OK, I think it’s unlikely they will make a new line of portastudios, but if I had my way, I would love to see a 2010s or even 2020s incarnation of, say, something like the Korg D32XD (a product from an era when musicians were willing to spend $2000 on this kind of product).
Here is my wishlist:
* 48 tracks, 24 faders (the 48 tracks will all be 24 mono/stereo tracks)
* 24-bit instead of 16-bit should be the default
* 16 inputs
* 4 aux sends, all using 24-bit converters and balanced outputs
* S/PDIF or AES digital output—this would allow me to hook up an external digital recorder and quickly make multiple “mix down” takes instead of having to copy my mixdown to my computer between takes (a lot of my songs require a lot of fader moves and channel muting while mixing down). Yes, I could do this with the analog outputs and a DA-3000, and the sound difference would be negligible, but I would feel better doing things that way if there was no “analog hole”.
* Let’s bring back MIDI sync, so I no longer have to use an aux send as a tape sync channel while recording, and so I have better support with 2010s gear
* SDXC UHS-II support up to 512 gigabytes. (The one problem with this is that musicians should not put an entire album on a single SD card; then again, I did my entire last album on a single SD card, being sure to make regular backups of the music)
* While we’re dreaming, let’s have Tascam hire Sean Costello (Valhalla DSP) to implement a reverb for this imaginary DP48SD. Or, even better: have a Spin FV-1 chip in there and have support for Z-DSP cartridges.
* Four band fully parametric EQ
* Built in compressor/limiter on each track
Pretending to spend other people’s money online is a lot of fun!