who own a Chimera?

[rhythminmind]

Thanks for the reply. Not surprised to hear of his potential failings. I tend to believe you get what you give for the most part in this life. So it seems fitting.

[felixer]

If it's any consolation, it looks like Ben's karma has caught up to him somewhat.

yep, that's the thing with karma: it's inevitable.
i'm sorry and apologize for having had faith in the man: seems i was wrong and the angry ones were right what a shame because his products were good. i still enjoy my bc6, 8, and 9 ....

[tIB]

Apologies for necroing this one, but wondered if anyone could shed any light on the ring mod input?

[rob.ocelot]

Apologies for necroing this one, but wondered if anyone could shed any light on the ring mod input?

There's a single input for modulating the amount of ring mod between OSC 1 and OSC2. There's no way to change the inputs (ie use another sound source for the carrier - so no Dalek voices here). I found this confusing at first because I expected two inputs or at least an in and an out. Because you can't independently change the tuning of OSC2 (there's a knob to change the *difference* between the two oscillators) you also have to work a bit to get something that sounds ring modulated, otherwise you are ring modding the same sound to itself, which doesn't do much.

I remember quizzing Ben about how it worked when I got my BC-16, but I can't recall if that was on the defunct Chimera forum or if it was in email. Must have been the forum because I kept pretty much everything I could about Chimera -- that included emails, manuals, pictures of the prototypes (inc. stuff that was vaporware), screenshots of forum posts when I could.

Let's just say I had a feeling that this stuff would disappear at some point if Ben decided to run off. Sure enough, he closed the forum because people were complaining about not getting the stuff they paid for and he didn't seem to care that it took away valuable information and tips that weren't even in the (not ever completed) manuals.

I wish I could have saved more.

[tIB]

Thanks very much - weirdly I'd been using I without knowing since I had some modulation going into what I thought was the diff of the LFO!

It's a sad tale indeed - unfortunately his design talents were far outweighed by his dishonesty.

[T. Jervell]

Nevermind...

[drhamburger]

I still have my bc16.

[rob.ocelot]

Same, two BC-16 and a BC-8.

Frankly, loolking back on it all now I'm shocked I got this much out of him before he went all squirrely...

[rob.ocelot]

So, I was curious as to what our pal Ben has been up to for the past decade or so and did some casual digging...

https://find-and-update.company-informa ... pointments

Twelve companies in the last 8 years! The man has started and tanked more businesses than I have suits!

Always the same MO:

• Company always has two employees, Ben and Vivienne.
• Company reports minimal assets, usually totalling a couple thousand UKP.
• Company makes a few token products, lures in customers who then get ripped off
• Ben uses the money to fund his ever-growing stable of expensive milling machines, tools, electronic test equipment, etc
• Ben tries to lure more new customers and uses their money to (sometimes) make the products that were supposed to go to the old customers
• Ben throws in the towel because angry customers/haters/supply chain issues/BREXIT/COVID/sunspots
• Inevitable compulsory strike off from Companies House because Ben fails to disclose the proper information/financials/paperwork
• Company is dissolved, therefore Ben is no longer obligated to provide products to the old or new customers
• Rinse, wash, and repeat with a new company whose infoblurbs talk about his 30+ years of experience as an EE/Software Developer/whatever and that the current line of business for the company is "His lifelong passion/addiction". He said the same thing about synths in 2008, now that I recall.

Some LULZ in his Linkedin and his current company du jour: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencfisher/

"With Electron Plus I'm combining 30+ years experience as an electronics engineer/designer and life-long passion (addiction!) for test equipment."

Company website: https://electron.plus/ (looks real slick, he might have actually paid a real web designer!)

More lulz in the info sections:

"We do as much of the manufacturing in-house as is possible; this helps guarantee quality and short lead-times. We have both surface-mount and thru-hole lines, a machine shop and calibration lab; we go from raw circuit boards, components and aluminium extrusions at one end of the factory to finished, tested and calibrated instruments at the other end."

Gee, I wonder whose money really paid for those expensive in-house production lines, shop and lab(s)?

"Fast shipping & 14 day no-quibble returns
If it is shown in-stock on the website then we aim to despatch it within 24 hours (weekends excluded).
We also offer a 14-day no-quibble return policy – simply return the instrument and we will happily refund your purchase (see shipping policy for details)"

Bwa ha hah ha hah!

Companies House listing: https://companycheck.co.uk/company/1148 ... house-data

Some gems in the documents section:

2021-11-30 GAZ1 Gazette notice compulsory

( A Gazette notice informs you that the company will be struck off Companies House in 3 months due to failure to file accounts or pay tax)

2021-12-09 DISS16(SOAS) Dissolved compulsory strike off suspended

(If your strike off application has been suspended this means a creditor has objected to your dissolving the business and your company will therefore remain active and on the Companies House register. The company will not be dissolved until another application has been made and no objections received.)

So, basically same old bag of tricks for Ben. He's allowing the company to tank and doesn't pay his fees to Companies House so the company will get an automatic strike-off andl be dissolved (and Ben gets to walk away without having to pay his debts or deliver any product). However, this time a creditor has stepped up and blocked this dissolution (could be Companies House themselves, as he's been chronically playing this game for at least 15 years at this point).

Some things never change.

(really, they dont!)

[Dave Peck]

Company website: https://electron.plus/ (looks real slick, he might have actually paid a real web designer!)

Well, more likely, he PROMISED to pay a real web designer.

[jonne74]

Maybe I don't understand the terms used, but here in Sweden you'd get slapped with a trading ban. Best translation I could find and better than "nutrition ban" suggested by Google. You wouldn't be allowed to start a business for a number of years.

[rob.ocelot]

Maybe I don't understand the terms used, but here in Sweden you'd get slapped with a trading ban. Best translation I could find and better than "nutrition ban" suggested by Google. You wouldn't be allowed to start a business for a number of years.

I don't live in the UK but my understanding of it is that Ben Fisher is somehow exploting a loophole in the UK system or perhaps the pentaly periods in the UK are short compared to elsewhere. My pet theory is that he uses his wife's name to file new companies while he's on penalty and staggers between him and his wife to get through the penalty periods. It kind of implies Vivienne is complicit in this but that might not neccessarily be the case -- however she is listed as an officer of the company in every one of his business ventures (and there are never any other executives).

It's tempting to write a narrative like "What spouse would put up with this shit for 15 years?", isn't it?

The guy is clearly a criminal or at best he has some very mixed up ideas about how business/customers/ethics work. He came back here on Muffs about five years after the fact and tried to start the same crap again and none of us took the bait. Lots of big talk about how he was going to 'do right' by the customers he had stiffed by shipping a new version of the synth they paid for (metal body, new design, blah blah). Even showed pictures of the synth shells laid out on a table and a box of them after being powder coated. He never offered anyone he stiffed a refund and ignored them when they asked -- clearly a sign that he was out of cash again and needed to lure in some paying customers to keep going. When he didn't get any traction he took off. No one here reported ever getting one of these new metal body BC-16s and I've never seen one for sale in the wild. Still see plastic a BC-16 and BC-8 pop up on ebay or Reverb once in a blue moon.

Don't you think it's weird that his Linkedin profile waxes on about his "30 years as an EE" (and his current company is precision test equipment) but he doesn't list any of the various failed companies where he's burned his bridges and pissed on the embers?

Not the precision steadycam company.
Not the robotics company.
Not the various synth companies (Chimera, Ben Fisher Synths).

He also did contract work for Dubreq and designed the new Stylophone S2 for them. That's HUGE! The Stylophone is practically a pop culture icon. Yet, Dubreq says very little about him and when people started asking questions they seemingly dropped him like a hot potato.

Yeah, he doesn't list ANY of that on his current 'StinkedIn'. I suspect all of thse glowing testimonials and supporters on his Linkedin profile are fake/plants/shills.

The guy is bad, bad news.

[Dave Peck]

He came back here on Muffs about five years after the fact and tried to start the same crap again and none of us took the bait. Lots of big talk about how he was going to 'do right' by the customers he had stiffed by shipping a new version of the synth they paid for (metal body, new design, blah blah). Even showed pictures of the synth shells laid out on a table and a box of them after being powder coated. He never offered anyone he stiffed a refund and ignored them when they asked -- clearly a sign that he was out of cash again and needed to lure in some paying customers to keep going. When he didn't get any traction he took off.

Check out pages 43 through 47 of this thread.

His blatant dishonesty and completely delusional ability to rationalize his unethical behavior is just bizarre.

[Scatre]

My blood pressure rises every time I see this thread resurrected. Fuck Ben Fisher.

[construct09]

My blood pressure rises every time I see this thread resurrected. Fuck Ben Fisher.

Fuckn A

[jjsynth]

He still owns me the sequencer…

[peh]

Can't even spell. Missed the U in the first half of his company name.

BFRAD LIMITED

Company number 13904742

[construct09]

Sorry to bump this of all threads...

Can anyone suggest someone who may be able to repair a BC-16?
I am unable to close the VCA

Thanks