Event Station dies

[jrcel]

The Dauz/Kurzweil Event Station has been discontinued due to lack of interest in the drumming community. This is bad news indeed, I personaly like Dan Dauz, he's a great guy and has given me replacement parts with no questions asked, try that with Roland. The really great and inovative American companies are being pushed out of the market by offshore manufacturers. It's a familiar story, corner the market, then drive the prices up. It's too bad.

[This message has been edited by jrcel (edited October 30, 2000).]

[Marc.]

Should we start learning to play Rollerball?

[Jay Storey]

Originally posted by jrcel:
The Dauz/Kurzweil Event Station has been discontinued due to lack of interest in the drumming community. This is bad news indeed, I personaly like Dan Dauz, he's a great guy and has given me replacement parts with no questions asked, try that with Roland. The really great and inovative American companies are being pushed out of the market by offshore manufacturers. It's a familiar story, corner the market, then drive the prices up. It's too bad.

[This message has been edited by jrcel (edited October 30, 2000).]

I think I'd blame that more on Kurzweil than Roland.

Kurzweil, while they make some great products does not really appear to have much of a direction, other than trying to sell very full featured, and overpriced keyboards with tons of software bugs.

I work with two keyboardists that both have Kurzweils, and while the action is great, and some of the feature set is great, they are some of the wiggiest, most bug laden keyboards I've ever dealt with.

Frankly I think it's a good thing that they stayed out of the E-drum market, as I doubt they would have stayed in long, and their aftermarket support (widely regarded as the worst in the keyboard industry) for the kit would have probably been lame.

Too bad for Dauz, perhaps they can link up with another partner, ala' Hart/Alesis.

We could certainly use some more competitors in the Edrum arena, I don't see Roland cutting their pricing much unless other companies make some inroads in the market.

In spite of how good the Vdrums are, what I see is $400 worth of pressboard shells (by remo), $200 worth of plastic cymbal pads, with $300 worth of hardware and stand, combined with a module that should sell for about $750.

That's a $1650 kit, not a $3600 one.

I think that Roland could easily sell the Vdrums AT A PROFIT for $2,000, but since they don't have to, they sell it for more.

Kind of like the fact that car companies make $5000 - $8,000 on nearly every SUV they sell.

If the market's hot, then hose the customer.

Of course, over in the keyboard world, Roland has released a lot of "dog" products that were later sharply discounted in order to sell them.

I guess they are making up for that with their Vdrum pricing.

If you think the Vdrums are bad, you should check out their VK-77 Dual manual organ.

They had a very successful product with their VK-7 single manual "Hammond Clone", so they added a 2nd manual, a 2nd set of drawbars, and then more than DOUBLED the price.

The sound engine is the same, all they added was a slightly larger cabinet, a 2nd set of plastic keys, and a 2nd set of drawbars.

MORE than double the price (I think list is about $6,000).

Sorry for the rant, I will agree that the Vdrums are probably the best product out there right now, but as someone who has been repeatedly screwed by roland's pricing and planned obsolesence in the keyboard arena, I can't WAIT for someone else to give them a run for their money.

Jay Storey

[Marc.]

Wow Jay, you've got it bad. I think you can find happiness at that DIY site a few around here have been raving about ...
http://www.electronicdrums.com/byo.htm

These people swear that they are gettin' more bang for their bucks and I believe them! I'm a do-it-yourselfer in another craft and we do get a hell-of-a-lot more for our $. Wish I had the aptitude for this and other arenas (like auto-mechanics, ooooh the $ I could be savin').

-Marc.

[jrcel]

Actually Kurzweil had nothing to do with the software for Event Station, Dauz and Starr Labs desgned the unit. It blows away anything else I've seen. but because it doesn't come with cords ,pads and sound module in two boxes drummers aren't intrested. Time marches on.

[Marc.]

posted by jrcel:
... but because it doesn't come with cords ,pads and sound module in two boxes drummers aren't intrested.

... and a purple rack, don't forget, it didn't come with a purple rack.

Plastic clamps! That's right it had to have plastic clamps and it didn't, so there!

nyah nyah nyha-nyah nyah!

Don't talk to me.

[loose id reamer]

there arent really any features on the event station that ive seen that cant be replicated by a drumkat,or the new dtxtreme

[DJourg]

I've never even heard of the Event Station. What is it? A drum machine? Drum module? Kit? Sampler? I thought I was fairly well versed on e-drums, but this must've passed the radar.

NOW I WANT ONE!!!

[This message has been edited by DJourg (edited January 10, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by DJourg (edited January 10, 2001).]

[Boingo]

Originally posted by Jay Storey:


I think I'd blame...

Kurzweil, ...overpriced keyboards.

We could certainly use some more competitors in the Edrum arena, I don't see Roland cutting their pricing much unless other companies make some inroads in the market.

In spite of how good the Vdrums are, what I see is ... That's a $1650 kit, not a $3600 one.

I think that Roland could easily sell the Vdrums AT A PROFIT for $2,000, but since they don't have to, they sell it for more.

If the market's hot, then hose the customer.

Of course, over in the keyboard world, Roland has released a lot of "dog" products that were later sharply discounted in order to sell them.

I guess they are making up for that with their Vdrum pricing.

Sorry for the rant, I will agree that the Vdrums are probably the best product out there right now, but as someone who has been repeatedly screwed by roland's pricing ... can't WAIT for someone else to give them a run for their money.

Jay Storey

Rant time...
There is nothing wrong with our system. Roland doesn't exist to make us happy, they exist to make money. When you get "hosed" by a non-monopoly it's usually cause you asked for it (by paying their prices). Bussiness is structured to charge what the market will bear. You know, supply and demand, market forces, Greenspan, 1000 points of light. We are supposed to know when we aren't getting enough value for our buck, and, you won't believe this, we're supposed to say "No thanks, your price is too high". If this kind of behavior were widespread, you would be paying $750 or less for the TD-10. So, we blame the Rolands of the world because we like toys we can't afford. You want to blame someone, look in the mirror. This isn't directed at you Jay. It's meant for me, you and everyone who pays these prices and whines about it. Let's face it. Read the posts - money and bang for the buck get no consideration from many of the people on this site. We got people ordering DTXtreme's and all they got to go on is a picture, the manufacturer's reputation and sales literature. That's their right and we all do it to one extent or another. But many people won't be able to afford V's because of it. That's the way it is.

Hey, I normally don't rant, but the moon is full.

[This message has been edited by Boingo (edited January 10, 2001).]

[jrcel]

These companies take full advantage of people's lack of knowlege about synthesizer technology and all that applies to it. So do your homework and become familiar with sample rates, memory, all facets of interfaces and the like and it'll only help in the long run. I've watched the Vdrum demo over and over and I swear I can only hear a tonal difference when he gets almost to the very edge of the snare pad. So you're only talking two seperrate samples on the surface and one on the rim for position, more in velocity which is right for a snare drum. I just don't think it's worth $4995 list so I can help Roland pay their R&D bills. The second Vdrum kit costs $4995, the first one was half a million dollars and the savings are passed along to you, the consumer. Sorry for my rant. And rave.

[Marc.]

Originally posted by jrcel:
Sorry for my rant. And rave.

S'OK, glad you decided to stay. Fortunately, for the fiscally concious consumer, there are satisfactory alternatives to Roland.

~~~~
-

[jrcel]

None of the majors want to do anything significant with edrums because Roalnd and Yamaha have cornered the market, except for niche manufacturers, they're about it. I'd like to see Roland or Yamaha pick up this machine and offer something that their main modules don't do.

[sepdrums]

Dauz pads are not dead. Hart Dynamics will be distributing them.

Erik
SEP

[jrcel]

No ****, that's great, maybe Hart wil do the Event Staion as well, you really brightned ,my day, thanks.