garrigus

jb101

Roland JX-3P for me.  Still used it until quite recently.  May break it out again if I can rearrange my studio a bit.  Still using my XP-60.

Did that one come out before the JX-8P? I can't remember...


Scott

Yes, I think so.  It was six voice polyphonic and Roland's first synth with MIDI.  Two DCOs per voice.  Had the same VCA, and VCFs as the Juno and Jupiter range, I believe.
 
 

Roland's support prolly was one of the reasons for the lower prices of the X series.  Dropping prices was stupid.

There are better ways to expand market share. Creating a secondary market is one of the fastest and most profitable.

Full access to the API would create support from 3rd parties. Way useful for increasing market and free promotion.

And so on.

Reducing prices: more customers,more transactions  more support requests, more expenses, less profit,,,,  less time to spend on updating the website, maintaining the forums (least expensive support),.....

I do not like the X series. Too many menus, too many clicks, too much wasted space, too little customization.

What a silly post. You have absolutely no idea whether Cakewalk profits are up or down.

Cubase /Yamaha ---- Cakewalk / Roland    who does Casio get,,,,,
I'm just happy that Sonar is getting easier to use Whoever owns it.
Guess Greg sold it to them. By Greg.
O.K. so I'm a bit late with that one.

Best Roy

Its not about what profits are but what they could be.

Expenses are determined by transactions. Lower prices requires more transactions to obtain the same revenue.

I would have preferred a better product for more money. It took 4 updates over 2 years to get X1 reasonable. 

CW has followed MS with its stupid focus on new users, requiring more clicks for most everything, more remembering of short key commands, and reduced ease of use.

Windows 8 continues this path of dumbness. More clicks, more obscure locations of settings, and functions, more wasted space,...

Both w8 and sonar X requires more user attention to the FUI. 

jm24

Expenses are determined by transactions. Lower prices requires more transactions to obtain the same revenue. 

   

No..  I'm afraid that is not how business works at all.   Expenses are determined by, "production and material costs, marketing costs, payroll and shipping costs, taxes, and other costs.
Transaction costs money, but the lower prices could be more profitable, even if the actual dollar amount of revenue is lower.  Why?  Lower prices could reflect a lower material cost, and a higher profit margin.

Many of you, probably do not know where to find this?   http://www.roland.com/ir/result.html

Linear Phase

Many of you, probably do not know where to find this?   http://www.roland.com/ir/result.html

From the Consolidated Financial Results for the Six Months Ended September 30, 2012 [JGAAP] November 7, 2012 Company Name: Roland Corporation as linked to on that page:

 

 

[Professional video, professional audio and computer music equipment]

Sales of professional audio equipment were sluggish, primarily in the United States and Europe, but with regard to professional video equipment, robust sales of all-in-one AV mixers for live online video streaming were recorded in Japan and North America. In computer music equipment, however, sales of music production software and peripheral equipment were weak. As a result, net sales for this segment fell by 14.6% year on year to ¥2,249 million.

 

 

Interesting read.

  well..  Its not lack of demand, imho...   I've got two Roland products on my Sweetwater wish list..    And I run my own business, and if it was easier for me to make $, than it would be easier for me to spend $ 

that's all..

Unless you're a gigging musician, most folks consider the retail music products business to be in the leisure category. Meaning...leisure sales are the first to go in any downturn.

It isn't just the music business, it's the same in video products, camera's, you name it. Companies are forced to compete (perish the thought..) , either on price, features, or both. Sometimes, it makes sense to sell more at a lower price-point. You can always lard-up a product with esoteric features and shovelware for those who feel the need to spend more money.

mike_mccue


Roland is going to ask 100 of it's more highly valued employees to volunteer to be fired this Christmas season. The lucky ones are going to get a nice good bye package.




I think Roland has been out of touch with the street retail market for years.

I also think Cakewalk was drifting away from the sensible and effective decision making it was founded on.

The match up has been like a perfect storm... Roland was worth less than it has ever been in it's entire history as a publicly traded company just last October. It's doing a little better now but it's still in the all time low range.

Roland is not in a position to give Cakewalk the support it needs at this moment and Cakewalk isn't a very large part of Roland's revenue. Roland has a lot of stuff going on that it has to focus on or make go away and it is in the process of doing it.

After it gets rid of the 100 employees as it has announced it will, the opportunity to revive the company will be left to less expensive and perhaps less experienced employees.

I hope someone figures out that there is an ever growing number of musicians on the planet and that they can connect Roland with the musicians' actual interests... I'd like the company that makes my favorite DAW to stick around for a long time.

I hope Cakewalk gets back to the point where it sells gobs of good stuff at full price instead of pretending that discounting, freebies, and looking the other way when it doesn't work out is a long term strategy for success. 

Good luck.


best regards,
mike

Your post made me worry a bit so I had to Google a few things. Actually Roland's profits are up. Here is their dividend release statement.


http://www.roland.com/ir/pdf/2013/20121107_1.pdf


There stock is doing much better now too. Check out what Bloomberg says


http://investing.business...p?ticker=7944:JP 


Looking through quarterly statements It seems Roland began to make more money and their stock started to rise in October. I wonder what happened in October of this year to make Roland's stock rise from 509 yen to to over 600 yen hmmmmmmm

Roland has still issued a 2.81 percent dividend an that's not to bad in today's economy. They are not in serious trouble and they are still a strong stable company. Roland Acquired cakewalk to strengthen their company and while I don't know all of the inner workings I am willing to bet cakewalk benefits from their R&D. 

It is true that Roland's stock is not doing as well as it did in April. I was searching for more details about Roland laying off 100 employees and nothing came up in Google. Could you give a few more details. You mentioned that you thought that Roland has been out of touch with the street retail market for years. Could you elaborate that point of view. I really have no opinion on this, but now I am  just curious.

Thanks Mike