Analog only?

[LoboLives]

Tim Shoebridge brought up a good point. The Prophet X is a collaboration effort with 8Dio and with Focusrite purchasing Sequential that means there is a conflict of interest here as now Focusrite has to participate with a company that they don't actually own for a single instrument. Makes sense to cut it.

It didn't sell well.
Wasn't demonstrated well at all.
8Dio constantly dropped the ball and Sequential and 8Dio ping ponged customers back and forth when it came to any bugs or issues with the machine.
There's no firmware updates planned because the software is completely different to what Sequential is used to so they likely need a special team or person handling it.
Dave likely hates it because he admittedly had to have his arm twisted to produce it.

Focusrite probably looked at all that and said "Fuck it."

[LPF83]

Tim Shoebridge brought up a good point. The Prophet X is a collaboration effort with 8Dio and with Focusrite purchasing Sequential that means there is a conflict of interest here as now Focusrite has to participate with a company that they don't actually own for a single instrument. Makes sense to cut it.

It didn't sell well.
Wasn't demonstrated well at all.
8Dio constantly dropped the ball and Sequential and 8Dio ping ponged customers back and forth when it came to any bugs or issues with the machine.
There's no firmware updates planned because the software is completely different to what Sequential is used to so they likely need a special team or person handling it.
Dave likely hates it because he admittedly had to have his arm twisted to produce it.

Focusrite probably looked at all that and said "Fuck it."

That 8Dio needed to be involved at all with troubleshooting bugs or issues is news to me, I thought they were merely a provider of samples in a particular format.  But yeah, I can see how that was one more obstacle to the instruments success.  The first item on your list (not selling well) is probably the key to it all.  Where there's a will there's a way, and if it had been a great seller, 8Dios interest in holding up their end would have likely been completely different.

I think part of the instrument's fate was sealed by the fact that sampling can already be done extremely well on a PC/Mac or one of the gazillion inexpensive hardware samplers available, and the synthesis aspect of the Prophet X was not compelling enough on its own to get buyers to bite.

Personally I think the initial MSRP of the 61 key of $4,600 was a critical mistake, and it was doomed from day one as a result.  I suppose the collaboration and the complications you mentioned above led to an attempt to try to adjust the profit margin accordingly, and it was simply too much to ask for a product that was going to need even more expenditure to add more sounds to.   It probably would have sold decently if they could have released it at $2,800 or so, that sales momentum would have led to more sales from 8Dio and motivated them to stay on it, etc.

[LoboLives]

Tim Shoebridge brought up a good point. The Prophet X is a collaboration effort with 8Dio and with Focusrite purchasing Sequential that means there is a conflict of interest here as now Focusrite has to participate with a company that they don't actually own for a single instrument. Makes sense to cut it.

It didn't sell well.
Wasn't demonstrated well at all.
8Dio constantly dropped the ball and Sequential and 8Dio ping ponged customers back and forth when it came to any bugs or issues with the machine.
There's no firmware updates planned because the software is completely different to what Sequential is used to so they likely need a special team or person handling it.
Dave likely hates it because he admittedly had to have his arm twisted to produce it.

Focusrite probably looked at all that and said "Fuck it."

That 8Dio needed to be involved at all with troubleshooting bugs or issues is news to me, I thought they were merely a provider of samples in a particular format.  But yeah, I can see how that was one more obstacle to the instruments success.  The first item on your list (not selling well) is probably the key to it all.  Where there's a will there's a way, and if it had been a great seller, 8Dios interest in holding up their end would have likely been completely different.

I think part of the instrument's fate was sealed by the fact that sampling can already be done extremely well on a PC/Mac or one of the gazillion inexpensive hardware samplers available, and the synthesis aspect of the Prophet X was not compelling enough on its own to get buyers to bite.

Personally I think the initial MSRP of the 61 key of $4,600 was a critical mistake, and it was doomed from day one as a result.  I suppose the collaboration and the complications you mentioned above led to an attempt to try to adjust the profit margin accordingly, and it was simply too much to ask for a product that was going to need even more expenditure to add more sounds to.   It probably would have sold decently if they could have released it at $2,800 or so, that sales momentum would have led to more sales from 8Dio and motivated them to stay on it, etc.

Plus Gerry Basserman's terrible demos out of the gate didn't help.