Completely agree with you.

The US patent system is pretty messed up. In principle, patents are supposed to be non-obvious. Meaning that people that are knowledgeable in the field wouldn't be likely to come up with the patented invention on their own. At least not without great difficulty or without copying some existing technology.

I am always amazed how someone can come to such idea about core thing being "messed up" for long time. Of course you did not came up with this idea yourself, it is mass media who implanted such idea. It is so untrue.

Patents system is part of capitalists laws system. And..

Law is the will of the ruling class transformed into legal regulations.

Surprise. Print it and put above your bed.

Patents work wonderfully. Just for ruling class only.

This Zaxcom patent may be another example (although I haven't looked too closely at the patent details).

It is not obvious, but it is how patent work. It has more and less broad, more specific claims.

With enough money and an army of lawyers, it seems possible to get approval for many patents that are overly broad and describe fairly obvious "inventions."

Of course not. You can do it only if you have resources and until you are not going against more powerful predator or whole class. It is media of ruling class who makes such beats out of patent trolls, yet they do not touch them. They keep them as their hyenas to hunt down small or weak.

Other than patent trolls (and maybe patent attorneys), I don't really know who is benefiting from the current system.

Ruling class benefit from patents. All core big corporations rely on patents and copyright to kill competition. Most of this is never going into news, 99% of all projects die after patent research stage and most other on early production stages.

Big companies tolerate trolls as they allow to keep system intact and all expenses are tolerable.
Patent trolls are parasites living in rotten corpse of capitalism.

So we get smart quote

Freedom does not consist in any dreamt-of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws, and in the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends. This holds good in relation both to the laws of external nature and to those which govern the bodily and mental existence of men themselves -- two classes of laws which we can separate from each other at most only in thought but not in reality. Freedom of the will therefore means nothing but the capacity to make decisions with knowledge of the subject.

Freedom therefore consists in the control over ourselves and over external nature, a control founded on knowledge of natural necessity; it is therefore necessarily a product of historical development. The first men who separated themselves from the animal kingdom were in all essentials as unfree as the animals themselves, but each step forward in the field of culture was a step towards freedom.

And conclude simple thing. Zaxcom here (and whole capitalist backed patent system) is going against freedom of people. Impose direct damage by causing you either to buy very overpriced product or get inferior solution lacking features that can be implemented for very cheap (like build in recorder in wireless system or wireless timecode transmission).

At least they only last 20 years, not forever. Behringer is a good example of a company that exploits that fact.

It is strange argument. As if someone argued it is not that bad if some guy fucks you with shaft because shaft diameter is acceptable and it is 20 hours only. :-)

Normal people even in case of slightest mention of this will find nearest tree and put the guy on it with shaft sticking directly from them main hole.

@alcomposer

Well, all this is no more than Behringer stunts where they remake old synths just to milk more money from poor uneducated people (as all it is available in software and works with any midi keyboard).

actually many musicians prefer the sound of analogue gear. There is a difference. Look at guitarists- they still use valves.

Unfortunately no difference if done properly is possible. As it is pure math. Ask the guys who tell you otherwise to turn around and kick them in the ass.

But there are many musicians that will love using real analogue gear.

And we should not care for them, as it is same as fashion industry now.

These days one can find hardware Analogue MIDI synths for fans of that sound as well.

You do not need any hardware and any analogue, as it is all done for people who lack education.

Btw ISIS and analogue synths are very similar, both are attempts of capitalists to use regression to hold real progress, as real progress do not have them in picture at all.

Actually there is, as analogue circuits have random characteristics that can not be duplicated 100%.

Well, I have no idea that you mean here. Any so called "random" thing in analog synth can be modeled precisely so no real people could find the difference. If you mean that it happens in some unpredictable moment and such, it just means that musician and people around also can't predict it, so won't be able to tell difference between original and modeling.

Musicians spend hours listening to Analogue v's Software Synths, if they feel it sounds different that is their choice.

Again, some people like real hardware Analogue Gear, its not fashion, they like the sound.

Well as I said, if you lack foundation you have severe consequences. Like here.
Thing you pronounced is regressive, idealistic and goes against science. Proper way is not to follow fashion, and not to pray to "it is their opinion" but to use science to close modeling shortage, if necessary, improve science in understanding human sound perception. And move ahead on the progress road.

If you look at synth history it is pure fashion, as it became clear that progress in synth requires more and more people effort, mergers and lot of work, owners just looked around and choose regressive way. As it allowed them to make things cheap and make good profits. All else is pure technique using media, paid musicians and advertisements.

I am not saying that software analogues are not good, they are. However if some people prefer real analogue who am I to say 'you are stupid'? If we get 100% Violin emulator should people burn Violins?

No they should not. Just should produce very little of new ones.

Lol, so producing very little new ones = eventually no new ones, as art-form would die out.

No, does not mean it. It means that small niche still remains.

Yet. Around 99% of all music instruments existing in human history are gone and forgotten. it is not good or bad, it is how it is. Idea that you can stop progress is stupid.

It's ironic that on PV we all discuss cameras / filming interesting things / nice cameras, in many ways the embodiment of the fashion of the times. The "youtube" fashion.

At least I try to keep it all to minimum. Btw Youtube "fashion" comes from progressive side - new technologies and channels, and regressive side also - bad education making people hard to understand written texts.

As you would know Vitaliy computers are unable to produce truely random numbers, as they create sudo-random numbers. I am not saying they are better or worse, just different.

It is wrong. But common myth. Pseudo random numbers are numbers generated by some mathematical function. For example almost every Intel CPU have real random number generator that is based on temperature and other fluctuations. Used mostly for crypto things like key generation. And it is not so hard to do it other ways, just not necessary for most things.

For audio modeling and such you do not need it, math function can be as close as you want.

We can not tell people what they should or shouldn't buy, as otherwise we will very quickly have less choice.

No one is telling people that they should do. But having absolute horrific analog synth industry based on myths, lack of education, paid musicians and advertisements is also not acceptable. This guys just spend society resources on useless things.

If analog and digital are the same, how come we eat organic food? No one can taste the difference.

Audio specialist Zaxcom has been honored by the Television Academy with an Engineering Emmy® Award during the 68th Engineering Emmy Awards held at Loews Hollywood Hotel. Both Zaxcom President Glenn Sanders and Chief Engineer Howard Stark were on hand to accept the technical achievement for its innovations in digital wireless technology.

Zaxcom was acknowledged as the first to create a fully digital wireless system for microphones as well as its production tool that combines wireless transmission with internal recording located on the body pack.

Before Zaxcom, wireless microphones utilized analog transmission systems to transmit audio from the actors on set to an external recording device. In 2002, Zaxcom developed and produced a completely digital wireless system for microphones and included internal recording for backup use or when radio frequency (RF) or distance issues occur.

The Television Academy honored Zaxcom for its entire digital wireless system as a whole, highlighting many of its capabilities including: its unique audio recording file format (MARF), its ability to protect audio files during power failure or media removal, its full-range microphone audio capture using dual precisions A/D converters, its low latency digital compression and transmission, its capability to increase the number of available wireless microphone channels and its digital remote control of transmitters allowing you to adjust features like pre-amp gains.

This is second time Zaxcom has been recognized with an Engineering Emmy Award for its contribution in the advancement of television broadcasting. The first being in 2008 for the Zaxcom Deva recorder/mixer which revolutionized the process of location sound recording and set a new standard in audio recording in the digital age.

@IronFilm

You can only thank god that Zaxcom is small, otherwise it had been as any corporation that patent stuff all around the world at same time.

Surprising interview we made

Company representative going against company interests :-)