12 Nov
2003
12 Nov
'03
4:36 a.m.
On Tuesday 11 November 2003 19.55, Benno Senoner wrote:
[...]
Meanwhile, some people invest lots of time *and* money in various
projects, just because thep enjoy building things... ;-)
Speaking of cars; though I definitely wouldn't mind driving an F40 or
F50 (insanely beautiful cars, IMHO,), I'm more the kind of guy who
would build a Lotus Super 7 replica from scratch. 600 kg with 100-400
hp ranges from brutal to insane performance, and I could actually
afford building one - and I would have fun doing it as well. :-)
Maybe this is reflected in most of my choices in all fields?
//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
.- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
| Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia. |
| MIDI, modular synthesis, real time effects, scripting,... |
`-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -'
--- http://olofson.net --- http://www.reologica.se ---
So I would not call this PC crippled, I'd call it
more flexible
than a traditional PC because
it's input output devices are optimized for musical tasks.
Speaking of which; I'd be really rather interested in a UI like that,
but as an extra interface for a normal computer based studio. Sort of
like a DAW terminal with a display and a custom control panel that I
can put right above my master keyboard, so I don't have to turn
around to, or reach for the computer all the time.
BTW, I started hacking an SDL based full screen sequencer some time
ago. Though I could make it smooth with tracker style keyboard
control, I guess the missing part is really this little handy
hardware terminal...
withold the
cripple (but double the money). You can just make one
of those.. wouldn't be as pretty and you'd have to
muck w/ RT-linux. Or, you could pick up a laptop..
it's all the rage these days, I hear ;)
Of course a made yourself solution can be cheaper (only if your
time is worth $0) but the target of the keyboard is the professional
musicians that
want a turnkey solution or developers that want to create their own
thirdparty apps modules
without building the whole enviroment from scratch.
The possibilities are endless, the Mediastation is much more than a
keyboard.
It does seem like an interesting platform indeed, though I'm probably
not in the target audience. If I want something special or custom, I
want to design it and build it myself, for fun and total control -
and that's just as well, as I can't really afford paying someone else
to do the job.
I think good
synth design, as far as hardware goes, is
knowing what features to leave out as much as
engineering them in. If it's too versatile, it is just
a frusturating, expensive computer.
To quote Domenico, the main hardware engineer of the keyboard,
according to him
the Mediastation is the Ferrari or Lamborghini of keyboards :-)
The company is small and can not produce high volume, low margin
gear. It would
be impossible to compete with the bigs.
After all Ferraris are made in Italy just like the Mediastation,
let's see what happens :-)