What was the REAL Reason TECHINCS Stoped production of their Keybaords.......

When its quite obvious the were enjoyed & loved by so many?

sorry for the typos

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-14-2008).]

Technics Musical Instrument division was a small part of the Matsushita Corporation and accounted for about 1% of sales, so in came the accountants and declared it too small to spend money on, results: Bye Bye Technics. (In virtually all companies, accountants take priority over customers)
It’s as simple as that.

Bill

That is really sad if that's what happened....especially for the players who really enjoyed these Keyboards & many who actually learned from the start how to play on them also. Too bad someone didn't take over the line and keep producing them till today.

It is sad,and many have purchased back up boards. The price of a KN7000 in good shape is around $3000. I stole mine for $2600 new. It definitely was ahead of it's time four years ago.

A number of the Technics team here in the UK went into Korg & Yamaha.

I have heard so many opinions on why they went out-of-business but I still feel they may be another answer. They had a keyboard that was way out front in many ways -- and they were selling – with that they stopped production.
1-Do you gave away a winner?
2-Why hasn’t somebody picked up where they stopped?
3-Do they know something we do not know?

I would have without doubt purchased a KN8000, I was never disappointed from the KN1000 to the Kn7000 without missing the new flagship model.

I bought a S900 to hold me off until I see what the new Tyros has to offer.

John C.

The KN5000 I bought from Don Mason many years ago was acually one of my favorite arrangers out of the many that I have owned Loved the Sound & Styles & Tilt screen....I tried the KN6000 but couldn't embrace it for my needs....The KN7000 was very interesting when I played it in Dan O's store in MD....but the deal killer was the Sunken Key-bed, I kept hitting my fingers on each end, but I enjoyed the big screen and features, pads were cool too.
There has to be a real answer why they are gone....or maybe some rich entrepreneur can start off where Technics left off ?
There demise really left many users with a sour taste in the mouths of the dedicated players.....its a real shame!

Yes it was a sad day when Technics had the plug pulled from their business .

I was told ,that someone made enquiries to purchase the Technics Brand ..but this was declined by Matushita/panasonic .

i discoverd purely by chance about 12yrs ago the wonderful sounds of technics !!whilst doing a gig with my Elka midi accordion and elka accomps unit .

A keyboard player was backing the small village hall concert show,where I was asked to perform ...and i was stunned by what that single manual keyboard could achieve.

I purchased the smac1200 module and had it midied to my accordion ..and suddenly a whole new world of music opened up to me .

Top quality Glenn Miller Arrangement styles, strict tempo dancing style ,latin , sounds of the 60's awesome Land of hope and Glory .rule Britannia etc , Dambuster march with sound effects ,
the Late and great Dusty Springfield hit "you don't have to say you love me" with the proper style accomps !!!!
I have a big collection of Technics style soft-ware
I could write pages about the Technics styles ,,,,,,,, many people on the forum know that I've tried other modules and "Y" and I've not been happy due to the lack of top quality song specific styles .
I've built up complete sets all around the technics styles and I've found the other brands lacking in certain areas .
I've done gigs and T2 owners have come up to me and said that they wish their keyboard sound as good as my midi accordion and that they wished they had the same great styles.
i also purchased the Kn7000 it was ahead of it's time and have the 4 expansion boards fitted and in my opinion the female soprano opera voice is the best on the market .....I've yet to hear anything better !!!
I've wasted money purchasing various other makes of module and keyboard in the last few years in my quest to replace my beloved "Technics products" only to be very disappointed ....

I'm sticking with what i know and what certainly works for me .

Thanks for starting this discussion .

it has not been my intention to "knock" the other makes of keyboard/modules as they all have advantages and disadvantages

Regards to you all

Giovanni (norwich norfolk England)

I think Technics painted themselves into a corner...

For what they WERE good at, they were very good. But there's a whole new generation of arranger players that never play big-band music and ballroom favorites, and Technics never really stepped up and addressed this, unlike Y, K & R.

Specialization is a double edged sword. It will get you get you a large percentage of a certain market. But if that market is shrinking, you are in deep doo

I cant agree with that.....Technics arrangers gave you EVERYTHING in EVERY GENRE in the style dept letting you choose what you want to play....or if needed you can certainly incorporate any styles you need to flash ram or USB stick etc, etc,......Ballroom, Latin, Country, Disco R&Roll, Pop is more popular then ever out there for audiences to Dance to & enjoy.
In no way was this technics reason to not be here any more......I would lean towards a financial decision & possibly lost sales in the mist of fierce competition.

Sorry, but I always felt that, although Technics did have more contemporary styles, they just weren't as good as the 'oldies' stuff, and didn't match up well against Roland and Yamaha or Korg if you NEVER played 'oldies'.

They simply had a 'focus' to their style selection, same as Korg have the 'smooth jazz' focus, and Roland have the hiphop 'focus'. Every arranger does one or two styles better than the others, something their style developers really nail... For Technics, this was bigband music. And many of the players here that STILL use the Technics probably use them simply because there is still nothing better for that style....

All JMO, though....

I played Rolands,Korgs,Gems,Yamahas but I cannot forget my first Technics (KN800) and my last, KN5000 (with the best navigation and software):Good times...
Chico

I hear ya Diki....its a whole new ballgame with arrangers & we are in for a roller coaster on the next WAVE coming in teh next few years for sure....electronic technology will trickle down into arrangers just as it is progressing everyday in everything on the market. Could be great for us....BUT It could also be our wort nightmare who knows now? we'll see very soon!!!

Somewhere I heard the story that the Technics keyboard range were the love of the chief executive of Matsushita. He died, the rationalists took over and out go the keyboards!
Keith

But it makes you wonder why they didn't try to sell off that division, rather than just let it die, if they were the rationalists like you claim....

Anyway, what chance do you think that Technics would have survived much longer anyway, in a market so dominated by poorly built, toy-like bottom-line arrangers like we have today..?

When a juggernaut like Roland have problems selling high priced arrangers in today's economy, what chance did Technics have? They never really went for that low-end stuff, which is what keeps Yamaha afloat to develop things like the T3...

It is unfortunate that Korg and Roland do not sell a lower end series of arrangers...I believe this was Technics problem as well.(they were also late in conforming to GM)

All arrangers were designed as "easy play" and "instant gratification" instruments, and even today they fulfill that role...consider that G70, PA2XPro, and Tyros2 all have "single finger" chording and factory designed One Touch Setting...aren't these for the novice player?

Having said that, although a fair number of "pros" use arrangers, including some big name players like David Paich (Toto) , David Bryant (Bon Jovi) and our own local heroes like Diki Ross, Donny Pesce, and Gary Diamond, to name a few, it is blatantly obvious the vast bulk of TOTL arranger players started on low end Yamaha arrangers(and, to be fair, Casio as well)...and once they learned the OS, which is basically the same for all Yamaha arrangers, they would naturally move up to the higher end product when their skills and their wallets allowed them the luxury of a more feature laden, and better sounding instrument.

Technics(R.I.P) didn't offer the beginner-on-a-budget anything to start out with...sadly, neither do Roland and Korg...are they missing something?

Time will tell.

Ian


[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 06-15-2008).]

I have to agree with Ian, as I stated so many times, that's my story.

All I know is that my local music shop owner loved and flourished with the Technics. Today he can't find an arranger that will sell that isn't sold at full discount in every big box store. He's tried the Yamaha pianos and the Roland G70, but it's been slim pickings. His clientele loved the styles and the OS. He says nothing out there today matches the Technics.

Technics did offer beginner (lower priced) keyboard..thru their parent company Panasonic..

Also Roland offered lower priced arranger keyboards..the EM series and E series had beginner models..like EM303, EM305, EM10, EM20, E,16,36,etc

Most all, former and present Technics users will probably agree on that.
The userfriendly and well developed OS are what I miss most. Also the upper
KN series was well buildt, good keys and sound/speakers etc.

Diki say: "They never really went for that low-end stuff...."
Well, they sure had "low end" keyboards, as i.e. KN920 etc, but the very low
cost kb was/is called Panasonic KCxx, and most people did not connect that to
the Technics brand.

I'm sure we would see really great and futuric developed keboards if Technics
was not discontinued, but if the KN7000 was the model to continue, I'm not sure
about. Myself I did not like the design, and would probably go for a KN6500
until the next model was to see. But we all know that story.......

Regarding styles/patterns, it was no problem, I'm not a "brass" player, but
had no difficulties make, rebuild or find other styes, Technics or 3rd. party to
suit the songs played, either for dancing or just background music during dinner
at weddings etc. The composer in the KN's or other Technics instruments is some-
thing the other companies should take a closer look at, and also they could steal
or adapt the panelmemory functions.

Anyway, Happy Playing whatever we play on

GJ

I'm glad technics didn't disappear until the KN7000 was out. Too bad they stopped but at least I have and will have pleasure for some years to come on this great instrument. Also enjoy a KN5000 in my secondary residence. I am a jazz and latin music lover.

Other companies may have made lower priced keyboards but they were hard to find.
The yammies and casio you could buy them at kmart and Sam's club.
The others you had to go to the keyboard and organ store which was like going to a used car lot they tried to sell you the most expensive unit they could.

The Roland and Technics (Panasonic) "lower priced" keyboards were considerably more expensive than the low priced Yamaha and Casio.

And they didn't sound any better.

Ian