One possibility for the future of the workstation: modeled after Maschine?

[johnmoorejohn]

After playing with Maschine for awhile, I am convinced that this is one possible route the future of the workstation might go. For people who aren't aware of what makes maschine so special, here is why. Maschine effectively takes the concept of the MCP akai units, and implements the concept using a combination of hardware and software. The package comes with 8 gigs of sounds, and you have almost instant access to these 8 gigs, something that akai can not touch. From the hardware interface, you can essentially turn off your computer's monitor and access 99.5% of the functionality of Maschine. It is a full functioned sampler, with sequencing.

 

Now imagine a workstation keyboard that connects to your pc or mac via a usb cable, just like maschine. From the keyboard, you have access to 30-50 gigs of sound library including a 10 gig piano, drums like BFD2, a VA synth like a virus or blofeld, full DAW recording, with an unlimited number of audio tracks, ability use any VST effect you want.

 

For the vsts, there will probably be 1st party vst instruments and effects that can be completely accessed and controlled from he keyboard's own screen. Then you could allow for 3rd party vst support, if the user is willing to go to their monitor to set up and tweak.

 

The downside of this type of workstation is that it is limited by how capable the user's pc or mac is. As for maschine, my macbook has no problem handling it with negligible latency. I am using a buffer size of less than 100.

 

But as computers get faster and faster, and audio interfaces get better and better, such a workstation would be more and more acceptable to musicians. I personally, would buy a mac mini for $600 to dedicate to suck a workstation. And if whoever sells this type of workstation can sell it for about $1500, we are at the same price level as current workstations.

 

Or, the company could sell a version with such a computer included.

 

Is this any different that a open labs miko? Absolutely! If is all about the user interface. Open labs basically throws windows at you, which is no different than building your own daw.

 

The maschine style workstation's strength will be it's interface from the keyboard itself, which will eliminate the use of trackpads, mice, keyboards, and monitors.

 

What do you think?

[Yoozer]

 

Is this any different that a open labs miko? Absolutely! If is all about the user interface. Open labs basically throws windows at you, which is no different than building your own daw.

 

But when your DAW software takes over, you don't see anything from Windows anymore anyway. The pain is in the plugin window management and inconsistency thereof. All of 'm have different sizes, few have really good GUIs.

 

 

The maschine style workstation's strength will be it's interface from the keyboard itself, which will eliminate the use of trackpads, mice, keyboards, and monitors.

 

 

So basically a controller with transport buttons and a way better display than is used now.

 

There's always a danger in attaching yourself to a certain DAW or to try to reinvent the DAW for a piece of hardware like that. In a sense, the APC40 and Launchpad can already be considered "workstations" like you describe - just without keys, because there's bidirectional communication.

[stikygum]

Hmm, a Maschine like keyboard workstation would be interesting, but I'm not sure I would want to put all my eggs in one basket. I like having Maschine a lot, but enjoy configuring my own setup. It would definitely be more streamlined though to have a board like this. The key would be in the interface. I like Maschine, so I feel comfortable saying I'd like a Maschine (keyboard) workstation, but it really already is one.

[Yoozer]

Another thing I just thought of - such a "Machine keyboard" might have the mfg choosing cheap keys, as is common practice on almost all controllers. Now, the display would already increase the cost, so they might cut down on the keybed quality, which would rather ruin it.

[goldphinga]

I still prefer the reliability and simplicity of everything in one box, rock solid, no extra wiring, outputs built in etc.