Re: Hello and such

[Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.leepfrog.com>]

On Thu, 12 Sep 1996, Kim Flint wrote:
> 
> >Ordinary desktop PCs and Macs these days offer 16 bit full duplex sound
> >recording, huge memories (16 bit stereo sound is about 10mb/minute), and
> >blazingly fast CPUs.  And pleasant input devices, in the form of MIDI
> >faders, expression pedals, and footswitches, are also commercially
> >available.  So why not just turn a PC into our looping device?  It may 
>be
> >a little impractical for the stage, but it'd be GREAT for home recording
> >and playing.  Performance interaction could occur via any MIDI device,
> >and new/clever functionality could be added at the software level.  A 
>gui
> >with a keyboard and mouse could be used, rather than the tiny knobs,
> >buttons and LCD screens that can fit on a 19" rack.  Save your loops?
> >Use the computer's filesystem.  Process your loops in real time.  Switch
> >instantly between loops.  Reverse them.  Extend them.
> >
> >I really like this idea.  Once you take the hardware issues (digitizing,
> >user interface) out of it, it's just a matter of throwing CPU and RAM at
> >the problem until it goes away.
> 
> MacLoop!  Matthias has been evangalizing for this idea for ages. Somebody
> definitely has to do it. A protools plug in and a standalone would be my
> choice.
> 
> 
> >Anyone wanna buy me a new computer so I can write this?
> 
> Be careful what you wish for Dave..... How are your programming chops?
> 

Actually, I'm a professional programmer, and I have a pretty good grasp 
of numeric analysis programming and how audio works.  My usual 
environment is Unix, but I'm sure I could pick up Mac/Windows programming 
easily enough if I tried.  

Yeah, I'm seriously considering buying a new Power Mac just to work on 
this idea.  What do y'all think?  Would you be willing to use a personal 
computer for a looping device?  Do you HAVE a computer capable of this 
sort of thing?  All the necessary hardware is built into Power Macs and 
most modern PCs.  The whole thing could be sold as software, or even 
given away.  

Let's think about this.  What sort of features would we like to see?  
What about the user interface? 

-dave