Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    I think that once you enter the "digital domain" you will see costs
    drop for fantastic stuff.  You'll replace gear with software.  For
    example, you'll be able to get a track down and let your PC calculate
    all the reverb for a mix while you go out to dinner.  Come back and
    play the mix with reverb.  If you have the money, you'll buy real time
    processing or low-quality reverb to hack it quickly before the big
    number crunching (like, true stereo reverb instead of mono in and
    stereo out).  
    
    Real time folks will still have to pay the big bucks.  But, home studio
    types will be able to get professional results that rival the studio
    for the costs of having to wait for results, memory, software and cheap 
    MIPS.
    
    Steve

	I had some wrong numbers down. According to the EM article 10 meg 
	per minute is for Sterio, not for Mono & I multiplied wrong for 
	figuring  out disk requirments:

	1 track = 5 meg/minute		10 minutes = 50 meg

	that places 16 tracks for 10 minutes at 800 meg minimum.

	It also said that the bandwidth of the data path would limit
	reads/writes on the disk to 4 tracks (8 might be possible, but 
	thats pushing it with consumer hard disks) at a time. This would
	imply that you would need 4 hard disks for all 16 channels.

	The other part that sounds better to me is somehow merging a
	sequencer into the recorder (ie, leave the samplers and synths
	to react to the midi data streams where possible) - that should
	save a lot of disk space.

	Who is selling this software/hardware now??

								Jens

    I think Digidesign and Vision work together - Digidesign allows stereo
    or two track recording on hard disk, synced to the Vision MIDI
    sequencer.
    
    sounds way cool to me.
    
    karl

    Yes, Digidesign and Opcode have hooks into each other. From Vision you
    can currently access 2 tracks (stereo) from the midi sequencer.
    Digidesign has Deck, a 4 track recorder (low end multimedia type
    applications) and are coming out with a professional multitrack
    (4, maybe even 8 tracks) and that should also have hooks into Vision.
    For the PC, Turtle Beach (York, PA) have a 2 track that is pretty nice. 
    I heard it at last winter's NAMM and liked it. Also for the PC is
    the one that was mentioned in an earlier note. They didnt have the 
    full multitrack version when I saw it, but it has some potential. I'm
    keeping my eyes on them and hope to buy one  of them later this fall or
    winter. So far it looks like I'll get the Digidesign pro Sound tools
    along with their sample to add to my studio. 
    Bruce Carroll
    

	I talked to a person at Spectral Synthesis (I saw the Ad in the
	August 1990 Electronic Musician - thier number in case you
	want to call also : (206) 487-2931).

	Thier entry level system, which runs on an AT (286 or 386 pc
	compatible) Runs about $6500.00, & includes a board & 100 meg
	disk (it support 32 vertual tracks - what ever that means).
	You can sync to an MPU-401 based sequencer or SMPTE.

	It looks like it's geared to do a lot of tailoring of the digitized
	sounds, but the fellow that I spoke with seemed quite lost when
	I asked about software to edit (ie, like adding reverb to the 
	digitized data per track). I'm have no desire to buy racks of
	gear if it can be done via software.


	The other one that I saw advertised (same issue of EM) was one
	called DECK (thier phone # is (415) 688-0600). This one is
	MAC based & does 4 tracks, plus a number of digital effects.
	The prices start at $349.00. There is another step up at $1350.00
	and another at $3700.00. This is the Digidesign one that has already
	been mentioned. They also have a toll free #: 1-800-333-2133.
	I haven't called them yet.

								Jens

I got some information on the SPECTRAL SYNTHESIS package. It isn't cheap,
but then again...

Here are some prices

Multi-track I package
	
Features: 2 tracks I/O, 4 tracks internal, 36 track minutes.

2 tracks I/O at at time (2 AD/DA's) 
1 Digital Studio System Card
1 Flyby Card (used to tie the studio card to the IBM PC bus, as well as
  the 2 SCSI ports on the Studio card)
1 180 megabyte (formatted) hard disk drive
Studio Tracks software package
Requires 80286 or 80386 PC/AT with 2 empty ISA bus slots & 1/2 ht
  drive bay.
							........$6,495

The Disk Drives:

	HD 180 - 180 Megabytes	.... $1,950 (36 track minutes)
	HD 330 - 330 Megabytes  .... $2,950 (66 track minutes)
	HD 670 - 670 Megabytes  .... $3,950 (134 track minutes)

You can have up to 4 drives.


If you have your own drives, you can get the Digital Studio Card (will do
8 tracks) with the software for .... $2,985

The Flyby card is ... $795

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not cheap.
								Jens

Here are 2 other companies (from the October 1990 Electronic Musician):

    Turtle Beach Systems (IBM PC based: PC/AT or greater)

	The product is called 56K and appears to use the hardware in	
	a DAT deck to handle the A/D & D/A functions. 2 tracks only
	(destructive editing ???)

	Located in York, Pa. 
		Phone: (717)843-6916


    Micro Technology Unlimited (IBM PC based: PC/AT or greater)

	The product is called MicroSound-AT. It allows 2 or 4 track
	playback, but allows you to access any of 30 (or more - depending
	on options) segments/files and mix them together. 16 bit A/D
	and 18 bit D/A. Prices start at $3495.

	Located at 156 Wind Chime Court. Raleigh, NC 27619
		Phone: (919)870-0344

	I was looking at the SPEC's for a DAT deck & they list that the
	RECORD/PLAYBACK systems (ie the A/D & D/A) are accessable
	thru a DIGITAL interface (Panasonic SV-3700 DAT). The rest of the 
	specs don't mean much to me at the moment. I suspect that using a
	good DAT deck for a front end might save a lot of costs, if you
	don't mind being restricted to 2 channel recording at a time
	(My TEAC Porta-studio - # 144 - has this restriction & It's
	not great, but certainly tolerable).

	Somehow, like what happened with MIDI, this all might be coming
	together in the next few months to a year. Rev up those PC's
	and set aside your analog multi-track tape decks....

							Jens

	With the DAT tape deck becoming more available (and cheaper),
	I'd expect the cost of the A/D and D/A chips & technology
	to drop fairly quickly. We are already seeing multi-function
	CD players for $100.00 where they were $300.00 just a few short
	years ago. DAT's listing for under $1000.00 (Casio's with
	record & playback is around $890.00).

	I'm still wrestling with trying to figure out how to back up
	a digital recording using established PC technology. Somewhere
	along the line you'll need to have multi-giga bytes worth of
	storage to archive your efforts (this begins to look more & more
	like data center management). 4mm or 8mm tape storage in the
	form of a streaming tape drive may be the only way to pull
	this off. 

	Music, once again, deviates from music to technological issues.
	Looking back on things, MIDI now appears so simple to use and
	so common that I can't figure out how I lived without it before.


	From the latest Roland Users Group Magazine:

	Roland has a 4 channel recording system that can be upgraded to
	8 channels. It can use, but doesn't require, a Macintosh running
	DigiDesigns recording/editing software.


	From December 1990's Electronic Musician:

	There are currently 30 companies that sell digital recording systems
	that are either PC based or can use Most efforts appear to be for
	IBM PC 286 or 386 systems, Fewer (but higher end) for Macintoshes, 
	nothing listed for Atari or Amiga.
	They expect prices to drop in 1991.
	
							Jens