TBC2 & Chromagnon Xmas 2020 Update
Category: Uncategorized · Tags: — · Posts: 76
#1 — creatorlars · 2020-12-22
My dearest LZX community,
Sometimes making something important is messy. Pushing boundaries can reveal those boundaries are thicker than initially perceived. In steering our company through our past decade of activities, survival has often depended on placing a bet on our capabilities as a team to meet a specific release date, asking for support and funding for the project from the community, and then willing our way to a triumphant release – more often tardy than not.
The alternatives to a preorder funding model have often been: raising our pricing and getting more into a niche market where we serve more affluent customers (contrary to our goal of delivering these tools to the actual artists who want to use them) or giving up!
The two projects which are our main focus right now: TBC2 and Chromagnon, have drug out beyond my initial bets, to the degree of two years in the case of TBC2, and going on 10 months with Chromagnon. These are our two most ambitious projects to date, and the amount of engineering work going into them has been staggering, and often uncharted waters for us.
We are fixated on delivering these projects with a degree of excellence that is beyond our past work, and are very proud of where we’ve come with them – and now, we are on the brink of releasing them both. We are so excited about these projects we pee ourselves daily. But neither are in your hands yet, and for that, I am obligated to extend a heartfelt apology and an
update.
So here goes:
We Are Very Fucking Sorry TBC2 Is Taking So Fucking Long!
TBC2s are all built and the assemblies are beautiful. We plan to ship them on Jan 18th, 2021 after another month of rigorous testing.
Before we do that, we need to replace the SD card sockets in all of them to prevent an issue you will be glad not to have on the receiving end.
We also must finish a firmware release. I am finalizing our new video graphics engine (that will run firmware for all our devices) and Ed is finalizing HD scaler/deinterlacer designs. Both of us, as parents of three school age kids each, have had to deal with extraordinary unexpected demands on our time this year due to the pandemic, and some features have been slow going.
On top of that, my ambitious ass doubled down on several feature goals for TBC2, and it’s cost us a lot of time. I made these calls the week after I had to send everyone from LZX home for several weeks in the early days of the pandemic. I didn’t know what was going to happen at all at that point, so I doubled down on what I could: making sure that if these products had more delays, that it would have been worth the wait. But I made a bad call, and now it’s delayed us even further. The good news is that the software architecture we’ve been building is much further advanced than it otherwise would be. That does nothing for you now, but you will see why it will in 2021!
Next:
We Are Also Very Fucking Sorry Chromagnon Is Taking So Fucking Long!
Finally, as of this week, we released most of the design for production. We will be going into 2021 in full production with Chromagnon as the only project the workshop is building for a while. We plan to have the first 500 units (which includes all of your preorders so far) shipped by March 15th, 2021. This is one year after the initial shipping estimate.
Most of the drag out on Chromagnon is for the same reasons as TBC2 (on the firmware/software side, they are much the same project.) While Ed and I have been preoccupied with the software architecture, Jonah has been going thru every single circuit with a fine toothed comb all year, ensuring the hardware release will be smooth and easy.
A reminder: If you’re tired of waiting, we’re happy to exchange your preorder credit for a different product. If you can stand a little more waiting, your eyeballs will be super glad for it. And that is a promise I can make you!
Thank you for believing in us and what we are trying to do, and for being a part of it. If you have any further questions or concerns, I am standing by to address them. If you want more transparency into what we’re working on, just ask.
Thank you for your role in enabling us to spend our lives in pursuit of this work. We are grateful for it every day.
Lars
#2 — Rik_bS · 2020-12-22
Thanks for the update, it’s good to reset expectations - the transparency is appreciated.
For me, it justifies building/buying other modules to have a reasonably capable system until the Chromagnon arrives
#3 — Maytoast · 2020-12-23
Thanks for the the update. That’s all I really ask when it comes to preorders. I can wait for years as long as I’m kept in the loop. Can’t wait to get to my filthy mitts on this video gold. Sending love to all the lzx elves making the magic. Appreciate y’all.
#4 — otoskope · 2020-12-23
I am so totally super-sure it will be worth the wait. And for you to be able to finish these projects at all while the world is upside down is just darn impressive. Most of us have toys to toy with while waiting. And we are arting just fine while waiting for even better arting tools. What you do it fantastic. And transparency is gold. Lars, you and your gang are the best. /Palle
#5 — RoseColouredGlasses · 2020-12-23
Personally the wait for me is not a bother, I still have plenty to learn about my current system, and I might just have to order a second chromagnon since it’s gonna be so epic! Thanks so much for the update Lars, this year has been tough in many aspects of life, I’m just glad to hear all of you at Lzx are giving it everything you can to make it the best. Cheers!
#6 — vhsdestroyer · 2020-12-23
I think we can all understand the delays the pandemic has caused in production and hope the team is all doing well. Very exited to get these modules in my hands and I hope we can see some more product pics and updates as these dates draw closer. Cheers! See y’all in 2021.
#7 — FranzKappa · 2020-12-23
Hm,gives me time to scrape some money together.I’ve invested it in a couple of modules since the chromagnon wasn’t available (2x passage,staircase, fortress, bridge, doorway & polar fringe in addition to my vidiot,diver,curtain and structure) The thing i really need though is the rgb instrument.This is gonna be a looong wait:-(
#8 — Robbertunist · 2020-12-23
creatorlars wrote:
have drug out beyond my initial bets,
I’ll delete this as soon as you see it. Have drawn out beyond… , right?
(update: I’ve learned a new form of the past tense of drag.)
Anyhow, Lars & the LZX team, no one should be giving ye grief especially considering the year that’s coming to a close. Ye’ve kept up current production and are bringing these epic new product developments to a close so ye’ve clearly gone above and beyond the limits of many.
I’m glad to read that you wisely chose to shut down production early in the pandemic, it was the right thing to do, if only more employers had the courage to have done it & were also given the political support to do like a freeze on rents for example & also on bank repayments for everyone.
Anyhow, 500 Chromagnons! Epic, that’s incredible to read. My order will go in really soon, sorry for not having done so earlier to lend my financial support.
Stay healthy, safe & sane over the holiday & especially through 2021
#9 — Rik_bS · 2020-12-23
https://grammarist.com/usage/dragged-drug/Link: How to Use Dragged vs. drug Correctly – Grammarist
Learn something new each day
#10 — Robbertunist · 2020-12-23
Ain’t that the truth! This is super new to me but I’m definitely reminded of some typical German past tense verbs.
& I’m supposed to be a well read English teacher
#11 — catbiscuits · 2020-12-23
I see that we will be getting Mapper pre-orders soon though? Right!? That’s exciting for now.
#12 — Z0NK0UT · 2020-12-23
Mappers shipping out soon! There was a delay getting them all packed up, but it has been surpassed.
#13 — creatorlars · 2020-12-23
“dragged out” has a syllabic dissonance that works against the intelligibility of my run-on sentences in a way “drug out” does not!
#14 — catbiscuits · 2020-12-23
Back in college, on more than one occassion I had to be dragged out that day when I was all drug out.
So I’m order #3493. That will be ok, right?
#15 — Z0NK0UT · 2020-12-23
Totally OK. Shipping soon!
#16 — Limpasen · 2020-12-23
Keep up the great work! You’re the best.
Looking forward to all the god stuff.
Göran Hugo Olsson
#17 — Tundra_Tides · 2020-12-26
Transparency and managing expectations is always appreciated
cheers Lars & Team !Out of interest, if I was to place an order online with you would it be quicker received than waiting with a retailer? (Shipping to UK, usually buy in EU to avoid import tax)
#18 — Z0NK0UT · 2020-12-26
I always recommend buying from an EU dealer if you’re in Europe. Could be faster, but if it ends up being slower it won’t be by much.
#19 — cburst · 2020-12-29
thanks for the clarifications and transparency, i really appreciate both
#20 — DeathMeister · 2020-12-29
Gives me time to learn the other modules instead of jumping right in to the fancy one.
#21 — Dr_Rek · 2021-01-07
Thank you for the update @creatorlars
No way I’m giving up my first day pre-order, so excited for Chromagnon to drop sometime this year, and the future product roadmap too.
I’d love to share Chromagnon video work for promotions asap once mine arrives too.
#22 — brendanleespengler · 2021-01-12
Are we really 6 days away from TBC2 shipping? Ive got so many lofty ideas I’m psyched to try out.
At the same time, the works is insane right now, so I’m prepared for the possibility of delays.
#24 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-01-21
Still finishing it up and hoping to ship it this month.
#25 — creatorlars · 2021-01-22
It’s been a long month so far, but everything here is going well.
We were held up a week longer than expected solving our SD card socket issue, but that is past us now, and work has been performed and retested on all units. We’re going to make one more hardware revision (a few resistor swaps) to all units next week to get output gain levels spot on perfect.
Last week, HD sync timings were tested beautifully on both TBC2 and Chromagnon, which was a huge milestone. This week we tested more formats, and next week Jonah will continue with these tests as well as the review of the remaining Chromagnon PCBs.
On the firmware side, our two biggest deliverables are integrating the scaler HDL modules in all formats (something Ed is working on) and finishing a release of the engine (which is the GUI and node control app, that I am working on.) I am putting in 80 hour weeks on this software project, and expect to finish sometime in the next few days. After I finish, I’ll switch over to testing/QA mode.
On the Chromagnon side, the control PCB is now in production! This is where all the hand labor is, so the workshop is in full swing with it when not on the red alert related tasks (TBC2.) We also finalized our plastic parts and have RFQs out with our molding shops, so we should have the plastic parts sometime in February.
The next update you’ll get from us on TBC2 is that release candidate firmware is being tested, and then within the week after that notice we’ll start shipping everything out. I don’t anticipate any wackiness happening in the run up to fulfillment, as all the hardware units have at least passed all the most critical tests (video passthru on all channels, system boot, etc.) We’ve even got all the product boxes sitting pretty.
We’ll keep you updated, if you have any questions, please ask.
#26 — Zifor · 2021-01-22
Really happy on the progress with your products. I look forward to owning them this year. I was wondering. Do you have an ETA this year on new Vessel 208hp? I know you have the excel sheet , but i was wondering if they might be out say for summer time this year?
#27 — creatorlars · 2021-01-22
We’re going to pull some plans together for new releases after the Chromagnon and TBC2 projects are behind us. A Q4 release of new cases and modules is much more likely. Q3 would be a little early, since we won’t be able to start develop until Q2.
#28 — Zifor · 2021-01-22
Good to hear
I know what to do now , i will probably make a makeshift case for the available monies (modules) i will able to get this year then transfer them to a vessel when it is available. Excited!
#30 — creatorlars · 2021-01-22
Yep, we’ve got those ready to go.
#31 — a_digital_index · 2021-01-23
A question about the GUI control. Maybe this has been answered elsewhere. I assume you will interface between modules usb connection and Computer running GUI. If one were to run a hub off of the computer could the GUI interface with multiple modules at the same time or is it sltictly a one-to-one relationship?
#32 — creatorlars · 2021-01-23
a_digital_index wrote:
ntrol. Maybe this has been answered elsewhere. I assume you will interface between modules usb connection and Computer running GUI. If one were to run a hub off of the computer could the GUI int
I was planning that the host device (your PC/Mac) running the LZX app, would recognize LZX USB devices and you manage them as a list of “device profiles.” So you could name two Memory Palaces something different, and maintain local backups of each device’s settings in separately named folders.
#34 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-03-02
Still working on it. The modules are done, but lack complete firmware.
#35 — gravity_proof · 2021-03-08
How are things looking on March 15th for the Chromagnon? Any word on when there might be demo videos available? Would be interested in pre-ordering one but need to get a sense of what the final product will look like before I can pull the trigger. Keep up the good work.
#36 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-03-09
Chromagnon completion for initial units is looking more likely in late Spring. We’ll try to get videos out ahead of that, but (as exemplified by TBC2) it might not be possible. Everyone is still working very hard and daily progress is being made–it’s just slower than we’d like.
#39 — Apfelmann · 2021-03-11
nice! so this means we are also closer to the diver firmware update?
#40 — Robbertunist · 2021-03-11
I was just talking to a mate about this 10 hours ago, we’re both Diver owners too. Admittedly it’s low down the order of priorities and we’ll just have to wait but making it open source & letting some of the community’s programmers get their hands on the code. That could lead to really really interesting results.
#42 — rempesm · 2021-04-01
I hope this is the best intentioned April Fools.
#43 — meudiademorte · 2021-04-01
or maybe this, don’t know
https://lzxindustries.net/products/video-logic-nosActually Available! Not A Joke!The first in our logic series. Extremely fast CMOS logic with high speed comparators on all inputs. Used for boolean logic operations on any type or frequency of...
Price: USD 202.10
Link: Video Logic NOS
#44 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-04-01
How did you find that?!
#45 — reverselandfill · 2021-04-01
maybe in a barn somewhere?
#46 — saiteron · 2021-04-01
my bet is some folks are scraping the site for updates, getting pings when anything changes. makes it hard to be sneaky with surprises! i’m just sad i missed the VBM and TVFKG… will definitely be building the gen 3 Visionary equivalents when they come out!
#47 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-04-01
Well you were definitely on the ball, getting the first Video Logic in years!
#48 — saiteron · 2021-04-01
just happened to wake up early and see the post in the Discord
very cool of you all to bring these long lost gems back from the great beyond, even if only in limited quantities!
#49 — bentoncbainbridge · 2021-04-01
How do I order? I’d like VBM2, VWG, TVFKG please!
#50 — meudiademorte · 2021-04-01
was on the website and it popped up was gone few minutes later.
#51 — meudiademorte · 2021-04-01
but i was sure its a failure that it was online without a newsletter, so i dont posted it on the facebook group
#52 — Vdot · 2021-04-01
Regarding the April 1st update and Chromagnon. I think I’ve read it mentioned that the Chromag will use some of the TBC2 code but is there still a lot more work to do on the Chromagnon’s firmware or just assembly and testing?
#53 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-04-01
All of the above, though most of the firmware work is being completed with TBC2.
#54 — bentoncbainbridge · 2021-04-01
But… I received an email offering NOS of the VWG, TVFKG and VBM v2. Was that an April Fool’s joke? I emailed sales immediately, so hopefully if it’s for real I’m in the queue…
#55 — saiteron · 2021-04-01
pretty sure most of the modules were already sold by the time the e-mail hit. i woke up at 6 AM for some reason (about 4 hrs before the e-mails) and saw folks talking in the Discord about the Video Logic modules. i came straight to the LZX site and searched for “Marble Index” (wishful thinking, lol) and didn’t get any hits but after that i searched “Expedition” and then “Visionary” and when i got hits i clicked thru. VBM, TVFKG and VWG all popped up and all three were marked “Sold out!”
to be clear - just speculating here based on what i saw. could also be that stock was not updated until after that point but given that the Video Logics were already live by then i’d assume the others were too.
#56 — wednesdayayay · 2021-04-05
if it was just an april fools joke it was chefs kiss good
#57 — analogbrainsurgeon · 2021-04-05
Well hey, if somebody wants to spend $1000 on a clock divider or $500 on an IP differentiator (I don’t even know what that is), reverb has got your back today! Lol
#58 — rempesm · 2021-04-05
I’m not certain why the Video Divisions deserves a $700+ markup. Kind of absurd.
IP Differentiators can be printed from @pbalj’s Github: GitHub - Teletect/IP-Differentiator: Eurorack 4hp Sandin IP Differentiator
#59 — rempesm · 2021-04-05
The Differentiator is a fixed highpass filter bank with 6 inputs that mixes down to an inverted and non-inverted output.
You can tune each input by swapping the capacitors but in the stock config from top to bottom it’s a higher cutoff to a lower cutoff.
With a highpass filter, this means whatever you insert into the top input will only show very fine details/edges/high frequency content and the bottom input will allow slightly less detailed parts of the image through to the output.
The beauty of it is that you can put 6 entirely different sources into it so it’s sort of a fixed filter bank mixer and, of course, you can easily feed one of its outputs back into its inputs for edge ringing effects.
#60 — jwsmithwick1 · 2021-04-05
The seller is based in Japan. The mark-up has more to do with import duties and the Dollar/Yen exchange rates. There’s usually a similar type of mark-up for UK, Canada, Australia, EU. The actual markups differ by country (or economic bloc). Usually, when I see a listing that makes me say “da fuk?..”, it’s from a seller based outside of the USA.
#61 — analogbrainsurgeon · 2021-04-05
That’s interesting, thanks for the info! Sounds like a Worng Soundstage for video, minus vcas.
#62 — cburst · 2021-04-16
so it seems that TBC2 orders are shipping!! any idea what order numbers are being processed these days?
#63 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-04-16
TBC2 shipping has not yet begun. Still wrapping the firmware.
#64 — cburst · 2021-04-16
ah, ok, was just a bit confused by the screenshot posted earlier. perhaps i should have known, what one sees on a screen is not necessarily an accurate representation of reality haha…
#65 — Rik_bS · 2021-04-30
Taken from Facebook discussion 29/04/2021 for those that may have missed it
Lars Larsen>>>> We’re this week entering a pre-flight wrap up/testing phase. It has been a very long perimeter getting here. A few units distributed to more testers arrived this week. I am still tying in a few systems from the Memory Palace app, like MIDI and trigger patching. Luckily that’s all very straightforward and going well. I am ending out today implementing MIDI time code sync (for media player). Many features are only implemented on a surface level for this release; but need to be there for structural reasons – it is a daily struggle to just move on rather than fully implementing. But it does mean that post release development will be that much swifter. If you have any other questions I’m happy to answer – I’m just so embarrassed by the time frame and exhausted by the project to feel like I should have anything to say about it other than “it’s done, now” when it finally is. I can smell fresh air and packing tape, though. The energy here is upbeat, every day progress is made.
To be clear, when I mentioned features – I’m talking about features that are part of the overall engine, but that won’t be part of TBC2’s initial firmware release. I didn’t mean to imply that any of TBC2’s listed features will be dropped.
#66 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-05-26
Lars, from the FB group: I wish I could share more, day to day. But it’s just been staring at walls of timing data for all the HD formats and peripheral configuration registers the past couple weeks as we get the fine points of the upscaling, downscaling, and deinterlacing working perfectly. Both TBC2 and Chromagnon have full HD/SD cross converters, and those features are the ones where even a small detail can take a couple days to sort out and resolve. Those issues get knocked out one by one and eventually we’re at the end of the road though. And at the end of that road an arts focused business can provide accessibility to some pretty powerful tools. Tools that would have seemed reality-breaking to me 10 years ago. So that is pretty exciting.
#67 — Robbertunist · 2021-05-28
Lars posted a short 3 second clip about 12hrs ago on the LZX video Synth community Facebook page.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/lzxindustries/permalink/1831161480388497/
#68 — Robbertunist · 2021-05-31
I thought this was worthy of posting up here. Hopefully the URL is correct. Just tested it & it does. Lars’ comment as seen in the screenshot is his last one, the orginal post generated quite some activity
26n ouSMplonngfay dcuiatsao rses0d1:3h0 ·
#69 — Entropist · 2021-06-07
I immediately put the Chromagnon on pre-order after reading that thread the other day
#70 — bentoncbainbridge · 2021-08-11
is there a way for the Zuckerfree to see this new Chromagnon demo?
#71 — wednesdayayay · 2021-08-11
I can’t upload video directly to this forum but here are some gifs made from downloading those videos
"Here are a few of Chromagnon’s compositing modes shown with an external source (the rotating color bars) and internally generated soft key. I’ll keep posting clips from the workbench as we progress.
Nothing super exciting yet, but you can begin to see the visual character of the soft key and what it looks like cycling thru compositing modes.
Chromagnon is all analog except the frontend TBC (which is receiving a video loop of rotating color bars I use for testing, so that I can be sure a capture is active.) This is just a test clip showing the analog key /compositor modes."
#72 — wednesdayayay · 2021-08-11
https://i.imgur.com/n1ofz5q.mp4 “Another quick peek inside Chromagnon. Native 1080i5994 input and output! The soft key really explores that 10 bit luma range so nicely in this clip, I hope the upload looks good on your end. The input is a YPbPr 1080i5994 feed of static color bars.”
https://i.imgur.com/I9s7brc.mp4 “These are just remnants from hardware tests I’m sharing – like you’re looking over my shoulder – there will be proper demos. I feel obliged to share what I can right now. There are a few tweaks and tuning we’re still in the process of doing – so the clips I’ve posted so far are a little dim, and need some horizontal offset correction”
remember this is a gif so there are color/smoothness limitations if you are on discord I posted the videos on there as well
#73 — Dr_Rek · 2021-08-11
Thank you for reposting these!
Is there a LZX Discord?
#74 — Fox · 2021-08-11
https://discord.com/invite/7zwpZPEJUYCheck out the lzxindustries community on Discord - hang out with 362 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
Link: Join the lzxindustries Discord Server!
#75 — cburst · 2021-08-23
can you generate a new invite? this one’s expired now
#76 — saiteron · 2021-08-23
here ya go!
https://discord.com/invite/UNrnpXNwCheck out the lzxindustries community on Discord - hang out with 354 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
Link: Join the lzxindustries Discord Server!
#77 — cburst · 2021-08-23
thanks!! much appreciated!!
#79 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-11-30
No updates. Still finishing things up.
#80 — meudiademorte · 2021-11-30
And Updates when the next gen3 modules are on the way?
#82 — Z0NK0UT · 2021-11-30
We’re still on schedule for the GEN3 releases.
#83 — thenoiseoftime · 2021-12-15
Link has expired. Can you send a new one?
#84 — wednesdayayay · 2021-12-15
https://discord.com/invite/d5mFmKaRdeCheck out the lzxindustries community on Discord - hang out with 406 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
Link: Join the lzxindustries Discord Server!
here ya go!