August, 2011 - update
Yes, we are still here, and yes, we are still hard at work on the ultrafunk organic one and some new concepts we might tell you about in the future! We decided it was time to let you know a little bit more about what we are currently doing since we have not been seen or heard from after the Musikmesse in Frankfurt in April, and at the same time, give you some insight into the history of the whole project.
At the moment, we have just finished creating revision 2 of all the internal circuit boards, and we're confident that it will fix most of the bugs found in revision 1. We have also added quite a lot of new components to reduce overall noise levels, enhance the resilience of all the inputs, and together with some other optimizations, we hope that we're quite close to the final circuit design. In parallel with that, we are continually testing different combinations of speakers/drivers from several manufacturers to find the most optimal setup. There is of course lots of other stuff going on as well, so we are slowly but steadily moving towards building our first production prototypes.
The original organic prototype - a.k.a. "big brother"
Before the organic one existed, a number of other prototypes were built to test different cabinet/enclosure types and speaker configurations, but none of those yielded any satisfying results. It was not until the design pictured below was constructed and extensively tested, that we were finally convinced that our original idea was possible; Creating a portable and dedicated high fidelity stereo monitoring system for keyboard players. "Big brother" had only one flaw, it was simply to big and heavy to be truly portable, and so, the process began to create a smaller but similar sounding system.
Performing (live) with the organic prototypes
One of the most important and satisfying aspects of this long journey has been the continual and ongoing cooperation we have with performing musicians. We are creating a tool that will hopefully enable them to play better, and because of that, it is critical to us that we talk to, discuss and get feedback from the people who are going to use the organic one day and night, year after year on stage and in the studio. Here are some of the amazing performers we have been working with so far: Andreas Pålsson, Alberto Marsico, Barbara Dennerlein, Joey DeFrancesco, Bugge Wesseltoft and many more, below you can watch a couple of them playing live with our prototypes.
Building and testing the first organic one prototypes
The following pictures chronicle the construction, development and testing of the first four organic one prototypes that we created with an enormous amount of voluntary help from some very talented and patient friends. This is our tribute to them, and it is also a visual record of the past 1.5 years of (mostly) spare time spent so far with no end in sight, one of the many reasons we often think to ourselves, mumble or yell out: "It never ends!" and "Never give up, never surrender!".