I watched a documentary (I think that it involved Trent Reznor) and they were discussing the temperamental nature of early sampling where the computer (think it was an Apple) would sometimes just crash and they would need to wait hours for it to process again.
💬 Plug and play studio
So, for about a $150 investment, I can have all my old microphones, bass guitar, and keyboard plugged in at all times, and all you have to do is plug in an iPad (or an iPhone!), fire up Garageband, select the inputs, and go. I’ll often make a drum pattern with the built-in sequencer, then record myself singing and playing my old Yamaha piano through the MIDI input. It’s fun to do the basic tracks, unplug the iPad, then sit on the couch with headphones and do the mixing.
I remember getting a Creative soundcard for my desktop computer that had a single line in and line out. I would use this to record snippets to build tracks. How far technology has come.
Tristan Greene’s reflections on a mobile recording studio is a useful read alongside Austin Kleon’s discussion of his own setup.