RE: RE: 5 Things I'd like to see in 2008

["Goddard, Duncan" <goddard.duncan@mtvne.com>]

>>I mean "roadworthy" in the sense of going on the road as a musician. A
"roadworthy package" for something that usually sits on some kind of
table or stand during performance is a package where the device will not
suffer damage if it gets thrown off the table onto the (possibly hard)
stage or even audience space floor. For the typical laptop (a Macbook
Pro was mentioned), this is not generally the case. 

You're of course right that it works really well if you put it into a
sturdy case and only unpack it when you don't play music ;)<<

gotcha. but shirley (name that movie...) pretty much anything that's not
rack-mountable is at the same sort of risk.... e.g. I have a twenty-odd
year old moog source that sits on the upper tier of a keyboard stand.
one misguided dance routine by my guitarist could send this valuable
antique crashing to the stage, & by the same token I could easily knock
over his 1967 telecaster while it's perched in one of those
cute-but-really?is-it-up-to-the-job? fender guitar stands that folds up
tiny & fits in the case.
the solution is to have sturdy stands & ban alcohol & idiocy from one's
performance area.

fwiw, & for new readers, my guitarist's jamman was similarly at risk
(lived on the floor for a few months when we first got it) until I hit
upon the idea of mounting it on a stand. after a little experiment with
a mic-stand adaptor (bit wobbly..) we got a cheap camcorder tripod. of
course, I had to make holes in the lexicon's base to mount the
wedgeplate, but after that it was as safe as anything & very convenient
too.
I'm not suggesting that one do the same with laptops, mind you.

& I think there's a market for a sturdier laptop.... carillon make a
range of super-quiet rackmount PCs for studios- why don't they make a
road-proof, stage-safe laptop with a piece of toughened acrylic to
protect the screen? water-tight keyboard? built-in midi sockets? XLRs?

jeez, I feel like doing it myself now.... :-)

d.