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how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:10 am
by Phigure
i'm thinking about developing and manufacturing a professional quality audio interface at prices attractive to amateur and hobbyist producers/musicians
i'm kind of thinking of a powerful device with nearly everything you could need. xlr/1/4" inch jacks with phantom power, a couple outs, a couple ins, some MIDI jacks, etc, all over USB for as cheap as possible. highest quality components, cirrus converters, etc, etc.
on top of that it's going to be all centered around 800 mips of power from a dualcore DSP processor. exactly what kind of stuff i'm going to have it do, i don't know exactly yet, but i've got some nice ideas...
my dad owns two pick and place machines and an oven, so i've got everything i need to place components and solder them. starting with only an inital run of about 150 devices, I figure i could make them at a cost to me of about $50 total. probably going to be selling them at $100 + shipping.
comments/feedback/suggestions are much appreciated
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:14 am
by upstateface
What makes them special, other than that they are cheap, and made with love by you?
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:16 am
by Phigure
upstateface wrote:What makes them special, other than that they are cheap, and made with love by you?
the dsp functionality that it's going to have. like i said, i don't exactly know what yet, but it'll be awesome.
other than that though, it's really just going to be the fact that it's hella cheap
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:17 am
by upstateface
Phigure wrote:upstateface wrote:What makes them special, other than that they are cheap, and made with love by you?
the dsp functionality that it's going to have. like i said, i don't exactly know what yet, but it'll be awesome.
other than that though, it's really just going to be the fact that it's hella cheap
I would be interested.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:49 am
by Disco Nutter
Sounds cool, but it should be really stable and pretty good looking.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 8:58 am
by nowaysj
Drivers. Rock solid, low latency drivers.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:00 am
by deadly_habit
nowaysj wrote:Drivers. Rock solid, low latency drivers.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:04 am
by Phigure
nowaysj wrote:Drivers. Rock solid, low latency drivers.
Definitely a high priority. wouldn't even release it if i didnt nail it
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:08 am
by deadly_habit
since you have access to this shizzle how bout a low cost portable battery powered phantom power box
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:14 am
by Phigure
deadly habit wrote:since you have access to this shizzle how bout a low cost portable battery powered phantom power box
i don't see why not
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:10 am
by Sirius
Phigure wrote:deadly habit wrote:since you have access to this shizzle how bout a low cost portable battery powered phantom power box
i don't see why not
couldn't ya just make a simple DI box & wire up 5 9v batteries to the hot wire??
!!chea
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:42 am
by gnome
Product support might be a hassle
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:58 pm
by back2onett
Digital connectivity (SPDIF/ADAT)? Also, focusrite already does fairly cheap interfaces with dsp.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 1:07 pm
by Ascian
I think this is a great idea..! The idea of it being handmade (as long as it looks good) would appeal to a lot of people I think!
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 4:42 pm
by Kochari
Hell yes I would buy that.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 4:47 pm
by upstateface
Needs to be covered in shitloads of LED's for the bitches, bitches love LED's.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 4:49 pm
by kaiori breathe
Not that I don't have faith in your ability to build such an item to a strong level of quality but home made products can be anywhere between iffy and spectacular, there's rarely a middle ground I find - It worries me a little when the guy making them is selling it with the pitch "my dad has an oven, it'll be awesome"
Finish one, make a demo vid and post it on youtube = I'll buy it if it doesn't look like it's held together with bits of masking tape and glitter glue and actually does what it's meant to.
Oh, and bitches do love LEDs.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 4:57 pm
by Phigure
upstateface wrote:Needs to be covered in shitloads of LED's for the bitches, bitches love LED's.
oh trust me, i've got hella sexy LEDs
and yeah, i forgot to mention it, but SPDIF is definitely planned
kaiori breathe wrote:Not that I don't have faith in your ability to build such an item to a strong level of quality but home made products can be anywhere between iffy and spectacular, there's rarely a middle ground I find - It worries me a little when the guy making them is selling it with the pitch "my dad has an oven, it'll be awesome"
Finish one, make a demo vid and post it on youtube = I'll buy it if it doesn't look like it's held together with bits of masking tape and glitter glue and actually does what it's meant to.
Oh, and bitches do love LEDs.
I totally understand your skepticism and all. all i meant by "my dad owns two pick and place machines and an oven" is that i've got access to machines which are the professional standard for doing this sort of thing. my dad's been using them for years, and i've worked with them tons as well, so i'm quite experienced in operating them. just to give you an idea, we did a run of a couple thousand flash memory units on these machines. the machines are pretty killer, they can place tiny little components as small as .4 x .4 mm and place them accurately up to like .05mm, placing hundreds of these a minute. the oven is also a professional grade reflow oven used for melting the solder paste upon which the components sit and basically soldering all these components at once
i'll definitely demo the unit a bit before i sell it, and it'll go through a few revisions anyways. thanks for the feedback
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 5:28 pm
by mta7388
this is almost exactly what i'm looking for right now, i want to upgrade from my inspire. as long as its stable i would definitely be interested. $100 is a great price if it comes with all you mentioned.
Re: how much interest is there for a product like this?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 5:31 pm
by paravrais
I'm very interested in this, especially as my current audio interface is garbage XD From what I've seen of your posts around here I figure you won't go to the selling it stage unless you know it's gonna do the business. That said I would still need to see videos etc before making a purchase though.
On a side note, make it look damn sexy, that's priority one. I'm a sucker for nice looking kit. Also black/red as a colour theme would fit nicely with the rest of my studio...just sayin