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I had a Roland Jupiter Xm for about 20 days before returning it. The best piece of instruction I found was a youtube video by some guy not associated with Roland. He really dug into the instrument and did a great presentation. I assume he does this for the clicks/subscriptions. People like that are making jobs like Ed's less indispensable.

 

I look at a company like Nord and feel like it must be a pretty good place to work, maybe that's due to a relative absence of "suits." But then people complain about how expensive Nords are. We hate it when "suits" make a decision like this, but at the same time we want our gear priced as cheaply as possible.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Sorry to hear about Ed but, Roland has been struggling since their main guy left and started Spectrasonics.
Yamaha MODX8, Korg Kronos 2 61, Hammond B3, Novation 61SL MKII, Impulse 61, Roland D-550, Proteus 2000, etc......to name a few.
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I haven't considered Roland since they bought Rodgers Organs, and refused to sell me parts or service documentation. (when I had been doing repairs on them for years). Directly affected my business. I've only owned a single used Roland board, which was a repair job for a customer that never picked it up (a decade later, gave it to a church musician for home use).

 

Like Marazz, I've been fired twice, and wound up better off each time. Can NOT be fired now, own my own business.

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I noticed none of Ed Diaz's fellow demo guys from Roland or the other companies have said anything on social media, maybe out of respect or they fear for their own jobs? Pretty much everything I learned on the Roland products over the years has largely been due to Ed, he's also responsible for many of my Roland purchases.
You don't know you're in the dark until you're in the light.
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I'm truly sorry to hear that Ed lost his job.

 

But, I have never nor will I ever own a single piece of Roland gear.

 

 

"In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome.

So God helped him and created woman.

 

Now everybody's got the blues."

 

Willie Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

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I liked Ed's vids...he gave you fast clues with a players vib.... not a used car salesman's vib... more of a view from the trenches... and I liked that about him w his Roland reviews.

 

The little guy is paying for those upper management salaries as someone said, that is still going on across the board in the Corp. world now that that has become common practice.

If the President or VP's were making lets say a mill a year... this year, based on the board of directors approval, and if there was enough earnings (even if not), they expect it to go up 500K and convince themselves they can work with less staff and they pressure lower management to come up with the 'cut' lists for their Dept./Divisions. ... that's how people came to take on 2-3 work loads held by others in the previous economy before 2001.

 

I am the only software developer in my dept now... 5 years ago there were 4-5 others .... upper management's salaries had gone up in 500 K increments in almost each of the 5 years where I am....maybe a bit less but still up there.

We are just tax write off's for these clowns..... just like today's politic in general ... back pocket bingo!

 

Many many times this is the actual case and they 'cut' people to pay the big dogs and dogesses raises, salaries and bonuses!

 

I'm like Carlin - F 'Em! I was laid off so many times in between both those recessions (2001/2007) and upper management often kept getting raises... Just F'm because there is no integrity in that economic disparity... they are like common street hoods only with a lot of dough! Really thievery, not always, sometimes the companies need to cut to survive but the upper crusty monies needed are the case more often than many folks may think..

 

rant over...

 

 

 CP-50, YC 73,  FP-80, PX5-S, NE-5d61, Kurzweil SP6, XK-3, CX-3, Hammond XK-3, Yamaha YUX Upright, '66 B3/Leslie 145/122

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Not sure why I feel invested in this thread. Maybe because I just laid out $3600 for a Roland keyboard. I think it sucks Ed was laid off. I think corporate execs make too much money and hate the trend that they keep making more. But I'm just not understanding the logic of switching to a different company because of this. Does Kurzweil even employ a video-producing product specialist like Ed? Looks to me like they contract that stuff out. No bennies. So how does that make Kurzweil better? Yamaha still does, but Yamaha is a way bigger corporation than Roland. Suits galore.

 

It's absolutely true the suits will make decisions based on what deepens their pockets and the pockets of shareholders. It follows that if they think someone like Ed is helping sell gear, they'll keep him on board. Of course they could be wrong in their calculations, but I don't know why we should expect them to approach this as anything but a business decision.

 

I'm proud that I own a Crumar (used to own 2!), where the company elite are also the designers and also happen to be the guys who respond to your email if you have a question. And it's Italian!! But they also contract out most of their video-making duties.

 

At the end of the day, I think we buy the stuff that best helps us make music.

 

Water finds it's own level, and talented people find their niche. I hope and believe Ed will be ok.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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What I wish is there was more transparency and communication as regards the R&D. It seems so opaque, the decisions made to pursue a particular strategy and what the long term goal is.

 

Some of that was gleaned when the Kronos came out, turns out Korg had been working on the computer in a keyboard concept since '94, and was able to fully implement when it was cheap enough to do it. Yamaha has asked for customer input on what keyboards they'd like next, or features, that's good. I just wish there was a lot more of that going on, this is a relatively small marketplace.

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He should call Ulli B.

 

Uli already has someone named "Ned Diaz" on the payroll doing that job. ;):roll:

 

 

Lol you"re probably right Sven and he"s probably getting paid a fraction of what Ed got. Ed"s videos were a great helping to me dig deeper into the FA07. I hope he lands on his feet.

Yamaha MODX8, Legend Live.
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I don't know exactly who runs Roland or their keyboard division.

 

I am suspicious that the suits wanted a new face to represent Fantom videos [ training/support]

and Ed was left out in the cold.

 

To peel this onion further, maybe Fantom sales have stalled.

And since there is so much $$ involved , it got political on the promotional/marketing side.

 

I think marketing is a heavy weight in Roland, more so than a Korg or a Yamaha.

 

Just my observation. I have no inside dope.

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

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Sadly, if you look at product specialist videos from companies like Steinberg, Spectrasonics, and the like, you'll see a visual trend that is very different from the image that Mr. Diaz puts out there.

 

Seems as though knowledge and demeanor has nothing to with what companies now choose as their "face" ; we live in a world where everyone must LOOK hip, trendy, beautiful, and young.

 

I really liked the Roland videos from Ed Diaz much more than the ones I've seen from Cubase and Spectrasonics and their "beautiful, hip people" in them.

 

Big business spares no feelings, most unfortunately. Hopefully Ed will go somewhere where content and experience is valued over superficial, shallow image, and be appreciated for who he is and what he brings to the table.

 

 

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None of us really know either side of the situation. But I expect someone with Ed's skills and experience will end up on his feet somewhere. Joking aside, he should slip his CV to Behringer - they're growing the synth side of their business, andwould benefit from the quality stateside representation that Ed could bring.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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To peel this onion further, maybe Fantom sales have stalled.

 

I tried to find figures to confirm/deny this; nothing so far. Maybe it's too soon for publicly released data. Possibly Sven might have some info?

 

I have wondered about slow Fantom sales though. I've owned a Fantom 7 since mid-October, 2019. Other than Ed's videos I've found the tutorial support to be quite spotty. Manuals are okay, though; have gotten some traction from that.

The experience of owning the instrument has been a mix of "Yay, great!" and "Where TF are they going with this?". Often it reminds me of the Kurzweil PC-3X I picked up in early 2008, just past Beta. Lot's of cool sounds (though few practical bread 'n butter combinations); the structure was still being pulled together. And the thing needed scores of OS updates.

I feel that the Fantom was released a bit early; NAMM might've been more appropriate. And there are some features/functions that could've been in place, but weren't. One especially being an existing drawbar organ engine clearly referred to in earlier videos.

 

I'm wondering who Roland has in place to carry the info/educational process forward on the Fantom. As someone who sunk around $3K into the instrument, I expect Ed's large footprint to be filled well, and for new OS updates to expertly supported. Considering what the suits appear to be up too, I'm having doubts about that. We'll see. Maybe I'll soon be supporting the lightly-used Fantom market.

 

This whole thing with Ed's firing stinks, big-time!

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

We need a barfing cat emoticon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Extrapolating from Ed's firing to disappointing Fantom sales seems a bit of a stretch, especially since no one here seems to know how the Fantom is actually selling.

 

Roland's decision to issue the Fantom without a complete set of flagship-quality sounds is certainly second-guessable. But count me among those who think it's a great keyboard, and worth the price, even as is. The semi-weighted keyboard is a new best in class, as are the UI and the touchscreen. The VA synth is wonderful. The stuff that's weak will no doubt be improved, but we don't know how much.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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The stuff that's weak will no doubt be improved, but we don't know how much.

 

 

Thats a good lawyer type hedge.

 

Or it can go either way depending on the jury.

 

 

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

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...and I felt sure it was going to be for the terrible user manuals Roland have been curling out.

 

That's one reason why I have only one Roland piece in my arsenal, and it's a PM16 drum to MIDI converter. Roland manuals are poor quality, too much engrish and poorly organized. Roland is hardly alone.

 

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Man the f up! This is real life, where bad stuff happens to good folks all the time. If you did some research, you probably say f every company in the world, because they're all in business to make money, period. Very, very few companies realize that a) making the customer happy, and b) treating the employees with respect results in c) happy shareholders. Feel free not to buy anything ever again, my friend.

 

Yes, I work and live in the real world.

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Layoffs are happening at more than Roland. I don't want to get political, but the tariffs have hit a lot of audio companies really hard. Any company whose primary market is the US, and has goods made in China, is hurting. I don't know how much Roland gear is made in China, but if it's a significant amount, that could be a factor.

 

The industry is so competitive companies are afraid to raise prices - although I think if a couple of the major players raise prices and break the logjam, so will everyone else. Most companies are currently eating the additional cost. With thin margins, the additional financial hit is a problem.

 

The last people who are going to be fired in any company are the ones who are actually in the trenches selling the gear. Education is more of the benefit of people who own the gear, and if they've already bought the gear... Now, I happen to believe that education is also what motivates a lot of people to buy gear, but in the immortal words of Herman Cain, "I don't have facts to back this up."

 

True story: several years ago, I pitched a company that had horrible manuals (not Roland) on revising one of their manuals. The person in charge said "By the time they've opened the box and find the manual, they've already bought it, so it doesn't increase sales." My counter was that if a customer gets turned off, it's a barrier to future sales. He didn't exactly say "the future? What's that?" but I suspect that's what he was thinking.

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The last people who are going to be fired in any company are the ones who are actually in the trenches selling the gear. Education is more of the benefit of people who own the gear, and if they've already bought the gear... Now, I happen to believe that education is also what motivates a lot of people to buy gear, but in the immortal words of Herman Cain, "I don't have facts to back this up."

 

True story: several years ago, I pitched a company that had horrible manuals (not Roland) on revising one of their manuals. The person in charge said "By the time they've opened the box and find the manual, they've already bought it, so it doesn't increase sales." My counter was that if a customer gets turned off, it's a barrier to future sales. He didn't exactly say "the future? What's that?" but I suspect that's what he was thinking.

 

I am not surprised of co's being so short sighted, that they penny pinch on after sales support.

 

excellent 'hands on ' after sales support is important education to the new owner.

There are many new owners that are new to a Fantom or new to a Kronos.

 

IOW, they are new to the way Roland or Korg approaches work flow.

 

I know of 3 acquaintances that recently returned a very expensive Roland keyboard. 2 of the 3 just didn't grasp it. So back to SW.

 

Return policies are easy these days. It is dumb for co mgmt to assume that all new sales are final.

Banging around an expensive keyboard due to a return to a retailer, isn't going to help costs.

Nobody likes returns. They are expensive.

 

Especially on a $3000-$4000 keyboard.

 

 

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

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