Hacker News Reader

Comment by pigtailgirl | Hacker News Reader

-- Not sure what alleged role she is alleging - even after reading this 10,300 word essay - my understanding was that it's supposed to be a fun toy for the musically inclined (similar to teenage engineering products) - maybe i'm wrong - but it does fulfill that role perfectly - I sat on a 6 hour flight and did nothing but make tunes with my OP-Z and Stem Player - similar to TE products - the Stem Player is one of the most fun toys I've purchased as an adult - "I genuinely believe the Stem Player will be out of everyone's mind in a few months and will be remembered as that weird gadget ye shoved the fans' throat to access the album." - I don't even like Kanye West music - I've been playing with this thing weekly for months - again - it's a really fun toy --

View on HN

> it's a really fun toy

I’ll take your word for it, but “consumer” is not the lens through which the author is critiquing the device.

-- 70% of the article is about their trash marketing - business model - and a host of other things unrelated to engineering - Additionally filled with hits like: "In summary, they ignore me as soon as I show any interest, which I don't take too kindly." - in my opinion - author has a bone to pick - and that's fine - never the less - the concussion to the essay is the device does not fulfill the role - however the role it's supposed to fulfill is never defined - so I was simply sharing the role is serves for me - and serves it well --

What is that lense though? Plenty of the article isn't actually about engineering issues with the device, and seems to be a weird axe-grindy/PR hit piece because they were writing an emulator and their meatspace interaction didn't go according to the author's plans.

> did nothing but make tunes

You mean you did nothing but create tracks of insufficient fidelity burdened with copyright issues. Mostly, I have to agree with you, but oranges are not apples, and what you've created can't be shopped or sold, and even if it could, the poor fidelity of the source tracks (whatever Stem player produces for you to use) would prevent market interest in all but lofi consumers within whatever genre it classifies as, if they exist. But you entertained yourself, and that is really all that is necessary to validate the product.

Sometimes people make music because it's fun, not because they are trying to create studio-quality songs and beats.

-- you missed the OP-Z part! =) --

I found all the hyphens in your comment distracting.

It's likely an unordered list, due to the way HN handles line spacing if you don't do double line breaks.

Actually I've now had a look and pigtailgirl seems to format all of their comments in this way, including having double dashes at the beginning and end. I guess it's a deliberate stylistic choice, but can't say I'm a fan.

Almost makes me think its GPT3 or something.

> makes me think its GPT3 or something

This comment is so worn and beat on HN.

How so?

Thanks for letting all of us know..

It was feedback for them, not for you.

that's a common thing I hear, "it fulfills its purpose". Doesn't excuse the limitations and that the website doesn't give you higher quality stems

It's interesting you call it a toy, the team behind it calls the next musical revolution. Your expectations were met, while the ones they set weren't.

I think there's a disconnect between the information you collected and how OP views the device, which is telling. Having worked on "platforms" for most of my career, one thing I realized is that when you make a "platform" you start small, because as much as you may try to steer users they will decide what kind of product your product is.

I really enjoyed the post, I think it took me through every emotion I've ever felt as an engineer throughout my career. Also, the detail with which you went through how you reverse engineered the product was incredible. I learned a lot.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com