The always reliable Create Digital Music got the jump a product coming down the pike that is sure to spark lots of pixel inches of debate among the usual suspects and sites. So, I guess I’ll get in my off-the-cuff reaction now and get it out of the way.

So, yeah, the V-Machine Standalone VST Player. In a nutshell, a little stand-alone computer that hosts VST effects and instruments. Or, more specifically, a curiously-spec’d, some might say under-spec’d, little stand-alone computer that hosts VST effects and instruments.

My first instinct was, neat? Then, no MIDI out? Curious. Then, 512 MB RAM? Really? And, come on, those are the in/out connections?

I don’t know, I don’t want to judge something I haven’t seen but it doesn’t look like it would suit me much. Sure, who wouldn’t love to have some extra DSP power to tap? But other than that, there are so many ways to stack and layer synths/effects natively this seems unnecessary. Perhaps if I was playing out, you could use it to compensate for an under-powered laptop in conjunction with a proper audio device with some decent electronics. So, I suppose there is that market.

$600 while significantly cheaper than any other products that have tried to pull this off is still not chump change. Studio nerds such as myself are way more interested in either in analog or software – it’s not hard to kit out a computer that can pump through 128 tracks with softsynths and effects at like 12ms latency. Live? I don’t know. I guess if someone were to buy it for me I might use it to come up with some sort of laptop integration. Or if I was a DJ. I guess it would work for a DJ.

Somebody help me out here.