Well, I have a max powered stomp box, but there is a computer attached to it...;-) I think a SoftStep + a Macbook Air is much more convenient than a little stomp box which you would have to attach to a computer anyway as soon as you want to change the function inside of it... I have never seen a guitar player (or other stompbox addict) with only one stompbox, unless it was one of those multifunction monster foot boards. All of this more expensive and more heavy than a computer... Granted, stompboxes do help to concentrate on one thing, but you can have that with more flexibility as well. Its simply a matter of discipline. My Max based instrument didn't change in its principal way of playing it since the nineties, when it was purely based on Midi and a rack full of closed boxes (nothing to stomp on though). Yesterday I arrived in New York with just hand luggage. Last time I was here I had a rack of 16 HE... I sure never want to go back ever...

Stefan

Between this and all the linux mini computers it definitely makes the 'grass look greener' as a Max user.

Yeah a laptop/controller can do a lot, but software/system updates break things, things can crash, etc... The ability to fully 'black box' a stable patch/code/effect/idea would be invaluable...

Rodrigo; if you black box something like a mac mini, you don't let it do software updates - you retain a super-closed system that will always revert to a single state when power-cycled.

Also; I've seen pedal boards crash. Crash hard, in fact, where you'd need to short out an internal battery and whatnot. That stuff is torture. And I've seen Elektron Machinedrums and octatracks crash, too. And I know I've crashed a Kurzweil k2000r and a yamaha a5000 on a number of occasions... I guess my point is: Software will always be software, regardless of where you're at.

@Frank-N: I think you'd need a bit more than 1 meg of ram to run Max on that pedal ;) My tiny little patch I'm working on right now takes up 280 megabytes... Also, my laptop is roughly 15 times faster than the processor on there, etc. etc.

I want to build a PD sampler on a raspberry Pi, though - a simple SD-card loaded drum sampler or something, with a usb midi input. Real simple.

Obviously nothing is perfect, but removing an OS layer and working with straight code (max or otherwise) makes for less potential complications.

When I started off I did envision a frozen mac mini setup, and perhaps one day, but as it is I'm really pushing the limit of my regular laptop, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm right there with you on that. The latest gen of mac minis are really quite something, power-wise. And they're quiet, slick, and well-built.