I hate this kind of style of writing, too much “I, me, my”. Especially here:
The PR department called me Fake Media back then because I found possible product developments in a promotional video. Among other things, a Make Noise Maths clone/replica could be seen. Everything wrong, everything far-fetched.
Well… 4 years have passed, and the story is getting explosive again because one of these leaks became a reality. Today, Behringer introduced the Abacus module, a ripoff of the Eurorack community’s all-time favorite Make Noise Maths. Mmh who is fake now?
It’s a good style for a blog, but not for an article. I remember I read an article about a movie one time, but 70% of this article was actually about author’s biography. You know, like “when I was a kid, I had a friend named John and he had this huge collection of movies, he had [huge list of movies]”. Hate it, it’s just… I don’t care about this author and his\her friends or life facts.
As for Behringer… I think this company is very shady. What they are making is usually cheaper and worse than original devices. I have a reverb guitar pedal and a delay one. They are noisy as hell (people say it’s because they use TL06x instead of TL07x or TL08X op amps, but I am not sure if this is the only problem with them) and also quiet even on bypass if I remember correctly. I don’t have any modules, but I bet they have some problems as well…
Yeah I agree. You have to read through someone’s entire life story just to get a recipe for pancakes.
i’ve never used Maths so i don’t really know but isn’t this a bit more similar to Befaco Rampage?
No, functionally it’s pretty much exactly the same as Maths, but then Maths was based on Buchla modules so not Make Noise’s copyright.
The author claim it’s a clone of Maths, whereas Maths is not a clone of Buchla, but a reinterpretation, or inspired by. That what the author says, don’t know if it’s “true” or not. Also, afaik, the buchla is no .infer available?
There’s no question that Behringer have got the module as close to Maths as they can. Calling it Abacus permits a simple 2+2 calculation. I’m using Occam’s Razor re the legality in that they must feel pretty bulletproof to make and sell the thing. Inputs, outputs and functions aside it probably looks different enough in appearance to not fool someone into believing they’ve bought a Make Noise product and that’s probably where they may have had a case if the Abacus was festooned in lightning bolts or the unique font and the like.
to me seems Common and public knowledge characteristics and features put together in a module, Math of rampage Did it before? ,But why is the distribution network for befaco and math so bad?
here, for asia, in no way math or befaco is an option, of course that module is in my shopping list
well, we’ve seen everyone draws the line somewhere different. To me, making a module that exactly copies the input, outputs, controls, ranges, features of another module is for sure boring and unoriginal. I’ll assume it’s completely legal, but to me it is still immoral.
It’s a ton of work to experiment around found out exactly what works with what, tinker, revise, luck into a great solution. For someone to come a long and re-use all of someone else’s hard work seem - perhaps legal, but to me unethical.
well , you could still buying the 300usd rampage instead of this, have good luck if you have a distributor around you or pay 50 extras for the import process.
I would like to have all the befaco modules, but for some of us is good to have those beringer modules
Copying other people’s ideas and undercutting on price seems to be the core of Behringer’s business model. See Benn Jordan’s video on the subject.
Asking to the creator(s) of the original module,what he (they) think about that could give the best answers
With no patent,an idea is “open source”
This is the crux of it. Creative endeavour will not survive as a viable business. Who then is left to innovate? I’m not sure what can be done about this, but I for one will never buy anything from Behringer.
We don’t know if,for example,Behringer pay a fee for ARP2600
Maybe or not
I tend to think ,ethics seems white and black for people of fist order Countries , for the rest of us is a colorful rainbow.
well, in any case I’m talking about the ethics of the person making the stuff. It sounds like you are saying “I want a $500 modules, but I can’t afford it, so anything is justified”. But surely you aren’t saying that so… Anyway, I have zero interest in telling anyone what they “should” do. It’s not really my business, and doesn’t concern me.
fwiw, I am fairly affluent (first order, as you say). I have two guitars I’ve had for 30 years, two synthesizers I made myself, and a few other musical things (a cheap mixer, a cheap usb keyboard??). oh, and a abandoned clavinette I got for free in 1985! Used to have more stuff. Gave away or sold most of it.
edited: I see that you have a talent for twisting what others say, is that ethical?
I would not kill anybody for a 300 dollar module, but I ll not care for the rights of someone think them have over something of public knowledge
sorry, didn’t mean to twist your words. I don’t think you are unethical. But all of your posts are quite hostile. sorry if something made you angry.
where you think I m hostile? I m just expressing myself sorry if I make you feel hurt
I thought it was hostile to call me unethical, but it’s ok. Perhaps I misunderstood. No harm done, I hope?