Hardly Driving Sound Personal computers have become a flexible and explosive tool in the hands of sound artists. The personal computer as an audio editing and mixing tool has blurred the line between professional and amateur sound artists. As of this writing, in January 2009, the hard drive continues to be the main storage component for information in personal computers. For sound artists the hard drive is the long term storage for samples of sound that are loaded into short term memory for manipulation. The hard drive also stores the software for editing and mixing the audio collage. Before the personal computer became a powerful audio manipulation tool, manufacturers of digital samplers used hard drives for storage in instruments like the Emu E4XT Turbo sampler/sequencer. Inside the hard drive is a marriage of Berliner, Poulsen, and Reeves' contributions to the art of sound. A spinning magnetic platter contains digital markers that are written and read by an arm. The mechanism is so precise, the arm floats just microns above the platter on a cushion of air. In the hard drive we find the very circular nature of the art of the sound reflected not only in the shape of the medium, but also in the feeling of the art and science of two centuries meeting within the present moment.