Ralph Karsten was the most valuable asset Atma-Sphere Musical Systems possessed. His departure is saddening and somewhat troubling to me. It was always Ralph's personal integrity, his vision and his sense of musical accuracy and truthfulness that made Atma-Sphere such a wonderful company and its products so exquisitely special.
I'm still waiting to see some overt and wholehearted endorsement from Ralph of the "continuing" management team at Atma-Sphere, and some direct indication from Ralph that he will be contributing his design talent to the company on a continuing basis beyond the quotes attributed to him in the A-S press release. Until then, Atma-Sphere without Ralph is an open question for me, just as would be the case with any other highly specialized firm that is the creation of the genius of its founder, designer and visionary.
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