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| ▲ | swiftcoder 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| > I'm just going off what regular typing keyboards go for. It's not that long ago that a mechanical keyboard with Hall-effect switches and individually-addressable LEDs would have set you back a couple of grand. The mechanical keyboard scene has exerted really significant downward pressure on the cost of this sort of thing - something that likely doesn't hit the music world due to lower volumes |
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| ▲ | Fnoord 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Hall effect by Wooting costs like a few hunderd EUR and have been around for quite some years, and this one with OLED is from 2007, costing 1600 USD (not worth it IMO) [1]. You don't typically look at your keyboard, same with toich bar. I guess there's a niche ie. Stream Deck (also overpriced). Doubt keys last long, given OLED burn-in. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard |
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| ▲ | Blackthorn 18 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Lot of finicky keys with velocity sensitivity and polyphonic after touch. |
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| ▲ | Palomides 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| if they sell 100 of these per year (which I doubt), with profit of $3000 per unit (which I also doubt), that pays enough to employ like one person (who needs to handle sales, support, marketing, three or four different kinds of engineering, etc.) |
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| ▲ | fipar 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I’ve only seen videos of this keyboard but never played one. With that disclaimer out of the way, the price is comparable to mid-range clavinova models. The clavinova does have a piano-like body, very very good built in sounds (including binaural for 2 types of piano in mine), and built in speakers, so there’s that. On the other hand, this one says “built to order” while clavinovas are not. All this to say that, while expensive, it does not seem outrageous if the keyboard plays good. This one has after touch too, which makes it more comparable with a synth than a digital piano (though I understand this one is just a controller). |
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| ▲ | viccis an hour ago | parent [-] | | Clavinovas in that range have very intricate internal actions and don't have simple 1 year warranties lol |
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| ▲ | fxwin 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > I'm just going off what regular typing keyboards go for. Are there any regular typing keyboards with velocity sensitive keys? I genuinely don't know, it's just the first thing I'd compare this to |
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| ▲ | swiftcoder 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Are there any regular typing keyboards with velocity sensitive keys? I genuinely don't know Yes, a number of the mechanical keyboards that use Hall effect switches let you access the velocity data. Wooting has an official SDK, and there are community-supported drivers for a number of Keychron boards | |
| ▲ | gcanyon 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yeah, velocity definitely jumped out at me as a difference, but it seems(?) like being velocity-sensitive could 2x the cost, maybe even 3x, but not 10x ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm absolutely not calling it over-priced, just puzzled. | | |
| ▲ | ianthehenry 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Well the only moving part in a typing keyboards is a mass-produced switch that you slot into a PCB. There are mass-produced hall effect switches that can provide velocity sensitivity, but it's a pretty distant comparison. The keys on a lumatone aren't anything like buttons; they're weighted mechanical arms with significant travel -- much more like a piano key than a keyboard key. And it has 280 of these! The degree of mechanical hardware in this thing makes it seem not really comparable to a PCB with some switches slotted into it. That said! There are people making DIY isomorphic keyboards using hall-effect keyboard switches. None are commercially available right now, but see e.g. the MidiHex at https://gullsonix.co.uk/. You could make one for a fraction of the cost of a lumatone -- but of course it would be a very different instrument. |
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| ▲ | Johanx64 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Lets presume this thing retails at - very unrealistic low price - of $500. How many people would buy this weird thing per month - even at this low price point?
10? 50? 100? Imagine you're an engineer and your competency is worth $200,000/year.
If this retailed at 1/10th - as you suggested - so $500, and lets generously say you make $100usd per unit at this price point. You have to atleast sell ~166 of these "weird" niche things per month, every month, no exceptions to match. And you're probably not a single person, so way more. Can you? And why bother? More importantly, can you even make these things for $400usd when your order quantity is only 166units per month? And this is after spending years(?) in development, and some non negligible amount of cap ex. |
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| ▲ | luqtas 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| > Any idea why something like this costs $5,000? It seems like manufacturing costs would justify 1/10th of that maybe? welcome to Capitalism and Niche Products sir |
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| ▲ | Johanx64 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | What does it have to do with "Capitalism" per se? If you have a well made, but very niche product that sells in very small volumes it will be expensive. If any of the labour & assembly happens in US that turns it into unavoidable inevitability. If it was cheaper, it would be a loss making hobby. A country without "capitalism" wouldn't make such product for sale to begin with. | | |
| ▲ | luqtas 10 minutes ago | parent [-] | | maybe a society which has laws and regulations voted by citizens (anarchy for example) commercial products shouldn't profit over 700% or some absurdity which caps the 5000 usd number... it's not like velocity sensible keys are expensive or overly complex to produce micro-tonal instruments are prevalent in various cultures which weren't flooded by Europe and then North America by hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. it's pretty easy to find examples on countries inside Africa and Asia |
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