Saw DigiSynth first-hand last night... |8~O

[flecom]

I am quite dissappointed at the hostile attitudes displayed in this thread. For the record, I've been negotiating with Chuck for over a month now about him attending SELEM. Imagine how he feels when members of the community that will be attending the event are attacking his product WITHOUT EVER HAVING EVEN SEEN IT. Yeah, that's sure to make him want to attend...

meh, trolls will be trolls... anyway, like I told Chuck in my posts, my posts were not meant as attacks or to somehow lessen what he has done, just kind of a reality check about the kind of people that are here I guess... and my opinions... and opinions are like as... well, you know lol

I posted about Digisynth back in September, after I returned from the ILDA cruise. I explained how cool I thought it was. Where was all of your skepticism back then? Oh, but now that DrLava is talking about it, you suddenly doubt that it could really be that good? Is your memory really that short?

pretty sure I was whining about the price then too lol

It's definitely expensive when compared to a sound card DAC.

In all fairness I am pretty sure I am the only one that brought up sound card DAC's and under the reasoning that you could use DS and output via a sound card DAC if you did not want to buy a transcoder... don't think anyone was comparing the price of DS to a sound card dac as thats obviously silly

I would love to see a demo at SELEM (I <3 abstracts)... but I still cant see myself ever putting out $4k on DS... unless I really just have money to burn for whatever reason

additionally...

Chuck and Matt have even talked about the possibility of releasing an "intro" version without the transcoder, which would bring the price down to something between an FB3 and an LD-2000 intro. There was even some talk about demo units being available in time for SELEM.

I would put down $1k on an "intro" version of DS in a heartbeat... and I'm broke lol

they could simply sell it as a downloadable software package and let users figure out their output device (modified sound card dac/fancy ADAT transcoder whatever) and then slap a "AS-IS WHERE-IS" clause on it and call it a day

[JohnYayas]

It isn't that hard to do a little research and come up with some real time software oscillators. It isn't that hard to be able to chain one or more together. To make it user friendly and make it so that it doesn't just produce a bunch of garbage takes laser domain experience. That, and considering that the target audience for this stuff is tiny means that years of development are going to come at a high price. I'm confident that a group of laser enthusiasts with time and software skills could come up with something comparable. It just take a lot of time and experimentation. Most aren't willing to do that for free. At least not for long.

So, yea, professional laser software is expensive and always will be. If you are a programmer and want to work for peanuts, come on board and join me. We'll come up with some stuff. It won't be worth your time, though. And, that's why you don't see cheap laser software.

Not knockin' anyone's stuff. Just telling it like it is... take that from someone who knows what he's talkin' 'bout, Willis.

[mixedgas]

Chuck,

Let me know in time to order the glasses and borrow the yellow hene...

Steve

[blowfly]

I love this thread because it shows how passionate people are. Admittedly I was excited about DigiSynth until I saw the price, then I was just inspired. When I got into this hobby 18 months ago I thought abstracts were the coolest thing and I really wanted to write a cool abstract generator. Once I got the projector working with QS, I quickly became seduced by the beams. Now that my hardware and paperwork are all done, I think it's time to get back to software. I know enough to see from the output that the abstract generator in DigiSynth is pretty amazing. There is a lot of depth, flexibility, and sequencing control that I can't imagine how how many man hours it took to develop...

Mike

[catalanjo]

I love this thread because it shows how passionate people are. Admittedly I was excited about DigiSynth until I saw the price, then I was just inspired.
Mike

I am still thinking of robbing a bank! .... LOL

Cheers

[gottaluvlasers]

This thread is VERY interesting in a few different areas-

1) it shows how passionate and "protective" alot of members here are of this art form. It is interesting to see people (some, not all) bash a product, talk negatively about a product or say how simplistic it is without so much as seeing the box that said hardware/software comes in. (half of the technical crap being spoken about in this thread i dont even understand but i could tell you that after only 6 years i nthis profession of doing shows and using approx. 4 PROFESSIONAL software packages, how digisynth is being described is *nothing* like i have ever seen or used before in the past. admittedly, i do not do huge, 10 projector shows for olympic stadiums or anything, but i have done and am doing some pretty good shows and this software *seems* quite different than anything i have ever used or seen before.

2) It shows just how spoiled and negatively affected alot of you are with the on slaught (sp?) of cheapo laser crap and chinese influences on this profession. Laser light show profession is an art form and is *SUPPOSED* to be a "high tech" profession and hobby. Too many of you judge a product as expensive not being worth it. WHAT? when i first got into this profession, my first 2.5W laser cost $13,000. Now you get a 2.5W laser free with a happy meal purchase. there is an ENORMOUS difference (to a point) between the pro laser market and the hobbyist level market. They are COMPLETELY and 100% different and should NOT be confused any longer. DigiSytnth is not designed (IMHO) for 99% of the people here. I am NOT saying that in a derogatory manner or saying that none of you arent worth it. Dont misconstrue what i am saying.

But because most of you dont do shows professionally (professionally is NOT refering to your skill level, it is in reference to you doing a laser shows as a living) you assume and automatically try to put this system down and i find that a little off putting. laser equipment is SUPPOSED to be expensive. PERIOD. the cheap crap that is coming out that any joe, bob or sam can go out and buy is what is KILLING this profession. i have customers on both sides of the coin. i have about 70% of my business from other laser companies and industry and about 25-30% is hobby and amateur. I obviously wont divulge exact numbers or business proprietary info, but the laser company and industry gross yearly income is about Quadruple (literally) the hobby and amateur income. while the QTY of items sold is less than half that of that hobby/amateur community. While on that same note, the avg sale for co. and industry is literally about 11X the amount for Amateur.

The funny thing is, the defects and failure rates for my lower end or "entry level" products that is sold to the amateur/hobby market mostly are at approx 47%-54% while the more expensive stuff is below 1% (literally). (and i track this stuff with diligence) My point of all this is there is a strong market for both. But what is happenening is the lines are beginning to be crossed as to what is meant for "pros" and what is meant for "amateur" or entry level.

It is sad that people are considering a professional level laser software system at $4000 to "not be worth it." OK, it may not be worth it to you (or, quite honestly for me either) but that doesnt mean it isnt worth it! I bet you hugo or LFI or Jon at DayStar would find uses in these systems!

i get calls ALL the time asking for prices and its sickening when i hear, "$1400 for scanners? are you nuts? i can get "XYZ Chinese" for $300." LOL- ok, great...go buy those! You can buy a lexus or you can buy a dodge neon. ill let YOU decide which one is going to be better.

Sorry, i didnt mean to go on a rant. but alot of you are getting spoiled BIG TIME and are completely out of your minds when you try to compare a $500 scanner set to a $1500 scanner set. Or a $500 software suite with a $4000 software suite. there is an entry level market and a hobbyist/amateur market. then there is a professional market. They are COMPLETELY different and i think we all need to start remembering that.

<<End Rant!>>

-Marc

[sugeek]

Marc,

It is good to read your opinion, I agree at most points. I sure hope that Chuck + crew can make it to SELEM. After seeing the magic that DSLI + Laserium has with magic black boxes, I appreciate the work that digisynth has in it. Yes, I do have it added to my nickels and dimes fund!

-Adam

[JohnYayas]

This is 99% a hobby forum and 99% of the 1% who are not hobbyists on here are to make a sales presense. It's cool to hear about new stuff but what do you really expect? What reaction do you think a Ferrari salesman would get when he announced his new Ferrari model in the DIY Camaro modifiers forum? I'm sure people would be intrigued and appreciate it but at the same time you are going to get plenty of folks who say, "Why would I buy that when my souped up Camaro already goes 160 for a portion of the cost?" You have to put everything into perspective.

No one is spoiled here. We just have limited resourses and go with what we can. The responses within this thread are to be expected. They may not be pleasant, but they are not really out of line, in my opinion.

[dnar]

i can get wing tang tong scanners for $300.
-Marc

Hi Marc.

Say, you got a link for them there wing tang tong scanners?

[carlos3621]

"What reaction do you think a Ferrari salesman would get when he announced his new Ferrari model in the DIY Camaro modifiers forum? I'm sure people would be intrigued and appreciate it but at the same time you are going to get plenty of folks who say, "Why would I buy that when my souped up Camaro already goes 160 for a portion of the cost?" You have to put everything into perspective."


Except that,
this is NOT a Pangolin forum, this is a lasers / light show equipment forum.
The same way you can come on here and sell your software , should make it o.k for any other laser lightshow related software co. to sell theirs....

What All this really boils down to, is people whining about stuff they cant afford...


this board may be 99% hobbiest, but last time i checked, it was not limited to.

my .02

"now go get your shoe shine box!"