Hi Houston,
it's rather not meant to "threaten or bargain".
It's meant to give Arturia feedback about two things:
- a) their questionable way of unclear, misleading (one big store telling me the Origin should be delivered in February - adding so probably March - and then taking it from their offers altogether because the old delivery info obviously didn't mean anything any more) or in part non- communication.
- b) a strategically quite questionable decision in their product development (yes, this is *their* decision and has to be respected, but still can be criticized by musicians referring to their 2007 announcement).
concerning a) I know some more keyboarders really feeling disgust about the present kind of non-communication after raising high expectations in 2007. You cant't seriously show a new device on Namm 2007 and not even be able to name a halfway realistic delivery date at Namm 2008! And this while still not even having any mp3 sound demos on your site, just a video showing basic functions without really helpful sound impressions.
concerning -b):
I found the Access way, despite their problems, *much* better. You are right: they delivered the TI when they thought wrong that is was basically stable and only minor things to do. And yes, I had 3 or 4 months using the new device when I experienced big integration flaws and even some standalone issues and found it hard to accept that. But then after their first major upgrade I had nearly no more problems in live use, and after some more upgrades it became my favourite synth so far. Looking back, I was glad to have it early, being able to do music and develop ideas since many months with it. If they had waited until the last update in autumn 2007 before delivery, I would have missed *a* *lot*!
In the Arturia case they decided to change from just delivering the sound modules in hardware form to delivering a clomplex project with full interaction of all parts of the modules plus PC integration. This is a *very* eager project for such a small company, perhaps *too* eager for first edition delivery. From my view a completely wrong decision.
As potential customer I would have much preferred it if they had done it in two steps:
- a) deliver the Origin with separate synth modules in working condition
- b) deliver a major OS upgarde with possible part interaction of all modules
From my view that would be the right way to deal with "it's about the music", because a lot of music with nice sounds could already be used.
What might happen now could be much worse:
- first adding endless delivery delays, perhaps finally ending up anywhere between 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 years after announcement at Namm 2007.
- and then *still* having the users become the "broader/deeper" betatesters who reluctantly find all the flaws that no small beta team does find in short time in such a complex system. So I doubt very much that the still lasting time with unclear delivery date will lead to a flawless (or even halfway flawless) system. sold in the near future.
Now we have February 2008, and still no mp3s or serious delivery time...
