Elektron Musical Instruments

Hi all

Elektron has been much criticised lately. I'm not in a position to 
decide whether these criticisms are right or not, I just want to 
present my experience with their customer support, which is 
exclusively positive:

My MD (one of the first batch of hundred) had a defective data wheel 
and 2 defective pots. I also wanted to do the D/A update and change 
all 9 pots for the newer ones. Since I live in Sweden's neighbouring 
country, just a 3-4 hour drive from Gothenburg, I decided to go 
there, deliver the MD and pick it up myself. 

After agreeing on a suitable date with Elektron, they contacted me a 
couple of weeks before to say that none of their servicemen would be 
present that day. When I told them it was difficult for me to change 
the date, they contacted me two days after to tell me that someone 
would be there to fix my MD on the day we had agreed on. :)

I delivered the machine, and in less than two hours they called me up 
to tell me it had been fixed. By the way, they are very friendly 
people. When I came back home the next day, I tried the MD properly, 
and afer 30 minutes use the data wheel and one of the knobs went bad 
again, and in the process of testing and soft resetting the machine 
all my data was lost.... 

The next day (a Sunday) I sent Elektron an e-mail and told them about 
what had happened. Within 24 hours, I received an e-mail with all my 
data (the repairman had done a backup and kept it!) and a very simple 
instruction on how to fix the data wheel and the knob myself! (a 
factory reset). The repairman also called me up personally to tell me 
that he had sent an e-mail and that everything would be fixed easily! 
HAS ANYONE EVER RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM THE ROLAND OR THE YAMAHA 
FACTORY?? ;-)

All of his instructions worked as they should, and I am now a happy 
man again! By the way, they had listened to my beats, and liked them 
so much they wanted them on macinedrum.com! :-D So look out, maybe in 
a few weeks....

Regards,
Nils

Just curious, is the office/factory/whatever nice?  Lots of good 
toys around?  Did you get a tour? ;)


--- In elektron-users@y..., "belplascaprod" <nilsodegaard@h...> wrote:
> I delivered the machine, and in less than two hours they called me

--- In elektron-users@y..., "mrhardacid" <mrhardacid@y...> wrote:
> 
>   Just curious, is the office/factory/whatever nice?  Lots of good 
> toys around?  Did you get a tour? ;)

He-he, no tour really, I didn't stay very long. Actually, when I 
delivered the machine there were only two people there, the rest was 
out playing football! (it was around 12 o'clock). I got to see more 
when I was there in July last year when I bought the MD. Around 4-5 
rooms, not very large for a "factory" :), and a small studio 
facility, with a really messed up TR-808 (all cables hanging out and 
cut up) which they had used to measure the volts when they were 
making the TRX models for the MD. This time there were several MDs 
around with front panels off as well. :) I think there is a picture 
of the building at elektron.se. 

According to my cousin, who went there to buy an MD 6-7 months ago, 
they have ideas for several products, and (I think), have done 
testing for one specific product, but they wouldn't tell him what it 
was... they're probably a lot more reluctant to give out info on any 
upcoming instruments this time, considering all the rumours, delays 
and all that when the MD was born. 

The "factory" is only over the street for the Technical University of 
Gothenburg, where I think they studied and started work on the Sid. I 
think there are only 5 or 6 employees, as well as some working part-
time (the guy who made the EFM models is not working there anymore, 
that's why there are no more EFM models coming...what a shame!). 
Actually Daniel used to work for a computer games company here in 
Norway. 

How Elektron have managed to stay around I can't figure out, 
considering they've sold a bit more than 1000 Sids and 420(?) MDs 
since the start 3-4 years ago. Think of the cost of Research & 
Development, labour, parts (the MD front panels can't be cheap!), 
repair, space rent, free shipment and so on. (When I was there now, 
several cardboard boxes with the kind of pots used in the first 100 
MDs where in the hall, ready for the trash can...) It must be really 
hard to run a company with so few and specialized products, and such 
low sales (compared to Roland or Yamaha, nothing at all). And Sweden 
is not the cheapest country to live in. They must be quite 
idealistic! All the repairs and updates on the MD must have given 
them a hard blow the last few months as well. The recent friend offer 
(the "mate discount") tells me they've not sold as many MDs they had 
wished for... How ironic this is, when we imho really need such 
companys to show the way with new instruments. What a wonderful 
distraction these products are from the uninventive run-of-the-mill 
Roland etc plasticky s.h.i.t.e. 

LONG LIVE ELEKTRON! :-))

Regards,
Nils

--- In elektron-users@y..., "belplascaprod" <nilsodegaard@h...> 
The recent friend offer 
> (the "mate discount") tells me they've not sold as many MDs 
they had 
> wished for... How ironic this is, when we imho really need such 
> companys to show the way with new instruments. What a wonderful 
> distraction these products are from the uninventive 
run-of-the-mill 
> Roland etc plasticky s.h.i.t.e. 
> 
> LONG LIVE ELEKTRON! :-))
> 
> Regards,
> Nils

Direct marketing in music business never really worked well. If 
they really want to sell a lot of MD's, they should try to sell 
bulks to several distributors in all the countries. In this way 
they don't have to deal with sending out small packages and 
having to carry the costs for it. Quasimidi was using direct 
marketing as well and i guess that's what in the end broke their 
neck.Also if they sell larger quantities, for sure they can lower 
the prices, and they would even sell more.

Just my 2 cents.