New Waldorf synth

[Ibi Sum]

Ah, the Prion.

I actually went to Access to make the Prion, which was going to be something very similar to what this new Quantum seems to be...  but I couldn't pull it off. Company politics and personal drama, and .. much internal resistance to replacing the Virus with something else. 

I basically spun my wheels trying to get CK to agree to a hardware specification, budget for the BOM, and platform design. I was there to function as a systems developer, but had no system. At first it was thought we build a platform that both Waldorf and Access could use for future products, but this was right before Waldorf imploded, and things went off the rails during Waldorfs first collapse (the first time). Wolfram Franke joined Access, and the decision was made to do TI instead of develop a new hardware design, which was easier and more economical for Access. TI was considered a better option, since it allowed Access to tout the TI as an essential tool against the plugin market, which was rapidly eroding the hardware synth business at that time. Prion was sidelined and after the TI release, cancelled. The company had no desire to build another synth platform.

In the end it worked out for them - Virus is still being sold, and Access was transformed into Kemper Digital, now dominating the guitar effects market. The Kemper profiling amp is what Access - now a shell company - switched to, attention wise.

I actually ran into CK yesterday here at the Frankfurt Music Messe. Didn't get to have much of a conversation but it was good to see him. He had quite an effect on my life after all. (He introduced me to my lady, and the rest is history..)

That said, I think the hardware synth market is experiencing a badly needed revival, as we saw with the rise of Modal and now Behringer and so on. Looking around the Messe today, I see a lot of new and upcoming synth projects.

And... I had a very nice meeting on Friday here in Frankfurt with Johannes, developer of the Axoloti synth, who drove here from Belgium for the express purpose of aligning Axoloti and MIKME, on a few things. He showed me his new/next product design and I can say with some certainty that Axoloti is going to fill in the gaps that I identified back in 2001, when I joined Access.  So that is pretty exciting, actually... best synth news of the show, all things considered. Keep an eye on Axoloti, folks...

;
--
seclorum 

> On Apr 8, 2017, at 11:34, punkdISCO <forums at punkdisco.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> I didn't know about the Access Prion. Was this just an idea that faded away?
> 
> It's a real shame Access never came to anything beyond the Virus.  Makes me wonder why..
> 
> Anyone know what Access Music are doing today? I'm pretty sure they are still going..
> 
> Paul
> London 
> www.punkdisco.co.uk
> 
>> On 5 Apr 2017, at 10:54, Jay Vaughan <ibisum at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Access Prion
> 
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