Launching the Web shop
2017-08-01 shop news MSK 010 MSK 008 corn dog
This is it! After many delays I'm happy to finally cut the virtual ribbon and open this Web shop.
Take a look around; most things should be self-explanatory. I customized the theme a bit and am not certain everything will work on all browsers, so if you notice something about the Web shop that doesn't seem to be working right, please let me know.
I'm launching with one product, the MSK 010 Fixed Sine Bank. Those who've been following my online presence for a while will recognize it as the same module (though further developed now) that I featured in my video stream series last year. The idea actually goes all the way back to when I first started playing a modular synth several years ago. I bought my first modules, played with them, and found that I kept wishing I had a sine-wave LFO. Fortunately, I'd saved a bit of my starting budget to buy "whatever seems necessary after I get the first modules," and I ended up using that to get a Dr. Octature, which in LFO mode produces eight sine waves. But... they're all phase-shifted versions of a single wave, so using them to modulate different parameters of a patch doesn't explore the space as fully as we might hope. The MSK 010, then, amounts to the module that I wished for myself and couldn't find for sale. The LFOs in it don't have many features, and in particular they don't have even manually adjustable frequency control let alone CV, but there are a lot of them in a small space and they're proper sine waves, without the jarring corners of triangle LFOs.
As you can see on the product page, there are a few different versions available - pre-assembled in three different frequency variants, a DIY kit, or bare boards for people who want to do their own sourcing or maybe adapt it into a non-Eurorack modular format. I really don't know how many orders to expect in these first few days; the kits and boards should last for a while but just to start I've only built out three assembled modules in each of the three variants. If those go quickly, don't worry - I have parts to build many more as needed and that won't take long. You might drop me a line to hurry up if the variant you want isn't in stock, but I'm not planning to run any formal pre-order process at the moment.
The MSK 008 Dual VC Octave Switch is in the works, and I'm hoping to launch it by September. I'm excited about this one and some of the people I've talked to about it seem to be excited, too. The current status is that it's waiting for the first batch of front panels, due in mid-August, and there's still a question mark on that because I'm getting them from a new supplier I haven't used before. Almost all other aspects of the design are completed and I've written most of the manual.
The Leapfrog Filter, which was actually the first product I contemplated making when I made the decision to drop out of school and start the business, is going to be a little further down the road. The design was more or less complete a year ago, but I haven't touched it since then as I worked on the sine bank and the octave switch, and I have to go back through everything again to make sure it's still up-to-date. Then to be honest, I also need some of the money from sales of the first two modules to fund final development and initial production of that one, because it has several expensive parts in it. No effort was or will be spared in making it the best Leapfrog VCF ever, and I think it still would be the best one ever even if it weren't also the only leapfrog-topology synthesizer VCF ever. I hope you'll all find it worth the wait.
I plan to update this Web log at least once a week even if I don't have product-related news and announcements. Maybe I'll post stuff about using synthesizers, links to music I like, the realities of the modular synth business, and so on. Right now as I write this on the evening before launch day (which will also be my birthday) I can't think of much else besides selling modules, but I'll probably find other things to say here in the future. よろしくお願いします as they say in Japanese - I hope for your favour. And, of course, I hope you'll buy lots of modules, and share links to my shop on your social networks.
Finally, so that you can put a face to these words, here's a picture of me eating a disappointing, but generously sized, corn dog at a festival a few weeks ago.
