I was staying on the sidelines of this discussion, but I think Jos has the right idea. Eventually the keyboard-shaped PCs with black and white keys will replace dedicated keyboards. I have often considered putting one together myself. That is why I was so keenly following Frank Rosenthal's work.

The music companies are in the business of making music. That is why many of the great-sounding keyboards have underpowered processors, which don't allow proper multi-tasking, crappy user interfaces, and under-specified sample memories. These companies may have several engineers who are specialists in DSP and sound generation, and perhaps one guy who designs the user interface and the operating system. There is little wonder that the hardware (not talking about sound generation circuitry) of a typical keyboard is generations behind the PCs (or Mac's) bottom of the line machines.

It is indeed possible that some manufacturer (e.g. Creative Labs) will come out with the keyboard/PC piece, which will allow us to run music software, as well as most other applications.

Having said that, there are some caveats.
1. The keyboard/pc should use low power design, to avoid having cooling fans. These create noise, and as mechanical components are prone to failure. At present, even the laptops are designed to contain small fans. I understand that there are some case designs which allow fanless operation, but these are rare, and so far expensive.

2. Windows XP is quite stable (I would probably take it on stage), with most of the problems being caused by the crap we end up downloading from the Internet (moral - do not use your keyboard for surfing). However, a keyboard/PC instrument would greatly benefit from the ROMable operating system, which does not require disk for basic operation. Hard disks, which are once again mechanical devices, are much more prone to failure than solid state memory is. Hard disks are great for storing large amounts of information, such as midi files, sample data, off-line styles, etc; however, or rare occations that the HD might fail, your instrument will be toast if you are relying on it for core operation. All of todays keyboards which contain HDs use them as a backup/off-line storage tool (e.g. if the Tyros HD fails, you can still play built-in styles and sounds and the rest of the keyboard for the most part will work)
I don't believe, that WinXP is capable of diskless operation. Windows XP embedded allows for such operation, but additional programming may be required to move the applications to that platform (added expense).

3. As keyboard users, we have different user interface requirements than the general users of the computers. We need a lot of buttons, which we can use to quickly (1 or 2 button pushes) navigate to the desired selections. The buttons have to be properly spaced and logically laid out. It just won't do to hunt and peck for the right keyboard buttons or take our hands off the keys to use a mouse or a touch pad. Solution - custom-designed keyboard with keys laid out in a logical fashion, which can be expensive, unless this same design can be used for a million units sold (which is highly unlikely).

We also do not need a full-size LCD, which takes up room and adds heft to the keyboard frame. I believe that the keyboard/PC would do nicely with a half-height screen (still regular width). While such screens do exist, they are more expensive than regular commonly-available 14-15" 4:3 displays

4. While the XG-soundcard would work well, as Jos is suggesting, it would relegate us to PSR620(?) sound quality with its 4MB wavetable. As Frank is finding out, to get good, professional sound quality out of a PC-based instrument, you need to go to high end sound cards and high-end, expensive software.

5. There is also style copyright issue - I bet the moment the PC-based arranger hits the streets, Yamahas, Rolands, and everybody else will hit the manufacturers with the law suits - according to DMCA, the US copyright law, even if you do not ship actual copyrighted styles with the instrument, you are producing/posessing a tool for violating the copyright (of the copyrighted styles), which is a crime in itself. While IMHO this law is stupid, it is nonetheless there. The solution - the manufacturer would have to either purchase licenses from the major arranger manufacturers for use of their styles (more likely, more expensive), or pay royalties to them for the use of these styles (less likely).

If the user wants to settle for a fairly low-end instrument (with the specs like Casio) which is upgradeable to a degree, and can run other applications, then as Jos is suggesting, you can beuild a $1200 instrument with a PC inside.

While all of the above problems can be overcome to build a truly professional-grade instrument, we would be looking to spend Eko /Wersi-type dough - $4-5K or more. It is far from certain that at this price one can sell many copies of it. I, for one, would opt for a dedicated keyboard, if it can be had significantly cheaper.

I think this is the reason Eko did not fly; as well, at a Musicmesse a few years back one of the German synthesizer makers (was it Waldorf?) had announced a keyboard with a PC inside - the picture looked very snazzy, but it must have been scrapped as well.

On the long run, however, I am sure that keyboard/PC instrument is the way of the future. I am constantly keeping my eye out for the advances in technology to overcome most of the issues I listed above. Hopefully soon we will be able to do it.

Regards,
Alex