Re: Using a laptop onstage: Dominic Frasca's take is misguided

["David Kirkdorffer" <vze2ncsr@verizon.net>]

The truth of the mater is both "dedicated hardware" and "computers with
software" will break and become non functional eventually.

To all the computer-based people, how many of you are running NT on your
laptops today - a standard from just 5 years ago.  Five years from now what
will be available, I wonder


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Warren Sirota" <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 7:18 AM
Subject: RE: Using a laptop onstage: Dominic Frasca's take is misguided


> Yeah, a vintage compressor will probably still work and sound great in a
> decade (and the "obsolescence calculus" is probably different for a
> recording studio - whose entire raison d'etre these days is to spread the
> cost of very expensive equipment, like vintage compressors - than for the
> average composer/performer) but this misses the main points about
> obsolesence, which for me is the difficulty of recreating your older
pieces.
>
> For instance, I have a wonderful piece I composed in 1987, with much
effort,
> for Takamine nylon-string MIDI controller, GTM-6 guitar-to-midi converter
> (with built-in midi looper, which I used), TX-7 and Ensoniq
> something-or-other (ESQ-1?). Now I can't play it because the Ensoniq
stopped
> working and was irreplaceable (or not worth replacing, which is not much
> different), the GTm-6 is on the junkheap of history, and who knows what
> happened to the TX-7. Yes, I could re-mount the whole thing on a
> software-based platform, and someday I will, but it's a heck of a lot of
> work.
>
> Then later, I based some stuff on having the very sophisticated
programming
> of the PMC-10 footcontroller available to me. That was great until mine
died
> and it was out of production.
>
> So much for the lack of obsolescence in hardware. The concept is pure BS,
> IMO.
>
> OTOH, when a Mac or PC dies, the software is backed up (mine almost 
>always
> is, at least). As long as I don't have to transition to a new OS, I can
> recreate the piece. When a new OS comes out, there's a long window (at
least
> several years) when I can still run the old OS. After a few years (4-5 
>for
> me, but I pound on my computers 75 hours/week between work and play) the
> original computer will break down and the old OS will no longer be
> available. But the audio and midi interfaces I use to connect to the
> computer are generic - they can easily be replaced with other interfaces,
> should the need arise. And the software that I base my music on now
> (MAX/MSP, Java and my own looper built in those languages) are
> cross-platform and will certainly be available for new platforms. Any VST
> plug-ins that I might use (to recreate that TX-7, for instance) will no
> doubt be generically adapted to the next generation of OS.
>
> You tell me which platform is more likely to obsolesce. I'm sticking with
> sw.
>
> BTW - when I buy a vintage compressor, I get 2 channels of great
> compression. If I buy a really great compressor plug-in, I get as many
> channels as my computer can handle. And when I upgrade my computer, I get
> more channels of really great compression automatically. Can a digital
> compressor be as good as an analog one? I haven't auditioned by ear,
because
> I usually don't have any reason (or maybe don't know that I have a
> reason...) to be that picky about compression quality, but it seems that
at
> least in theory, digital compressors can be far better because they can
look
> ahead in time, while analog is still bound by reality.
>
> Best wishes,
> Warren Sirota
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Travis Hartnett [mailto:travishartnett@gmail.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 3:59 AM
> > To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> > Subject: Re: Using a laptop onstage: Dominic Frasca's take
> >
> >
> > I'm sure that at least the battery, hard drive and flat panel
> > display will be ailing long before 20 years have passed,
> > particularly if the machine is being moved around a lot to
> > various bars and whatnot.  If you've got a dedicated music
> > computer, then you can "freeze" it at a certain point and
> > stop updating the software, but part of the appeal of
> > computer-based solutions for many people is that the hardware
> > can be used for many tasks (email, word processing, etc.),
> > not just as a dedicated piece of audio hardware.
> >
> > TravisH
> >
> > On 1/4/06, Todd Pafford <calenlas@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > This brings up a good point about hardware obsolescence.
> > That $3000
> > > laptop will (barring hardware failure) perform exactly the same 20
> > > years from now as long as you don't keep upgrading the
> > software.  It's
> > > the increasing bloat and new features of newer software that puts a
> > > hurting on hardware.  Somehow the software industry has
> > convinced us
> > > all that we must perpetually have the latest, greatest versions.
> > >
> > > Just a thought.  I'm a sucker like everyone else for needing the
> > > newest toys. :) Todd
> > >
> >
>