I reckon you're right. I also make electronic music products (not synths), and sometimes I'm >2 years overdue on new projects. But I could never take $$$$s via Kickstarter/Indiegogo up front - I'd feel terrible about having the money but not delivering.

I've crowdfunded a MIDI widget that is now 3 months overdue, has had terrible (but exciting) feature creep but does seem at last to be making progress towards a finalised product. But I'm aware that crowdfunding the product development of a Limited Liability company is a risk, it could fail at the last hurdle with some unforeseen manufacturing SNAFU.

I think we shouldn't do this if we're not prepared to risk our money.

I hate to say it, but I would say goodbye to the hope of your guys' drum machines ever materializing. He may be an embarrassed badass, but he's an embarrassed badass who has your money/goods and has decided to stop communicating. I was hoping this would happen because it seems cool, but this a real step backwards for this type of thing and the community willing to support it. This guy gets none of my sympathy. Best of luck to you all.

That doesn't get him off the hook by any means. Ignoring the vagaries of kickstarter liability, retaining possession of our chips is theft.

If you sent the chips to him in a personal capacity, as opposed to him in the role of an employee of a limited liability company.

What does your contract say?

They will all sent to him personally. These were bought (and sent) independently outside of the kickstarter contract.

I wanted in on this and I'm glad I avoided it now, I really hope he gets this together and that you guys don't get burned.

It's one thing being overwhelmed but he came here and gave the info on it at the beginning so he could damn well return with an update, it takes a few seconds to log on and post an update.

Good luck all.

Devils advocate. Maybe something bad happened to him? Does nobody have knowledge of his whereabouts etc?

This status was just received on the Facebook group from Chris...

To be perfectly clear, I am continuing work on the Micro Rhythm project as I have been over the past year, working little by little on it. On the topic of backers asking for a refund, it is out of the question as I can not ask the many distrubutors that I ordered parts from for a refund. What I owe you and am continuing to complete is a drum machine. In fact to raise funds for the project I am selling off much of my synths that I spent many years making, to help raise the funds needed for PCB manufacture and laser cut faceplates. So I appreciate your patience with the project, what I don't appreciate is negativity or facebook trolling.

Communication costs nothing

Hi Chris (I hope you're reading this!),

Thanks a lot for that update!
I think most of us can understand (or try to understand) the difficulties in building an instrument like this, especially the financial obstacles when you're not backed by a company (well, you were backed by us in form of an upfront payment...).
The reason some of your customers are starting to get nervous and posting negative comments wherever they can contact you is your lack of communication.
A simple "Sorry, folks, I've run out of cash, I've bitten off more than I can chew, and now I need a few more months to work on that!" would have been appreciated by most of us I'm sure.
Please keep us updated, and don't spare us the negative news, OK? "No news is good news" doesn't apply here I'm afraid - the worst stories are the ones that we keep telling ourselves. And Kickstarter is full of dead projects - but also full of projects loooooong overdue but still supplying their backers with info, and no-one is negative about that.
I'm still looking forward to holding my Micro Rhythm in my hands!

Cheers,
Bert

He's got a bit of an attitude for someone who took a few thousand and a bunch of chips and disappeared for a while. That guy better straighten out his priorities.

This, quoting for visibility.

Much as many artists make terrible agents, so often good engineers are hopeless with customers

What a sh!tty apology.

Anyone heard anything more from this guy? It was a cool concept after all.

Anyone got their money back or he started delivering the machines yet? Don't think this thread should disappear into the shadows in case he didn't live up to his obligations. And if he delivered - that's equally important.

/C

No despite repeated attempts to coax additional status out of him nothing more has happened. It is not cool. No excuse for it.

Time for another "anybody hear anything lately about this project or from Chris Kann?" post.

It's a shame there's been no communication. I was so close to pulling the trigger when the last couple of units were still available & feel like I dodged a bullet. I hope (for all those who are invested in the project) that Chris comes through and makes good on his commitment.

If anybody has a TR-505 (or if you don't, this is a good reason to pick one up cheap) you need to check out Harry Axten's TR-505 ROM Expansion.

£35.00 delivered to anywhere in the world. Adds LM-1, DMX & LinnDrum kits to your machine. Killer deal,
and he's a really nice guy.

Nice, my ghetto version of this approach was getting some dmx eproms for an old alesis hr-16b. Was actually kind of charming. The 505 sounds a bit better obv.

Someone already posted this on the previous page.

Given there are a number of people who have various amount of cash and chips at stake, it would be great if we can keep this thread on-topic and focused on the kickstarter project updates (or lack thereof).

Any chance for an update now, @ engtech ?

Commenting for visibility. This is an ongoing saga of more than a year

I'm afraid it's not an *ongoing* saga anymore.
It's just a sad story now.
Being one of the people with money in it, I'd love to be proven wrong though, especially by Mr. Kann himself.

Cheers,
Bert

damn dudes

maybe he could ask for help from the backers or others to get this moving along
that sure would be better than a totally dead project

That's true. Would be very happy to lend Mr. Kann a hand where i could.

Shame such a rad idea has resulted in this. I have a bunch of money tied up in this also and is just a damn shame. Would be more than happy for Chris to buy us all out of this mess.

Update on the Chris Kann Kickstarter saga:

One of the backers took him to small claims court--he was a no show, but the judgement was in the backer's favor. They have still not received their chips or pledge money, however.

I hope all backers have their money returned or eventually receive what they've paid for, and I also hope the guy (Chris Kann) is alright. I get an odd feeling about this story. He seems like a talented fellow and not simply a thief out to scam people, but maybe I'm wrong. I just hope he has help if he needs it.

Everyone else that invested money in this should do the same. This guy just doesn't 'get it', no matter his excuse. He doesn't look to have gone as far as sending a simple email even... so if he's not showing people he means business, everyone else here should show him they mean business by doing the above.

This is going to be tough being in another country. I'm honestly totally helpless in this regard. I dont care so much about the money at this point. I'd just like my chips