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From: droid@mcrware.UUCP (Andy Nicholson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: (NeXT + software) == $6500.00 synclavier??
Summary: Important music person
Keywords: C sharp or B flat . . .
Message-ID: <8846@spl1.UUCP>
Date: 2 Nov 88 20:58:20 GMT
References: <2462@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> <10848@reed.UUCP>
Sender: news@spl1.UUCP
Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Ia.
Lines: 25

In article <10848@reed.UUCP>, tart@reed.UUCP (The Hunger Artist) writes:
> Mr. John Chowning of Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and
> Acoustics (CCRMA, or "karma") lectured here at Reed this weekend, and I asked
> him if anyone was making sound software for the NeXT box.  He gave me
> some important person's name as the author and said it was going to be
> fantastic.  I trust him.

Was the person's name Peter Samson?  Inventor, and programmer of the Samson
box?  This is a neato Computer/Synthesizer they have a CCRMA.  I don't know
a lot about it, but I would not be surprised if the NeXT could replace it.
A Samson box is 2 or 3 EIA racks in size, I believe.  CCRMA people would
probably love to have a Samson box on their desk!

As far as a Synclavier goes, the processor in a Synclavier (N.E.D. Abel 60)
is a 16 bit machine (At least that's what they told me when the people at
U. of Michigan showed me theirs).  What makes the Synclavier so powerful
is not the hardware, but the great steaming heaps of software they have
written for it.  I suspect the hardware is a small portion of the cost of
a Synclaver.  But then, perhaps they use multiple microprocessor based
sound cards, I'm not sure.  Anyway, I would expect that some significant
portion of the capability of a Synclavier could be implemented for a NeXT,
but it could take a *long* time to write all that software (N.E.D. has been
at it for 8 or 9 years now).

Andy Nicholson
These are my opinions, Microware's policy manual says so.