What Do You Think The Future Might Bring With This News?

[jpmull]

Create Digital Music is reporting that Yamaha is acquiring Line 6!

 

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/12/yamaha-will-acquire-line-6-major-innovator-guitar-tech/

[tscoolberth]

You never know, sometimes they come in with a chainsaw, cut service, stifle creativity with a really stiff corporate culture, on the flip side .. smaller companies like Line 6 tend to be amazingly innovative but they f- things up a lot.

[ozbadman]

Yamaha make excellent music products.

 

Line 6 has been very innovative, but their QA has been poor. There's a good chance Yamaha will fix this, hopefully not at the cost of Line 6's innovation. They usually keep most of the existing staff and management when they buy.

 

This could well be a good thing for the customers. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

 

And it would be awesome if they move the guitar production facilities to Japan! (But I doubt this will happen).

[Charlie_Watt]

I see it as only being Positive!  Yamaha is a quality oriented company and they would not have acquired Line 6 to screw them up.  I expect even more great things from Line 6 in the future.

[snhirsch]

I agree.  Line 6 exhibits many signs of an under-capitalized company.  This can only be good news - although not perhaps for Line 6 employees.  The axe always swings after corporate aquisitions complete.  Let's just hope that Yamaha management is wise enough to retain the key people.

[TheRealZap]

I'm optimistic.

[stevekc]

I'm happy I was able to buy and own these guitar's as new, instead of used 

 

Meanwhile about the future? I wish all the current Line6 employees the best success in 2014, where ever they land.

 

Now I must  heed the words of my grandmother ;)

(enough said) 

[katiekerry]

You know I play drums also I always wondered if line6 would ever get into Virtual drum systems now they may just be a part of it.  But I have been with line6 since POD 1.0 And I don't think I will waver from them.  Even with their quirky updates of lately..

[Charlie_Watt]

I have a feeling that their quirkiness has been due somewhat to lack of resources.  Maybe they will get the support they need from Yamaha.  They know how to do manufacturing right.

[jayson2]

Does Yamaha have forums equivalent to what Line 6 hosts? When I owned a 01x mixer, Yamaha did sponsor a Keyfax forum but once they discontinued the product the forum shut down shortly after without any notice as Yamaha pulled the funding. Left a bad taste in quite a few user's mouths.

 

It would be nice to know what the plans are for this forum. Any experts have any inside info?

 

Cheers,

 

jayson

[Charlie_Watt]

I doubt that any changes or decisions will be made before the deal is official.  There are strict rules about that stuff.   Been there several times.

[guitar4u]

Slightly depressing, actually  :mellow: Seems like everyone's gettin' bought up these days  :rolleyes:

[tomb68]

I see this as a mostly positive thing. Of all the companies that could have bought them Yamaha is the most benign and they have a good track record in the music industry. I mean, it could have been Gibson(if you want a horror story).

[agdtec]

I think there will be a delay in any new products as the corporate system tend to slow innovation as the bureaucracy gets more complex.  

But they should have access to some very talented synth engineers which could be good or very very bad. 

[Rewolf48]

Does Yamaha have forums equivalent to what Line 6 hosts? When I owned a 01x mixer, Yamaha did sponsor a Keyfax forum but once they discontinued the product the forum shut down shortly after without any notice as Yamaha pulled the funding. Left a bad taste in quite a few user's mouths.

 

Not a global one, but for specific products yes - for example the Motif keyboard range there is http://motifator.com/index.php/forum

 

On Motifator as well as enthusiastic users there are also Yamaha employees that can give very detailed answers such as BadMister who also features in English How To Videos - and compared to the Line 6 products a Yamaha Motif XF is really complex (I know I have one but have barely scratched the surface of what it can do)

 

There are several sites in partnership with KeyFax as you said:

 

The Motif series was launched in Summer 2001 and Keyfax designed and produced a dedicated website,Motifator.com, to introduce the technology and associated products and possibilities to the general public.

Motifator.com quickly established itself not only as a powerful entity for the Yamaha Motif, but also became a blueprint for other instrument and technology sites providing clear and concise product support on a human scale and with a human, 'community' dimension.

In 2003 Yamaha Corporation of Japan appointed another Keyfax site, mLANcentral, as the centralized global resource for the disbursement of mLAN information, and subsequently several other product sites have been produced including SNninety.com (for Yamaha S90) AWinspire.com (for AW series of Digital Audio Recorders), 01xRay.com (for 01x mLAN Mixing Studio), DTXPERIENCE.com (DTX Series Digital Drum Kits), and ArrangerWorkstation.com (Tyros and PSR ranges).

 

On Motifator as well as enthusiastic users there are also Yamaha employees that can give very detailed answers such as BadMister who also features in English How To Videos - and compared to the Line 6 products a Yamaha Motif XF is really complex (I know I have one but have barely scratched the surface of what it can do), and it also hosts downloads and add-on products from other 3rd parties as well as Yamaha