Title link takes you to an interesting bit of synth history. When Synthesizers.com first came about people questioned whether it was real or another hoax like the
Bahn Sage.
"Monday morning I woke up to many dozens of emails with 'synthesizers.com' in the subject. Wow, something has happened - but what? As I start reading them, some are not very nice. This is a unexpected slap in the face for 3 years work, but why? Come to find out, a few weeks/months earlier, a prankster had posted a professionally created set of graphics depicting a new synth which had duped many people. Not being a reader of the Analog Heaven mail list, I missed the story. Paul Schrieber of Synthesis-Technology who lives nearby told me about it at lunch one day but I had no idea it was such a big deal and caused such a big stink. Anyway, this caused many folks to assume my work was another plot to overthrow the analog synth world. They began by pixel-picking the Q119 Sequencer picture which caused me a lot of grief to create. This was compounded by my whimsical depiction of a synth monolith linked to the home page. And I was so proud of my new found PhotoShop abilities too! On top of that, there were even questions about the photographs I had taken on the About Us page which were only cropped before placing on the website."
It's a fascinating read and it really makes you wonder about the
SMS 2000. Another manufacturer that was questioned was Cwejman. I remember when renders first appeared of the S1. People questioned whether it was yet another hoax.
Elhardt even had a little fun:
"Just like the Cwejman and Dotcom, I kind of wanted people to suspect me. I
even faked a picture of a Cwejman sitting in my rack to just lead people
into thinking it was a hoax. That makes it more fun. I prefer to just keep
quiet and make people suspicious."
Well, Cwejman and Synthesizers.com are most definitely real. The SMS 2000? Time will tell. The one thing to note is that with both Synthesizers.com and Cwejman, the manufacturers and others came out relatively quickly, putting the rumors of a hoax to rest. That hasn't happened with the SMS 2000 yet. Anyone out there know anything? : )