Surface One Fan Page

[natcl]

Hello, I made a page about the Surface One with some info and a message board, here is the link :
http://www.studioimaginaire.com/surfaceone

[complexvisuals]

Has it been released?

Cian

[natcl]

Not yet, it should be out this summer according to the VP sales manager.

[fons]

haha, the endless story ...

[natcl]

I'm going to Mworld next week and I'm gonna try to get more info.

[holly]

You must be kidding. Doesn't something have to exist before it can have fans? Is it another sci-fi blogger site? Do people trade the same PR jpg over and over?

Oooh, imagine what it must feel like under your eight fingers and two thumbs....

I actually touched one last year at the M-audio booth. It was big and plastic. Of course it didn't work. Whatever.

[natcl]

The goal of the site is to gather some information about the product, and when it is released, serve as a ressource center with some patches and support.

The unit works very well, and it's not made of plastic...

[elbows]

Id hazard a guess that the prototype was plastic. Its actually quite unusual to see a commercial project be publiclly demo's so far in advance of it appearing, giving potential competitors plenty of time to rip it off. Luckily I guess that market isnt so cut-throat.

Will be interested in this device if it appears in my lifetime

[holly]

I'm thinking carpel tunnel syndrome lawsuits within two years of it's release.

Honestly, I see where they are going with the thing, but it seems like a really lousy design. A membrane keyboard for the scratch-n-sniff set. It was BIG! Too big. I'm supposed to have room for my full rig and a computer to run the thing and a monitor to program it.... Come on. Where do they think we are working? I need a big flat tabletop for it? If they had really wanted to design a new interface it could have been something you hold, something ergonomic and fun to grapple with (think eXistenZ) rather than that big flat tea tray. You couldn't even keep it on your lap because there's no physical reference for it so you will constantly have to look at your hands while operating. And the knobs all over on the left rather than center between the hands so I could actually use them ambidextriously without losing contact with the board.... It's just another midi-twiddler only bigger and it has some space-age "tactile cloth" instead of eight faders which actually work.... Yes, it's very fetishistic and deserves a website and a legendary release date, but compare to this:

from midicontroller.com/ which is available now and uses reliable parts.

[natcl]

While I think the Bitstream Pro is a really nice interface, I think it has a different use, it is more targeted at mixing. The Surface One is aimed at the live performer, you could use the pads to actually produce sounds, which is pretty hard using a fader. Anyways, we'll have to wait and see how the product evolves when it is released....