attached in culture)

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#189

Post by psychomugs »

ilyt wrote: post #142
psychomugs wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unfathomably stupid to me that one would care so much about what others spend their money on, as if it were something actively harmful. To each their own, the only real winner here is the one selling their product.

It's not "care", it's morbid curiosity about how psyche of humans work.

There is a marked difference between curiosity and kvetching.

Re: Interview with the founder of Teenage Engineering

#190

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

smoldesu wrote: post #121
MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No cow animation, either... completely unusable.

I'm speaking from a place of ignorance. If the objects are so alike, care explaining how? To an outsider like me they look 100% different.
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