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Looper interfaces, (was Re: Damon, Why CF ?)




(I thought it best to split this away from the CF conversation)

 >>Good point... Especially with the back panel showing direct out's for 
 >1-4,
 >>unless they're stereo jacks. :)
 >>
 >>I was doing some hopeful thinking, then factoring in that the unit
 >>obviously sees L&R in and then pondering as to why in this day and age of
 >>inexpensive DSP power would someone make a 4 track mono/2 track stereo
 >>recorder? :)
 >
 >it is more than DSP power.
 >(most loop functions do not really use dsp at all.)

True.

But, from my day work, I can say though that folks are starting to realize 
that the low cost of DSP is making folks realize that there is more to be 
done with DSP than things like effects algorithms and time stretching.

DSP is (of course) _wonderful_ for moving a large chunk of data around 
quickly in a larger buffer space, so why not look at moving the more 
traditional housekeeping roles off of the host processor and put it into 
straight into the DSP code.

I would suspect that many maintenance tasks such as manipulating end 
points 
and loop timing, as well as more traditional functions such as pitch, 
scale 
and time stretching are all being handled in DSP.


 >For every track you need in and out jacks, panel space, buffer amps,
 >ADC's and DAC's, i/o channels to the convertors, etc. You need knobs and
 >buttons and displays to allow the user to control each channel in
 >performance. All of that costs money.

Yeup, this is true. It all does cost cash, but not as much as it used to.

I know that I'm preaching to the choir, but SMT/VLSI has done a great deal 
to keep costs like these under control. The high cost of a new machine can 
usually be traced back to trying to recoup the tooling costs of the 
design. 
I suspect that Electrix is using parts in Repeater who's design costs are 
well on their way to being absorbed by other products.

We've seen the physical UI of the Repeater, so we know that the machine 
isn't a 12 space monster with a high external parts count.


 >Beyond that is the question of how to design a useable and intuitive
 >interface for multitrack looping. That can be quite complicated if you 
 >want
 >any interesting featues for interacting between loops, and the problem
 >multiplies as you add channels. You can easily end up with an
 >incomprehensible array of knobs and switches on your 12 rack space front
 >panel. It can do anything but nobody can remember how to use it...

:)

Or, you can spend the money on letting a coder go nuts and designing a 
MIDI 
CC/SysEx implementation such that you can run any kind of human 
interaction 
UI that you want to. :)

It's the same concept as looking at a rack synth. Just because the new 
single space Virus (or the rack Q) has very few knobs doesn't mean that 
you 
can't interact with the machine. You just have to "think outside of the 
box" to steal a phrase. :)


Mark
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