Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

wildstar,

This was sort of a quiet development, early this year.  I'm sure E-mu 
didn't want to scare their loyal customers, although the alienation 
is all but inevitable, since there are plenty of us who don't dig 
softsynths or want to have to rely on a PC to have/play our synths.

I have very little interest in softsynths, and for me, the strongest 
point of E-mu's synth line has always been the actual synth engine 
and user interface.  This is the end of the line for hardsynth 
innovation.  I suspect that they are hoping that their new product 
focus will sell itself by virtue of their legacy soundset.  I have 
grave doubts, since their actual sounds were never the best on the 
market...though I'm sure the new soundcard is a very good one.

> is the market that bad for hardware? 

I don't think the issue is that the market is that bad for hardware; 
its just that its that GOOD for softsynths.  It allows the synth 
manufacturers adopt the Microsoft model: coerce users to upgrade 
every couple of years or face obsolescence and the loss of support 
(oh, the horror!)

> yamaha announced something similar a short time ago.

I doubt this (unless you're talking about a specific range of 
products, i.e. grooveboxes).  I just got my Motif ES6, and I doubt 
that its going out of production anytime soon.

In my opinion, the whole softsynth thing is a fad that will 
pass...eventually.

Anyway, it still sucks.  Marketing cyborgs have ruined another 
perfectly good thing in the world.

Andy



--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "wildstar_1701" <justinsamaha@y...> wrote:

> WHAT?!?!
> 
> when was this announced? i completely missed this horrible news. 
yamaha 
> announced something similar a short time ago.
> 
> this sucks. soft synths have their place, but they're not the last 
word on 
> synthesis. if  this keeps up, will we all end desperately searching 
the used 
> market for our synths in a few years?
> 
> is the market that bad for hardware? i think i'm gonna cry.