Just to let you know they have made a few good products over the years. These would be limited to the JX-10 (Super JX) and the JD series. These are also the last "pro" pieces Roland Has made.
Peace
I think this idea has so many possibilities. I think the life usefulness of the actual computer itself can be negligible, for the following reasons. At the sixth grade level, more emphasis is taught on applying the fundamentals taught in the earlier grades; therefore, the computer needs to be a tool to get assignments, research, etc. done.
What needs to be included at it's most usefulness is a web browser (for research, web casts, etc.), a word processing application, a presentation package and what I think would be the absolute most useful program would be a PDF reader. The reason for the PDF reader is multifold.
First of all this could be used to replace textbooks. Instead of public schools having to shell out thousands if not millions of dollars on physical text books, they can mandate that the big publishers (Harcourt Brace, MacMillan, etc.) release their current books on PDF. Licensing fees would be immenently more cost effective in purchasing, shipping, and simple logistics of the books at the end of the year. This way a kid will never be out of a text book, no sharing, no graffiti, and can't forget it at home or in his/her locker. The publishers will make their issues more interactive in the future, in order to compete with other publishers, and states can buy them statewide so that ALL public schools have the same books so that parity is across the board.
A daily backup would be kept on the servers at all times to ensure that work done during the day will be kept in case of a fatal crash. Or even simpler if the HD crashes a mirror can be easily installed. Students can access their own folders at home via the internet etc. etc.
Teachers can easily post assignments for the day or even week. Children that miss school because of illness can get assignments ahead of time, by logging into their classrooms site, their own folder or even attend class via webcam. Tests can be given via the computer in either PDF forms or html/xml pages. Grades can be automated and kids and parents can see exactly where they are in each subject.
For admins this would be a dream. At the end of the year, a networkwide wipe of all the HD's to coincide with next year's text books etc.
I think the logical choice for this is Apple. They're VERY capable of handling and supporting an order of this magnitude. The initial cost is on par with other companies, but the real savings is in the IT department. The amount of people needed to manage a school district is miniscule compared to that of a Windows system. The OS is very robust and security is much tighter. Less worry about viruses etc.
To me I think this is a no brainer, cost effective, way less paper (better for the environment) and will keep the kids more focused on learning while keeping technology at the forefront. All states should be implement this into public education at all levels.
Yes I'm sure they've just recently entertained the idea of a hypersonic bomber. The reason they scrapped the Valkyrie project (if you're unfamiliar it was one of the coolest designs that never was, a supersonic bomber back in the 60's) because the need to risk life and equipment unecessarily when ICBM's could do the job at a lower price and faster. All I want is shorter direct flights from my airport. Say Honolulu in an hour?
I could care less about what language anything is written in or which compiler is used. All that matters is it's speed, functionality, audio quality and that it doesn't crash! I have no problem with ProTools, but I use it more to edit than to create. I've been using Logic for 12 years and have every other piece of software to use if I wish, but I like the Logic platform. Use whatever you like, but SAW is still ugly. Fairlight never gained any popularity after NE Digital went away, Otari doesn't own the RADAR anymore and Sonic is still forensic software (sorry Jorde)! As far as Digi is concerned, I would use there converters, I'll stick with Apogee. Take it easy, this shouldn't be a flame war. The comment was that the UI was ugly and it is.
If you read what I said, I said that I can't stand MP3's. The LACK of dynamic range and the expulsion of frequencies hurts my ears. I can understand the radio thing, but I haven't listened to the radio, save the local jazz station, in years. Creative song writing doesn't equal great recordings. I wish I could go back in time and rerecord John Coltrane or Charlie Parker again with todays equipment, because I have some recordings that are just awful despite the wonderful song writing. There's no excuses nowadays.
Yeah a Midas would be nice. How about a Harrison or a Trident? =) I know what you're saying. Overall the features on many low end products are light years ahead of what used to be available some time ago. And eventually the cutting edge features today will become commonplace in the future, but there is no substitute for good converters. As you can probably relate, if you're running good sound, you would sacrifice a lot of other gear to make sure your crossover was an Ashley or Clarke Technique and not an ART!
I never said I wasn't snobby about audio equipment. =) I understand if you're a garage band or you're 16. But I also think it's naive to say that you can replace ProTools with this piece of software. And to tell you the truth MP3's hurt my ears especially if it's a recording that I'm familiar with. The missing dynamic range actually bothers me. I think in the long run people should buy the best they can afford, but you can get better results with a limited amount of quality gear vs a ton of subpar gear. People should just get educated.
I remember there was a group of guys about 10 years ago at Steinberg that were working on the Cubase port to Unix specifically the SGI. What ever happed to this adventurous project? Anyone have an idea? Ondo are you out there???
And the fun part about all of that is that Digi doesn't even make the cool ADC's for ProTools. I don't know if you've looked into it, but there's a company called Apogee that makes KILLER third party interfaces for ProTools. They're more expensive, but you can definitely hear the difference. Cheers!
I'll agree. Yes there are cheap tools that can cut and paste audio. There have been since the beginning of time, but have any of you heard of quality? The dumbing down of America is so apparent with the overwhelming acceptance of the MP3. I hear too often that MP3's are awesome or it's good enough. Good enough if you want the music you listen to to sound like an AM radio distorting over a pool. there is no substitute for a quality hardware system like ProTools or even the MOTU products. Software can be substituted with most systems, Like I usually suggest Logic vs most things to create in. I'd like to see people using quality products to record more often than "my Behringer mixer plugged into my Audigy card and uing Cool Edit to do all my mastering!" If you'd like buying tips I'd be glad to help, I've only been doing this for 13 years!
Are you seriously complaining about the lack of options in the lower price range? Has your husband ever gone to a studio and recorded? A cheap studio with marginal equipment will run you at lease $25/hr, plus CD pressing etc.
There are stand alone DAW solutions under $1000 and even well proportioned upgrades for under $2000! Korg has the D-1200 and the D-1600 that can record at least 12 tracks, mix them, add effects and burn the disk all in one. Same with Roland, Yamaha, Fostex, Zoom and even Akai.
For computer based solutions MOTU makes the 828 and the 896 with all balanced inputs and software for under $1500. Compare the price of that vs. recording in a cheap studio and you'll save a bunch of money in the long run.
And people PLEASE, and Audigy sound card is not a professional audio interface.
Even though I've come to detest Avid, the Digi side still works well. They're arrogant, but have a right to be. There's nothing that works better and is more standard in the audio industry than ProTools. Where's the TDM support? If you guys editing in Cool Edit had any clues you'd be screaming for this feature. Go to a studio running a recent incarnation of ProTools HD and spend some time editing in it. You'll have gear lust until you have a system of your own.
I agree whole heartedly. Obviously these guys don't spend a whole lot of time in front of the screen editing to know that the eye strain would be awful using a program like this. It's like using SAW or something!
I tend to agree with you on this. If these "artists" that were mentioned would put a good album, none of the single song fervor would be needed. I have bought countless CD's where there were only one or two decent songs.
Why won't the music industry go back to it's roots? Release a single for your one hit wonder and see how it goes? If people really love a band's music they'll clammer for more and an album will be cut. Let's face it, a couple of days in a studio vs. a month costs a lot less. Madonna hasn't had a good album in years. Yes she's had some successes, but nothing phenominal.
I think the most recent "good" CD that I bought was Sting's Brand New Day or maybe Aerosmith's Just Push Play. But look at who I just mentioned, Two of the biggest acts in the industry! When was the last time Republica put out a hit? Yes it had a lot of success with Ready to Go, but what else since then? I'm sure they have more albums under contract with their label, but will any of us want to hear them? I'm not picking on Republica, just an example that came to mind.
And how can Sublime put out a GH album? Just a thought!
I'm not saying that this is the best thing in the world. Personally, I wish these computer idiots would've left music alone and stuck to mods and game sounds. For some reason, (probably the same reason why Windows dominates the industry), MP3 and other horribly compressed formats have become popular and accepted. If it were up to me all of it would be gone and you would get 24 bit 96kHz versions of everything.
I've been in the professional end of the recording realm and am a gear snob. I can hear the differences, but the masses can't. It's yet another example of the dumbing down of society. I know this sounds all conspiracy theory and such, but it's true. Over half of the music listened to in the world is in a low-fi format. If you put together cassette, MP3, AAC, OGG, broadcast radio, etc. you have the majority of what people listen to and hear. Besides the format, people's equipment usually can't decipher the difference, hence the bass boost on everything.
I would love it if every mastering job would be done in 24-bit as well as every recording. Let's face it, bandwidth shouldn't be an issue anymore. We all have cable and DSL. We all have tons of HD space. Why can't we all get together and say this isn't acceptable? Why can't "listening" be a class in college or high school? People need to learn what is a good recording and what isn't. Our senses are numbing with the exception of vision. More and more eye candy is flashed at us with very little of the other 4 sense being stimulated. If we're not too careful, we'll end up like moths to an electric zapper.
But in the overall scheme of things I think that anything that gets an artist more available, gets them more money for their work and is fairly inexpensive is a good thing. Now someone needs to develop an encoding/compression scheme that rebuilds the audio file to it's original quality. I would be glad to hear any suggestions from any would be programmer with such a passion. I have done consulting on things like this before. Any takers?
If you looked at what the average album costs on iTunes, it only runs $10! Which is a HUGE savings compared to Sam Goody or Tower. They're (the artists) getting a sweet deal out of this. I would think that a band such as Aerosmith or U2 could break away from their labels and release the whole thing to iTunes and reap the profits themselves. Offer an exclusive deal for hard copies if so desired by the consumer, but I think this would work for many established artists. Regardless of anyone's hatred for the record labels they do take quite a risk in the promotion and recording of bands. How many one hit wonders are there out there? How many guys do you know that have a "record deal" and nothing came of it? All of those things cost a significant amount of money to produce. In the end I stay away from downloading pirated songs because even though I know the artist gets maybe $0.03 per disc at least it's something for their efforts that I appreciate enough to buy. Cheers!
Slashdot Mirror
Just to let you know they have made a few good products over the years. These would be limited to the JX-10 (Super JX) and the JD series. These are also the last "pro" pieces Roland Has made. Peace
What needs to be included at it's most usefulness is a web browser (for research, web casts, etc.), a word processing application, a presentation package and what I think would be the absolute most useful program would be a PDF reader. The reason for the PDF reader is multifold.
First of all this could be used to replace textbooks. Instead of public schools having to shell out thousands if not millions of dollars on physical text books, they can mandate that the big publishers (Harcourt Brace, MacMillan, etc.) release their current books on PDF. Licensing fees would be immenently more cost effective in purchasing, shipping, and simple logistics of the books at the end of the year. This way a kid will never be out of a text book, no sharing, no graffiti, and can't forget it at home or in his/her locker. The publishers will make their issues more interactive in the future, in order to compete with other publishers, and states can buy them statewide so that ALL public schools have the same books so that parity is across the board.
A daily backup would be kept on the servers at all times to ensure that work done during the day will be kept in case of a fatal crash. Or even simpler if the HD crashes a mirror can be easily installed. Students can access their own folders at home via the internet etc. etc.
Teachers can easily post assignments for the day or even week. Children that miss school because of illness can get assignments ahead of time, by logging into their classrooms site, their own folder or even attend class via webcam. Tests can be given via the computer in either PDF forms or html/xml pages. Grades can be automated and kids and parents can see exactly where they are in each subject.
For admins this would be a dream. At the end of the year, a networkwide wipe of all the HD's to coincide with next year's text books etc.
I think the logical choice for this is Apple. They're VERY capable of handling and supporting an order of this magnitude. The initial cost is on par with other companies, but the real savings is in the IT department. The amount of people needed to manage a school district is miniscule compared to that of a Windows system. The OS is very robust and security is much tighter. Less worry about viruses etc.
To me I think this is a no brainer, cost effective, way less paper (better for the environment) and will keep the kids more focused on learning while keeping technology at the forefront. All states should be implement this into public education at all levels.
Pete
It's in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota... 800 stores, an aquarium, a cereal adventure and an amusement park all under one roof.
Yes I'm sure they've just recently entertained the idea of a hypersonic bomber. The reason they scrapped the Valkyrie project (if you're unfamiliar it was one of the coolest designs that never was, a supersonic bomber back in the 60's) because the need to risk life and equipment unecessarily when ICBM's could do the job at a lower price and faster. All I want is shorter direct flights from my airport. Say Honolulu in an hour?
I could care less about what language anything is written in or which compiler is used. All that matters is it's speed, functionality, audio quality and that it doesn't crash! I have no problem with ProTools, but I use it more to edit than to create. I've been using Logic for 12 years and have every other piece of software to use if I wish, but I like the Logic platform. Use whatever you like, but SAW is still ugly. Fairlight never gained any popularity after NE Digital went away, Otari doesn't own the RADAR anymore and Sonic is still forensic software (sorry Jorde)! As far as Digi is concerned, I would use there converters, I'll stick with Apogee. Take it easy, this shouldn't be a flame war. The comment was that the UI was ugly and it is.
If you read what I said, I said that I can't stand MP3's. The LACK of dynamic range and the expulsion of frequencies hurts my ears. I can understand the radio thing, but I haven't listened to the radio, save the local jazz station, in years. Creative song writing doesn't equal great recordings. I wish I could go back in time and rerecord John Coltrane or Charlie Parker again with todays equipment, because I have some recordings that are just awful despite the wonderful song writing. There's no excuses nowadays.
Yeah a Midas would be nice. How about a Harrison or a Trident? =) I know what you're saying. Overall the features on many low end products are light years ahead of what used to be available some time ago. And eventually the cutting edge features today will become commonplace in the future, but there is no substitute for good converters. As you can probably relate, if you're running good sound, you would sacrifice a lot of other gear to make sure your crossover was an Ashley or Clarke Technique and not an ART!
I never said I wasn't snobby about audio equipment. =) I understand if you're a garage band or you're 16. But I also think it's naive to say that you can replace ProTools with this piece of software. And to tell you the truth MP3's hurt my ears especially if it's a recording that I'm familiar with. The missing dynamic range actually bothers me. I think in the long run people should buy the best they can afford, but you can get better results with a limited amount of quality gear vs a ton of subpar gear. People should just get educated.
I remember there was a group of guys about 10 years ago at Steinberg that were working on the Cubase port to Unix specifically the SGI. What ever happed to this adventurous project? Anyone have an idea? Ondo are you out there???
And the fun part about all of that is that Digi doesn't even make the cool ADC's for ProTools. I don't know if you've looked into it, but there's a company called Apogee that makes KILLER third party interfaces for ProTools. They're more expensive, but you can definitely hear the difference. Cheers!
I'll agree. Yes there are cheap tools that can cut and paste audio. There have been since the beginning of time, but have any of you heard of quality? The dumbing down of America is so apparent with the overwhelming acceptance of the MP3. I hear too often that MP3's are awesome or it's good enough. Good enough if you want the music you listen to to sound like an AM radio distorting over a pool. there is no substitute for a quality hardware system like ProTools or even the MOTU products. Software can be substituted with most systems, Like I usually suggest Logic vs most things to create in. I'd like to see people using quality products to record more often than "my Behringer mixer plugged into my Audigy card and uing Cool Edit to do all my mastering!" If you'd like buying tips I'd be glad to help, I've only been doing this for 13 years!
There are stand alone DAW solutions under $1000 and even well proportioned upgrades for under $2000! Korg has the D-1200 and the D-1600 that can record at least 12 tracks, mix them, add effects and burn the disk all in one. Same with Roland, Yamaha, Fostex, Zoom and even Akai.
For computer based solutions MOTU makes the 828 and the 896 with all balanced inputs and software for under $1500. Compare the price of that vs. recording in a cheap studio and you'll save a bunch of money in the long run.
And people PLEASE, and Audigy sound card is not a professional audio interface.
Even though I've come to detest Avid, the Digi side still works well. They're arrogant, but have a right to be. There's nothing that works better and is more standard in the audio industry than ProTools. Where's the TDM support? If you guys editing in Cool Edit had any clues you'd be screaming for this feature. Go to a studio running a recent incarnation of ProTools HD and spend some time editing in it. You'll have gear lust until you have a system of your own.
I agree whole heartedly. Obviously these guys don't spend a whole lot of time in front of the screen editing to know that the eye strain would be awful using a program like this. It's like using SAW or something!
Why won't the music industry go back to it's roots? Release a single for your one hit wonder and see how it goes? If people really love a band's music they'll clammer for more and an album will be cut. Let's face it, a couple of days in a studio vs. a month costs a lot less. Madonna hasn't had a good album in years. Yes she's had some successes, but nothing phenominal.
I think the most recent "good" CD that I bought was Sting's Brand New Day or maybe Aerosmith's Just Push Play. But look at who I just mentioned, Two of the biggest acts in the industry! When was the last time Republica put out a hit? Yes it had a lot of success with Ready to Go, but what else since then? I'm sure they have more albums under contract with their label, but will any of us want to hear them? I'm not picking on Republica, just an example that came to mind.
And how can Sublime put out a GH album? Just a thought!
I've been in the professional end of the recording realm and am a gear snob. I can hear the differences, but the masses can't. It's yet another example of the dumbing down of society. I know this sounds all conspiracy theory and such, but it's true. Over half of the music listened to in the world is in a low-fi format. If you put together cassette, MP3, AAC, OGG, broadcast radio, etc. you have the majority of what people listen to and hear. Besides the format, people's equipment usually can't decipher the difference, hence the bass boost on everything.
I would love it if every mastering job would be done in 24-bit as well as every recording. Let's face it, bandwidth shouldn't be an issue anymore. We all have cable and DSL. We all have tons of HD space. Why can't we all get together and say this isn't acceptable? Why can't "listening" be a class in college or high school? People need to learn what is a good recording and what isn't. Our senses are numbing with the exception of vision. More and more eye candy is flashed at us with very little of the other 4 sense being stimulated. If we're not too careful, we'll end up like moths to an electric zapper.
But in the overall scheme of things I think that anything that gets an artist more available, gets them more money for their work and is fairly inexpensive is a good thing. Now someone needs to develop an encoding/compression scheme that rebuilds the audio file to it's original quality. I would be glad to hear any suggestions from any would be programmer with such a passion. I have done consulting on things like this before. Any takers?
If you looked at what the average album costs on iTunes, it only runs $10! Which is a HUGE savings compared to Sam Goody or Tower. They're (the artists) getting a sweet deal out of this. I would think that a band such as Aerosmith or U2 could break away from their labels and release the whole thing to iTunes and reap the profits themselves. Offer an exclusive deal for hard copies if so desired by the consumer, but I think this would work for many established artists. Regardless of anyone's hatred for the record labels they do take quite a risk in the promotion and recording of bands. How many one hit wonders are there out there? How many guys do you know that have a "record deal" and nothing came of it? All of those things cost a significant amount of money to produce. In the end I stay away from downloading pirated songs because even though I know the artist gets maybe $0.03 per disc at least it's something for their efforts that I appreciate enough to buy. Cheers!