Caleb:
Your choosing Win8 is exactly what I'd do if the software and development were there for tablets. It might be getting there, and perhaps it will be there soon, but until it does, I and other musicians I know and/or work are better off sticking with iPads.
I'm hopeful, too, of course. An unlocked system is a more flexible system -- Sony's pro minidisc recorders' total failure in '90s (in the pro market) being the ultimate example of that. Without pointless restrictions on recording, minidisc could have been the next standard after DAT instead of another dead end years before portable hard disc recording.
You can also argue that a full-blown Windows tablet can run any Windows program and therefore any Windows music program. I'd argue that a professional musician wants to see that idea not only demonstrated in the practical sense but also widely adopted for the sake of client compatibility.
Additionally:
I've owned and still own a several Android devices and have experimented with with creating original music on nearly all of them. At best, the results are glitchy and undependable; at worst, multiple-mixed I/O is unsupported and so are the majority of cross-platform apps on macs and PCs. So even if Jellybean gets the latency down consistently (rather than in a best-case scenario), there are still reasons not to try to embrace Android for music just yet.
Right now, the prospect is a bit like composing 8-bit chiptunes on an original Nintendo gameboy: Delightfully unexpected but disastrously unpredictable. At a certain point, the fun of arriving at surprising choices is overshadowed by the amount of data lost or time spent attempting to record some part or section I intended.
Here's the part of the Synthtopia article that remains pertinent whether the latency was fixed or not:
Quote:
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The new Android OS offers a lot to be excited about. But, at least for now, musicians interested in the Android platform need to consider not just the operating system, but the performance of specific hardware + software implementations.
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I'll have a look at Gearsluts as well to see what people's experience with Android has been.
Honestly, though -- if you knew what happens when I so much as introduce the subject of Android among working musicians I know, you'd wonder why I'm thinking about this at all! The other day, a friend who does soundtracks in his studio in LA gave me a look that suggested he wondered if he should ever take me seriously again! He gives me the same look when I talk about using a weighted-key Casio controller instead of a Nord Stage -- he's the only person I know who still uses a Synclavier.
Some friends ask why I'd bother trying to write music on a tablet at all when portable laptops are better suited to the task. They don't want to hear it when I suggest that a tablet can be more convenient.
SeaKing:
The delay has a direct effect on DAWs and music processing and composing. Trust me when I say that professional users would find it unacceptable.
This isn't a thread about which OS is cooler -- we know the answer to that is Android. It's a question about which is ultimately most usable for musicians at the moment.
Perhaps this will change -- but in order for it to change, Google needs to make pro audio a priority, as Apple and Microsoft have.