I have recently had some problems with my Roland drum kit. The drum module uses Bluetooth to connect to my phone, so I can play along with songs I cue up, and I get to hear the combined output through some wired headphones. Not a bad set-up, but the combined stream started to become garbled as of late. Something just sounded off. My first thought was that my ears had gotten even worse. Then I started to look around to see what I could use to test the situation.

I salvaged through my big tote of drum and computer gear and found a mixer I originally used with my drum kit; and I pulled out of the cabinet a Microsoft Surface Go 2 I bought several years ago. The Surface Go was originally purchased to accompany me to the Simon Cancer Center during my long chemo sessions. I want something small, light, but with a little more size than a phone. Just the right size to attach a keyboard and do some writing, spreadsheets, or responding to email, but also big enough to enjoy streaming videos. Footprint and weight were also important, since I was very weak in those days, and the wife would bring her work laptop along too, so if she had to help me carry anything, it would not be overwhelming. I don’t due Apple, and I had heard good things about MS Surface products, so after reading a few onlines reviews I went for it. It was a solid buy.

I attached the Surface Go to the drum kit via an old tablet clamp mount and stand for which I also had a previous use and wired everything up to the mixer that rests on my power supply box. Not a glamorous setup, but once you get the mixer volumes set, you don’t really have to fuck with it again.

Pretty simple setup, and I might clean it up at a later date, but for now, this works, and all the sound problems were solved. Sometime in the coming year(s) this will all be integrated via a large mixer and computer with my large e-drum kit, but for now, this works.

I kind of like being able to integrate and use old technology as opposed to just buying new. The laptop I use for my Virtual Studio Technology (VST) (Addictive Drummer 2 – think drum sounds) for my large e-drum kit is a Dell from like 2011 I originally bought to use as my primary personal business computer, but since has been refurbished by me with a solid state hard drive and double the RAM. Sure it’s running an older version of Windows, but it still works like a charm.

My current personal business laptop is a former Christmas present HP Walmart special I got the wife. It was cluttered with adware and had other problems, so I doubled the RAM in it, also replaced the hard drive with a solid state one, installed a fresh copy of Windows, and VOILA! Works like a charm. Also, seeing the error of my ways, she got a new top of the line Dell at that time. It still works great, but I did replace its battery a couple years ago.

So many times I think people get caught up in needing the newest technology when it is completely overkill for their applications. This is evidenced by the fact that Apple was suspected to be slowing down its devices. Hey, we made something too good with too long of a shelf life, so now we have to fuck the consumer over. The quickest way to gain market share is to obsolete the technology of you competitor, so I guess a corollary to that is the best way to maintain market share is to obsolete your own products of which your consumers have developed a brand loyalty and/or dependence. I digress.

I was mostly taught this lesson years ago at close to the start of my career. I was inside sales for an instrumentation manufacturers’ rep and distributor, and one of the companies we repped had a large controls installed based in the power industry. A certain customer of ours in my territory used his granted budget every January to place a six figure order with us to update his controllers and/or other equipment (think computer based control systems or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)). I remember this vividly, because while I was self-learning this line (it was only big for the company in our territory and due to this customer, so I had to learn it), I would also talk to the customer, and he would teach me a few things. I was also asked starting roughly January 2nd every day by my outside salesman and/or manager if the order had come in yet.

In self-learning and in talking to the customer I learned that these were old 286 based computers/controllers. I was surprised because at that time the Pentium chip was at least five years old. He was an old school engineer that kind of had that mentor-based mentality, so he would take his time with me and walk me through a few things. If some is willing to teach, be willing to learn.

I simply asked why he was using such old technology (this is a question my outside salesman would not have appreciated me asking – don’t rock the boat so to speak). He summed it up as form and function. They fit his form – the rack systems or layout in his motor control centers (MCC for industry types) or control room; and his control systems were relatively simple and didn’t require that much math or computing power. He further explained these were also well built, a nod to the fact that sometimes in the process industry that equipment can and will get the shit beat out of it.

If I’m being honest, he could have probably just faxed the order to the company direct. However, I did enjoy our annual conversation as well as him taking the time to teach me. He even walked me through the configuration of part numbers once. We only talked a couple times a year – the time of that big order, and sometimes when he would call it and need some spares or miscellaneous parts.

I also learned another lesson through all this. That is why you practically give equipment away on new plant start-ups (or at least I felt like we did). You want that large installed base, because they are mostly like going to order a replacement from you (at list price) when something breaks or to have spares on the shelf. They know it fits and they know how it performs.

Think about getting that practically free expensive phone with that new mobile phone contract. It’s a similar concept. They want those meat hooks in you.

The post went a little off the rails. My bad.