I left Alesis in Spring of ’91; they’d announced the ADAT at NAMM that January (although I’d certainly been aware of it well before then). I really enjoyed working there; unfortunately, the managing co-founder’s and my personalities were rather like oil and water. We didn’t dislike one another but we definitely grated on one another; since it wasn’t just his “bat and ball”…it was his stadium, I didn’t have much choice but to resign.
That said, I continued as a beta tester for some products -- tho not the ADAT. (Keith Barr, the tech-wiz co-founder had some regard for my skill set and I got on extremely well with the engineers and techs and was able to communicate with them pretty effectively.)
I was a beta tester for the Quadrasynth; my initial impression distilled down to “it sounds great, but the sound design needs a lot of tweaking”. Initial dealer response was disappointment in a product they’d expected to love. (Also created a few of the factory presets; go me!)
I contrived a “blind” marketing survey whereby I visited about two dozen SoCal dealers and got salespeople’s impressions of the Qsynth vs competing products; this confirmed my initial impressions of the product. Alesis had disappointed dealers and customers by shipping a good product when there was an expectation of a killer instrument at that price point.
They tweaked much of the sound design and provided an update; that did the trick. (And I profited pretty nicely for my efforts as a “consultant”.)
Sometime later, Alesis upgraded my original unit to a “Plus Piano” which I still have, although the -- I think -- power supply crapped out some years ago. IIRC, the serial number is 000000011. 😉
The QS+Piano was a very useful instrument for me for a lot of years; it -- along with my Kurzweil 2500R -- allowed me to be pretty competitive in re trying to land my first carpy cartoon series to score. (Which, alas, never happened, but I’ve got a lot of demos and one-off work product of which I’m still quite proud.)
Wow. So now you’re not working in music at all. It sounds like the whole JimCo thing is pretty successful. It’s funny the strange twists and turns life takes. I feel like a passenger on someone else’s train, most of the time, I’m embarrassed to say.
I used to think I’d like self-employment, but as I’ve found, I haven’t yet developed the right temperament for it. When it’s all you, then it’s everything or nothing depending on what you do. That’s every day.
I can’t speak to this story but I am reminded of discussions I had with democrat liberals after the Fukushima meltdown. They were ridiculing Coulter for making “ignorant” comments about the radiation not posing the end of the world hazard some were claiming and how it was more Republican “War on Science” snake handling. They were all trumpeting some claims from a woman in Australia that the the contaminated water would rush across the ocean and kill or make toxic all sea life off the West coast of the US and leave California a lifeless wasteland. I tried to point out that Coulter was citing scientific articles from established literature on the subject while they were citing hysterical blog posts from a fanatic of unknown qualifications that made little sense when you looked at the amount of water released and the size of the Pacific Ocean, but “everybody knew” that “Any amount of radiation” was a death sentence and this was an environmental crisis that would dwarf the black plague. Even though she cited sources on her claims they could not get past her name and look at the literature. They were so excited at the prospect of doomsday. Somehow I missed all that death and destruction.
Jack Tatum is in not so good shape. He’s got a large abscess behind his ear. Tried taking care of it over the weekend, but it ain’t getting better. Vet time if we can find one that can take him in this morning.
Thanks, Dv8, and everyone else -- he seems to have gotten through this OK. This is the only time we’ve had to take him to a vet for an injury. Everything else, we’ve been able to handle on our own.
Well that was gross. Mrs Sven, God bless her, was sitting with JT and lanced the abscess. Lot of pus and a lot of blood. Our vet is open, not huge fans of theirs, but I’ll bundle him up and take him there.
Got that cat home earlier in the afternoon -- happy that he didn’t have to stay overnight. Now it’s just antibiotics and warm compresses. He’s being a good little boy and hanging around the yard and now back in the house. Tell you what tho, he leaked blood all over the house. Probably on purpose. It’s like that old Alice Cooper song: Only Kitties Bleed.
I’m sorry to hear about Jack as well, I hope you find an opening. {UPDATE: Ew! And G_d love her.}
Thank you gentlemen, that’s what I pretty much thought.
There’s actually a job posting out there looking for “HELP WEEDING OUT FAKE NEWS” and that’s all it took to imagine myself screaming at the computer everyday.
No.
I’ve been calling when they’ve been showing “Five Minutes Fiction” … and subjecting almost every link to the 36-hour rule as it is.
But I gotta find that posting for Gerbilly pleasure…
X! I wish you had that fake news job!! It would be interesting to see which “fake news” you were supposed to weed out. You could make a pretty cool video channel out of that. Turn it around and present the job ironically. Some youtubers have gotten some traction out of doing so. They end up making more money making fun of their job than they do from their actual job.
Vet called -- JT is available for pick up -- got his wound cleaned and he’s on antibiotics but other than that, he’s good to go. I’ll pick him up as soon as this wonderful zoom team meeting is over.
Does anyone remember the movie Birdbox? Substitute the amorphous dark cloud for the Corona Virus and you have what’s going on in this country. People are going absolutely crazy.
Either they are committing social suicide or our betters are committing homicide.
You and Mrs. Sven are Very Good Gerbils; hope you can get Jack sorted out without breaking the bank.
TeX --
I’ve not read that much of Coulter’s stuff over the years; always classified her as an acerbic, occasionally-funny kinda-conservative pundit who sure knows how to make liberals froth. She has a schtick which has sold a lot of books.
And I think she’s fairly bright.
As for Glenn C. Altschuler, the author of your linked article: he’s been an administrator and teacher at Cornell for almost forty years…and not in one of the hard sciences or engineering. You may draw your own inferences. 😉
Fatwa — very impressive!
A lot of that was garden-variety marketing stuff for a specialized niche. In re “sound design” as I meant it: After digital samples of instruments are made, they still require a lot of electronic tweaking to make them musically useful / “playable”. With that particular instrument, the original release had gotten 90% of the way there. But dealers and end-users were expecting much more from Alesis based on their track record; just took a bit more work.
Sample-based instruments have gotten orders of magnitude better as processing power has increased and storage costs have plummeted. I’m amazed that this software instrument is under $1K:
Hey Sven!
I’ve got a coworker who lives across the freeway from you, has a cousin who has a vet clinic (in Woodland Hills), and is studying to be a vet tech. I’ve asked for recommendations for a good vet in your area.
Unfortunately, the one guy we really liked, a Dr. Bowerman, left the area about 15 years ago. Since then, we haven’t found anybody that we really like. Right now, we are using the American Veterinary Hospital (805-581-9111). They are OK, but the staff and doctors may treat it more like a business than a calling -- at least that’s been our experience. They are competent and accommodating, but definitely not a personal relationship like we used to have with Bowerman. On the plus side, they did board one of our cats when we had to evacuate during a fire and they were quite good today with Jack Tatum.
We tried Yosemite Pet Hospital (805-525-3455) -- that’s Bowerman’s old building. The woman who took it over was awful, but she apparently sold out last year and the new owner, Dr. Lissel Madrazo, has gotten good reviews but we haven’t tried her out.
Is it Judgmental Kitteh Monday again?
*Checks monitor*
Apparently so; um, yay?
dv8-
I left Alesis in Spring of ’91; they’d announced the ADAT at NAMM that January (although I’d certainly been aware of it well before then). I really enjoyed working there; unfortunately, the managing co-founder’s and my personalities were rather like oil and water. We didn’t dislike one another but we definitely grated on one another; since it wasn’t just his “bat and ball”…it was his stadium, I didn’t have much choice but to resign.
That said, I continued as a beta tester for some products -- tho not the ADAT. (Keith Barr, the tech-wiz co-founder had some regard for my skill set and I got on extremely well with the engineers and techs and was able to communicate with them pretty effectively.)
I was a beta tester for the Quadrasynth; my initial impression distilled down to “it sounds great, but the sound design needs a lot of tweaking”. Initial dealer response was disappointment in a product they’d expected to love. (Also created a few of the factory presets; go me!)
I contrived a “blind” marketing survey whereby I visited about two dozen SoCal dealers and got salespeople’s impressions of the Qsynth vs competing products; this confirmed my initial impressions of the product. Alesis had disappointed dealers and customers by shipping a good product when there was an expectation of a killer instrument at that price point.
They tweaked much of the sound design and provided an update; that did the trick. (And I profited pretty nicely for my efforts as a “consultant”.)
Sometime later, Alesis upgraded my original unit to a “Plus Piano” which I still have, although the -- I think -- power supply crapped out some years ago. IIRC, the serial number is 000000011. 😉
The QS+Piano was a very useful instrument for me for a lot of years; it -- along with my Kurzweil 2500R -- allowed me to be pretty competitive in re trying to land my first carpy cartoon series to score. (Which, alas, never happened, but I’ve got a lot of demos and one-off work product of which I’m still quite proud.)
Wow. So now you’re not working in music at all. It sounds like the whole JimCo thing is pretty successful. It’s funny the strange twists and turns life takes. I feel like a passenger on someone else’s train, most of the time, I’m embarrassed to say.
I used to think I’d like self-employment, but as I’ve found, I haven’t yet developed the right temperament for it. When it’s all you, then it’s everything or nothing depending on what you do. That’s every day.
What am I talking about?………….
Happy Monday, GN! Good morning, Fatwa!! Happy first Monday of May, America!!!
Good Morning EveryGerbillyBody!
:: whistle::
Wow, Fatwa!
:: suiting up speed by ::
Is Ann Coulter now considered a “performance artist”?
I always thought she was a political, if not fairly humorous commentator, but this Hill article says different: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/495839-aprils-dumbest-and-most-dangerous-coronavirus-declarations
Off to get the “must-haves”, BIAB.
I can’t speak to this story but I am reminded of discussions I had with democrat liberals after the Fukushima meltdown. They were ridiculing Coulter for making “ignorant” comments about the radiation not posing the end of the world hazard some were claiming and how it was more Republican “War on Science” snake handling. They were all trumpeting some claims from a woman in Australia that the the contaminated water would rush across the ocean and kill or make toxic all sea life off the West coast of the US and leave California a lifeless wasteland. I tried to point out that Coulter was citing scientific articles from established literature on the subject while they were citing hysterical blog posts from a fanatic of unknown qualifications that made little sense when you looked at the amount of water released and the size of the Pacific Ocean, but “everybody knew” that “Any amount of radiation” was a death sentence and this was an environmental crisis that would dwarf the black plague. Even though she cited sources on her claims they could not get past her name and look at the literature. They were so excited at the prospect of doomsday. Somehow I missed all that death and destruction.
Jack Tatum is in not so good shape. He’s got a large abscess behind his ear. Tried taking care of it over the weekend, but it ain’t getting better. Vet time if we can find one that can take him in this morning.
About a month ago, I went back in time to follow the whole Jack Tatum saga from the beginning.
I hope everything works out ok.
Thanks, Dv8, and everyone else -- he seems to have gotten through this OK. This is the only time we’ve had to take him to a vet for an injury. Everything else, we’ve been able to handle on our own.
Happy Q-Monday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, Sven, TeX, and Mac!
Sven -- I’m sorry to hear about Jack. I hope you can find someone to take him to this morning.
Fatwa -- very impressive! (I wish I understood more of what you’re saying, but…)
TeX & Mac -- it’s been pretty clear for some time now that the Left is anti-science and anti-reality.
The Left may be anti-science and anti-reality, but they are always right.
Well that was gross. Mrs Sven, God bless her, was sitting with JT and lanced the abscess. Lot of pus and a lot of blood. Our vet is open, not huge fans of theirs, but I’ll bundle him up and take him there.
OK, JT is at the vet. There goes my stimulus check.
Got that cat home earlier in the afternoon -- happy that he didn’t have to stay overnight. Now it’s just antibiotics and warm compresses. He’s being a good little boy and hanging around the yard and now back in the house. Tell you what tho, he leaked blood all over the house. Probably on purpose. It’s like that old Alice Cooper song: Only Kitties Bleed.
Heh!
I’m glad he didn’t have to stay overnight. I’ve got a question for you at the top of the thread (or bottom, depending on if you refresh or not).
I’m sorry to hear about Jack as well, I hope you find an opening. {UPDATE: Ew! And G_d love her.}
Thank you gentlemen, that’s what I pretty much thought.
There’s actually a job posting out there looking for “HELP WEEDING OUT FAKE NEWS” and that’s all it took to imagine myself screaming at the computer everyday.
No.
I’ve been calling when they’ve been showing “Five Minutes Fiction” … and subjecting almost every link to the 36-hour rule as it is.
But I gotta find that posting for Gerbilly pleasure…
X! I wish you had that fake news job!! It would be interesting to see which “fake news” you were supposed to weed out. You could make a pretty cool video channel out of that. Turn it around and present the job ironically. Some youtubers have gotten some traction out of doing so. They end up making more money making fun of their job than they do from their actual job.
Vet called -- JT is available for pick up -- got his wound cleaned and he’s on antibiotics but other than that, he’s good to go. I’ll pick him up as soon as this wonderful zoom team meeting is over.
Does anyone remember the movie Birdbox? Substitute the amorphous dark cloud for the Corona Virus and you have what’s going on in this country. People are going absolutely crazy.
Either they are committing social suicide or our betters are committing homicide.
Let my people be free!
Hey, Jerry!
I couldn’t agree more. It’s disheartening to see how many “citizens” would prefer to be “subjects”.
I didn’t see it, but I remember all the memes.
Hi, Sven, TeX, Mac, Paddy and Jerry!!1!
Sven --
You and Mrs. Sven are Very Good Gerbils; hope you can get Jack sorted out without breaking the bank.
TeX --
I’ve not read that much of Coulter’s stuff over the years; always classified her as an acerbic, occasionally-funny kinda-conservative pundit who sure knows how to make liberals froth. She has a schtick which has sold a lot of books.
And I think she’s fairly bright.
As for Glenn C. Altschuler, the author of your linked article: he’s been an administrator and teacher at Cornell for almost forty years…and not in one of the hard sciences or engineering. You may draw your own inferences. 😉
A lot of that was garden-variety marketing stuff for a specialized niche. In re “sound design” as I meant it: After digital samples of instruments are made, they still require a lot of electronic tweaking to make them musically useful / “playable”. With that particular instrument, the original release had gotten 90% of the way there. But dealers and end-users were expecting much more from Alesis based on their track record; just took a bit more work.
Sample-based instruments have gotten orders of magnitude better as processing power has increased and storage costs have plummeted. I’m amazed that this software instrument is under $1K:
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra/
If I were still trying to make it as a composer, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Back to the salt mines…
Hey Sven!
I’ve got a coworker who lives across the freeway from you, has a cousin who has a vet clinic (in Woodland Hills), and is studying to be a vet tech. I’ve asked for recommendations for a good vet in your area.
Who are you currently using?
Unfortunately, the one guy we really liked, a Dr. Bowerman, left the area about 15 years ago. Since then, we haven’t found anybody that we really like. Right now, we are using the American Veterinary Hospital (805-581-9111). They are OK, but the staff and doctors may treat it more like a business than a calling -- at least that’s been our experience. They are competent and accommodating, but definitely not a personal relationship like we used to have with Bowerman. On the plus side, they did board one of our cats when we had to evacuate during a fire and they were quite good today with Jack Tatum.
We tried Yosemite Pet Hospital (805-525-3455) -- that’s Bowerman’s old building. The woman who took it over was awful, but she apparently sold out last year and the new owner, Dr. Lissel Madrazo, has gotten good reviews but we haven’t tried her out.
Hope that helps.