XLN Audio - XOpaks 50% off

[PavlovsCat]

It's wild how heavy and honest this thread turned about careers. Off to take my son of UIUC this morning to tour their engineering school. 

[TheMaartian]

2 hours ago, Peter Woods said:

It's wild how heavy and honest this thread turned about careers. Off to take my son of UIUC this morning to tour their engineering school. 

Good luck with the visit!

You're a drummer and I'm a bassist, so I think you might appreciate the first audio I ran through my new Focal Shape 65's. My new studio is finally coming together after tearing down the one in the U.S. 18 months ago. Feels really good. Next to be connected is my NI S61 Mk2. Great keyboard controller.

 

[Nick Blanc]

16 hours ago, Peter Woods said:

...That said, as big data and data analytics have become increasingly important  in the field, it's less of a Mad Man mentality than it was in my early career...

I have friends who are on the data driven side of marketing (or better yet, marketing communication) and this shift is very noticable. You can laugh all you want at all the unnecessary so called customer journeys, but it is real. A friend of mine has this habit of, when he is called into a strategic meeting, to just ask "what would the customer want and what do you want?" I cannot count how many times he told me that they could not answer. He doesn't ask this to be a jackass, just so he knows wether or not he can provide them with data and what kind of data would be important. But I get the feeling that more often than not, large companies 'do marketing' just for the sake of it.

[TheMaartian]

45 minutes ago, Nick Blanc said:

I have friends who are on the data driven side of marketing (or better yet, marketing communication) and this shift is very noticable. You can laugh all you want at all the unnecessary so called customer journeys, but it is real. A friend of mine has this habit of, when he is called into a strategic meeting, to just ask "what would the customer want and what do you want?" I cannot count how many times he told me that they could not answer. He doesn't ask this to be a jackass, just so he knows wether or not he can provide them with data and what kind of data would be important. But I get the feeling that more often than not, large companies 'do marketing' just for the sake of it.

My experience in some of the major companies I consulted is that marketing's most important task was to obscure the primary company objectives...growth and the bottom line. Here's a classic example, from a 1998 article in the New York Times:

And so the Ford Motor Company has decided it is time to jettison its tagline of the last 17 years, ''Quality is job one.'' In a $40-million-a-year corporate advertising campaign that begins today, Ford introduces its new theme: ''Better ideas. Driven by you.''

Ford did achieve some nice improvements in quality, but it was never Job One.

Motorola provided semiconductors to all 3 of the Big Three, so I got a chance to look inside of each back in the mid-90s. Ford was the best to work with. Top down command and control. General Motors  had dozens of fiefdoms, much more difficult to negotiate. And Chrysler? The less said, the better.

Edited September 24, 2022 by John Maar

[Yan Filiatrault]

So, does the XO packs are good? Any recommendations?

[PavlovsCat]

37 minutes ago, John Maar said:

My experience in some of the major companies I consulted is that marketing's most important task was to obscure the primary company objectives...growth and the bottom line. Here's a classic example, from a 1998 article in the New York Times:

And so the Ford Motor Company has decided it is time to jettison its tagline of the last 17 years, ''Quality is job one.'' In a $40-million-a-year corporate advertising campaign that begins today, Ford introduces its new theme: ''Better ideas. Driven by you.''

Ford did achieve some nice improvements in quality, but it was never Job One.

Motorola provided semiconductors to all 3 of the Big Three, so I got a chance to look inside of each back in the mid-90s. Ford was the best to work with. Top down command and control. General Motors  had dozens of fiefdoms, much more difficult to negotiate. And Chrysler? The less said, the better.

I managed digital marketing globally,  led social media,  search  and advised on the Google/Motorola partnership at Motorola in the 00s and one of my old friends from those days was the GM of their first manufacturing plant in Asia that earned  them the Malcolm Baldrige Award. He was one of my favorite people at Moto, just a wonderful person and a musician who lives in Austin and regularly plays at night clubs -- so we share a love of technology and music. He's older than me and was always fascinating to talk to. His educational background is electrical engineering. He's now senior technology advisor at the US State Department and soon going to be talking to my son about potential tech careers. But where I can still use someone is big data. I have a friend who is a former editor of one of the top marketing magazines and used to be the editor of Computer World, who writes on big data for trade publications, but no one actually in the field,  so if anyone here specializes in big data and is open to a 20 minute call giving insights to a young person trying to figure out a career path,  PM me! 

Edited September 24, 2022 by Peter Woods

[TheMaartian]

17 minutes ago, Peter Woods said:

I managed digital marketing globally,  led social media,  search  and advised on the Google/Motorola partnership at Motorola in the 00s and one of my old friends from those days was the GM of their first manufacturing plant in Asia that earned  them the Malcolm Baldrige Award. He was one of my favorite people at Moto, just a wonderful person and a musician who lives in Austin and regularly plays at night clubs -- so we share a love of technology and music. He's older than me and was always fascinating to talk to. His educational background is electrical engineering. He's now senior technology advisor at the US State Department and soon going to be talking to my son about potential tech careers. But where I can still use someone is big data. I have a friend who is a former editor of one of the top marketing magazines and used to be the editor of Computer World, who writes on big data for trade publications, but no one actually in the field,  so if anyone here specializes in big data and is open to a 20 minute call giving insights to a young person trying to figure out a career path,  PM me! 

Glad to hear. Wouldn't be surprised if my path crossed his at some point. I started in Comm Sector (like police and fire radios), but did some work with Semi peeps. How about PMing me his name and I'll see if I can remember him from 20-25 years ago. I do remember that the semi plant in Austin was running down to 13% capacity. Moto got up to $9.5 billion annual capacity but dropped to $4.5 billion annual semi sales after screwing up cellular (semi's largest customer). Politically, Moto was only able to downsize to $5.5 billion annual capacity. Too many execs protecting THEIR plant. That overcapacity was one of the things that killed Moto. Spinning them off as Freescale couldn't prevent the inevitable. The vaunted corp HQ in Schaumburg, IL that I nominally reported to now has Ericsson signage. I was in Chicago the summer of '21 to get my French Long Stay visa, and it broke my heart when I drove by it and saw the new signs.

Edited September 24, 2022 by John Maar

[Reid Rosefelt]

I found this picture of the XLN Audio team hard at work creating new Adpaks, Midi PAKS and XO expansions.

[Canopus]

17 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I found this picture of the XLN Audio team hard at work creating new Adpaks, Midi PAKS and XO expansions.

That’s extraordinary! They all seem to elevate at least a feet above the ground! And the tall guy in the back to the left has no throat. So that's what they are doing? Anti-gravity and invisibility plugins? The mystery deepens.

[Yan Filiatrault]

3 hours ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

So, does the XO packs are good? Any recommendations?

Looks like it’s my question that is off-topic… oh well…

[Reid Rosefelt]

4 hours ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

Looks like it’s my question that is off-topic… oh well…

I really like Oscillations and Pastel Punch, but that's personal.  Have you listened to the demos? 

Oscillations is the main driver of this video, although I used a lot of other tools for the drums, including Butch Vig

 

[abacab]

53 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I really like Oscillations and Pastel Punch, but that's personal.  Have you listened to the demos? 

Oscillations is the main driver of this video, although I used a lot of other tools for the drums, including Butch Vig

Hey Reid, enjoyed the groove! ?

[Christian Jones]

8 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I found this picture of the XLN Audio team hard at work creating new Adpaks, Midi PAKS and XO expansions.

The guy to the immediate left of the guy in the middle in the green windbreaker.. I'm gonna blame him when XLN goes out of business. I mean look at this guy.. he won't even look at the camera.. he's over it already, I can tell. Yeah, I'm gonna blame him whoever he is. 

[Reid Rosefelt]

21 hours ago, abacab said:

Hey Reid, enjoyed the groove! ?

It was the first time I wrote something where the beat came first.  The great thing about the XO and the paks is you can put your own sounds into them.  It's fun if you want to use foley for your beats. 

[Reid Rosefelt]

19 hours ago, Christian Jones said:

The guy to the immediate left of the guy in the middle in the green windbreaker.. I'm gonna blame him when XLN goes out of business. I mean look at this guy.. he won't even look at the camera.. he's over it already, I can tell. Yeah, I'm gonna blame him whoever he is. 

One theory I have heard is that the camera went off when a random dude was walking by, and they just figured, "what the hell, it looks like we have a bigger staff" and they left him in the photo.     Others have mused that  he was a real XLN staffer distracted by whatever the guy third from the right was saying.  We'll never know because, as far as I know, nobody ever comes to the office at XLN.  You have to check out the random theme parks they visit, and that's a hassle. 

The guy in the orange on the left with his head floating away...I would blame him too.  For everything.  Including Larry being away from this forum for so long.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Reid Rosefelt

[abacab]

49 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

The guy in the orange on the left with his head floating away...I would blame him too.  For everything.  Including Larry being away from this forum for so long.

 Spotted the "L" word! ? 

[user 905133]

1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

One theory I have heard is that the camera went off when a random dude was walking by, and . . . .

I thought he was telling the person 3 persons to his left not to pick his zits because they were about to snap the picture. Either that or the guy (who had his mouth open) was saying something to prompt the distraction. To me, it looks like the left-facer is angled in the direction of open-mouth guy.  Maybe we are reading too much into the picture!  ? 

[TheSteven]

On 9/24/2022 at 8:35 AM, Reid Rosefelt said:

I found this picture of the XLN Audio team hard at work creating new Adpaks, Midi PAKS and XO expansions.

Wonder when this image was posted?
Interesting..  but odd photo montage created from multiple different images pasted on a background of Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle.
Castle image is probably from California park - my son says while there are multiple Disney Sleeping Castles at various parks no 2 castles are built the same.

According to https://careers.xlnaudio.com/people company currently has 29 or more employees.

[Reid Rosefelt]

4 hours ago, TheSteven said:

Wonder when this image was posted?
Interesting..  but odd photo montage created from multiple different images pasted on a background of Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle.
Castle image is probably from California park - my son says while there are multiple Disney Sleeping Castles at various parks no 2 castles are built the same.

According to https://careers.xlnaudio.com/people company currently has 29 or more employees.

And here they are at Coney Island!  I'm sure they cooked up some great software ideas on the Wonder Wheel!

[Canopus]

The original image on page 1 in this thread (the one where everybody still have their heads attached to their bodies) is quite easy to geolocate; it’s shot at the amusement park Gröna Lund in Stockholm, about a kilometer from the XLN Audio head office. Although I’m only guessing, I’m pretty sure that the reason for the event was to have a 5-kamp (pentathlon) for the purpose of team-building. I’m also pretty sure that the evening ended with a beer or two at some local pub. They usually do.