[ddots-l] Re: Accessible keyboards?

  • From: "Tim Burgess" <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 22:51:37 -0000

Yup, I'd go along with that.  

I'm in the adaptive industry in my day job and I've had several of my
clients tell me their estimate of how much I earn.  The closest and most
conservative estimate was roughly double the real figure.  I must confess
that, despite being a fairly mild-mannered chap (I hope - back me up
George!), I actually lost my temper with one guy who said that, since I'm
blind myself and I work where I do, that I was stealing from other blind
people.  I found this a little hard to take and requested that one of my
colleagues deal with this guy in the future to prevent me from saying
anything further - I'm not proud of this, but I'm only human.

Anyway, this is rapidly heading off-topic, so I'll stop there and carry on
doing the best I can with the music stuff in my own time - I'd like to be
able to spend more time doing this but my wife insists that I continue to
bring home the bacon (grin).  I'm meeting with someone in a couple of weeks
to discuss the next step along the road, so fingers crossed.

Cheers.

Tim


-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of W. Nick Dotson
Sent: 26 November 2005 21:59
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Accessible keyboards?

Right.  My point is, and has been, a bunch of wild-eyed or "uneyed" folks
screaming about "fairness", "I want", "fabulous riches in the blind
marketplace if only you'd only do thus and such" are not going to get us
anywhere, in fact, will do the obverse.  I certainly understnad impatience,
and poured my share of bread into things that sounded just like what I
wanted in the store, but the preponderance of what I'd like to be able to do
with them is inaccessible...  But, I know that industry people by and large
are interested in profit formost, and in maintaining a status quo with an
upgrade in sales if possible, as desired by their stockholders.  It is only
by capturing their interest, on a one by one human in a company basis, then,
helping their company advocate for our interests, how to see that what they
might do to make our lives easier will enhance their revenue stream by
playing into the needs of larger demographics their companies sell to, that
our advocate will be able to sel our position up the corporate
decision-making ladder...  I get really impatient with the collective
ignorance in our community with respect to how corporate decisions get made,
and what their primary goals and interests are, and how to play into them
for our own interests.  And, it's something I have to do all the time since
1985 when I joined the Adaptive Tech Indrusty, and people started flaming me
for selling out, and why couldn't companies producing Adaptive Technology
sell their products for less, and on and on and on, with no conception of
what it takes to run a company producing hardware or software with a annual
revenue base of $15,000,000 with is just big enough to distribute in the US,
Europe, South and Central America, and have small scale distribution in Asia
and Africa...  They, blind end-user's, seem to have the collective delusion
that distributors are having their business expenses defrayed by some
mechanism in the sky, rather than from a 20% or smaller commission, from
whence their income, corporate and personal taxes, and those of their
employees must be paid.  Then, as prices descended to the $2,900 or lower
per unit level, it became impossible for the dealer to distribute 3.5 hours
of training per unit, which used to be the norm, without charging the
customer, lines of exclusivity broke, and consequently there was no useable
feedback mechanism to ensure that mal or non-feasant dealers were punished,
and the only thing that mattered was quarterly sales performance and quota
attainment...  So as prices and profit margins dropped, the dealer had to
sell more and leas and less after-sales customer attention could afford to
be paid.  It is the same in music with the proliferation of "Musician's
Friend" "Guitar Center" and other box pushing shops which keep prices down
within about 3 brackets, entry-level student models, simi-pro gear, and
high-end pro/studio gear...  The price points on new offerings never seem to
change once determined and prooved out by long-range performance...

Nick


On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 21:19:29 -0000, Tim Burgess wrote:

 Hi,

 I certainly can't object to lots of people trying different ways - we only
need to get the result once, after all.  The only thing that concerns me is
folks thinking that getting a result for their particular favourite piece of
kit is the end game - it's not.  We want access to every bit of MIDI kit out
there.  This is a big target in itself, but will still leave the problem of
non-MIDI kit, soft synths (although MIDI text out could potentially affect
these if we got it through the MMA), etc..  I'm trying to focus my efforts
on one target that I understand at the technological level and think is
attainable in some kind of sensible time frame and where a means exists to
address accessibility industry-wide.  If I can make this work then we all
win, not just the fortunate few with the resources to afford a Kurzweil (I'm
one of the lucky ones here).

 Cheers.

 Tim
 -----Original Message-----
 From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of W. Nick Dotson
 Sent: 26 November 2005 21:00
 To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Accessible keyboards?

 Yeh, I know, just seems some folks are rather thick about the fact that
this  stuff just doesn't happen over night, and they've got their nickers in
a  knot...  (grin)

 Nick


 On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 12:48:39 -0000, Tim Burgess wrote:

  That's the intention. 

  Cheers.

  Tim
  -----Original Message-----
  From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On  Behalf Of W. Nick Dotson
  Sent: 25 November 2005 23:06
  To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Accessible keyboards?

  It would appear that Tim is doing exactly that with Yamaha.

  Nick

  On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:32:38 -0800 (PST), Jay Thompson wrote:

   Ok so we all aggreed, that a midi channel would be  ideal.  Good!  Now
then, will somebody take the step  in getting this idea on the table to the
manufacturers?
   Jay

   Jay Thompson
   You can do all things through Christ that strengthens you.  Phil4:13


                
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