Why Generalized Computers are
“Wicked Cool” for Audio.

Dedicated gear is a great way to get audio work done.  

Fixed workstations appear to "do the job," but I argue that the job keeps changing and workstations have a very difficult time changing.

Computers offer these important differences:
    -Internet connection
    -Office applications
    -Visual display and manipulation (though some workstations now have reasonable display capabilities).
    -Extendable sound set
    -Extendable feature set

I could go on (and I will!).
I am an strong advocate for flexibility and the ability to add new capabilities. 

I remember the DX7 and well before.  I finally dove into the electronic instrument market with a K1000 from Kurzweil in 1988.  This was followed by an Koru M3R and Emu proteus one.  I still have them and use them (actually I have two K-1000s..).

Fast forward to 2002.  Major updates.  The important shift is the availability of growing number of Virtual instruments.  I still purchased three new instruments: Roland RD700 (I really like the keybed feel - great for the piano players in the crowd), a HPD15 - Handsonic (for the tabletop drummer in all of us) and a Proteus 2500 (I like the variety of sounds it has.  It has  knobs!!  I can tweak to my hearts content...)

I have been a computer builder and user since BEFORE the Mac or the IBM PC.  I built (I mean soldered all othe parts on the circuit boards) my own system in 1978-79.  It has a 4 Mhz Z80B, 8 bit word size, 64KB RAM, twin 8 inch floppy drives (241KB of storage on each!  Wow!).  I even had an audio sampling card - 3 or 4  bit adaptive delta-mod sampling at up to 8 Khz.  It is in a rack mount enclosure which is about 30" high and as deep and weighing about 100 pounds total.  I spent about $4500 building/developing this monster.

That was then this is now.  
-CPU - Dual 1.25 Ghz G4:  four times the data word size.  Over 600 times as many instruction cycles per second, with each cycle doing a great deal more.
-RAM - 2GB:    31250 times as much memory
-Storage - Dual 120GB (110GB effective) drives: 456431 times as much storage
-Audio - MOTU 896: At least 576 times the audio throughput
-Size - G4 Tower: I could fit about four systems in the same space as my original monster.
Cost? About $5500 including a 22" Apple Cinema display.

Life is good.  Particularly true when one remembers where I started.

Dedicated gear only makes sense when there is no way for a general computing system to do the task, or when the task will not change and, reliability are primary considerations and cost is not.  This would include: large production facilities, broadcast facilities, aboard satellites, on Mars rovers...

Ah... These are the good old days.  I still have my old system including Hazeltine 1500 terminal and Epson MX100 printer (second generation dot matrix), but I haven't powered them up in over a decade.  Someday if I can find the space, perhaps I will set it up in the lobby/lounge as a conversation piece and end table.  If nothing else they can be a novel source of heat.
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