Perhaps Apple's failure to truly support full cycle digital creativity on the iPad sent a shockwave (negatively) through the tech world.

By this I mean what Alan Kay (formulator of much of the foundations of what we now know as the digital world) said about the iPad: that it wasn't a DynaBook (the ideal portable computer) because it was explicitly designed to NOT be able to make content for itself. This leaves it as merely a media consumption device, one in which the definition of media has been extended to include apps - apps it cannot make for itself.

This parallel I use not because we might consider a workstation to be able to make songs as an iPad can make a book, but instead to point out that the nature of a digital workstation is such that it be able to dynamically make content for itself. A digital workstation should be able to make what it itself needs to be used creatively, creating a virtuous cycle of self empowerment, so that the more people use it for longer, the more capable it becomes.

A workstation designed and conceived in this manner is then the ideal tool for the job, even if it isn't, because it will be able to become ideal through the energies of those ever more contributing to it.

And, ideally, workstations should be able to communicate directly with other workstations. This, in this age, is the most important part of the puzzle. No SoundMondo, no centralised hosting required (though a cloud storage of some sort for backup and on-demand sharing), just peer to peer, workstation to workstation connectivity, via the internet, for whatever we want to do with others.

The inverse we see play out with the Samples processing required offline on computers for provision to the Montage/MODX - without any means to then easily share with others. It's seemingly a small matter, but it has significant ramifications for the consideration of the usage and purchase of a Montage/MODX, and output is greatly limited as a result, as are the community, and engagement around the product.

This is also true of Arpeggios, as we're seeing play out whilst the brave and determined Antony pursues ways of making arpeggios.

Think, instead, how dreamy it would be to find a preset drum arpeggio close to what you want, load into an onboard step (or TR style) sequencer, add just that little extra you want, and save it with a unique name, and continue creating.

Imagine being able to dissect the other instrumental arpeggios in this manner, and adjust them as you need/desire.

Or imagine being able to examine Auditions in this same step sequencer, and do as you please with them. How many wonderful Auditions for incredible Performances would be made and shared from this kind of constructivist environment?

Imagine being able to save your own presets for all things that can be set, and then being able to share those with others. Now imagine what kinds of amazing effects chains would be shared with their associated Motion Sequences. It boggles the mind.

If we think in these terms of a workstation's ability to create content for itself to create content for others, it is infinitely capable, and becomes the sum and exponent of its user base, their creativity and communication.

This was Alan Kay's most significant and ignored contribution to computing, and was demonstrated perfectly in a programming language, environment and operating system (all in one workstation of computing itself) that provided exactly this, known simply as Smalltalk.

This was the 1970's. In the context of that level of consideration for users, computing hasn't yet reached the 1980's.

It'd be wonderful if Yamaha applied this simple, yet infinitely powerful principle, to the creation of the next workstation, and its subsequent ecosystem of associated devices.