Mono/Poly

[Michael Zacherl]

"Economics of scale" is a very broad term and certainly not a single measure or formula applicable to every business and company within a business.
Using a ready-made board for the SoC and not designing a proprietary circuit alone wouldn’t turn me off.
The rest had to be developed and tested at some point as well, and granted Korg may also have a HW-library they can refer to (hopefully!).
But there are enough extras in it to scale down the effect of utilising that R-Pi compute module.
It appears to me, that the main effort went into the software, which IMO is very nice work.
Of course some things may need some ironing out, but that’s (hopefully) easy, since it’s, well, SW.
I didn’t find any better info than this interview (poor audio): 
https://www.synthanatomy.com/2020/02/meet-the-lead-developer-of-the-korg-wavestate-synthesizer.html
(info about Dan Phillips: http://www.danphillips.com/korg.htm)
BTW, I don’t know where’s the Wavestate being assembled, not in China?

The B module circuits are true clones, Behringer apparently is throwing a crazy amount of resources at the (not really) R & (but) D here. For instance Tony Allgood has been approached by Behringer to work on some “designs”, some years ago, he declined since they only wanted clones w/o any kind of improvements which is not of his interest. 
B’s own designs use digital ENVs and other “shortcuts” of mediocre quality (acc. to Tony).

I’m eagerly waiting for - hopefully - rather neutral reviews of the modules, can’t deny I find the stuff interesting.
(I’m severely infected with the Moog-modular virus since my residency project with the Max Brand synth)

Then again, a Minimoog-style synth built with B system 55 modules would be around €1000, so … a B. Model D is way cheaper (€319). 
Case and PSU not included.

Behringer Poly-D is €755 @Thomann and most of the circuits are snatched or repurposed.
Wavestate is €799 … too much money for me, but still a very interesting machine (I’m not in their target group though) from which I’ll snatch some ideas for my own stuff, i.e. expanding my scivolo’s possibilities (written in SC).

Bottomline, I think it’s a complex issue not easily being analysed and/or lightly discussed.
m.


> On 15.05.2020, at 16:10, Joost Schuttelaar <joost at joostschuttelaar.nl> wrote:
> 
> On 15 May 2020, at 15:46, Michael Zacherl <mubar05 at blauwurf.at> wrote:
> 
>> the pricing is very “democratic” as one might say, but on the bottom line rather destructive to the industry, IMO.
> 
> I find the pricing actually very reasonable. I’m sure they are able to make a very nice profit with these relatively low prices. Gotta compare it to other ’Shenzhen’ electronics.
> 
> As an example, the Korg Wavestate, I find it ridiculously overpriced. Considering what it is, a Raspberry Pi, some controller stuff and a very plastic case.
> 
> Yes, I’m leaving out the R&D, but in economies of scale, is that per unit so much more than the Poly D, for example? I doubt it. Why does it cost about the same, where the Poly D obviously has a much higher cost in materials and labour?
> 
> Note that boutique stuff is obviously a totally different story.