WHO IS NEIL BLAK?

Hi guys,

There are a lot of listings on eBay by a seller Neil Blak. Since he is from the U.K., probably many of you know who he is. Most of his listings sound like things that Bill Norrie has on his website FREE. The seller states on each listing: "THIS ITEM IS ONLY AVAILABLE FROM US. You cannot get it anywhere else in the world. If you see this item advertised ANYWHERE else please let us know! Anyone copying these styles and selling them WILL BE PROSECUTED (as successfully done last year)"

Mark

Hi Mark
I think you may mean Neal Blake, who runs the Style Disk Warehouse http://www.stylediskwarehouse.com/ and also bought up Tec note (Strawberry Music)

Hope this helps

Bill

Thanks, Bill. On eBay, he goes by "neilblak" as a seller's username. It probably is the same person. However, all the styles he is selling from the KN2000 - KN6500 and KN2600 sound very much like what is available on Bill Norrie's site and others free.

Mark

Hello Mark,

I don't think the styles he is offering are the same as those Bill is offering, as he used to produce floppies for the Technics keyboards, based on the original styles but 'tweaked' by him to go with suggested songs etc. I believe he now does much the same thing for other makes of Keyboards, using the USB stick or whatever they use.

I have several of his Technics floppies, most of which are very good, but some are not quite to my taste, but then as the saying goes "you can't please all of the people all of the time"

Hope this helps.

Audrey

I assume you are referring to the built-in styles from the past KN series (KN2000,3000,5000, 6000/6500 etc.) together with 82 new ‘World’ styles and 45 styles from the KN2600, which are included within the ‘Total KN7000 64.sdb’ file on my website.
These styles were freely available on the Technics website, before it closed down some time ago and were all 'harmonised' for use on the KN7000 by our good friend Alec Pagida.
At the time, I obtained permission from Panasonic to add them to my website, to make them freely available to KN7000 owners, after the demise of their website.

Thanks, Audrey for your input. Bill, I am glad you responded. The seller has many listings but the ones I have mentioned sound very much like the ones you have on your site that Alec did and are free. If they are the same, he is asking a pretty price for them.

Mark

Mark - you are off the mark (sorry for the pun). Neil produces all his own style files which are song specific - I have them all - Bill also produces different song specific styles - I have them all - there is NO crossover between the two.
Neil does it for a living; Bill does it for fun and in order to back singers that he works with.
Both are real genuine guys and I have the greatest respect for them both..another place to go is www.carillonstudios.me.uk for yet more fabulous style files...
Roger M www.keyboardplayerextraordinaire.com

Further to my last posting, having examined the advertised content of Neil Blake's 1GB SD Card and compared it with the ‘Total KN7000 64.sdb’ file on my webite. It would appear they are identical.........

Thanks, Bill. Very interesting, wouldn't you say, Roger?

Mark

I suppose when you buy something with the intention of making sales and profit from it you're not necessarily aware that someone else is giving it away free.
I wonder what is an acceptable mark up for both your time; the original investment; and the ingredients you use in the process.
In the UK you don't buy petrol cheaper anywhere else than the Supermarket filling stations; one of the most expensive places to buy commodities is Harrods...such are the economies of scale of the western world.
Ever tried any of Neil's style files that he has produced himself, Mark?

Not sure, Roger. I did try a Technote floppy of Glenn Miller arrangements and found them not very good. I had to rework them to death. I don't know if this is any of Neil's work or not.

In America, we shop around for the best deal. Gas can cost as much as 50 cents a gallon more at some stations. This applies to everything else price wise when making a purchase - we shop around for the best deal.

Mark

As the seller gives the name of 'NEIL BLAK' I'm wondering whether it is a genuine site as I cannot imagine this well known and respected man trying to sell 'freebies.' He doesn't need to, as he has literally hundreds of his own songs to offer and for all makes of instruments.

Hopefully, Neil will read this posting and input his reply.

Roger, as you know, I live in a village and within a 12 mile radius of my home, there are three private garages all selling petrol at different prices, two of which are cheaper than our local Supermarket. The difference being as much as 7p per litre. So it would seem cheaper petrol is available from other sources, depending on where you live. I have to admit I cannot understand how prices can vary so much, after all if the barrel price is the same, why aren't the pump prices the same?

Audrey

This is the page in question Audrey :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pre-loaded-SD-card...=item2c5115ad2e

Scroll down and you will see the list of styles. Strawberry Music Ltd. is Neil Blake's website.

This reply is from Neil Blake. He is unable to access his account on the SJ and Nigel is not allowing any new registrations at this time. He asked me to post this info for you people here in the Technics Forum. signed Bebop
Hi Bill. For some reason I can't log in to Synthzone and need to reregister - but they're not accepting new registration! I was trying to answer with the following (would you be so kind as to post this reply on my behalf please?).....

Just had this thread pointed out to me. Sorry if any confusion has been caused by our listing for the SD PRE LOADED CARD stating you can only get those styles from us. Of course these are available from other websites free, but when we took over TECHNOTE, we also took over their entire range (including the Glen Miller one which someone was slating off - not one of ours but one of Technote's that one).

The SD card with the Technics styles on was cleared with Panasonic by Technote before they were available on the net free of charge, and as we paid many thousands of pounds for the Technote library of software, we have obviously continued selling these at the RRP originally set by Technote. I can't offer software free of charge when its our main business (we do have plenty of free samples to download on our sites). Hope this clears up the question of why we charge for them (we did not get them for free!)

As for the "neilblak" user name on eBay - yes it is indeed me - I think at the time of registering I couldn't have the full name "neilblake" for some reason.

Hope this clears up any questions. Anyone wanting any info or questions answering, I would be glad to. Here is my email address - neil.blake@virgin.net - telephone number (UK) 01709 850864, and our two main websites are www.kn7000.com
(the old Technote one) and also www.stylediskwarehouse.com

One further point - someone mentioned that the core of my business was "tweaking" Technics styles then selling them. Not these days! Most of our software was created from the metronome upwards - all brand new styles totally different from the onboard ones (unless otherwise stated in our literature like our budget range "Great Composers etc")

Keep up the good work with the forums.

Neil

All the best,
Neil Blake
STYLE DISK WAREHOUSE www.stylediskwarehouse.com
www.kn7000.com
www.stylediskwarehouse.com
TEL: 01709 850864 (UK)

Thanks for that Bill. I went to the site and was more than a little surprised at what I saw.

However, coming back to this Forum, I read Bebop's posting of Neil's message which of course, explains everything and I have to say that whilst at first glance, his SD Card does seem expensive, I seem to remember paying Technote £59.99 for a pre-loaded styles SD Card and it isn't even a full one, so in comparison, Neil's card isn't expensive.

I still have all my receipts for the various floppies and cards bought from Technote and I daren't tell you how much they all add up to, but I suspect you will know. Having said that, I have had so much pleasure playing them on various keyboards (including some of Neil's) over the years that, to me, they are worth every penny.

Anyway, glad the confusion has been sorted.

Audrey

The confusion has been sorted but now that Neil knows they are available FREE, one would think he would take them off eBay. This especially applies to: “THIS ITEM IS ONLY AVAILABLE FROM US. You cannot get it anywhere else in the world. If you see this item advertised ANYWHERE else please let us know! Anyone copying these styles and selling them WILL BE PROSECUTED (as successfully done last year)"

Would you, Mark, if you'd paid a lot of money for that data and found you weren't the 'best deal'...?

Now that Neil knows it is available FREE, it is somewhat acceptable to sell it but you can't always win with an investment. He needs to remove the statement that it is only available from him and stating that others will be prosecuted if found elsewhere.

Let's drop it. You and others and I have made our point.

I dare say Bill and Neil can sort it out between them or even better...less said sooner mended. Shame the subject was brought up really...!

I've removed the part that says its only available from us. Wouldn't have put it on there if I'd known they were freely available. All the other stuff that states this IS indeed only available from us - or it had better be! :-O