With the wafers used for RAM being gobbled up by AI...I wonder how this will affect Fractal and the Axe Fx 3 and possible 4?

Finland is a great place to look to a successful education system. It is illegal for any school to have more funding than any other, forcing every kid to have access to the same level of funded school no matter where they live. Finland tends to be rated the highest in the world for the quality of education.
 
AtomicJeff said:
AI is convincing these young people to live above their parent's garage like Fonzie.
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In fact, Mr + Mrs Cunningham were not Fonzie's parents, but rather reluctantly rented the room to him when there was a slowdown at the hardware store. Over time, Fonzie proved himself to be of noble character and earned status as one of the family (tho I suspect he continued to pay rent).
 
sprint said:
In fact, Mr + Mrs Cunningham were not Fonzie's parents, but rather reluctantly rented the room to him when there was a slowdown at the hardware store. Over time, Fonzie proved himself to be of noble character and earned status as one of the family (tho I suspect he continued to pay rent).
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Mr. C wouldn't reduce Fonzie's rent until the end of the episode because every story needed a happy ending.
 
Alright, so the AI bubble will likely keep inflating until at least 2027–28, even though benchmarks are rigged by design—AI models are constantly optimized specifically to show progress in the charts. Every company uses these benchmarks, and every observer follows them blindly.

It is amusing, however, to see that the RLI (Remote Labor Index) shows a score of… 2.5% at best for Manus (with ChatGPT and the various Geminis scoring under 2%). And even then, if you remove purely generative tasks like "make me an ad image of a dog eating ice cream," the score drops to less than 1%. This benchmark is largely ignored because it tests the actual economic efficiency of these LLMs… and we’re only seeing 1% of work delivered, and mediocre work at that.

Anyway, all this to say that while components are likely to remain under pressure, we also have to deal with the instability of wars in Europe and exchange rate risks. These factors don't exactly encourage selling physical products internationally (inventory issues, the lead time between manufacturing and collection, the risk of currency fluctuations, and rapid inflation in the event of war).

Therefore, the solution would be to pair the next generation of Fractal products with a… PLUGIN.

If a war breaks out in Europe tomorrow, the existing base of guitarists is already equipped with computers and audio interfaces. They could simply download their favorite plugin in a single, quick transaction (Bitcoin, perhaps?).
I am convinced that if global production contracts, software will become omnipresent. Plus, it’s far less polluting to manufacture and ship.
 
The notion that the root problem with the educational system in the US is a lack of funding is laughable. The rot caused by corrupt unions and bureaucrats, ideologically captured school boards/administrations/teachers, the lack of accountability, and tenure protection are fed by money, not solved by it.

As for the students, tick tock and Instagram have all but destroyed their attention span and search for meaning.

My opinion. Anyone who believes that throwing money at the problem will solve it is welcome to theirs.
 
Well, yeah.. we can wish for it. But given Cliff's repeated statements over the years about how he feels about putting Amp modeling in a plugin, I'd be absolutely gobsmacked if he changed course on that.
 
rossipedia said:
Well, yeah.. we can wish for it. But given Cliff's repeated statements over the years about how he feels about putting Amp modeling in a plugin, I'd be absolutely gobsmacked if he changed course on that.
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If FAS put out a modeling plug in wouldn’t that kill sales on the hardware units? Could a normal desktop even run the current modeling?
 
Not only would it cannibalize sales of the hardware units, any copy protection would likely be cracked in short order, which would then cannibalize sales of the plugin itself.

IMO, for Fractal, this is a non-viable business model.
 
rossipedia said:
Not only would it cannibalize sales of the hardware units, any copy protection would likely be cracked in short order, which would then cannibalize sales of the plugin itself.

IMO, for Fractal, this is a non-viable business model.
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But Neural DSP is doing well. Plugins are the most profitable part of their business right now…
Same for universal audio, and many others.
Line 6 did the ecosystem Hardware + plugin with success and so did IKM with ToneX.
To this day no competitor could crack ToneX neural networks.
So even if some assholes could be able to steal some cracked versions, most of us won’t. I mean it’s opening your door to viruses and never having the last nice updates.
I won’t risk my data and hardware for saving 500€.
I’m not stupid.
 
The idea of funding education more is to pay teachers more. They are not paid nearly enough, and our incentive structure in the US will turn away anyone who wants a fighting chance at quality of life.
 
State of Epicicity said:
The idea of funding education more is to pay teachers more. They are not paid nearly enough, and our incentive structure in the US will turn away anyone who wants a fighting chance at quality of life.
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I agree teachers aren't paid enough. But that's not the root of the problem. I know a career teacher who quit the only job she ever loved. Not because of money, but because the "new" local administration stripped her of any semblance of autonomy or common sense practice. She had to strictly adhere to a list of nonsensical policy, and was prohibited from disciplining her students in any way. She had enough, and left. She works in a bank now. Granted, higher pay might increase the threshold for how much bullshit a good teacher can take; but it isn't the solution.

Higher pay will increase demand for the job for everyone, not just the capable. The incompetent, corrupt, and lazy want higher pay too. Without higher standards and accountability, money is not the base solution.

In my opinion.
 
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swiss studio said:
But Neural DSP is doing well. Plugins are the most profitable part of their business right now…
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I just watched Rick Beato's interview with Douglas Castro. Neural isn't my product of choice, but I find him quite admirable based on the interview.

Keep in mind that Neural DSP started with plugins, then went into hardware. In this interview, he says that Neural's first product was a plugin for his own hardware (Darkglass distortion), simply because other people were developing modeled plugins of it and he wasn't being compensated. His vision was the hardware-based Quad Cortex, even early on.

I suspect that plugins sell better because they are cheaper. But the piracy of the QC is zero.
 
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steadystate said:
I just watched Rick Beato's interview with Douglas Castro. Neural isn't my product of choice, but I find him quite admirable based on the interview.
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Agree, with the possible exception of knowingly shipping products they knew were unfinished and not saying so. But they did eventually catch up to themselves, i think.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Agree, with the possible exception of knowingly shipping products they knew were unfinished and not saying so. But they did eventually catch up to themselves, i think.
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He addressed that by saying that he truly didn't know what to expect as far as demand. Initial pre-NAMM interest was weak. When they introduced it at NAMM, it still had software bugs, and incomplete investor participation. But they received over 2000 orders off the bat after the show.

I'm not sure of the untold details, or how I might have acted in his place. But I do like stories of how successful companies came into being. I'd love to see Cliff on Rick's show. I have little doubt that Rick would jump at the chance.
 
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