1. Aren't we still talking about today? You're looking to use the iPad with a VNC program... chances of that supporting multitouch (as in, transfers multitouch info to the machine it's controlling): maybe 2%.
Chances that the program you're controlling has multitouch support: maybe 2%
Chances that the program you're controlling accepts multitouch input via a VNC server: maybe 1%
That's what, a 1 in 10k chance that you'll find a working setup? Or are there apps out there that support all this already? In that case, links please;)
2. These use cases are ones in which a mouse works just as well.
Rotary control? Drag up or down.
Zooming? Mouse wheel, possibly with a keyboard key held down...
Dragging? Hold the middle mouse button and drag.
And that's just the way I have Cubase set up... you can customize that any way you want.
Of course, the touch controls work just as well in these scenarios, but are they better overall?
Do I want to obscure my field of view every time I need to adjust a fader or pot?
Do I want to remove my fingerprints from the screen every 10 seconds (I swear, my Milestone drives me crazy in this regard, and the iPhone was just as bad)?
How about number entry? I do a lot of that in Cubase, because it allows me to reflect more accurately on what I'm actually changing... what took half a second to double-click, hit 3 number keys and then enter, now takes 5 seconds because you have to wait for a virtual keyboard with no tactile feedback whatsoever and find the right keys visually. Same thing with text entry... Renaming 12 drum tracks on the iPad is going to be a pain in the ass;)
Oh, and what about keyboard shortcuts? I need about 100 of them to use Cubase quickly and efficiently, and having only my fingers (meaning in order to activate something, it needs to be on the screen) to open stuff is, well, pretty slow. I don't know about you, but I can't come up with enough gestures to replace all those shortcuts:P
3. Factor in the inaccuracy of capacitive touchscreens and the fact that these applications are optimized for the pinpoint accuracy of a mouse, and I'd be willing to put money on that;).
Don't underestimate the speed of a decent trackpoint (the Thinkpad implementation... not that Toshiba or Dell crap):D
All in all, I could imagine having a multitouch monitor or tablet like the iPad as a secondary input method, in addition to my keyboard and mouse and big-ass high resolution monitors, but using it alone for any one task associated with recording, mixing or mastering? I honestly just don't see it...
I'd prefer a stylus over fingers when dealing with software not designed to be used with a touchscreen... Sequencers and recording programs aren't exactly optimized in this regard.
I'd be cautious trying to use programs optimized for a mouse, which has pinpoint accuracy, with my big sausage fingers... and I know exactly how hugely accurate capacitive touchscreens like the one on the iPod are;)
As for multitouch, what for? More natural interaction with rotary controls? Clicking and dragging works just as well, doesn't it? Okay, for dragging and zooming it might be useful, but those things are irrelevant, or at least much less important, on a decently sized screen.
If you're really into the whole multitouch capacitive screen thing, I can see where an iPad would appeal to you... but to be honest, I'd rather use a mouse and not have to reach for every fader and pot, as well as have a decent overview of what's happening on screen at all times. I'd wager I'm faster with my trackpoint than I'd ever be with a capacitive tocuscreen...:)
This type of interface has existed since the very first digital mixer..
Sorry, it has not.
Show me one digital mixer under $100,000 that has a multitouch interface (I am hedging my bet that there actually IS one). THAT is the difference. The importance of touch, along with the raw speed of the UI and repertoire of "gestures" cannot be underestimated.
Physical motor-driven faders are multitouch;). Or you could just get a touchscreen for the actual DAW - there are a bunch on the market with a lot more screen real estate than the iPad (both in terms of size and resolution).
Gestures, UI speed and touch quality, however... I'm pretty sure that you're right that the iPad will pretty much rock here, probably even within a VNC client...
If I had the cash, my mixer alone would be spread across 3 30" monitors (this is, coincidentally, why I'm eyeing ATI's Eyefinity setups with interest), with another 3 stacked vertically for tracking... oh, and another three for effects.
I'd rather have 8 iPads, arrayed in portrait mode, 4 across, and 2 "rows". Seriously.
Or do you guys just want the touch interface instead of point-and-click?
DING! DING! DING!!! YES!!!! It is FAR quicker (and more intuitive) to just DIRECTLY INTERACT with an on-screen control than to MANEUVER a pointer to a control, hope that you click in the right place (a real problem with "rotary" on-screen controls!!!), and THEN do whatever.
But why would you use an iPad if all you want is a touchscreen interface? For the same price as those 8 iPads, you could probably get a single touchscreen with 10x the resolution area and 8x the actual area of the iPad... I'm sure the $500 for one iPad alone would buy you a halfway decent capacitive touchscreen (although resistive/WACOM with a stylus would probably be better for stuff like this, IMO).
This would be a lot less hassle than VNCing in, and you'd have the added advantage of being able to use a real keyboard when you need one instead of hunting and pecking on a virtual keyboard...
You know there are digital controllers with actual faders and pots and stuff, made especially for use with DAWs, right?
Yes. And those controls are NOT LABELED; and are of FINITE number and type. Are you REALLY trying to argue AGAINST a more "informative" and flexible interface?
I like grabbing a handful of faders as much as the next guy; but you just can't beat FLEXIBLE. The on-screen "virtual front-panel" concept as expressed in every modern DAW and Plugin is halfway there. But a decently fast TOUCH interface (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg!) takes that concept and actually makes it USEFUL. That's what the actual advantages would be in a studio, or live, situation.
What isn't finite about 1024x768px of screen resolution? Scrolling over to the next fader bank is _exactly_ what those physical faders+pots interfaces do... they're usually labeled either with an LCD directly on the device, or with a small window that's displayed somewhere on a monitor attached to the DAW... ideally right under the mixer.
All in all, I'm beginning to get where you're going with this. It's more than a remote control: Using the iPad as a mixing device opens up the whole world of Touchscreen mixing to anyone with $500 and some time on their hands.
My counter-argument: Spend $500 on a touchscreen and have the same experience in bigger and better:D (although I must say, touchscreen prices really are exorbitant... 1280x1024 seems to be the ceiling for $500-600). If you have an iPad laying around anyway (or were going to buy one anyway), this is a great way to use it... but it's not like these possibilities didn't exist before the iPad:)
You've actually inspired me to try this with my Tablet PC:D...
As thin and mobile notebook computers are they still are chore to lug around everywhere. I'm not saying carrying a 1.5 pound is easier, but it sure beats having to grab the power cords, put everything in a bag. With the iPad, you just have to unplug it and go. I can't wait to get mine.
So get a decent little notebook that goes for as long on a charge as the iPad. If you're looking to spend less, that's a netbook - those things get 10+ hours of battery life, just like the iPad...
Or, for the same price as a fully kitted out (carry case, external keyboard, lifetime supply of screen protectors and fingerprint removal wipes etc.) iPad, you could get something like a Thinkpad X200(s) with a 9-cell battery...
I went through the same transition, but by the time I'd outgrown my MZ-N1, many superior alternatives to the iPod had appeared, all with drag & drop music management, support for important file formats (lossless!) and better sound quality. In combination with Winamp and a well organized collection, well... if you know what you're doing, they're all iPod killers.
For everyone else, there's iTunes;)
Oh, and now that Android is maturing, I've found that even now I'm still able to avoid Apple products...:)
This type of interface has existed since the very first digital mixer... using one area for multiple channel strips, and so on. It works, and it is usable... but I still prefer to have as much as possible in the viewing area at once.
If I had the cash, my mixer alone would be spread across 3 30" monitors (this is, coincidentally, why I'm eyeing ATI's Eyefinity setups with interest), with another 3 stacked vertically for tracking... oh, and another three for effects.
The thing I'm trying to figure out is: Why would you need something like this in an actual studio? Why would you want to use an iPad via VNC when an actual DAW is 3 feet away? It's not like you're going to be running back and forth between the "recording space" and the "mixing room" (the exact terms elude me, since all my recording work has been exclusively with German musicians and techs) for every take... unless you're a one-man-recording-show, and in that case, you're probably recording at home in a single room (or basement...:D) anyway. What's the point?
Or do you guys just want the touch interface instead of point-and-click? You know there are digital controllers with actual faders and pots and stuff, made especially for use with DAWs, right?
I'm not trying to be condascending or saying it won't work (I'm sure it would work, and probably with minimal fuss... but is it worth the trouble?) - I'm just wondering what the actual advantages would be, in a studio situation.
The problem with zoom is that your fingers don't resize themselves to fit the buttons;). As for 8, 4 and 2-track recordings... sure, they work, but in an age where $1500 buys you a PC with Cubase and an 8-channel interface, why limit your creative flow? There's just something liberating about being able to do take after take after take and then go back and pick out the usable ones if you're working with sub-par musicians... which is often the case, especially if you're getting paid...).
Okay, live I rarely go to the trouble of recording all 20-30 mixer channels, and just hook up the mains to the line-in on my MP3 player, but those recordings are usually only for performance analysis.
For live applications I could imagine a tablet as being useful (especially for controller settings... being able to change them when standing, well, anywhere, is awesome, and laptops are usually a pain in the neck to hold and use at the same time... setting up and fine-tuning a delay line with a digital WiFi enabled controller is so much easier and quicker).
In the studio, however, I'd imagine that a tablet is more of a gimmick... why use a tablet to VNC into a DAW when you could use a _real_ DAW? The only situation I can think of when this would be useful is maybe while positioning mics... or are you recording yourself in your "studio"? I just can't imagine many scenarios in which you don't have a second person sitting at the work station while the musician or a tech is playing their instrument or setting up mics...
that's just it the ipad is made for web browsing with fingers in a tablet format. It is why the ipad will succeed where all others have failed. it's OS is designed for big fat fingers, not the tiny point of a mouse or stylus.
Exactly. Not only is it designed for big fat fingers, it's actually responsive (if the iPhone is anything to go by) and works well...
Add in the smooth transitions, and DAUs (German... loose translation: dumbest probable user) everywhere will be shelling out their hard earned cash.
As for the rest of the market, during the pre announcement and after the original announcement of the ipad asus, and many others announced similar products. A couple even announced price ranges of double what apple turned around and priced the ipad at for a base model.
True, but the UIs have mostly been... well, horrible. A few Android tablets might be able to compete, but TBH, they're just not smooth enough for the average user...
At 90 preorders (also posted on Engadget IIRC), it might as well be...
And did you watch the Engadget video of the UI? Either the Engadget dude has no feeling whatsoever in the tips of his fingers, or the screen is _extremely_ unresponsive.
While I agree with you on price apple has just undercut the rest of the market for that type of device by20-30%.
What rest of the market? There are no other devices that do what the iPad does...
Don't get me wrong, I love my tablet PC to death, but I would never, ever, EVER use it for web browsing or multimedia stuff in tablet mode, because it's just not practical - whether with a stylus or with fingers - because the OS isn't made for that.
If what you want is a big iPod Touch (and let's be honest - that's what 90% of women and 70% of men between the ages of 12 and 40 want for personal use), there is no alternative to the iPad...
1024x768... that's what... 5 channel strips with EQs on a standard Cubase/Logic mixer? What're you recording, bongos and a banjo?:P
Sounds like a cool idea, tbh, but even for recording drums with just 8 channels, I have trouble with my laptop screen (which does 1680x1050)... can't imagine trying to use a program like Cubase or Logic (haven't used Garageband, but I'm assuming it's similar in functionality) via VNC on a device with such a low-resolution display (let alone a smartphone!) and a finger-based touchscreen...
Incidentally... I'd KILL for tethering sometime soon. This paying-for-hotspots-while-I-have-full-3G-signal shit is killing me...
Why not just get a MiniPCIe/USB/ExpressCard 3G modem for the laptop? It's not like your only option for internet on the laptop is WiFi or a tethered phone...
That said, tethering is extremely useful if you've got more than one machine and don't want to get SIM cards (or even a separate data plan, depending on which provider you're using - although personally, I would just switch to a different one if they tried to charge me for every SIM-card) for each one...
Now if only I could find a way to get my Android phone to stop charging while tethered (runs down the laptop battery unnecessarily)...
I too have an old battery powered Sony Electret Condensor microphone that works just fine with laptop mic-in jacks... but who would want to use one of those for voip?:P
I just have a hard time believing that a mic-in jack is so much more important than line-in functionality that the former should take precedence... I'd go so far as to suggest a conspiracy;)
That's just it... using a mic that works with a laptop mic-in jack will rarely produce better results than the built-in microphone. Using an external preamp with a REAL microphone produces far better results, but without a line-in jack, you have nowhere to hook up that preamp...
Obviously I'm not denying that most built-in laptop mics suck balls... they do... but so do pretty much all 1/8" jack headset/lapel mics. Moving closer to the mic on the laptop does the same thing.
However, why not just use headphones and the laptop's built-in mic? I can hardly imagine a scenario where the crappy mic in a headset would provide a better experience - unless there's tons of background noise, of course... in which case, you probably shouldn't be using a laptop for VoIP/whatever in that setting anyway:P
I still have clip-on mics and headsets as well, but I don't think I've used them since I got rid of my desktop... the only usage scenario i can think of is gaming at a big LAN - lots of background noise because everyone's yakking away on their headsets:P
And yes, unless you're hung up on the shape of the little gizmo that plugs into the little hole, every computer from laptop to Mac Pro has a way to input audio (aka "line-in") jack. Sometimes, the jack actually does double duty as mic-in and line in, and the little mixer applet that comes with it will attenuate or boost the signal accordingly.
The trend in the last few years has been to forego the Line-In functionality. Often it's still mentioned in the tech specs, but try finding the software switch for activating the Line-In. Hell, the Realtek audio on my old Toshiba NB100 had a Line-In that only worked with certain driver versions... all of them would give you the pop-up for selecting whether you were using the jack as a line-in or mic-in, but only one of the drivers actually switched to stereo and padded the input (or turned off that nasty nasty preamplification).
I don't get it - these laptops all have microphones built in. Why would you need a godawful preamp built in for an external mic that probably sounds just as crappy? It's not like there are any mics out there that sound any better and have a 1/8" TRS jack...
Now an actual balanced 1/8" TRS connection with phantom power... that I could go for. But this crap is useless. Bring back the line-in and kill mic-in!
Most machines on the market today come with a microphone-in that is _sometimes_ usable as a Line-In. My EeePC 1000H was my last all-in-one with a line-in... neither of my Thinkpads have a Line-In that actually works as such in Windows 7.
Of course, I've got interfaces to make up for that, but if you don't pick your laptops based solely on the crappy integrated audio, you've got about a 50/50 chance of getting a model with Line-In that works with the drivers available for your OS...
Oh, and of course there's all those great laptops that have a line-in mentioned in the specs, but when you hook up an actual stereo line level signal, all you get is one side of the signal, with the added benefit of distortion and fun noise because the input is actually a mic in...
I've got more than enough interfaces laying around, so at home this isn't a problem, but when you just want to hook up your laptop to the mixer's main outs to record a band practice or a gig for reference, having a line-in directly on a laptop is pretty nifty...
Well, let's say the network isn't called free public wifi, but something that implies you would be charged for access... set up a simple web page that pops up asking for credit card details to pay for access to the wifi... it's actually a known scam that was reported on a few months ago...
How about evil people sitting at airports with laptops, setting up ad-hoc networks and trying to steal credit card numbers from unsuspecting travellers? Wasn't that actually on Slashdot a few months back?
Rule of thumb: Don't log onto ad hoc networks unless you know who's running them...
I'd wager we've had different experiences because I've experienced the same systems with 1GB of RAM and with 2 and 4GB of RAM;)
Windows 7 does run okay with 1GB of RAM, and it is usable (I know because I ran my X41Tablet with Windows 7 and 1 GB of RAM for a while)... but it really is slow compared to the same system with 2 or 4GB of RAM, especially if you have a slow hard drive (because the page file will be thrashing like crazy... obviously this is more noticable on a 5400RPM 2.5" laptop drive than a 7200RPM 3.5" desktop drive).
I never said it wasn't smooth - just slow as fuck. It works, and it's a usable system, but adding another GB of RAM and deactivating the page file makes it feel like a rocket.:)
That's because Windows 7 with 1GB of RAM is like crawling through a tar pit... the additional performance hit from MSE won't really be noticable.
I'm running two systems with Win7, one with 2GB of RAM (ran on 1GB for a while... that was horrible) and one with 4GB, and both of them take a noticable performance hit with MSE running actively in the background. However, that performance hit is neglible compared to programs like AVG or Avira...
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1. Aren't we still talking about today? You're looking to use the iPad with a VNC program... chances of that supporting multitouch (as in, transfers multitouch info to the machine it's controlling): maybe 2%.
Chances that the program you're controlling has multitouch support: maybe 2%
Chances that the program you're controlling accepts multitouch input via a VNC server: maybe 1%
That's what, a 1 in 10k chance that you'll find a working setup? Or are there apps out there that support all this already? In that case, links please ;)
2. These use cases are ones in which a mouse works just as well.
Rotary control? Drag up or down.
Zooming? Mouse wheel, possibly with a keyboard key held down...
Dragging? Hold the middle mouse button and drag.
And that's just the way I have Cubase set up... you can customize that any way you want.
Of course, the touch controls work just as well in these scenarios, but are they better overall?
Do I want to obscure my field of view every time I need to adjust a fader or pot?
Do I want to remove my fingerprints from the screen every 10 seconds (I swear, my Milestone drives me crazy in this regard, and the iPhone was just as bad)?
How about number entry? I do a lot of that in Cubase, because it allows me to reflect more accurately on what I'm actually changing... what took half a second to double-click, hit 3 number keys and then enter, now takes 5 seconds because you have to wait for a virtual keyboard with no tactile feedback whatsoever and find the right keys visually. Same thing with text entry... Renaming 12 drum tracks on the iPad is going to be a pain in the ass ;)
Oh, and what about keyboard shortcuts? I need about 100 of them to use Cubase quickly and efficiently, and having only my fingers (meaning in order to activate something, it needs to be on the screen) to open stuff is, well, pretty slow. I don't know about you, but I can't come up with enough gestures to replace all those shortcuts :P
3. Factor in the inaccuracy of capacitive touchscreens and the fact that these applications are optimized for the pinpoint accuracy of a mouse, and I'd be willing to put money on that ;).
Don't underestimate the speed of a decent trackpoint (the Thinkpad implementation... not that Toshiba or Dell crap) :D
All in all, I could imagine having a multitouch monitor or tablet like the iPad as a secondary input method, in addition to my keyboard and mouse and big-ass high resolution monitors, but using it alone for any one task associated with recording, mixing or mastering? I honestly just don't see it...
I'd prefer a stylus over fingers when dealing with software not designed to be used with a touchscreen... Sequencers and recording programs aren't exactly optimized in this regard.
I'd be cautious trying to use programs optimized for a mouse, which has pinpoint accuracy, with my big sausage fingers... and I know exactly how hugely accurate capacitive touchscreens like the one on the iPod are ;)
As for multitouch, what for? More natural interaction with rotary controls? Clicking and dragging works just as well, doesn't it? Okay, for dragging and zooming it might be useful, but those things are irrelevant, or at least much less important, on a decently sized screen.
If you're really into the whole multitouch capacitive screen thing, I can see where an iPad would appeal to you... but to be honest, I'd rather use a mouse and not have to reach for every fader and pot, as well as have a decent overview of what's happening on screen at all times. I'd wager I'm faster with my trackpoint than I'd ever be with a capacitive tocuscreen... :)
This type of interface has existed since the very first digital mixer..
Sorry, it has not.
Show me one digital mixer under $100,000 that has a multitouch interface (I am hedging my bet that there actually IS one). THAT is the difference. The importance of touch, along with the raw speed of the UI and repertoire of "gestures" cannot be underestimated.
Physical motor-driven faders are multitouch ;). Or you could just get a touchscreen for the actual DAW - there are a bunch on the market with a lot more screen real estate than the iPad (both in terms of size and resolution).
Gestures, UI speed and touch quality, however... I'm pretty sure that you're right that the iPad will pretty much rock here, probably even within a VNC client...
If I had the cash, my mixer alone would be spread across 3 30" monitors (this is, coincidentally, why I'm eyeing ATI's Eyefinity setups with interest), with another 3 stacked vertically for tracking... oh, and another three for effects.
I'd rather have 8 iPads, arrayed in portrait mode, 4 across, and 2 "rows". Seriously.
Or do you guys just want the touch interface instead of point-and-click?
DING! DING! DING!!! YES!!!! It is FAR quicker (and more intuitive) to just DIRECTLY INTERACT with an on-screen control than to MANEUVER a pointer to a control, hope that you click in the right place (a real problem with "rotary" on-screen controls!!!), and THEN do whatever.
But why would you use an iPad if all you want is a touchscreen interface? For the same price as those 8 iPads, you could probably get a single touchscreen with 10x the resolution area and 8x the actual area of the iPad... I'm sure the $500 for one iPad alone would buy you a halfway decent capacitive touchscreen (although resistive/WACOM with a stylus would probably be better for stuff like this, IMO).
This would be a lot less hassle than VNCing in, and you'd have the added advantage of being able to use a real keyboard when you need one instead of hunting and pecking on a virtual keyboard...
You know there are digital controllers with actual faders and pots and stuff, made especially for use with DAWs, right?
Yes. And those controls are NOT LABELED; and are of FINITE number and type. Are you REALLY trying to argue AGAINST a more "informative" and flexible interface?
I like grabbing a handful of faders as much as the next guy; but you just can't beat FLEXIBLE. The on-screen "virtual front-panel" concept as expressed in every modern DAW and Plugin is halfway there. But a decently fast TOUCH interface (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg!) takes that concept and actually makes it USEFUL. That's what the actual advantages would be in a studio, or live, situation.
What isn't finite about 1024x768px of screen resolution? Scrolling over to the next fader bank is _exactly_ what those physical faders+pots interfaces do... they're usually labeled either with an LCD directly on the device, or with a small window that's displayed somewhere on a monitor attached to the DAW... ideally right under the mixer.
All in all, I'm beginning to get where you're going with this. It's more than a remote control: Using the iPad as a mixing device opens up the whole world of Touchscreen mixing to anyone with $500 and some time on their hands.
My counter-argument: Spend $500 on a touchscreen and have the same experience in bigger and better :D (although I must say, touchscreen prices really are exorbitant... 1280x1024 seems to be the ceiling for $500-600). If you have an iPad laying around anyway (or were going to buy one anyway), this is a great way to use it... but it's not like these possibilities didn't exist before the iPad :)
You've actually inspired me to try this with my Tablet PC :D...
As thin and mobile notebook computers are they still are chore to lug around everywhere. I'm not saying carrying a 1.5 pound is easier, but it sure beats having to grab the power cords, put everything in a bag. With the iPad, you just have to unplug it and go. I can't wait to get mine.
So get a decent little notebook that goes for as long on a charge as the iPad. If you're looking to spend less, that's a netbook - those things get 10+ hours of battery life, just like the iPad...
Or, for the same price as a fully kitted out (carry case, external keyboard, lifetime supply of screen protectors and fingerprint removal wipes etc.) iPad, you could get something like a Thinkpad X200(s) with a 9-cell battery...
I went through the same transition, but by the time I'd outgrown my MZ-N1, many superior alternatives to the iPod had appeared, all with drag & drop music management, support for important file formats (lossless!) and better sound quality. In combination with Winamp and a well organized collection, well... if you know what you're doing, they're all iPod killers.
For everyone else, there's iTunes ;)
Oh, and now that Android is maturing, I've found that even now I'm still able to avoid Apple products... :)
This type of interface has existed since the very first digital mixer... using one area for multiple channel strips, and so on. It works, and it is usable... but I still prefer to have as much as possible in the viewing area at once.
If I had the cash, my mixer alone would be spread across 3 30" monitors (this is, coincidentally, why I'm eyeing ATI's Eyefinity setups with interest), with another 3 stacked vertically for tracking... oh, and another three for effects.
The thing I'm trying to figure out is: Why would you need something like this in an actual studio? Why would you want to use an iPad via VNC when an actual DAW is 3 feet away? It's not like you're going to be running back and forth between the "recording space" and the "mixing room" (the exact terms elude me, since all my recording work has been exclusively with German musicians and techs) for every take... unless you're a one-man-recording-show, and in that case, you're probably recording at home in a single room (or basement... :D) anyway. What's the point?
Or do you guys just want the touch interface instead of point-and-click? You know there are digital controllers with actual faders and pots and stuff, made especially for use with DAWs, right?
I'm not trying to be condascending or saying it won't work (I'm sure it would work, and probably with minimal fuss... but is it worth the trouble?) - I'm just wondering what the actual advantages would be, in a studio situation.
The problem with zoom is that your fingers don't resize themselves to fit the buttons ;). As for 8, 4 and 2-track recordings... sure, they work, but in an age where $1500 buys you a PC with Cubase and an 8-channel interface, why limit your creative flow? There's just something liberating about being able to do take after take after take and then go back and pick out the usable ones if you're working with sub-par musicians... which is often the case, especially if you're getting paid...).
Okay, live I rarely go to the trouble of recording all 20-30 mixer channels, and just hook up the mains to the line-in on my MP3 player, but those recordings are usually only for performance analysis.
For live applications I could imagine a tablet as being useful (especially for controller settings... being able to change them when standing, well, anywhere, is awesome, and laptops are usually a pain in the neck to hold and use at the same time... setting up and fine-tuning a delay line with a digital WiFi enabled controller is so much easier and quicker).
In the studio, however, I'd imagine that a tablet is more of a gimmick... why use a tablet to VNC into a DAW when you could use a _real_ DAW? The only situation I can think of when this would be useful is maybe while positioning mics... or are you recording yourself in your "studio"? I just can't imagine many scenarios in which you don't have a second person sitting at the work station while the musician or a tech is playing their instrument or setting up mics...
So, the Crunchpad/JooJoo was the "First Post!" of iPad-style tablets? :P
that's just it the ipad is made for web browsing with fingers in a tablet format. It is why the ipad will succeed where all others have failed. it's OS is designed for big fat fingers, not the tiny point of a mouse or stylus.
Exactly. Not only is it designed for big fat fingers, it's actually responsive (if the iPhone is anything to go by) and works well...
Add in the smooth transitions, and DAUs (German... loose translation: dumbest probable user) everywhere will be shelling out their hard earned cash.
As for the rest of the market, during the pre announcement and after the original announcement of the ipad asus, and many others announced similar products. A couple even announced price ranges of double what apple turned around and priced the ipad at for a base model.
True, but the UIs have mostly been... well, horrible. A few Android tablets might be able to compete, but TBH, they're just not smooth enough for the average user...
And no, it is not vaporware.
At 90 preorders (also posted on Engadget IIRC), it might as well be...
And did you watch the Engadget video of the UI? Either the Engadget dude has no feeling whatsoever in the tips of his fingers, or the screen is _extremely_ unresponsive.
While I agree with you on price apple has just undercut the rest of the market for that type of device by20-30%.
What rest of the market? There are no other devices that do what the iPad does...
Don't get me wrong, I love my tablet PC to death, but I would never, ever, EVER use it for web browsing or multimedia stuff in tablet mode, because it's just not practical - whether with a stylus or with fingers - because the OS isn't made for that.
If what you want is a big iPod Touch (and let's be honest - that's what 90% of women and 70% of men between the ages of 12 and 40 want for personal use), there is no alternative to the iPad...
1024x768... that's what... 5 channel strips with EQs on a standard Cubase/Logic mixer? What're you recording, bongos and a banjo? :P
Sounds like a cool idea, tbh, but even for recording drums with just 8 channels, I have trouble with my laptop screen (which does 1680x1050)... can't imagine trying to use a program like Cubase or Logic (haven't used Garageband, but I'm assuming it's similar in functionality) via VNC on a device with such a low-resolution display (let alone a smartphone!) and a finger-based touchscreen...
Incidentally... I'd KILL for tethering sometime soon. This paying-for-hotspots-while-I-have-full-3G-signal shit is killing me...
Why not just get a MiniPCIe/USB/ExpressCard 3G modem for the laptop? It's not like your only option for internet on the laptop is WiFi or a tethered phone...
That said, tethering is extremely useful if you've got more than one machine and don't want to get SIM cards (or even a separate data plan, depending on which provider you're using - although personally, I would just switch to a different one if they tried to charge me for every SIM-card) for each one...
Now if only I could find a way to get my Android phone to stop charging while tethered (runs down the laptop battery unnecessarily)...
I too have an old battery powered Sony Electret Condensor microphone that works just fine with laptop mic-in jacks... but who would want to use one of those for voip? :P
I just have a hard time believing that a mic-in jack is so much more important than line-in functionality that the former should take precedence... I'd go so far as to suggest a conspiracy ;)
That's why you turn on phantom power after plugging in :)
I'd settle for miniXLR too ;)
That's just it... using a mic that works with a laptop mic-in jack will rarely produce better results than the built-in microphone. Using an external preamp with a REAL microphone produces far better results, but without a line-in jack, you have nowhere to hook up that preamp...
Obviously I'm not denying that most built-in laptop mics suck balls... they do... but so do pretty much all 1/8" jack headset/lapel mics. Moving closer to the mic on the laptop does the same thing.
That's actually a good point.
However, why not just use headphones and the laptop's built-in mic? I can hardly imagine a scenario where the crappy mic in a headset would provide a better experience - unless there's tons of background noise, of course... in which case, you probably shouldn't be using a laptop for VoIP/whatever in that setting anyway :P
I still have clip-on mics and headsets as well, but I don't think I've used them since I got rid of my desktop... the only usage scenario i can think of is gaming at a big LAN - lots of background noise because everyone's yakking away on their headsets :P
And yes, unless you're hung up on the shape of the little gizmo that plugs into the little hole, every computer from laptop to Mac Pro has a way to input audio (aka "line-in") jack. Sometimes, the jack actually does double duty as mic-in and line in, and the little mixer applet that comes with it will attenuate or boost the signal accordingly.
The trend in the last few years has been to forego the Line-In functionality. Often it's still mentioned in the tech specs, but try finding the software switch for activating the Line-In. Hell, the Realtek audio on my old Toshiba NB100 had a Line-In that only worked with certain driver versions... all of them would give you the pop-up for selecting whether you were using the jack as a line-in or mic-in, but only one of the drivers actually switched to stereo and padded the input (or turned off that nasty nasty preamplification).
I don't get it - these laptops all have microphones built in. Why would you need a godawful preamp built in for an external mic that probably sounds just as crappy? It's not like there are any mics out there that sound any better and have a 1/8" TRS jack...
Now an actual balanced 1/8" TRS connection with phantom power... that I could go for. But this crap is useless. Bring back the line-in and kill mic-in!
Most machines on the market today come with a microphone-in that is _sometimes_ usable as a Line-In. My EeePC 1000H was my last all-in-one with a line-in... neither of my Thinkpads have a Line-In that actually works as such in Windows 7.
Of course, I've got interfaces to make up for that, but if you don't pick your laptops based solely on the crappy integrated audio, you've got about a 50/50 chance of getting a model with Line-In that works with the drivers available for your OS...
Oh, and of course there's all those great laptops that have a line-in mentioned in the specs, but when you hook up an actual stereo line level signal, all you get is one side of the signal, with the added benefit of distortion and fun noise because the input is actually a mic in...
I've got more than enough interfaces laying around, so at home this isn't a problem, but when you just want to hook up your laptop to the mixer's main outs to record a band practice or a gig for reference, having a line-in directly on a laptop is pretty nifty...
Well, let's say the network isn't called free public wifi, but something that implies you would be charged for access... set up a simple web page that pops up asking for credit card details to pay for access to the wifi... it's actually a known scam that was reported on a few months ago...
How about evil people sitting at airports with laptops, setting up ad-hoc networks and trying to steal credit card numbers from unsuspecting travellers? Wasn't that actually on Slashdot a few months back?
Rule of thumb: Don't log onto ad hoc networks unless you know who's running them...
I'd wager we've had different experiences because I've experienced the same systems with 1GB of RAM and with 2 and 4GB of RAM ;)
Windows 7 does run okay with 1GB of RAM, and it is usable (I know because I ran my X41Tablet with Windows 7 and 1 GB of RAM for a while)... but it really is slow compared to the same system with 2 or 4GB of RAM, especially if you have a slow hard drive (because the page file will be thrashing like crazy... obviously this is more noticable on a 5400RPM 2.5" laptop drive than a 7200RPM 3.5" desktop drive).
I never said it wasn't smooth - just slow as fuck. It works, and it's a usable system, but adding another GB of RAM and deactivating the page file makes it feel like a rocket. :)
Is dial-up even fast enough to get modern viruses? :P
That's because Windows 7 with 1GB of RAM is like crawling through a tar pit... the additional performance hit from MSE won't really be noticable.
I'm running two systems with Win7, one with 2GB of RAM (ran on 1GB for a while... that was horrible) and one with 4GB, and both of them take a noticable performance hit with MSE running actively in the background. However, that performance hit is neglible compared to programs like AVG or Avira...