Most mainstream music production relegates the computer to a behind-the-scenes player. The digital processes that help create the sense of presence and authenticity are smoothed out and kept in check. The Share crowd wants to let those techniques loose. For them, the PC is no longer simply a playback device or an inexpensive home studio. It has become an instrument in its own right. An explosion of scattershot beats emerges from the next room. The sounds belong to Geoff Matters, a slight 24-year-old who sports a wispy Fu Manchu, earrings, and long blond hair stuffed inside a beige stocking cap. Besides helping to organize Share, Matters is one of the lead programmers for GDAM, which stands for Geoff and Daves Audio Mixer. An open source digital DJ rig thats "perpetually in beta," GDAM cuts and mixes MP3s like a vinyl DJ gone cyborg.http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.05/laptop.html
