Florin Andrei Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 What do you guys think about this thing? Mediastation Is this the first keyboard/computer hybrid? Yeah, there's the Neuron, but that one hides the OS, while the Mediastation makes it visible and accessible. Does the idea makes sense to you? Personally, i kinda like it; my daily job is in the computer industry and, probably due to past painful experiences i kinda learned to distrust standalone computers (fragile, unreliable...) but to trust the "embedded" kind of solutions. That's why i own a synthesizer proper instead of a MIDI keyboard hooked up to a computer, and that's why i kinda like the idea behind the Mediastation (it's sort of an appliance). But what do you guys think anyway? Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Rhythm Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 It's not made in Japan? David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phait Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Interesting. Not so sure about Linux for the OS - I read that music apps are sparse for Linux. I wouldn't be to happy with where those mod/pitch wheels are at though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florin Andrei Posted November 11, 2003 Author Share Posted November 11, 2003 Originally posted by Phait: Not so sure about Linux for the OS - I read that music apps are sparse for Linux.Yes and no. Yes, it's not like MacOS or Windows, where you have a wealth of commercial applications that are well-known and feature-rich. No, it's not too bad. See here, this is the most complete list of Linux sound-n-music apps: linux-sound.org The foundation is actually pretty good: - the OS itself is close to real-time capabilities, so that privileged applications can run without the risk of being interrupted; this is critical for digital recorders or sequencers - there's a mega-driver called ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) which supports almost any sound card that's not completely obscure (it does support the Hammerfall and M-Audio and stuff like that) - it has a "sound daemon" called JACK (Jack Audio Connection Kit) which is sort of a sound dispatcher - think of it as a patch-panel inside your computer, connecting applications and sound devices; it has real-time capabilities and supports all sorts of sound processing plugins - there's a plugin API called LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API), under a "free" license, which allows 3rd parties to write sound processing plugins; essentially, any application that supports LADSPA can take advantage of any LADSPA plugin. In terms of applications... - there's a sequencer called Rosegarden which is pretty much a clone of older EMagic Logic versions - there's a digital multitrack recorder called Ardour - softsynths and drum machines such as Hydrogen - etc. My feeling is that the biggest challenge for a musician that wants to use Linux is not a lack of applications, but the fact that Linux is still kind of a geeky thing: it's rather difficult for the non-technical user to install and tweak drivers and stuff like that. But then again, there are projects underway to fix that, for example PlanetCCRMA which brings all the applications i mentioned above in a form that's easy for non-techies to install and play with. Oh well, it's still kind of a niche thing... Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeronyne Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Originally posted by Florin Andrei: What do you guys think about this thing? Mediastation Is this the first keyboard/computer hybrid? Does the idea makes sense to you? Well it makes sense to these guys. "For instance" is not proof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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