Re: Devices versus computers for live looping

["Dennis W. Leas" <dennis@mdbs.com>]

Well, now I gotta' open my mouth.  I guess it's Monday and I've drank a 
good bit  of 
coffee...

Tim Nelson wrote:
> 
> In a lot of ways the difference between devices and computers is becoming
> increasingly moot as rackmount stuff makes greater use of more powerful
> microprocessors (and more memory) and computers feature more dependable
> (and portable) hardware and more user-friendly software. 

Just to be technical, my EDP HAS a computer in it (some kind of 68000, I 
think, plus 
a DSP probably).  In fact my EDP IS a kind of computer.  It's just special 
purpose.  
What's essentially different between say an EDP (or Jamman, I suppose) and 
a general 
purpose computer running looper software is two things (IMHO): 1) looper 
devices have a 
better real-time interface, 2) looper software is dedicated to the mission 
and so can 
guarentee adequate real-time response.  Both of these issues could be 
solved for 
general purpose computers permitting them to duplicate looper devices.  
For example, 
1) add a MIDI card to a laptop and duplicate the functionality of the EDP 
or 
Jamman switches via MIDI footpedals, 2) at an extreme, discard the 
computer's OS 
entirely or run something simple (DOS?).  I'm surprised nobody has done 
this yet...

> 
> The thread comparing classic car restoration to building a computer from
> scratch reminds me of a rhetorical question posed on NPR's Car Talk: If a
> car has ALL of its parts replaced one at a time over a period of years, 
>is
> it still the same car? 

Not rhetorical for us living beings!  Consider that this happens to US.  
Many of the 
atoms that compose our bodies are replaced over time.  We are literally 
not the same 
person we were a year ago.  I remember reading an estimate of how long 
this process 
takes, i.e., how long before every atom in our body is replaced; it's a 
surprising 
short time.  Yet my memories remain (for the most part) intact.  Spooky!  
Humm, come to 
recall, perhaps the "replacement time" was talking about our nervous 
system only.  I 
can't recall exactly!

- Dennis Leas
-- 
dennis@mdbs.com