P5 tour..Guitar center misses the boat!!

in the 5 minutes before closing that they provide at the end of the demo to run out to the software counter and buy, i ran over to the controller room and looked for the Trigger Finger -- none in stock -- which i guess is typical with how that product is selling -- but i was thankful 'cause then I wasn't tempted

I was just hoping for a chance to try a few controllers, and maybe decide which is for me. I guess I'll supplement my ancient kawai kbd with some kind of device. (like the finger) but is still won't have aftertouch or a mod wheel....waaah. I look at the finger for 200 beans and then the microcontrol is only 300, and I get keys to beat on!!

Sounds like they don't give much time to buy either...so just what is their plan???

al

ORIGINAL: amac



Sounds like they don't give much time to buy either...so just what is their plan???

al

That's because they don't want you to second guess your purchase

I briefly attended the P5 tour thing at Guitar Center in San Jose last evening.
If this is any indication of how the rest of the tours are going, I think Cakewalk's
got to seriously re-think how it's attempting to generate buzz around this product.

Was at GC couple days before .. not a single sign .. no indication that
anything would be happening... on the day of the event, the sign
outside GC read "Steingberg and Yamaha gear extravaganza" or some such
thing .. you would never know Cakewalk was on the premises
or where.

Inside, the attendees (probably about 10 to 15 in number .. I was late,
so I don't know if there were more) averaged in age in their early
fourties (I would guess). The demo ( or the parts I saw ) was reasonable,
but was almost a blur of features doled out. It struck me that this wasn't
really the target demographic I would think Cakewalk should be
going after .. and it also struck me that Guitar Center is not a great
venue for the younger clientel whom I think Cakewalk should
be spending their time trying to reach. An on-campus music
center for colleges and universities would be way better than
GC .. spending a little more time targetting the hip-hop, rap
and electronica music scene in their local areas would be well
worth the time. The point of these musical genres is that
they grew up counter-culture. Some people go to GC for
sample packs and the odd and ends, but you don't see
them wailing away in the corners like you do the guitar
players (rock and rollers, alts). It's almost like you
have to work the under-ground like Sonic Foundry
did in the early days .. cause you're making progress
one person, one laptop at a time .. and they congregate
in cyberspace as opposed to GC.
As a gut-check, I checked-in with some of my daughters friends
who do a lot of loop based music... I would say the awareness
of P5 is weak .. and therefore, getting them to interrupt
their routine to come out for it is not too likely.
I would have spent the money on a WEB-based campaign
and a really compelling site with freebies, ringtones, whatever
instead ... cause what I saw was goin' nowhere in a hurry.

jeff

they called you 3 times eh ? .. yours (and other reports)
does tend to confirm my observation
that they were selling to the sold ... and if that was the intent, it
should have been more tutorial, Q/A than demo .. and it was a
demo for sure. i reckon the intent back east was to increase the
fold rather than to embolden it.

my apologies for going off here .. 'cause i really think they've
got a great product .. but if this tour is a first-tier marketing
vehicle? not....

how they gonna make project5.com as energetic as acid planet and
get the product in the hands of as many people (high-end AND low-end)
as they can? Eat the young $50 at a time .. have P5LE (dump Kinetic)
and P5 .. sponsor contests, give away gear, have groupbuy discounts ..
get some high-profile artists to use it .. get it in high-end studios for
nothin' ( w/ hardware if necessary). i'm sure the marketing guy for
P5 is going "gee, if i had this kind of budget!!" .. but that's what it's
gonna take (IM!HO). i feel like they're doing "Field of Dreams"
marketing w/o Shoeless Joe Jackson ;-)

way 'nuff said .. but i hope you hear where i'm comin' from.
jeff

ORIGINAL: jmarkham

they called you 3 times eh ? .. yours (and other reports)
does tend to confirm my observation
that they were selling to the sold ... and if that was the intent, it
should have been more tutorial, Q/A than demo .. and it was a
demo for sure. i reckon the intent back east was to increase the
fold rather than to embolden it.

I'm sure Cake's intention was for it to be a demo rather than a tutorial. I'm fine with that, and I pciked up some things from Michael anyway.
I was the only person in the group who already had P5. One guy was obviously very impressed by what he saw and ended up buying, so that's not bad considering there were only four people in the audience.

how they gonna make project5.com as energetic as acid planet and
get the product in the hands of as many people (high-end AND low-end)
as they can? Eat the young $50 at a time .. have P5LE (dump Kinetic)
and P5 .. sponsor contests, give away gear, have groupbuy discounts ..
get some high-profile artists to use it .. get it in high-end studios for
nothin' ( w/ hardware if necessary).

A P5 equivalent of Acid Express would be great. Maybe the demo already does fulfills this role - can Acid Express render? Project5.com needs more support - regular updates, new content, sample projects and so on. Unfortunately I suppose Cake just doesn't have Sony's resources.

P

Thanks Mike! I had a whinge about GC but this in no way reflects on the P5 demo. I usually shop for gear at De Karr Music in Pasadena but they don't have much to do with software.

Cheers,
Phil

Hi Phil,

Never heard of De Karr. Is this mom & pop? How are the prices? Worth the drive up from Hollywood?

I live only a couple of blocks from GC on Sunset, but really hate the scene there. Much prefer to shop online.


Bradster

Jeff makes some extremely good points about reaching the target audiencs. I think your bang on with the college campus approach.

And.... I never got anyone calling me to remind me. Hmmm. I think the dozen or so that turn out are impressed, but I certainly was surprised that there weren't more. I wonder if it's even worth the effort on Cake's part!