Is it just me?
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Or has Harmony Central gone completely down the tubes in the last couple months? The first couple weeks after their Big Sale to Musician’s Friend were fine, but now it seems their editorial policy has changed somewhat. Having a look at the “stories” on the front page today, it seems like a fucking marketing meeting for an industry group of music stores that sell marching band instruments.
When I first heard about the sale to Musician’s Friend (a company which I think would be better named “Musician’s slightly retarded neighbor”) I figured HC would rapidly go downhill. It turns out I was mistaken. It certainly went downhill, but it wasn’t rapid. “[O]ver time you’ll see the website grow into a more vibrant, fun, and informative online resource,” said the press release mid-April. I guess that “over time” means “about two and a half months” in marketing-speak, and “vibrant, fun, and informative” means “shit you don’t care about.”
It isn’t so obvious unless you religiously read HC. The front page has always just been a press-release reprinting service, but at least it was press releases you found interesting. Now it’s the sort of press releases that I’ve always busted Sonic State’s balls for, the sort that a company puts out for the ‘what’s going on in the industry’ section of Mix. In short, boring pointless industry-speak that has nothing to do with the working musician.
Congratulations, Musician’s Friend. You did a good job.
UPDATE: Hey, HC, if someone from your company was reading this and going “hey, I don’t know what the fuck Chris is talking about,” I was talking about shit like this. Are you fucking kidding me? Some training mill turns out 14 new patchbay monkeys, and that’s news? Come the fuck on.
22 comments
I've found it increasingly difficult to find truly useful information about music products on the internet. Seems the first three pages of Google results are all marketing pitches, with no valuable insight into the products' performance. It's like some sort of Behringer syndrome.
Its not just Harmony Central its most of the music and synth sites really. There are two main problems really. The first is the Internet trend for stores or companies to buy up community sites and to then use them as advertising vehicles. Good for the guy that built the site up? Yes. Bad for the rest of us? Yes. I want content, not a fucking shill advertisement.
The second is the "user generated content" trend. While blogs hold information from time to time (this being a reasonable example of that) forum heavy sites have destroyed article based sites. So instead of just reading an article about analog summing and mic pres I have to read two comments about summing, look at 12 bumps, 3 YMTDS, and 4,234,567,877,234 Fucking variations of animated smiley faces before I get two measly posts about the mic pre amps.
Content was once king, the king is dead.
-PBX
full disclosure: i work for the slightly retarded neightbor. and while i agree there are quite a few valid criticisms of the company, my understanding is that we have very little input with regards to content on HC. i think the deal was basically we funnel HC some money to put our ads all over the place and link to our site for pricing instead of zzounds or whoever it was before and we'll bankroll some upgrades to the site..so i'll agree the shop-talk has gone from geeky to suit-y (or exec-y or tight-ass-y or whatever), but i think that's more ascribed to the same points the two commenters before me made..a general, and admittedly lame, margin-first, gear-second, music-if-we-happen-to-think-about it attitude in the gear industry..
and no i'm not out here on behalf of mf..i've had this site on my rss feed for a while after i learned of it via musicthing..so if you have withering insults for th company, understand that i just work here and make absolutely no policy decisions..
if you want to talk about how awesome lebowski is..i'm yr man..
isn't musician's friend owned by guitar center? i think they partnered up a few years ago to become thesuper-mega-awesome-walmart of gear.
"f you want to talk about how awesome lebowski is..i'm yr man.."
- I just want to understand this, sir. Every time a rug is micturated upon in this fair city, I have to compensate the owner?
Things are only going to get worse. The future of advertisments are ads that you (or at least most people) don't know are ads.
Musician's Enemy. Or is that Enema? I gave up looking at HC a while back. Pretty much the only time I read that site is when NAMM or Music Messe is on.
Much like most of the American music tech magazines (Keybored, Electronic Idiocy, Mix-for-the-rich, and y-y-y-yo Phunky Phresh Remixxx) the content on HC is driven by whomever pays for the ads. I haven't seen an objective and relevant review on there for years. It's still Tape Op, SoundonSound, and sometimes EQ for me.
Most of my gear geekery needs are served by this blog, matrix synth, and a couple others.
I wish I could find a forum about vintage consoles somewhere that was worth reading. :)
This is exactly why we just launched pikki.org
( http://pikki.org/ )
pikki is a product wiki for the gear we use to create with. We spend a lot of time researching even the smallest purchase for our studios and the process of rounding up all the facts and opinions has been less than stellar.
Too many valuable user reviews, insights and opinions get buried in forums and become impossible to find down the road. Too many sites are filled with manufacturer's descriptions and sales pitches.
We wanted a single space to share both facts and opinions about our gear and to make it easy for people to link up to their own reviews when talking in blogs or forums. pikki is a mixture or community driven editorial content on products and user reviews. We wanted the reviews to be more like notepads that you could update as your experiences with a piece of gear changed and that you could fill with anything from a list of bullet points to a handful of photos. And we wanted some tools like tags to share and keep track of gear we were interested in.
So we built pikki. We just launched a couple of days ago. We're still ironing out bugs and filling it in with content. But it sounds like there's a real need for a new site like this.
The timing here is strange. Reading this thread was a bit like reading the 'About' page on pikki.
Drop by and have a look.
http://pikki.org/
The post from qjacobq above got me thinking about the situation with HC, and now it kind of makes sense. Before, they had to get advertising dollars rolling in, so they lent preference (maybe even unintentionally) to companies that would perhaps buy an ad or two.
(Note to self: remember to press "unsubscribe" next time I get that ridiculous HC Insider newsletter trying to tempt me to buy incredibly expensive banner ads by telling me how much I'm doing wrong with my advertising.)
At any rate, now that they don't have to work so hard for their bread and butter, every single press release they get is put in the queue? Something like that. There was definitely a change. HC was always good to us, putting up our press releases promptly, but I didn't even bother sending our last one, because I didn't want to be in the same company as Bob's Discount Guitar Tab Books. That's not the way we peddle our wares. We'll sell a few less copies maybe, but at least we can look in the mirror in the morning.
As for pikki, it seems to be a good idea, but I think there's a big hole in your plan. Wikis open to the public, especially review Wikis, are incredibly susceptible to shills. My first thought upon going there was "who could I get to add good reviews to this site?" (Disregarding the "look in the mirror" comment above for a second.) It's a tricky business, but I agree that there's definitely a need for a site like that. Might I suggest a "Pro Audio" section, as well?
-CR
i couldnt agree more about HC.
HC used to be my main page for finding out new gear previews, but now the site has gone to shit.
on average 20+ advertisements/day about irrelevant garbage.
for shame.
now i only have hope in gearjunkies, but theyre slackers sometimes though...sometimes there wawnt be a new article for almost a week !?!?
checking gearslutz new product alert section is worth a look, but again; not enough posts.
... "Bob's Discount Guitar Tab Books" doesn't feel right for people viewing the site either and it's why ii can't use big catch all sites like epinions. They leave me feeling like i'm trying to find an analog synth in a department store right next to the washers and dryers and children's shoes.
Very interested in hearing more about what you're looking for in a "Pro Audio" section. Are you thinking of something beyond a "Pro Audio" category?
Chris ... i think you're spot on about the potential for review sites to be abused. But i think the danger is really no greater (and maybe less) on pikki than in any other online community - whether it's a blog, a discussion forum, a regular review site, or a wiki. You could just as easily round up 10 people to post fake opinions of your products in discussion forums or blogs.
The idea on pikki is that over time regular users will build up a history and a profile that people will be able to use as context for reading reviews. We're looking at implementing features in v2 that would make this history more prominent throught the site making it easier for readers to understand the people behind the reviews.
Hmmm.
In my mind, Pro Audio encompasses higher-end stuff, API, SSL, Apogee, Lynx, etc. There is a real need for review sites that have readable reviews of that sort of gear. If I want to know about a Presonus Firebox, I can find 16 million reviews with a simple Google search. If I want to know about user experiences with the API 8200A, it's basically impossible. The 8200A is a much larger financial risk than a Presonus Firebox, and I definitely need to read a review or two before I commit.
Of course, one could make the argument that it's an API product, and thus is great, plain and simple.
In any case, the Computer Audio section should definitely be split in to hardware and software.
-CR
ummm
i'm kinda confused by Pikki (ok really confused)
maybe it isn't ready for prime time?
for one it looks more like a store than anything else, with the sex shot of the product and the price underneath. And with a very small and bewilderingly random hodgepodge of products too, seriously odd.
Each product I clicked on (ok, only 3 as the site is slower then rust) had no review at all, just "be the first to review this item" (nothing screams 'store' to me more than that for some reason)
i know it isn't a store, but it looks more like a store than anything else, but like the world's tiniest store with the smallest inventory of random gear. What criteria places a piece of gear into that pile, especially when some have no reviews?
also, the categories are very very very limited. Where do i go if i want to add a review of a modular synth module?
i'm not trying to be a downer, you have a good idea here - it just needs a fair bit of fleshing out before it starts to resemble the lofty ambition you have for it
really, sorry.. i don't want to discourage you, it's a good and noble goal you have. just an honest 2-cents worth.
hehe i've tried a few more and i'm still yet to find any with a review
Apologies to anyone digging through pikki right now and feeling the same frustration as MW ...
Content is scarce because we just launched a couple of days ago. We had a choice between fluffing up the site with hundreds of products and every category imaginable right from the start or letting it grow on its own based on the interests and choices of the users ... and we chose the later.
We've continued to seed the site with a bunch of products from different categories to show how it works, but these are only a launch pad. Yeah ... it's awkward right now digging through a site with no deep content. But this will change as more people join and start to fill in the gaps and the site evolves.
On pikki everything from the products that get added to the category system itself can be edited by any user. This is where the wiki format really takes off. Users can create any categories they like ... nothing is set in stone. If you want to add a page for a modular synth, you just add a new product page and then create a new category for modular synths. If the modular synth category grows you can break it up into sub categories. If a product belongs in more than one place you can add it to any number of categories. If you want to create a category for 'Modular synths used by Stereolab' it's all possible.
Dig in and give it a try.
was that HC article you linked to a feed from The Onion?
it sure felt like one.
I've been sick of Harmony-Central ever since the moderators tolerated and numerous members ADVOCATED trolls like Walters.
Seriously, I've got a pretty good sense of humor (I help administrate an 80,000 member non-audio forum) , but he has far too many posts and supporters (or did when I last bothered to check) backing him in all his retarded threads.
What was somewhat amusing at first really became obnoxious after he started getting three or four threads on the front page of the various subforums. All the other audio forums had the sense to ban Walters outright and recognize him for what he is, someone who's a combination of sick-in-the-head and with too much time on his hands.
Wow. Just had a look at Pikki and it seems like a great start with bucket loads of potential. I think anybody complaining about there not being enough reviews right now just doesn't get it. It's a wiki and it's two days old. Sheesh! Give them a break! All of the content has to come from users, so it needs some time to grow.
I'm signed up and going to give it a try because it looks like it could quickly become something really good if enough people try it out.
I just noticed you cant commend on the news articals anymore.
i wanted to commend on this
http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2006/Roger-Nichols-Digita-New-Plug-Ins.html
For thos who dont know the story:
Roger nichols bought elemental audio,changed the product names and now selling the same exact plugins for X5 the the price
(his now selling each plugin for 229$ when a boundle which contained all of the thos plugins were 249$).
Great software company sold to the devil.
the Roger nichols site is crap too. Glaring example: why do half of the upper nav items open a new window? Dig around a bit and you'll find other onerous errors that make the whole thing feel a bit slapdash.
Dean Dunakin hit the nail on the head, every time i try to find actual real reviews of some new gear or software on the net 99.9% of the stuff i find is sales pitches and the same cut & paste review thats on all the other sites
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