Inner Vegas wrote:I'm not just here to bitch and cry, but I think it's important to air these grievances since this is presented as the official MTA forum. There's definitely a bit of a fanboy vibe around here - bunch of cheerleaders who white-knight MTA whenever anyone has a hint of a complaint. That's not constructive; don't be yes-men. MTA is not your friend - keep them honest and do them the service of allowing them to face complaints.
Certainly you are more than free to air whatever grievance you wish and no one here has said otherwise. I would even agree it is important and the forum is a lot of how we collect feedback both good and bad.
Other people are also welcome to air their opinion about your grievance. This is the official forum as you say, certainly someone in the game as long as you state would expect a bit of blow back form other users? (or at least a few "fan boys" ). Have you ever used the internet?
Inner Vegas wrote:
I've been in this game a long, long time - I was actually the chief designer on a piece of gear that probably 30% of the people here use and the other 70% want. My complaints are totally valid and worth airing.
Many - most! - brilliant designers are terrible businesspeople. Don Buchla, who Scott's sensibilities remind me the most of, was probably king of that. Most of Buchla's designs are backwards, don't play by the rules, and seem like they were laid out by an alien who has studied humans but not necessarily walked among them. This puts his devices, like MTA's, in a class of their own - there's simply nothing else out there like them, and they make you think differently and thus lead you to places you wouldn't normally go.
while i sense quite a bit of backhandedness there, it is overall very flattering, thank you.
Inner Vegas wrote:
Many of MTA's practices are Bad Business - not nefariously, not because anyone's a dick, but because this is a dude making pedals at his kitchen table and not really thinking about the whole business part. But it still sucks to be on the receiving end. I bought a CT5 under two years ago and yet the current CT5 - again, not marked at a "CT6" or "mk2" or whatever, the same pedal at the same price - is easily TWICE the device that I got, yet these cool new features aren't backwards compatible to mine. Yet without me (and everyone else) buying that batch, MTA wouldn't have the $$ to operate and make a newer batch. We're the founders, the core investors, the trustees - MTA is here today because we threw down our cash. It feels like a slap in the face that all of the johnny-come-latelys are getting twice the features that we got for our early loyalty, but we can't even upgrade our "old" (16 months old?) versions. Bad Business.
Here disagree with you mostly. I do not think it is twice the pedal it was 2 years ago. Also the pedal was cheaper 2 years ago. Maybe as low as 200 free shipping, im not sure exactly which period you bought yours. For your early loyalty you get just that, ability to use the pedal 16 months earlier etc. Again as i said in my first reply i can see where you are coming from, but it comes up short of me feeling like we are conducting bad business. You are however entitled to your opinion and i appreciate you taking the time to share it.
Count to 5 is not the first pedal i made. While i appreciate everyone's support, from all past periods of my endeavors, i don;t agree at all with the implication that it is strictly the people who bought a rev j count to five that have brought me to this point. It is absurd. It may be that you never heard of my company before ct5 gained some momentum, im not sure but think of how all those people feel that supported me before you came around when now i don't even make updates for WSOU anymore. Where were you when i needed you most bro? (joking, but maybe you see my point, its liek you have jsut decided that when you bought something that was the moment we became a real company etc, absurd.)
Also i already said in a prev response to you that rev j will likely get an update after the next major point release for k. But you don;t seem to respond to my responses, did you even see it?
Inner Vegas wrote:I like the 856 a lot - I've had it for almost a month now and used it every day - but the interface is a disaster. I'm sorry for my rudeness when referring to it as "designed by a blind person," but it's the most obtuse, backwards, illogical interface I've ever encountered on a piece of gear - including the Buchla synthesizers I mentioned earlier. Even when you completely understand how it works and how to do what you want to do, it's so easy to get tricked because related functions aren't grouped together and the whole thing operates like a Rubick's Cube - one rocker switch on the complete opposite side of the box will completely change how a knob on the other side of the box behaves. In the heat of the moment, or on stage, or in the groove, or etc. the 856 constantly leaves you scratching your head, not understanding why it's behaving the way it is, and why it isn't behaving the way you expect. Only once you unravel the mystery - or pull the plug - do you realize that the illogical, obtuse interface has tricked you once again because of an illogical interaction between a switch and a knob that directly interact but aren't grouped anywhere near each other, with copious other interdependent controls in between. I still see it as a kind of cool challenge - I've never backed down from any crazy gear, and I owned a freaking Kyma system - but realizing that the entire thing was just overhauled to no longer be a confusing disaster but instead to work like something that was designed by and for a human feels like a kick in the balls when i just bought one. I don't think anyone is Obama, or a dickhead, but I sure wish I had known "oh by the way the entire thing is a huge mess so it's already been redesigned" when I bought a "scratch-n-dent" one. There was zero mention of the overhaul, and it was even implied that these WERE the new batch of 856's, just the blemished ones that weren't ready for prime-time. Bad Business, bro.
If the layout is so bad that it is really killing you i would suggest to either follow someones suggestion to re sell it and wait or perhaps to make a midi interface using pure data or supercollider since every parpameter (and more) is available via midi. As you say, you are not intimidated by crazy gear, why not max it out with an interface and a laptop etc? Maybe you already have these tools available...
Inner Vegas wrote:
I'm not mad, I love you all, and I think Scott is a fucking genius. I'll buy anything he makes other than a boring-ass fuzz pedal. That purpll thing looks phenomenal. But based on these bad business practices, you better believe I (and many others) will think twice before ordering from the first batch so we don't get burned again when the thing is overhauled to work better and have more features for the latecomers who couldn't be bothered to buy in early.
That's a totally respectable position to have, really with any tech, not just pedals made in a kitchen.
Anyway we love you too man so thanks for joining the forum.
s
