3 ms·

I suppose these might have been attractive to very well-heeled musicians because of the MIDI ports, which was one of the reasons that the full-sized ST was popu

I suppose these might have been attractive to very well-heeled musicians because of the MIDI ports, which was one of the reasons that the full-sized ST was popular with them.

pavlov 2y ago
Yes, the mini-MIDI port on a 1991 laptop is truly unique. But probably there wouldn't have been much of a market for that. Computer-driven live music performance was still very exotic. Laptop jockeys were a decade away.
- piltdownman 2y ago
  It was due to their rock solid MIDI Sequencing with the advent of the AKAI S1000 Sampler and the move away from the Amiga dominated 'Tracker' scene with the introduction of Cubase as primary DAW. Computer-driven live music performance was very much a thing long before 1991. The 'computers' in question were Analog sequencers using control voltages, and things like the LinnDrum providing click tracks to trigger sync. Roland expanded on this with the release of their TR-808 drum machine and sequencer in 1980, utilising a precursor to MIDI known colloquially as DIN-Sync or Sync24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync This gave way with MIDI to the sequencing of outboard gear via a variety of hardware sequencers and computer/DAW combos - bringing us to the Atari ST and the first few generations of PPC and G3 Towers as we entered the true age of the PC DAW.
  - bartread 2y ago
    > Computer-driven live music performance was very much a thing long before 1991. The 'computers' in question were Analog sequencers using control voltages, and things like the LinnDrum providing click tracks to trigger sync. Roland expanded on this with the release of their TR-808 drum machine and sequencer in 1980, utilising a precursor to MIDI known colloquially as DIN-Sync or Sync24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync On one level, I'm absolutely onboard with this perspective. On the other hand I think this is bending the definition a little bit too far. What we're specifically discussing here is using general purpose portable computers as part of a live performance. The Fairlight CMI falls into an interesting middle ground because, at least in theory, you could probably have created and run general purpose software applications on it. Would have made a pretty wild (and ludicrously overpriced) word processor or spreadsheet station. But, of course, the software it ran was all geared towards music production, and is a very direct forerunner of the kinds of music production software that would become increasingly available for general purpose computers. Definitely a wild and innovative time.
    - piltdownman 2y ago
      Definitely fair points re: the Synclavier and the Fairlight. That said, from memory I'm pretty positive there's a few 'sidenotes' in the era which would have utilised general purpose portable computers as part of a live performance. The UK synthpop acts cobbling together gear post-Depeche Mode's 1981 'Speak and Spell' Album, with stuff like the Alpha Syntauri setup for the Apple II used by Herbie Hancock and Laurie Spiegel coming to mind. https://www.vintagesynth.com/syntauri/alphasyntauri https://www.vintagesynth.com/syntauri/alphasyntauri You then went even more niche, for the sake of academic argument, with the Amiga demo and modscene which often focused on the use of Tracker MODs for live performance and 'DJing' on COTS consumer PC hardware. I'd also eat my hat if there weren't Jazz and new-wave artists utilising the FM Chips in the early NEC and PC-88 style line at the time - i.e. the natural progression of the chiptune scene going full polyphony and fidelity from the MOS chip in the C64.
  - the-rc 2y ago
    Zappa even took his Synclavier on the road in 1988. You can hear it all over the albums from that tour. It was almost certainly the most expanded (and expensive) unit on the planet. By 1991 it had an astounding 768MB of RAM. Speaking of Synclavier, Kraftwerk's crashed live in 1991... https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kraftwerk/1991/philipshalle-dusseldorf-germany-13f2a5c9.html https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kraftwerk/1991/philipshalle-d...
    - piltdownman 2y ago
      Synclavier was a serious powerhouse that straddled the analog/digital era - additive, digital, and FM synthesis with unique sampling features. They were lucky with the cross-pollination in the US University scene at the time. It was originally envisaged to be the 'Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer', borrowing the then innovative FM synthesis technology from Stanford which was eventually the basis for the Yamaha DX line of synths, with the DX7 being the indisputable king of late 80s popular music. That 24-bit, 50kHz sample rate and the AD/DA converters were glorious, but even the workflow and palette editing functionality were so unique and revolutionary that there's value in a full 1:1 software emulation. I've had a lot of fun playing 'guess the hit single' with the Synclavier and Fairlight emulations in the Arturia Collection https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/synclavier-v/overview https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/syncla...
- the-rc 2y ago
  Well, Jean Michel Jarre had 11 (eleven) Ataris on stage in 1990... but he'd always been ahead of the curve, e.g. having his own custom sequencer HW.
dfxm12 2y ago
The Atari ST wouldn't have been so onerous to bring on tour. Even the display wouldn't be the biggest/heaviest piece of gear a band would bring with them. Here we see Atari Teenage Riot using their namesake live (even in 2010): https://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/5076088906 https://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/5076088906

I suppose these might have been attractive to very well-heeled musicians because of the MIDI ports, which was one of the reasons that the full-sized ST was popular with them.

pavlov 2y ago

Yes, the mini-MIDI port on a 1991 laptop is truly unique. But probably there wouldn't have been much of a market for that. Computer-driven live music performance was still very exotic. Laptop jockeys were a decade away.

piltdownman 2y ago
It was due to their rock solid MIDI Sequencing with the advent of the AKAI S1000 Sampler and the move away from the Amiga dominated 'Tracker' scene with the introduction of Cubase as primary DAW. Computer-driven live music performance was very much a thing long before 1991. The 'computers' in question were Analog sequencers using control voltages, and things like the LinnDrum providing click tracks to trigger sync. Roland expanded on this with the release of their TR-808 drum machine and sequencer in 1980, utilising a precursor to MIDI known colloquially as DIN-Sync or Sync24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync This gave way with MIDI to the sequencing of outboard gear via a variety of hardware sequencers and computer/DAW combos - bringing us to the Atari ST and the first few generations of PPC and G3 Towers as we entered the true age of the PC DAW.
- bartread 2y ago
  > Computer-driven live music performance was very much a thing long before 1991. The 'computers' in question were Analog sequencers using control voltages, and things like the LinnDrum providing click tracks to trigger sync. Roland expanded on this with the release of their TR-808 drum machine and sequencer in 1980, utilising a precursor to MIDI known colloquially as DIN-Sync or Sync24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_sync On one level, I'm absolutely onboard with this perspective. On the other hand I think this is bending the definition a little bit too far. What we're specifically discussing here is using general purpose portable computers as part of a live performance. The Fairlight CMI falls into an interesting middle ground because, at least in theory, you could probably have created and run general purpose software applications on it. Would have made a pretty wild (and ludicrously overpriced) word processor or spreadsheet station. But, of course, the software it ran was all geared towards music production, and is a very direct forerunner of the kinds of music production software that would become increasingly available for general purpose computers. Definitely a wild and innovative time.
  - piltdownman 2y ago
    Definitely fair points re: the Synclavier and the Fairlight. That said, from memory I'm pretty positive there's a few 'sidenotes' in the era which would have utilised general purpose portable computers as part of a live performance. The UK synthpop acts cobbling together gear post-Depeche Mode's 1981 'Speak and Spell' Album, with stuff like the Alpha Syntauri setup for the Apple II used by Herbie Hancock and Laurie Spiegel coming to mind. https://www.vintagesynth.com/syntauri/alphasyntauri https://www.vintagesynth.com/syntauri/alphasyntauri You then went even more niche, for the sake of academic argument, with the Amiga demo and modscene which often focused on the use of Tracker MODs for live performance and 'DJing' on COTS consumer PC hardware. I'd also eat my hat if there weren't Jazz and new-wave artists utilising the FM Chips in the early NEC and PC-88 style line at the time - i.e. the natural progression of the chiptune scene going full polyphony and fidelity from the MOS chip in the C64.
- the-rc 2y ago
  Zappa even took his Synclavier on the road in 1988. You can hear it all over the albums from that tour. It was almost certainly the most expanded (and expensive) unit on the planet. By 1991 it had an astounding 768MB of RAM. Speaking of Synclavier, Kraftwerk's crashed live in 1991... https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kraftwerk/1991/philipshalle-dusseldorf-germany-13f2a5c9.html https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kraftwerk/1991/philipshalle-d...
  - piltdownman 2y ago
    Synclavier was a serious powerhouse that straddled the analog/digital era - additive, digital, and FM synthesis with unique sampling features. They were lucky with the cross-pollination in the US University scene at the time. It was originally envisaged to be the 'Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer', borrowing the then innovative FM synthesis technology from Stanford which was eventually the basis for the Yamaha DX line of synths, with the DX7 being the indisputable king of late 80s popular music. That 24-bit, 50kHz sample rate and the AD/DA converters were glorious, but even the workflow and palette editing functionality were so unique and revolutionary that there's value in a full 1:1 software emulation. I've had a lot of fun playing 'guess the hit single' with the Synclavier and Fairlight emulations in the Arturia Collection https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/synclavier-v/overview https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/syncla...
the-rc 2y ago
Well, Jean Michel Jarre had 11 (eleven) Ataris on stage in 1990... but he'd always been ahead of the curve, e.g. having his own custom sequencer HW.

dfxm12 2y ago

The Atari ST wouldn't have been so onerous to bring on tour. Even the display wouldn't be the biggest/heaviest piece of gear a band would bring with them. Here we see Atari Teenage Riot using their namesake live (even in 2010): https://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/5076088906 https://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/5076088906