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I have yet to meet the synthesizer that can even remotely duplicate the dulcet noises of the old-fashioned dead trees and metal strings of my grand piano. Or the delightfully analog feel. Or dynamic range. Or imposing presence in the living room

Have you met one of these guys?

http://www.roland.com/products/en/V-Piano_Grand/

Of course. As far as I'm concerned any MIDI controller + any synthesiser patch = a new instrument. Different weights of keys demand different playing technique, as well as 'alternative' controllers such as the haken continuum, axis series (based on harmonic tables), MIDI theremins, electronic wind instruments, various silly keyboard/guitar hybrids, guitars with hexaphonic pickups, pad controllers, handheld wands and all manner of magic touch surfaces.

On top of that the playing technique for a slow synth pad (requiring anticipation) is considerably different from playing a percussive part, which is different again from playing a monophonic part. (Only one note can play at a time, but there is art to the style of legato playing and retriggering. I like to play with the rate notes are moving to each other as well, throwing in another factor.) Attempting to recreate instruments like guitar and flute on a synthesiser requires some understanding of the real instrument's playing techniques, and good use of controllers to incorporate these (such as applying pressure to keys to add vibrato.)

As a result of this I am a little exasperated every time somebody combines a few existing controllers, maybe with some software to tie it all together, and it is hailed as an exciting "new instrument". MIDI has changed what that means. Yes, this looks fun. I am suitably amused/impressed that it runs linux. Other than that it doesn't seem like a huge deal. I'd rather have this.

Thank you indeed, slashdotters. Your suggestions lead me, in a roundabout way, to this:

http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-1EX/

DIP switches on the back to select the sample rate. How cool is that?

For some reason, a lot of PC manufacturers don't give the consumer an option for a pre-loaded OS.

This is true. In the past (DOS days) people would ask me regarding computer purchase selections. What I said then is just as true today. Find out what programs you need to run and then find the hardware which is capabile of running it.

Many people wanting to do multimedia, photography, video production, etc are needing something with realtime hardware support. Those people are moving to hardware and OS that support the required applications. Vista is not a real time OS and is unsuitable for many capture devices. Alternatives to fill the gap often include Apple and some Linux distributions such as Ubuntu Studio.

Nothing kills a live session more than a request for an Adobe PDF viewer update request in the middle of a session. I got this one during a live presentation while playing a DVD. The DVD on the projector simply stopped. Going to the laptop, we discovered that despite the fact were in the field with no internet connection, Adobe needed our permission to get an update. The fact a PDF viewer has permission to stop the show by having Windows Vista stop it to ask permission for an update without a net connection convinced me that Vista is unsuitable for presentation and digital audio workstation applications.

My Digital Audio Workstation is now Ubuntu Studio based with low latency and no interruptions of a live recording session. Some people prefer an Apple soulution.

Audacity is OSS and cross platform. It works fine on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Many capture devices have serious latency and breakup problems in Vista. Audacity works in Vista, but capturing sound should be done on another platform.

Many popular USB capture devices simply are not supported on Vista because of the non-real time nature of the OS. Here are a few popular interfaces without Vista support;
Roland http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=743&ParentId=114
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-101/specs.html
Beringer http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pdf/man/m_702540.pdf

I found some of the Yamaha mixers with built-in USB interfaces list Vista, but the manual was quick to point out problems are caused if it has too little memory, has a slower processor, or several other items that can cause problems with multi-track recordings.

For real-time capture, I prefer to use a hardware priority OS. I have used this instead of Vista for Digital Music Studio work.
http://ubuntustudio.org/

Musicians no longer come out of art school wanting to do something novel for their own niche audience; greed has overcome artistic integrity.

Close, but not quite. There's a big BIG difference between a pop star and a musician. The break really happened between the mid to late 80s and mid 90s as video meant a star had to be pretty, and predecessors of devices like this meant singing ability was a much lesser concern. Paula Abdul for example, according to a guy who played for her, is tone deaf, and depended on pitch correction devices for recording. She didn't do much actual singing in concerts -- woulda got in the way of the dancing.

All the sudden it became much easier to sign young, cheap talent for short run with a catchy tune. All the pop stars had to do look cute and a little rebellious, learn a few dance moves, sing into the magic box, and try not to get caught doing something that would harm record sales. I would bet there are few pop stars now who don't use pitch correction.

Putting together pop bands had been done before, of course. The Monkees, the Sex Pistols, all the bubblegum bands in the 60s, most of Mowtown, were hired and directed perfomers. But still the music of those times was dominated by singers -- and fantastic ones at that.

Lots of pop singers these days start using microphones much earlier, and don't learn to project their voices the way singers used to -- by singing loud in churches and such. With some exceptions, there's just not a lot of power behind the voices these days -- they can shout and screech, but they don't project.

Before MTV and pitch correction, pop stars may have been a lot of things, but they were very, very, very good singers. Even (and especially) the cheesey ones -- put on Lionel Ritchie's 'All Night Long' sometime and really listen to the composition and his voice.

But as I said, singing ability is much less important when everything's going to be pitch-corrected and compressed to hell anyway. What matters is a tight ass. People like Aretha Franklin and Etta James would never have a chance today.

As far as musicians go, they still come out of music school. The real musicians in the business are the ones who play in the pop stars' tour bands and studio bands, the ones who make mad hourly rates to tweak your amp settings. Some try their hand with pop outfits, others are content to make a good living as studio guys. On most record deals the studio musicians are much better off than the act -- payment up front + hourly rate + points on the record (maybe). The act is loaned the money to make the record and then has to pay it back through sales before they get anything.

Then could you please explain what the Roland V-Synth V2 and Alesis FusionSynth or others are?
And what's this Korg Electribe series about?
Just curious. By the way, what 10 Korg products do you own? My only piece of Korg gear is an Poly62.

is that not a minidisc player? I guess that does fit the bill to some extent but I was thinking about something larger like the ipod has but more in a design like this (look to the right of the screen)

Mackie, Alesis, M-audio, Roland, and MOTU (among others) also make professional audio interface equipment for recording and monitoring/listening.

There are a couple of Creative-licensed OEM products (Some of the Alesis stuff looks awfully familiar...) but most of these companies provide far better hardware and software for "real" sound applications. A nice audio interface w/ a pair of active studio monitors will sound worlds better than some cheap consumer surround sound system. The prices are pretty much comparable with Creative's "good" stuff.