

Show HN: iOS MIDI Routing App - johannesd
http://www.imidipatchbay.com

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forgottenpaswrd
It looks good but...

Where is the video showing the app capabilities?

Could you imagine a president of the USA not going to TV? only doing writing
to newspapers or doing radio like in the 1930s?

There is not excuse for not showing how the real thing works live, you had
worked hard and you deserve it too.

~~~
anigbrowl
As someone who could be using this (if/when I get an iPad), I am just fine
without a video. Everything I need to know is there and I prefer reading text
on the specification and operation. It doesn't make any sound on its own so
video is superfluous to me.

On an unrelated point, 50 Euros? Are you smoking crack, OP? The two best-
selling soft synths in the world, AniMoog and iMS-20 are only $30 each, and
compared to them MIDI is glue. Orphion is only $5, and that is truly a
breakthrough in performance and compositional control. I could list more
examples, but my point is that you are charging way too much for a piece of
utility software.

People with large master keyboards generally already have split and zone
functionality built in - it's not as nice and well-designed as in you
prrogram, but they'll probably use what they already have, or employ a free
editor/librarian package from the manufacturer to set it up on their computer.
Many other musicians will use a computer to do this routing, because it's not
so weird to have a laptop on stage; still others will use something like a
MIDIbox, Cirklon, MPC+JJOS or Nord Modular to do this routing and scaling, or
build a hardware configuration that obviates that need.

In short, I love what you're doing, but I think you need to cut the price to
between $15 and $20 - $10 might be even better. Piracy is not a big problem on
iOS so you should be able to sell a multiple larger than your price division,
if you see what I mean. I see you have a Lite version that allows 2 patch
zones and has a 30 minute timeout. This doesn't make sense to me either; if it
only lasts 30 minutes at a time it's not going to get used on stage and people
won't have the patience to set it up repeatedly in their studio, so you might
as well let people try the full functionality for those 30 minutes.

My first instinct was to post this immediately on Synthtopia, Matrixsynth, and
various gear forums, but when I saw the 50 Euro price I put the brakes on,
because I believe the vast majority of musicians will reject your app at that
price without even trying it. And there are so many music apps on iOS that
after you make that impression you will find it hard to change later.

Sorry to be so blunt with this criticism, but I really think you are placing a
limit on your app's success with this price. It looks like a great product,
and I want to go and recommend it to hundreds of people right now, but at this
price I believe you would get 5 sales instead of 500.

~~~
johannesd
Thanks for your post. As you might guess, you are not the first one telling me
this.

However, I got feedback from keyboardists who have absolutely no problem with
this price as long as the app does what they really need when doing their job.
Maybe there are many other people who would buy the app, if it was cheaper.
But including that market would make professional users unhappy by the time
since the further development of the app would have to take the feedback of
all those people into account - and could not focus on what professionals
need. The needs of keyboardists playing musicals or other live gigs are
different to those playing keyboard at home. E.g. I will soon support multiple
input keyboards and more complex controller routings.

Btw., the lite version runs forever as long as it is in the foreground. Only
the background time is limited to 30 minutes. Select "Never turn off display"
and you can use the app the full day and night in your studio.

All those alternatives you mentioned would be more expensive than this app, at
least if one already have an iPad. Or they would require lots of time of
configuration. Master keyboards with that kind of functions are very expensive
- however, with this app you can buy a cheap one, or one which focuses more on
great hammer action than complex midi functions.

Apps like AniMoog and iMS-20 are from big companies which use their apps to
just be presented in the app store. Lots of the knowledge which was necessary
for developing these synths was already in the company and only had to be
ported to the iOS system. Don't expect that synths like these would pay of for
that price; you really have to see it in the company's context.

However, I know that some customers don't care about that and feel uneasy to
pay so much for an app. But I hope that I find the users who see this as a
niche solution for their exact problem.

~~~
anigbrowl
I see where you're coming from, and appreciate your detailed response. The
only place where I'd differ with you is on analyzing the cost issue of a
master keyboard or capable midi-routing device: that's either a sunk cost or a
small additional marginal cost for people buying a performance keyboard. Being
a synth guy, I like to do that sort of routing in my Nord Modular, but I see
even the most bare-bones master keyboards having zone/split functionality
built in, and its still easily accessible on workstation platforms like Fantom
or Kronos.

I guess the reason I am stressing the issue so strongly is that in my
experience [1] it can be a mistake to focus too heavily on the Pro
demographic: there are not as many of them (obviously) but more importantly,
because they are pro users they already have some kind of solution to this
problem; either they have implemented a technical solution by purchasing the
all-powerful master keyboard workstation, or they have a stage tech to solve
these problems for them, or they just bring a second or third keyboard on
stage with them, because they're paying for the roadies anyway, so there is
little marginal cost increase in having them set up more gear. When pros tell
you your product is great what they're saying is that they _would_ use it if
they needed something like that, but not that they _will_ switch to it if they
already have something that does that job.

Your market, by contrast, is the synth keyboardist who wants to trigger
multiple rack modules with their own distinct sound (rather than relying on a
monolithic keyboard with 128-note polyphony but a conservative sound palette),
but who can't or won't lug around or set up multiple keyboards - and,
crucially, who doesn't have a permanent solution in place for the split/zone
problem. What I've noticed about pro musicians, especially ones who are not
technologists, is that while they may vocally approve of what you're offering,
if they already have a configuration that works it's almost impossible to get
them to switch because they don't want any disruptions in their workflow. So
you're limited to a smallish number of established experimenters plus a
somewhat larger number of new entrants who haven't solved the problem yet.
Your app will be just right for that latter group, but it's a small subset of
the potential buyers; to profit from this market segment you need very high
margins, eg like Muse Receptor.

I totally respect your desire to cater to pro users, but just be aware of the
different size markets for handcrafted samurai swords vs. swiss army knives.

1\. as part of the product team for this:
[http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct03/articles/soundartchame...](http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct03/articles/soundartchameleon.htm)

~~~
johannesd
I think you made a good point with the market size and the fact that
professionals "never touch a running system". However, I also want to target
semi-professionals and even for them, 50€ in the context of music is normal
(thats also the cost of 2 audio cables). But I agree that the price might
exclude people. We will see. Thank you for your detailed comments!

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xxpor
One little thing: In English, the price should be written €49.99, so the euro
sign in front, and the decimal point instead of the comma.

~~~
johannesd
Thanks, I changed that!

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
On that note, consider showing the prices in USD or GBP as appropriate. App
store price tier prices, not exchange rate prices.

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wintorez
This is so beautiful!

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gnaffle
Looks really nice!

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earwolf
expensive

~~~
gnaffle
At least there's a lite-version available.

