Years ago - my buddy Stuart Sharpe and I dreamed of this new kind of MIDI keyboard PC - we called a Soundvision machine. It was the Ghetto Box for Multimedia - that we wished we had - for ourselves - to use up in our dorm rooms.
Not only would there be a MIDI and QWERTY keyboard combined together, but we also wanted a video camera, great mics, all sorts of storage systems, burners, recorders and removeable media.
We included an animated, educational simulation of a SoundVision machine in our MediaBand CD ROM. We've been waiting patiently for a device like this - since 1977.
We always knew that once a machine integrated QWERTY keyboards and touch screen displays with MIDI keyboards and video editing and camera environments, that this would change young people's lives. Just as kids adapt to joysticks, cell phones and remote controls today - they'll integrate MIDI and QWERTY keyboards in their digital lifestyles.
The system would also need sliders, knobs, and all the sorts of buttons you need to do a live performance. 'Cause it was clear - this machine had to rock!
Well now it's come! It's from a company called
Open Labs - which just showed their
eKO keyboard PC synth at NAMM this week. It got
excellent response and looks like a pretty good deal - starting at $2,500. And just to make the whole thing even sweeter - it turns out that a nephew of mine -
Dane Knecht - works for Open Labs!
Dane sneaked me on the product and asked me to come down to LA and see it this week. So then I asked him to come up and see his cousin Aron star in "West Side Story". I first met Dane when he was 4 years old - in 1984 - when I first got married and the Macintosh was released.
He immediately became my nerdy nephew and hanger on and made me teach him the Mac and all the latest software - throughout his childhood. At age 7 he was using Pagemaker, Photoshop and Director! By age 10 - he had convinced Apple to give him free equipment to play with.
Dane was a favorite nephew - by far.
Now it looks like he's found himself a great place to hang out at and learn. I always knew he'd end up working in our industry. I guess he's 22 years old now. I sure wish I was working at a place like Open Labs at age 22!
Imagine what it would be like to have one of these synth systems, connected to a live club or party environment and one of those software based video synth products, like SquareSquare, Coldcut or Aestesis.
And needless to say, this thing has an Ethernet adapter and is built with standard PC hardware components. That means that CD and DVD burners, add-on hardware, wireless, etc. - can all be added. Even voice recognition, 3D graphics, video out, everything PC-like.
And once this thing starts looking like a tcp/ip client, THEN we're talking on-line Home LAN multimedia studio - baby!
Imagine a cyber venue scene, virtual club, garage band, digital production studio kind of thingie.
It takes the concept of virtual garage band to a while new level!
