Doepfer

hi,a few people out there may think i am over doing it. but the 
reality is doepfer is not handling its support and public relations 
very well. i have read other yahoo groups where modular manufacturers 
take a little more interest with their customers than doepfer does. 
my suggestion would be to take that extra half hour a day to read the 
posts from this group and your forum and interact directly with your 
customers a little more. they are the people that buy your products 
and hence pay your bills and the company's as well.

if you need any reasons why you should do this, please take a look at 
the IZ Technology RADAR website and surf their forum to get a few 
pointers and ideas on how to interact with your customers. this is a 
classic case of proper customer support and resolving issues that 
customers have. hell, even the president of the company get his hands 
dirty with customer support and ideas as well as his own employees. 
this was a total breath of fresh air compared to the elusive and 
secretive way that you do things. please check their website and 
forum. here is the url;

http://www.recordingtheworld.com/

hi bakis, please foward this message and my last message to doepfer.
thanks,
RM

hi florian, i appreciate your of view, but you have to call a spade a 
spade. you should appreciate my point of view as well. i believe it 
is not off topic, doepfer is the only company that continually 
ignores its customers requests. proof, ripe 101 is taking matters 
into his own hands to clear up a situation that could of have been 
clearly avoided with just a little extra thought and care. 

the reason i am showing this to the group is for the benefit the 
company and its customers. it hurts me to see doepfer get slagged on 
other newsgroups. i ask bakis to foward the emails to doepfer because 
they actually respond to bakis' mail. the posts in question hovered 
for more than a week without a response from doepfer. it does bode 
well on a company to ignore its customers. i am writing about this 
because i actually care a lot.

can you honestly tell me that you would not want to do tied-notes a 
la TB 303 with your schaltwerk. i don't live in a steady 16th note 
universe and the schaltwerk and i should not be tied down to a such 
restrictive note length. all of the MAQ and ....werks suffer from 
16th note output only. the A155 can do longer note lengths, so why 
can't the bigger boxes? i mean these boxes have a cpu in them. so in 
order to do a song within the A100 i would need 16 A155's, 4 A150's, 
4 A151's and 4 A160/161's to create a 16 different bars of music 
which i would be able to do with one of those boxes if it had the 
function there to begin with and on top of that have the luxury of 
memory to recall the pattern at a later date. i like seqeunced music 
but not the same 16th note repetetive ostinato pattern. its all about 
control. if the maq and ...werk boxes had the simple note tie 
function added it would change things for the better. the price of 16 
A155's, 4 A150's, 4 A151's and 4 A160/161's to create patterns with 
more note values than just 16th notes and to do it strictly in the 
A100 is a little cost prohibitive in my eyes. i believe this was the 
reason they designed these boxes in the first place. i just wish 
doepfer could the light on this very needed feature.

in post #1716 i show how i go around the schaltwerk note problem. the 
schaltwerk has an tactile surface but the functions inside the the 
box are litle stymied. i wish to control my A100 with the schaltwerk 
own cv gates instead of using a midi2cv. is that too much to ask for?

regards,
RM


--- In Doepfer_a100@y..., Florian Anwander <Florian.Anwander@c...> 
wrote:
> Hi ringmod45 
> 
> > hi,a few people out there may think i am over doing it. but the
> > reality is doepfer is not handling its support and public 
relations
> > very well.
> I am not Bakis, but I would appreciate it if you could stop those 
annoying
> posts. I don't post here, whether I am satisfied with the behaviour 
of my
> car repair man or what I think about the keyboards of Doepfer. All 
this is
> OFFTOPIC here.
> 
> Thanks Florian
> 
> 
> BTW: If you know that well, how life should be, then found your own 
company
> and do it better. Just my 2c...
> 
> -- 
> Florian Anwander                  |ConSol*  HP-Support
> Tel.   +49.89.45841-133           |Consulting&Solutions Software 
GmbH
> Fax    +49.89.45841-139           |Franziskanerstr. 38, D-81669 
München
> email: florian.anwander@c... |http://www.consol.de

You´re quite right Florian. As far as I can tell the name of the 
group is Doepfer system A100 modular synthesizer group NOT Schaltwerk 
and the Schaltwerk is NOT part of the A100 system ........ is it?
Keld



--- In Doepfer_a100@y..., Florian Anwander <Florian.Anwander@c...> 
wrote:
> Hi ringmod45 
> 
> > hi,a few people out there may think i am over doing it. but the
> > reality is doepfer is not handling its support and public 
relations
> > very well.
> I am not Bakis, but I would appreciate it if you could stop those 
annoying
> posts. I don't post here, whether I am satisfied with the behaviour 
of my
> car repair man or what I think about the keyboards of Doepfer. All 
this is
> OFFTOPIC here.
> 
> Thanks Florian
> 
> 
> BTW: If you know that well, how life should be, then found your own 
company
> and do it better. Just my 2c...
> 
> -- 
> Florian Anwander                  |ConSol*  HP-Support
> Tel.   +49.89.45841-133           |Consulting&Solutions Software 
GmbH
> Fax    +49.89.45841-139           |Franziskanerstr. 38, D-81669 
München
> email: florian.anwander@c... |http://www.consol.de

Hi ringmod45 

> hi,a few people out there may think i am over doing it. but the
> reality is doepfer is not handling its support and public relations
> very well.
I am not Bakis, but I would appreciate it if you could stop those annoying
posts. I don't post here, whether I am satisfied with the behaviour of my
car repair man or what I think about the keyboards of Doepfer. All this is
OFFTOPIC here.

Thanks Florian


BTW: If you know that well, how life should be, then found your own company
and do it better. Just my 2c...

-- 
Florian Anwander                  |ConSol*  HP-Support
Tel.   +49.89.45841-133           |Consulting&Solutions Software GmbH
Fax    +49.89.45841-139           |Franziskanerstr. 38, D-81669 München
email: florian.anwander@consol.de |http://www.consol.de

The group spent a couple weeks discussing the upcoming touch 
controller at length. How is that on-topic, and the MAQ and ...Werk 
sequencers off-topic?

The only differences are: (1) the MAQ and ...werk sequencers already 
exist, and (2) a lot of people are unhappy with them and the lack 
of support from Doepfer. So in order to stifle the discontent, it 
gets labeled as "off-topic".

I suppose after the touch keyboard goes into production, it will be 
considered on-topic here as long as no one complains about it.

BTW I always get prompt replies from Dieter, but Chris never 
responds at all to my questions.

Joe
--- In Doepfer_a100@y..., "Andreas Lindholm" <andreas.k.lindholm@t...> 
wrote:
> We have been on this many times and let us say that it is a matter 
of some
> disagreement. Some think it is a logical extension to the A100 and 
others
> not. But Doepfer has marketed it as such before through their 
retailers and
> webpage. Now they seem to have polised some of it away but I 
remember having
> read this like "the shaltwerk is the ideal sequencing solution for 
your
> analog synthesizers". So since they have been sold as extensions to 
some
> users in my eyes makes them such since they are made by the same 
company and
> share looks and features with the rest of the range.
> 
> To get a bit off topic here, if it wasn't made for the A100, why 
bother to
> add cv and gate in the same voltage ranges as the rest. Why not use 
Yamaha
> v/hz or din sync? I think it speaks for itself, BMW doesn't make 
spoiler
> wings and stuff for Renault, right? Neither does Doepfer make 
controllers
> for others synths, it is for their own.
> 
> 
> > You´re quite right Florian. As far as I can tell the name of the
> > group is Doepfer system A100 modular synthesizer group NOT 
Schaltwerk

> > and the Schaltwerk is NOT part of the A100 system ........ is it?
> > Keld
> >
> >

--- In Doepfer_a100@y..., Florian Anwander <Florian.Anwander@c...> 
wrote:
> 
> 
> BTW: If you know that well, how life should be, then found your own 
company
> and do it better. Just my 2c...
>
 
the above statement is not relevant to what i was dicussing. so 
here's my 2c... i have been self employed for over ten years and run 
my own business. i know first hand that when i am absent from my 
business that things don't get done the same way. why
? because most employees don't have the same sort of interest as an 
owner. if i was hearing that the business was doing something wrong i 
would go out my way to fix the problem. why doepfer keep ignoring 
requests for the upgrades? i don't know, if it were my company , i 
would do something about it pronto and not have the bad PR.

for example, look at Yamaha that release products that die in the 
market place all the time. they release products with flaws and never 
give them the time of day. the product doesn't sell well because it's 
users are not happy and tell other people don't buy it, you're 
wasting your time or it gets poor reviews. it's on to next thing on 
and who cares about it. the bean counters factor everything but the
hit your PR image takes. Doepfer is it not in the same position as 
Yamaha to take hits like that. Doepfer should foster an image of 
caring about its customers and its products and not the other way 
around.

another example, they release the FS1R which is one of the most 
creative machines in synthesis for years. what do they do they give 
you a volume knob, 4 roatry encoders, 9 pushbuttons and a small lcd 
display. it has the biggest nightmare interface i have ever seen. 
plus they don't give you the sofware to create your own fornt 
seqeunces. they probably put this out as a feeler to see the market 
would like it. it does incredible things which no other synth can do. 
because of the interface people didn't buy them so they just 
disappeared from the market place. if it had done some proper 
marketing research, they would have known that the unit deserved a 
better interface. 

Doepfer has its own forum and a public newsgroup, they should take a 
more interactive role with them because this is the best marketing 
research group they will ever find. the bonus to them is that it's 
free and it is continously engaged in conversation about their 
products.

the point i am making here is that Doepfer hasn't relegated these 
products to their graves. they are still selling them. people have 
asked for them to be improved because they see the potential. why 
should they suffer when they could be so much better. people didn't 
ask for blue led's. they wanted musical functions and not window 
dressing. Doepfer should heed to its paid customer base do something 
about it. if they extra cash to do it. i am sure they would pony up 
the money to have a better machine. it they did the upgrade, they 
would sell more of them and for a longer period of time. look at the 
MAQ upgrade. the MAQ is close to 10 years old and still selling 
despite a few hiccups in its software.

look at the Europa Jupiter6 mod. it brings the jupiter6 to 2002 midi 
specs and functions. the mod only costs $200.00 USD to bring the 
synth into the modern age. i am sure Doepfer could do the same 
for ....werks. now if only someone out there would do the same thing 
to the Prophet VS and the Matrix 12 i would in synth heaven. :)

 times are different with the advent of the internet and instant 
communication. companies have to change with the times they are in. 
Doepfer is basically a cottage industry, it needs to actually share 
more with its customers in the developement of its products to avoid 
the disasters associated with the ....werk boxes.

if i had the technlogical know how i would have done it a long time 
ago. but life is life and people make early choices and its hard to 
just leave in the middle of something and start from scratch. i have 
always like music and electronics. when i was young i could not even 
afford an MS-20 or a tr808. all said,we are lucky to live in such a 
technology advanced time.
 
regards,
RM


> -- 
> Florian Anwander                  |ConSol*  HP-Support
> Tel.   +49.89.45841-133           |Consulting&Solutions Software 
GmbH
> Fax    +49.89.45841-139           |Franziskanerstr. 38, D-81669 
München
> email: florian.anwander@c... |http://www.consol.de

hi joe, thanks for a lucid remark.  when the touch keyboard does get 
released everyone will go why this and why not that. i wrote a 
thoroughly comprehensive poll about the new touch seq kb and only 8 
people out of the whole list replied. nobody from Doepfer has thought 
to ask the group what they think about the functions they plan on 
having for the TKBS ( i think TKBS is a good acronym Touch KeyBoard 
Seqeuncer or TSKB Touch Sequencer KeyBoard to stay away to the 
resemblance the Serge TKB). nor have they responded to the functions 
proposed in the poll. so when the TKBS does get released and people 
aren't happy or too enthused about the product, Doepfer will have no 
one to blame but itself for not doing more research with this group. 
they should learn from their mistakes i.e. the ....werk machines.

this is what i am complaining about and explaining in the last few 
posts. Doepfer needs to have more synergy its cusomers and especially 
this group. this is the best market research group it can ever hope 
find. you just have to join the other synth groups to understand what 
i mean. in other groups they discuss functions, once they agree on 
the functions they discuss the panel lay out and then execute the 
production of the module. simple and plain and most the modules they 
put out, people are happy with the module and being part of the 
creative and design process. we could sure use that communication 
around here.

hope someone is listening,
RM


--- In Doepfer_a100@y..., "buechlerjoe" <buechlerjoe@t...> wrote:
> The group spent a couple weeks discussing the upcoming touch 
> controller at length. How is that on-topic, and the MAQ and ...Werk 
> sequencers off-topic?
> 
> The only differences are: (1) the MAQ and ...werk sequencers 
already 
> exist, and (2) a lot of people are unhappy with them and the lack 
> of support from Doepfer. So in order to stifle the discontent, it 
> gets labeled as "off-topic".
> 
> I suppose after the touch keyboard goes into production, it will be 
> considered on-topic here as long as no one complains about it.
> 
> BTW I always get prompt replies from Dieter, but Chris never 
> responds at all to my questions.
> 
> Joe
> --- In Doepfer_a100@y..., "Andreas Lindholm" 
<andreas.k.lindholm@t...> 
> wrote:
> > We have been on this many times and let us say that it is a 
matter 
> of some
> > disagreement. Some think it is a logical extension to the A100 
and 
> others
> > not. But Doepfer has marketed it as such before through their 
> retailers and
> > webpage. Now they seem to have polised some of it away but I 
> remember having
> > read this like "the shaltwerk is the ideal sequencing solution 
for 
> your
> > analog synthesizers". So since they have been sold as extensions 
to 
> some
> > users in my eyes makes them such since they are made by the same 
> company and
> > share looks and features with the rest of the range.
> > 
> > To get a bit off topic here, if it wasn't made for the A100, why 
> bother to
> > add cv and gate in the same voltage ranges as the rest. Why not 
use 
> Yamaha
> > v/hz or din sync? I think it speaks for itself, BMW doesn't make 
> spoiler
> > wings and stuff for Renault, right? Neither does Doepfer make 
> controllers
> > for others synths, it is for their own.
> > 
> > 
> > > You´re quite right Florian. As far as I can tell the name of the
> > > group is Doepfer system A100 modular synthesizer group NOT 
> Schaltwerk
> > > and the Schaltwerk is NOT part of the A100 system ........ is 
it?

> > > Keld
> > >
> > >

I agree to a certain extent here. Doepfer as a company could respond better
to upgrade request. I have a Kurzweil and they chucks out software updates
pretty often, though sometimes a high price. But users loves their machines
and pays for it so it seems a good way to make biz. But I have also gotten a
few helpful replies from Dieter D himself so there is a good side to the
story to. But quite frankly that kind of makes me wonder even more why that
same positive attitude doesn't always shine through. I think that vague
unkept promises are worse for reputation that straight answers. And sorry
Florian, but this is totally on topic cause the reputation of the firm
extends to the A100. I wouldn't have gone and bought a AS system1 and now
consider a few MOTM modules if I didn't feel slightly frustrated about
Doepfers marketing strategy. Doubt always makes me decide NOT to gamble,
guess there are more thinking like that that we never even gets to know
about in here cause the never got any A100 stuff in the first place.


> Hi ringmod45
>
> > hi,a few people out there may think i am over doing it. but the
> > reality is doepfer is not handling its support and public relations
> > very well.
> I am not Bakis, but I would appreciate it if you could stop those annoying
> posts. I don't post here, whether I am satisfied with the behaviour of my
> car repair man or what I think about the keyboards of Doepfer. All this is
> OFFTOPIC here.
>
> Thanks Florian
>
>
> BTW: If you know that well, how life should be, then found your own
company

> and do it better. Just my 2c...
>
> --
> Florian Anwander                  |ConSol*  HP-Support
> Tel.   +49.89.45841-133           |Consulting&Solutions Software GmbH
> Fax    +49.89.45841-139           |Franziskanerstr. 38, D-81669 München
> email: florian.anwander@consol.de |http://www.consol.de
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> doepfer_a100-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

We have been on this many times and let us say that it is a matter of some
disagreement. Some think it is a logical extension to the A100 and others
not. But Doepfer has marketed it as such before through their retailers and
webpage. Now they seem to have polised some of it away but I remember having
read this like "the shaltwerk is the ideal sequencing solution for your
analog synthesizers". So since they have been sold as extensions to some
users in my eyes makes them such since they are made by the same company and
share looks and features with the rest of the range.

To get a bit off topic here, if it wasn't made for the A100, why bother to
add cv and gate in the same voltage ranges as the rest. Why not use Yamaha
v/hz or din sync? I think it speaks for itself, BMW doesn't make spoiler
wings and stuff for Renault, right? Neither does Doepfer make controllers
for others synths, it is for their own.

> You´re quite right Florian. As far as I can tell the name of the
> group is Doepfer system A100 modular synthesizer group NOT Schaltwerk
> and the Schaltwerk is NOT part of the A100 system ........ is it?
> Keld
>
>

What other groups are you reffering to here? I definitely want to see them.


 in other groups they discuss functions, once they agree on

> the functions they discuss the panel lay out and then execute the
> production of the module. simple and plain and most the modules they
> put out, people are happy with the module and being part of the
> creative and design process. we could sure use that communication
> around here.
>
> hope someone is listening,
> RM
>
>
> --- In Doepfer_a100@y..., "buechlerjoe" <buechlerjoe@t...> wrote:
> > The group spent a couple weeks discussing the upcoming touch
> > controller at length. How is that on-topic, and the MAQ and ...Werk
> > sequencers off-topic?
> >
> > The only differences are: (1) the MAQ and ...werk sequencers
> already
> > exist, and (2) a lot of people are unhappy with them and the lack
> > of support from Doepfer. So in order to stifle the discontent, it
> > gets labeled as "off-topic".
> >
> > I suppose after the touch keyboard goes into production, it will be
> > considered on-topic here as long as no one complains about it.
> >
> > BTW I always get prompt replies from Dieter, but Chris never
> > responds at all to my questions.
> >
> > Joe
> > --- In Doepfer_a100@y..., "Andreas Lindholm"
> <andreas.k.lindholm@t...>
> > wrote:
> > > We have been on this many times and let us say that it is a
> matter
> > of some
> > > disagreement. Some think it is a logical extension to the A100
> and
> > others
> > > not. But Doepfer has marketed it as such before through their
> > retailers and
> > > webpage. Now they seem to have polised some of it away but I
> > remember having
> > > read this like "the shaltwerk is the ideal sequencing solution
> for
> > your
> > > analog synthesizers". So since they have been sold as extensions
> to
> > some
> > > users in my eyes makes them such since they are made by the same
> > company and
> > > share looks and features with the rest of the range.
> > >
> > > To get a bit off topic here, if it wasn't made for the A100, why
> > bother to
> > > add cv and gate in the same voltage ranges as the rest. Why not
> use
> > Yamaha
> > > v/hz or din sync? I think it speaks for itself, BMW doesn't make
> > spoiler
> > > wings and stuff for Renault, right? Neither does Doepfer make
> > controllers
> > > for others synths, it is for their own.
> > >
> > >
> > > > You´re quite right Florian. As far as I can tell the name of the
> > > > group is Doepfer system A100 modular synthesizer group NOT
> > Schaltwerk
> > > > and the Schaltwerk is NOT part of the A100 system ........ is
> it?
> > > > Keld
> > > >
> > > >
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> doepfer_a100-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>