Interview With Roger Linn

http://bboytechreport.com/2012/11/02/in ... oger-linn/

Oh boy does he lay into Numark and Jack O'Donnell.

Roger Linn wrote:What brought on the split between Roger Linn and Akai?

RL: Akai went out of business and the assets were purchase by Numark, headed up by a very unscrupulous fellow named Jack O’Donnell. Once he bought Akai, he immediately stopped my royalty payments, refused to take my calls and had his lawyer send me threatening letters. I checked around and learned that he has a reputation of being a real bastard, so given that challenging him would have been long and expensive, I let it go.


What are your thoughts on the more recent lines of MPCs (the stand alone boxes and the new hybrid controllers)?

RL: From what I’ve seen, Akai seems to be making slight changes to my old 1986 designs for the original MPC, basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. By comparison, my new Tempest is a truly unique drum machine created for the way people make music today instead of how it was made 20 years ago.

'Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic' , that's a classic.

word man. thanks for the heads up...


the tempest sound is undesirable imo... but im wondering how good and different its sequencer is from the mpc series...

interesting stuff...

Roger Linn wrote:
so given that challenging him would have been long and expensive, I let it go.

NICE!! it's nice to see a more recent article talking about his current development with the linnstrument and LDii... I was under the assumption that maybe those were shelved.

Tempest > Nukai's new lineup.

Coz wrote:Tempest < Nukai's new lineup.

Fixed.
Remember. Pac-Man eats up the rest because he's the greatest

Oh shit!

You know what I'm trying to say...


Hopefully Clint will get the chance to have a proper chat over the phone. I'm sure some of the answers in this interview have been copied and pasted by Roger from other interviews.

MPC-Tutor wrote:http://bboytechreport.com/2012/11/02/interview-roger-linn/

Oh boy does he lay into Numark and Jack O'Donnell.

'Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic' , that's a classic.

Yeah Tutor I thought the same thing... he's got bad taste for this Jack O'Donnell dude. and he aint afraid to let it be known

I was pleased to see that there seems to be some hope for the LinnDrumm2 given that he was able to source parts afterall.

I'm confused about the timeline... I thought numark bought them out a few yrs after the mpc2k/2kxl
.... and that the spilt happened before numark was on the scene.

didnt Jack own Numark already when he bought Akai Pro?

bboytechreport.com does nice interviews ....

Do they plan to interview Bruce Forat ?

renato_rizoli wrote:bboytechreport.com does nice interviews ....

Do they plan to interview Bruce Forat ?

Thanks Renato.
Bruce Forat huh? good idea. lets see if I can work that out.

szr wrote:I'm confused about the timeline... I thought numark bought them out a few yrs after the mpc2k/2kxl
.... and that the spilt happened before numark was on the scene.

who knows... but when you invent something you get royalties.

mr_debauch wrote:NICE!! it's nice to see a more recent article talking about his current development with the linnstrument and LDii... I was under the assumption that maybe those were shelved.

Don't hold your breath , would love too see these machines becomes a reality though.

the linnstrument idea has been done a few times, a few years ago someone released a keyboard with x/y sensors on the keys along with after touch for the grid. I would only imagine linns would be of higher quality but more expensive as well. There's a few other keyboards like that out but not very publicized, mostly from startup companies.

m56p87 wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:NICE!! it's nice to see a more recent article talking about his current development with the linnstrument and LDii... I was under the assumption that maybe those were shelved.

Don't hold your breath , would love too see these machines becomes a reality though.

the linnstrument idea has been done a few times, a few years ago someone released a keyboard with x/y sensors on the keys along with after touch for the grid. I would only imagine linns would be of higher quality but more expensive as well. There's a few other keyboards like that out but not very publicized, mostly from startup companies.

it's interesting because while these specific products may not be the ones to go mainstream and create a future standard.... they do show what is possible or maybe what direction to go in... once midi protocol isn't enough anymore or what have you.

and the linndrum 2 just has me curious because I wonder what he will incorporate into the design.