Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Having ranted fit to bust, I have a few thoughts to share. I shall 
start with modules.

(Before anyone has a hissy fit about my subsequent being Intel and 
Microsoft-centric, don't bother. I don't care. I will not debate the 
technical merits of the outpourings of Bill's minions. I have my 
views, none of which you can infer from my remarks here, and I'm 
sure you have yours. And if yours are in the negative, I'm sure I 
will give a damn about them just as soon as whatever you worship has 
more than a tiny fraction of the marketplace.)

The year, in case Roland, Yamaha, ddrum, and any other company out 
there hasn't noticed, is 2004. Two thousand and four. Twenty-three 
years after the invention of the personal computer. Thirteen years 
after Bill and another handful of people who look like they did all 
their clothes shopping on a single trip to Target in 1972 ripped off 
Apple and launched a thing called Windows. Nine years after Windows 
finally sprang a decent user interface.

So why, oh why, are these companies, who employ some remarkable 
smart people, producing drum modue user interfaces that would 
embarass a calculator? My mobile phone has a better user interface. 
Hell, MOTOROLA produces better user interfaces and what they know 
about human-computer interface design could be written in 144-point 
Gill Sans on an airmail stamp.

It's pathetic. It's embarassing.

And why are they continuing to design dedicated hardware? Why go to 
all the trouble of designing and fabricating what are effectively 
pathetically underpowered singe-board PCs with processing capability 
that can be comfortably outclassed by my washing machine? Andy 
Groves, his minions, and the endless hordes of his customers (PC 
makers) do it in their sleep, all day, every day.

Basic PCs now cost pennies to make. Their form factors are tiny. 
They have shedloads of memory, blisteringly fast processors, 32-bit 
sound, sensible MIDI implementations, 32-bit colour, and fixed and 
removable storage. Hell, you can get a DVD drive for pocket change. 
And they support a user interface that 93% of anyone who has used a 
personal computer can understand.

Why in this god-forsaken galaxy do we NOT have drum modules that are 
basically PCs? With colour, graphical interfaces, touchscreens, CD 
drives, USB ports, networking, firewire? And then spend ALL of their 
time writing decent software, and providing decent sounds, all on CD 
or DVD?

Stewart