I would be satisfied w/ an old meat and potatoes approach.
These little LCD's are cute, but of no real use in the world of performing.
A hardware mixer w/o motorised faders would be all that is needed.
The LCD could be the interface to the unit like Roland once did w/ my old 770's.
Once programmed the scenes would be recalled by MIDI PC messages. These could be songs, scenes ( a chain of events ), snapshots, etc.
The main reason is to have the ability to use the effects from 3rd party or of stock nature, but to use these well proven hunters in a DSP based mixer. If a bad ass Blackfin 533 could be used, or even the older Sharcs, it would be an awesome piece of kit.
I think an FB5 / MB4 combination in hardware w/ 3rd party FX via the Scope software would be the ultimate mixer. Afterall that combo is the ultimate live mixer for me right now. If John Bowen can go from soft to hard, surely this idea could, and should be realised. Our PCI cards will only last as long as the PCI slots do. Hardware will live on in infamy. But I have dreams of a standard 12U rackmount. Besides, everybody makes desktop hardware kits. Even though this is a rackmount, they have rackmount stands for use in small studios. This could be mounted to a little rack w/ wheels for the sake of mobility. My ancient DMP7 was designed w/ multi use in mind. It was a perfect desktop mixer, but had a rackmount kit option. I must say, in '85 I had many engineers watching my faders move while I played, like it was some big deal. Even then I could use my volume slider off of my KX88 ( CC7 ) to move a fader 10 feet away in real time. It was uneeded, but definately turned heads. Plus I had 2 stereo effects built in ( SPX90's ) and the 3rd AUX was the old PCM70. It was ahead of it's time, and sounded damn good.
I have chosen this platform wisely, and only wish to see it continue in prosperity. Besides, I don't see Soniccore making profit margins off of software to be honest. Hardware in the form of new cards, or new products as in Klangs, ASB's,etc.
I like the sound of the Prodyssey, and B4000 going into my Samson PL24 then to the powered cabinets. The B4000 into the spring and out into the rotary is more realistic than the software was, I am not sure why. But the analog outs seem to be quite hot, and I like that.
Since Solaris was a dream put to hardware, surely this is the same thought.
I remember back in '98, I guess I was talking to Ali in B.C., but we spoke of how CW was making a keyboard back then, but this was never released. I thought that Noah was going to be a keyboard also, but this never happened. So obviously there were thinking about hardware at the very beginning.
Maybe they knew then the transformation would be a sound idea after the PCI cards sales tapered off.
Scope Is Here To Stay, In One Form Or Another.
Honestly, I am surprised how well these cards perform. Never a single crash on stage in 3 years. I guess my DAW builder knows his shit, and used a well proven software / hardware combo.
