It has probably always been within humankind’s ability to create music, be it with clapping hands, hummed melodies, or tapped objects.

Today, though, we are entering a new age by extending those abilities with an infinite digital toolkit for audio doodling.

For many years, we have had small analog and digital devices that allowed us to flirt with rudimentary musical patterns, rhythms, and “doodling.” Apple’s iPad has certainly extended the ecosystem by bringing hundreds of apps to the market, allowing people everywhere in the privacy of their earbuds to experiment with sound. One of the biggest innovations here was “Gesture” input, as this opened the ability to play as one would with an expressive instrument – a type of instrument characterized by continuous tone manipulation instead of triggering sounds on and off.

This, though, will pale in comparison to the next wave of sound authoring and composition. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 series of tablets might be just a continuation of portables to many, but to me, this will represent a breakthrough product.

It is rumored that this new tablet will have more RAM, more storage, a larger screen, a faster CPU, and faster graphics, and it will all be tied together with Windows 10. While the previous version of the Surface certainly had many of these attributes in one form or another, it is the advent of this portable workstation-class tablet paired with a powerful, full-fledged operating system that will transport the work we do to new heights.

Not only will I have the power to operate Adobe’s Lightroom, create 3D objects and animation in Blender, paint with Krita or Black Ink, and sculpt using 3D-Coat, but I’ll also be able to use the full functionality of a major DAW – Digital Audio Workstation.

This is significant and deserves further exploration as to why I see this as a watershed moment.

Recently, I started flirting with some digital audio tools to make electronic music. I’ve had a long interest in this genre starting back in 1977 after first listening to Throbbing Gristle, who gave us Industrial Music, followed by noise auteur William Bennett with Whitehouse. Synthpop gave way to EBM (Electronic Body Music) with Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb until Techno was officially born (America called it Electronica). Today, young people from around the world listen to EDM, Dubstep, Trap, House, Trance, Ambient, and a host of other sub-genres, all tracing their roots to the beginnings of electronic music.

Creating this or any other form of recorded music was traditionally rather expensive, not only did you require a lot of gear, you needed a recording studio, engineer, record label, maybe some bandmates, and a distributor. That all changed with MP3s and Napster using the Internet to create a new music industry, but you still needed a load of equipment.

Today that is changing rapidly, and now I, too, have the opportunity to explore making music on my own without the backing of a corporation or the outlay of large amounts of money.

This brings me back to the Surface Pro. On this one-third-of-an-inch thick device (9mm), I can and will install my favorite DAW – Bitwig. Not only is this my recording and mixing studio, but it is also the container for all of the instruments (the band members) and effects that I could hope to want. What I won’t need is a MIDI input device, drum machine, or analog synthesizer. Keyboards tend to be large, and even small drum pads are bulky when trying to go mobile.

Using the Surface Pro as a multi-touch input system, I will be able to use three dimensions of operability. Sliding my finger up and down the screen might affect the oscillator, while left and right motion can alter the pitch. From there, I use the included pen and the instrument responds to the pressure I’m pushing into the Surface with. With a push of a button, I have my drum pads on the screen.

Now that I have my music studio, a host for instruments, and an input device, I can start to extend the capability of the DAW. I should emphasize that this is another major reason why a tablet with an operating system in this small form factor is a game-changer.

First, I load up my VST’s. These are add-ons that offer functionality that no one manufacturer could hope to create in their DAW. For example, Xfer Records (of Dead Mau5 fame) created Cthulhu, which allows the artist to play chords with one key; this is great if you don’t know how to play the piano or you’re not carrying around a keyboard with you. Also, from Xfer is Nerve for beat creation. In an instant, the artist has access to hundreds of beat patterns and percussion instruments for laying down the first part of a track.

From here, I turn to Bazille from U-He or Circle 2 from Future Audio Workshop. While Bitwig comes with a couple of synthesizers and hundreds of presets, these aftermarket synths are amazing toys to play with while exploring the creation of sounds. Next up, I can rely on any number of tools from Glitchmachines, whose plugins mangle and churn my creations into truly unique soundscapes.

Between these VSTs and Bitwig, there is a kind of glue that pulls the elements together in the form of various devices, filters, containers, effects, and utilities that can be sandwiched between instruments and VSTs or tacked onto the end or beginning of the chain that yet again alter my audio experiments.

The point is I have a nearly infinite amount of options to play with that can create exquisite sounds and maybe even occasionally music.

So just as previous generations might have sketched their ideas in a notebook or kept a diary, strummed their guitar or played harmonica on a Saturday night, or penned a book on their laptop, we are on the verge of a new mobile revolution where the universe of musical production is sitting in your lap.