What is the consensus on Windows 8 RT tablets for musicians?

[Karmacomposer]

We talk about IOS all the time (because iPads are AWESOME music-making tools) and Android, but very little do we mention the Microsoft Surface, Surface 2 and Surface Pro.

Now, the Pro simply runs all Windows software, so likely, you can run anything you own with it, so my question is more about the more affordable Windows RT tablets.

Do you feel they have the music-creating muscle that iPads/iDevices do?

I've seen HQ video editing apps for the Windows RT that rival their Windows 8 computer counterparts.

The Surface 2 has a quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and is lightning fast and the new Surface 3 will have a SICK chip - the Nvidia Tegra K1. Who knows what that beast will be able to do.

Point is, the Windows Surface/2 has a LOT of firepower graphically and for audio, a very good touch screen and way more I/O than iPad and equal or better than top quality Android devices.

The real question is about MIDI - is MIDI available on these devices - do they simply have the Windows 8 audio sub structure or did Microsoft completely re-do Windows 8 for tablets (RT)?

Could vsti's be built for RT? Could DAWs like Cubase, Sonar, FL Studio and Studio One Pro be ported to Windows 8 RT?

What are all of your thoughts?

Mike

[Bremmers]

Windows RT is rather hopeless:

- The OS doesn't support MIDI in/outputs.
- There's very little support for USB audio devices (16 bit stereo is probably the only thing that works).
- VST isn't possible because of app sandboxing.

On a Windows 8 tablet there's MultitrackStudio of course
http://www.multitrackstudio.com/index.php?tabletvideo