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Looper's Delight
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Although the recent NAMM show was not full of revolutionary new products there was some indication that a trend is developing that may redefine the topography of our systems. Several manufacturers announced products that consist of a hardware audio processing component and a software programming and performance interface. Some of these are fully digital (CreamWare Noah and Roland VariOS) and at least one was largely analog (Waldorf AFB16). There is also a trend toward networking. Kurweil, Apogee, and Presonus all have products that incorporate mLAN; Digidesign, Mark of the Unicorn, and Metric Halo have Firewire audio interfaces. Steinberg has VST System Link, which allows a group of networked computers to function as a cohesive system. Akai has ak.Sys Control to network their equipment and to allow a computer running VST plug-ins to function as a piece of outboard gear. I don't expect all these developments to congeal into one single methodology and topology, but it seems clear that many manufacturers realize that while most of their customers are using computers, the CPU resources are either inadequate or inappropriate to run all of the virtual instruments and effects plug-ins their customers want. Although today's computers are increasingly more powerful, and although DSP cards can be added to systems, it still represents a performance bottleneck. How many slots do you have in your computer? The matter of "appropriate" hardware is also significant. As Dave Smith's Evolver demonstrates, analog circuits can do things some things better than digital (and vice versa) so combining the two makes good sonic, economic, and technical sense. Analog filters are much sought after and hard to reproduce convincingly with DSP, so why not use analog circuits as Waldorf has done with the AFB16? I'll be interested to see if this trend continues, and if some degree of standardization develops. -- ______________________________________________________________ Richard Zvonar, PhD (818) 788-2202 http://www.zvonar.com http://RZCybernetics.com