New hardware?

[Berni]

Well there you all go on about connectivity but software doesn't need it in the physical sense & as for a few different plug in formats, compared to hardware it is nothing. I also believe that midi has also been updated by several people, yamaha & roland spring to mind but has never caught on.
I know a lot of people that are quite happy to produce using only there laptop & if all you are using are virtual instruments then it is quite feasible.
It is a good time to make music indeed!

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Berni

Well there you all go on about connectivity but software doesn't need it in the physical sense & as for a few different plug in formats, compared to hardware it is nothing. I also believe that midi has also been updated by several people, yamaha & roland spring to mind but has never caught on.
I know a lot of people that are quite happy to produce using only there laptop & if all you are using are virtual instruments then it is quite feasible.
It is a good time to make music indeed!

Well in my case my only interest in hardware is the fact that CPU technology has hit very real thermal limitations in the past few years, and they are not doubling in speed year over year (or even remotely close) like they used to. The CPU in my primary PC was purchased about 4 years ago, and benchmarks only a few percentage points below the fastest CPUs you can buy today.
So, although admittedly is it partially mental, I do not like my polyphony or type/quality of FX I can run to constantly hit a CPU ceiling. So, dedicated hardware to take some of the processing load is the only viable option.

With that in mind however, CPU savings doesn't do me any good if the workflow around a piece of hardware is agonizingly cumbersome or the integration doesn't work very well. Then it becomes like a risk/reward balancing act where the risk is the cost of the hardware versus how much of a pain in the ass it will be. Every time I run the purchase of a new Ti2 through that equation, it comes up short and I end up foregoing the purchase (at least thus far).

[namnibor]

Originally Posted by Berni

Well there you all go on about connectivity but software doesn't need it in the physical sense & as for a few different plug in formats, compared to hardware it is nothing. I also believe that midi has also been updated by several people, yamaha & roland spring to mind but has never caught on.
I know a lot of people that are quite happy to produce using only there laptop & if all you are using are virtual instruments then it is quite feasible.
It is a good time to make music indeed!

Now realize I may be coming from my Psychology college training when I say this but it also is very much a basic Humanistic stance as well in that there is something to be said about a great physical, hands-on interface and turning physical knobs, even if realistically for quite some time now, that very physical interface is and has been controlling software, that to me would be the difference in trying to convince anyone that stepping into Woody Allen's "Orgasmatron" from his early and best movie IMO, "Sleeper", is better experience than having real intimacy in all it's unpredictability (ideally); where "working solely within the box" would leave me with "I can't no satisfaction" ringing in my soul!
Perhaps a strange analogy, but I seem to do strange well on this planet!
The fact that the modular movement has really had a surge of avid interest to point that MFB and other former and present hardware co.'s are making modular units, contrasted by Arturia, whom had done software in beginning and now venturing quite successfully in hardware, makes me believe that perhaps we very well could be looking at an evolution that meets BOTH desires in the middle, with Native Instrument's hard drive release to even their Maschine, et al; perhaps we shall see more software companies leaping OUT from "the box" to hardware??!!
We are all fortunate in any case to be living in such technologically creative times.
Just remember this: Winsor & Newton, long-time artist's oils, watercolors, and art supply makers are in NO way fearing the demise of the actual painter and his or her's interface, the canvas, from becoming extinct and the same goes for those touring musicians that have to entertain the crowds, of which their attention span probably would not these days be sated by such stage presence of static musicians in front of screens. The general public probably would not be that entertained by such automated music that follows a piano roll in a live situation...but who knows?
Freudian or not, I just happen to like knobs...and uh, switches!!

[Berni]

What I'm trying to say is that the cheap laptop has not only replaced the crappy guitar that most contemporary musicians started with but also the budget studio they cut there first demo on & a lot of the instruments they wanted to try but could never afford. Once you learn a decent daw & all it's shortcuts & instruments you dont need big expensive boxes with lots of knobs & switches & it is more natural to use what you learned on. There are millions of people out there producing some really cool electronic music with just a DAW & some speakers. Making music is all about heads & hearts not gear.
Access blowing us away with the next big thing? My Arse! I think they came to the same conclusion I did quite a few years ago. There just riding it out now
I have an Apple macbook pro & can run any plug-in I want too on it 32 or 64bit on Lion in any host that I have.
I can also create great works of art without slinging mud at a canvas
Wake up this is 2013!

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Berni

What I'm trying to say is that the cheap laptop has not only replaced the crappy guitar that most contemporary musicians started with but also the budget studio they cut there first demo on & a lot of the instruments they wanted to try but could never afford. Once you learn a decent daw & all it's shortcuts & instruments you dont need big expensive boxes with lots of knobs & switches & it is more natural to use what you learned on. There are millions of people out there producing some really cool electronic music with just a DAW & some speakers. Making music is all about heads & hearts not gear.
Access blowing us away with the next big thing? My Arse! I think they came to the same conclusion I did quite a few years ago. There just riding it out now
I have an Apple macbook pro & can run any plug-in I want too on it 32 or 64bit on Lion in any host that I have.
I can also create great works of art without slinging mud at a canvas
Wake up this is 2013!

Not only that but there are just as many options for controlling software now as any hardware interface can provide. The other day I was looking through some old posts here where someone said with a mouse you can't control two params at once like you can with two hands and a knob. And it was said in a conversation with me. How did I let that guy get away with that ? I think in that post I used the example of an X/Y pad like in Zebra to do same (which it does), but now days I can have my hand on a mouse controlling X/Y pad or on the pitch/mod stick (or both), or a few fingers on a few sliders, etc.... The limits are purely mental in nature. Honestly I find it much easier to control the Ultranova VST via generic keyboard mapping than it is to use the knobs on the Ultranova itself, with the only possible exception being the filter sweep knob (which is dead easy to grab on that particular device given its enormous size).

But at the same time I do kind of understand the mystique around a hardware instrument. The physical interface is designed with that particular instrument in mind, thus a relationship between the two is created that is unique and is kind of what makes that instrument what it is. Similar to guitars, they all have 6 strings (er well mostly), thus they are not a ukulele. But wait, a bass guitar has the same number of strings as a ukulele. What makes them different? Physical placement and other physical characteristics that define one instrument from another.

So I kind of see both sides.

But I do agree with you that software has eaten hardware's fucking lunch over the last 5 years or so, and the fact that Access has not responded with realistic price points indicates head up the arse syndrome big time.

[Berni]

Originally Posted by namnibor

the same goes for those touring musicians that have to entertain the crowds, of which their attention span probably would not these days be sated by such stage presence of static musicians in front of screens. The general public probably would not be that entertained by such automated music that follows a piano roll in a live situation...but who knows?
Freudian or not, I just happen to like knobs...and uh, switches!!

Ever see kraftwerk live?

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Berni

Ever see kraftwerk live?

I did, but only in dreams and videos.

Modern finds on YouTube, by the way, explain away the main reason I never did well during stage musicianship:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSwGj45gxM

No matter what, it always seemed like I ended up looking for a fellow band mate that was feeling a little too confident, then the mixed martial arts side of me took over

Must watch that one to the end.. heheh.

There was a reason that electronic music in the 80's needed to be highly sequenced or at least put on tape in a room not susceptible to spontaneous grudge matches

[Berni]

The reason why I am so glad non of my early band gigs where never on video Thanks for sharing!