"i can confirm this. Looks like hartmann is nearly bancrupt. The story
is that the manufacturer of the nuke controllers for the Mini neuron sold unauthorised a batch
of 600 Neuron Vs to two big german music retailers (Music store Koeln) offering the Vs for
149 Euros!. (List price 699 Euros)
hartman posted that these models are not supported and won't get neither support nor the important modelmaker software available only on registration. Hartmann took legal steps on the sales.- check the hartmann forum and KVR for more infos- You could argue what made the manufacturer sell the stuff on their own. However, the sad thing at the end is that
this incidents might have broken the neck of a very innovative company that has taken the risk of releasing highly innovative synthesizers . it made me very sad to read a lot of posts
of people getting this amazing technology for nearly nothing and still bitching about missing support! , spitting on hartmans grave in public. This sucks ass! On the other side many users offered hartmann their support in paying the difference to
the retailprice to support the companies existence or pay for future software updates. If they are really insolvent, I hope hartman find a strong and forward thinking partner whos buys the intellectual property and takes it
where it belongs: into a proper
21st century electronic instrument beyond the usual virtual-analog-substractive-additive-FM-granular-wavetasble. i played with the neuron for 2 hours at the Musikmesse 2004 and was exremly pleased with the bizarre spectrums you could get out of this beauty.
Not to mention the great futuristic design. Only the pricepoint really kept me from getting one, so i was more than thrilled when they released the Mini neuron offering this amazing technology for a sort of affordable price throwing even a controller into the Vst package.
Well, the software suffered from a few bugs and update policy wasn't really the best, but still i think it was more than worth the price if you are into experimental electronics seeking an out of the ordinary instrument & sonic playground with a different interface concept and a refreshing approach on(re)synthesis. I just love the idea being able to create a synthesis model out of any audio source and use this as a sort of oscilator model for further tweaking.
What makes this instrument very special is the realtime acces with the joystic and that very tiny movements sometimes break the entire spectrum of a sound leaving you totally stunned what is going on. this is real audio sex. So get one while they last..and support your local synth manufacturer!!!!!! in ten years they wil be worth tons of money when using them with your time frozen vintage XP VST 2 system using an open source tweaked Logic5 PC clone. ;-) .. and i will be with you then.
Best,
Mike "
Title link takes you to Sonic State's notes on the Harmann rumors going around. They also included a link to their Winder NAMM05 Video coverage of Hartmann including demos of both the Neuron Keyboard and the Neuron VS. Amazing pads in the demo.
There are rumors about Hartmann troubles with one of their dealer. Anyway, I didn't like the demo of the namm. So far I can't find anything that demonstrates me that a Neuron can sounds so different from other, and relatively cheaper, synthesizers.
ReplyDeleteLuca
i can confirm this. Looks like hartmann is nearly bancrupt. The story
ReplyDeleteis that the manufacturer of the nuke controllers for the Mini neuron sold unauthorised a batch
of 600 Neuron Vs to two big german music retailers (Music store Koeln) offering the Vs for
149 Euros!. (List price 699 Euros)
hartman posted that these models are not supported and won't get neither support nor the important modelmaker software available only on registration. Hartmann took legal steps on the sales.- check the hartmann forum and KVR for more infos- You could argue what made the manufacturer sell the stuff on their own. However, the sad thing at the end is that
this incidents might have broken the neck of a very innovative company that has taken the risk of releasing highly innovative synthesizers . it made me very sad to read a lot of posts
of people getting this amazing technology for nearly nothing and still bitching about missing support! , spitting on hartmans grave in public. This sucks ass! On the other side many users offered hartmann their support in paying the difference to
the retailprice to support the companies existence or pay for future software updates. If they are really insolvent, I hope hartman find a strong and forward thinking partner whos buys the intellectual property and takes it
where it belongs: into a proper
21st century electronic instrument beyond the usual virtual-analog-substractive-additive-FM-granular-wavetasble. i played with the neuron for 2 hours at the Musikmesse 2004 and was exremly pleased with the bizarre spectrums you could get out of this beauty.
Not to mention the great futuristic design. Only the pricepoint really kept me from getting one, so i was more than thrilled when they released the Mini neuron offering this amazing technology for a sort of affordable price throwing even a controller into the Vst package.
Well, the software suffered from a few bugs and update policy wasn't really the best, but still i think it was more than worth the price if you are into experimental electronics seeking an out of the ordinary instrument & sonic playground with a different interface concept and a refreshing approach on(re)synthesis. I just love the idea being able to create a synthesis model out of any audio source and use this as a sort of oscilator model for further tweaking.
What makes this instrument very special is the realtime acces with the joystic and that very tiny movements sometimes break the entire spectrum of a sound leaving you totally stunned what is going on. this is real audio sex. So get one while they last..and support your local synth manufacturer!!!!!! in ten years they wil be worth tons of money when using them with your time frozen vintage XP VST 2 system using an open source tweaked Logic5 PC clone. ;-) .. and i will be with you then.
Best,
Mike