][1]I conducted a few personal experiments during my last short fill-in contract. Conclusions:
- I do laundry less often with three weeks of clothes than I do with four months of clothes
- Internet porn has diminished my imagination
- Flying still sucks, but is light years better without bringing my digital piano, audio interface, and laptop
- I need my digital piano
- I don’t need my audio interface
- I almost don’t need my laptop
My laptop is the type they used to call a “desktop replacement” not that many years ago. Now it's just a laptop. I doubt I'll ever buy another desktop. I actually got by just fine with my Android tablet and phone for three weeks. I find this amazing.
Browsing is still superior on my laptop, but otherwise it's only a handful of software above my tablet. Only my recording software and Photoshop, really. Last year I discovered TouchDAW, and it blew my mind. This app can control recording software on a PC wirelessly through your network for five dollars and fourty-nine cents in very much the same way that hardware costing a hundred times as much does with more damn wires.
It really wasn't very long ago at all that running pro audio software on a laptop was impossible. Virtually the day before that, a struggling recording artist could never afford a desktop recording rig. I had to learn to program BASIC to do anything with my first PC! Oh, and how I sneered when my mother suggested I could do music with computers then. Impossible.
How much longer before my laptop joins the Windows XP desktop in the closet and I start using my “laptop replacement” tablet for everything? I imagine head-mounted displays will eliminate the need for my dual monitor system very soon.
Now if everybody could just finally get over CDs.