Jeffrey slides over a Q or two…
Q: "What has happened in the last couple of years that caused Elektron to seemingly change product development / release cycle so drastically? It seems like you guys went from a firm that released something new only every few years to overhauling the entire product lifeline and expanding into areas like effects.
New bosses or investors? Changes in component availability requiring overhauling product line? Or has the electronic music hardware arena just gotten much more competitive in recent years?"
A: We grew big! Being bigger, more people, means that you can make more products, and that doing so will pay our salaries and let us continue doing what we love. Overhauling the product line was a long project, and not so much different than the MKII upgrades to the Monomachine and Machinedrum.
We have the same boss now as back in 2007, and the investors were cherry picked by us to make sure that they are good people; they don’t interfere with our products and have an interest in what we do.
Q: "Did Digitone and Digitakt come about because of the overwhelming response to the price drop / end-of-life announcement for Machinedrum and Monomachine?"
No, we have many times tried to make products that are a bit more streamlined, focused and cheaper - but up until the Digitakt we had not succeeded in that vision. It’s been a long time coming, you could say.
Q: "Is there any kind of set rules for what is included and omitted in the Digi line?"
Yeah, panel space and to omit anything that would be convoluted when it doesn’t have that. They should be more ‘focused’ and ‘boiled down’ without losing too much. To make something streamlined you have to remove a few things. It’s like minimalism in art or music - strip away what isn’t neccessary and focus on the core components. The result will be larger than the sum of its parts.
Q: "Finally, as a hardware company that makes great boxes that can be totally free from computers - why Overbridge?"
A: https://youtu.be/vgk-lA12FBk … A lot of people work with both hardware and software, Overbridge makes that workflow a lot easier. 