[linux-audio-user] Opening up the discussion

[Phil Mendelsohn]

Wolfgang Lonien <wolfgang at lonien.de>

> Hi Christoph,
>
> so this includes *me*? As I explained in an earlier post, I did MIDI
> when we were still using DOS, but audio was (at that time) far without
> reach - with *any* operating system. Audio was still pre-ADAT, so we're
> talking 24-track tape machines...

Just to pick a nit:

Audio predates MIDI by about 30 years.  Being out of reach I'll agree
with, for sure!, but there were tube D/A converters being built in the
late 50's at MIT (meaning the resistor ladder type guts, not any
"audiophile" type of thing).  Tom Stockham and the Soundstream were
pre-MIDI, there were various things going on in Europe, and the Synclavier
was doing sampling and resynthesis (not sampling playback as we know it)
before MIDI.

MIDI was '84-ish, and coincides roughly with the release of the Ensoniq
Mirage -- the first sampler for under $10,000, but there were a lot of
expensive computer systems (standalone or general purpose) that knew
something about audio.

Cheers,
Phil Mendelsohn

-- 
Dept. of Mathematics, 342 Machray Hall
U. of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2
Office:  446 Machray Hall, 204-474-6470
http://www.rephil.org/   phil at rephil dot org