The Stumbling Blocks To Digital Audio
One of the not always noticed stumbling blocks to digital audio recording software speed is the storage drives (both internal and external) used by the implemented digital audio workstation system. The overall hard drive capacity (in Mb or Gb); the spindle speed of each hard drive (in rpm); the access time (in ms); and the connection bus to transfer data rate to and from the computer (in Mb/s) are all important to overall computer system efficiency and functionality.
Ideally, the desired hard drive combination is storage capacity of 10 Gb or better; spindle speeds as high as 10,000rpm or better; access time measured as 8ms or less; and data transfer rates of 20Mb/s or better. You will almost never find that combination in an off-the-shelf drive in an off-the-shelf computer - primarily because even with today's rapidly dropping prices for storage drives - that ideal drive combination could cost far more than the computer itself.
The data transfer mode itself can be enhanced IDE, but currently big and fast drives thrive with SCSI or enhanced SCSI modes on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. The Fire wire system initially conceived by Apple and Texas Instruments is likely to become the future standard for those engaged in video, audio and multimedia and could become the data transfer standard for PCs as well.
Operating system software and application software are the proverbial fly's in the computer ointment. To take advantage of the speed and internal efficiency that the new computers promise, code has to be rewritten to take advantage of the hardware advances. That that will happen is given, but the question is when. The future of computers using the new technologies opens the door to new or alternative operating systems as well offering true multitasking or increased power. Apple Rhapsody, one or more varieties of Unix, the BE, Windows NT 5.0, and other options yet to emerge fully, will further expand our options. Sun Solaris and other advanced software's also offer promise.
The bottom line here is that we are going through a series of changes in both the basic technology of the desktop PC and Macintosh (and laptops for both platforms as well), that promise to be, for the first time in many years, truly revolutionary rather than evolutionary. These changes promise to similarly alter the way we record, process and edit audio. Even now, one can take a 'loaded' top-of-the-line Macintosh laptop computer to a concert with microphones and adaptors to record the event digitally on the unit's hard drive. As we progress to the more advanced stages of computer power that promise to be with us sooner than later, coupled with the software that will be re-written or created from scratch to take advantage of the new power and speed capabilities of the hardware, there will be no limit to the options offered by computers in the recording studio.
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