Quote:
Originally posted by spalding:
Thats exactly the point i am making richard. If all you wanted was a machine to load software on then you would use a laptop ! its precisely the intergration of both existing and new software that makes the instrument a performance instrument. Thats why Dom had to use programmers to make the additional functionality as asccessible and usable as possible FOR MUSICIANS. If that is not important in the future then you dont need the MS.


You've got it, the integration is the key. Some posts have said that if one wanted to use vst's they would simply use any PC along with their keyboard. While this is also an alternative, I don't think you can ever get the same level of integration as Domenik has already developed in the Mediastation. Its definitely the combination of the best that current music /audio software has to offer, integrated with the MSX OS, that is so unique.

As far as the future goes the standard audio formats that have already been integrated should carry us for some time to come. I believe that Steinberg set up the standards for both 'VST' and ASIO'. These 2 standards are already fully integrated into the Mediastation's OS.

So new Virtual Instruments coming out in the future could be easily added by anyone as long as the software conforms to the existing standards (ASIO & VST). If a new set of standards were to be adopted at some point in the future, and eventually it will probably happen, only then would it be necessary to have programming done to integrate the new standards.

Again, no keyboard can ever be truly "future proofed"; but I think the Mediastation is the most advanced step towards it that I have seen to date.


Richard