Re: Plugzilla (was: "Stereo EDP")

[Kim Flint <kflint@loopers-delight.com>]

At 12:31 PM 8/25/2003, msottilaro wrote:
>The advantage with a box like this is that because it's dedicated to 
>playing only VST plug ins, you won't have latency issues that a PC would 
>running a USB interface.

it's probably better, or at least more predictable. It depends how they 
designed it, but chances are since VST plugs are x86 based, they are using 
a pc motherboard and maybe windows or some embedded windows variant. Since 
pc hardware architecture and windows are not real-time environments, you 
always have some possibility for trouble there with latencies, just as you 
do in a pc. Still, it is probably a lot easier for them to keep things 
under control with a dedicated environment.

>It's actually 24 bit 96 khz.  My guess is you'd probably have better 
>overall audio specs.  The price tag in this is still high.  It lists for 
>$3500 with 250 plug ins.  When you get down to what you'd pay for a 
>laptop, 250 plug ins and a 24 bit/96khz audio interface, $3000 isn't all 
>that bad, but like I said before, this is the first of it's kind and 
>prices will plummet like they always do on gear like this.


I like this sort of idea a lot better than using laptops. Laptops are 
designed for business people to answer emails and make ppt slides on 
airplanes. The hardware is wrong for the needs of a musician, because it 
was never designed for that purpose. It's a big compromise.

Another variations on this theme is the Sound-Art Chameleon:
http://www.soundart-hot.com/english/index.htm

Of course, you are still dealing with a general purpose device, and the 
user interface is not really tailored to the application, although moreso 
than a laptop. So you are still stuck with the issue of it being 
inefficient to use, which is more or less of a problem depending on what 
you are trying to do. For an application where you just set it up to 
process and you don't interact with it much that is probably fine. But for 
something where it is more of an instrument and you do interact with it 
constantly, the UI design is critical.

kim


______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                     | Looper's Delight
kflint@loopers-delight.com    | http://www.loopers-delight.com