In this article, the author presents a report on the studios of the Group de Recherches Musicales (GRM) (1985). He makes some general observations about the nature of the music-computing environment from a composer's perspective. He makes a particular point concerning institutional control of computer music technology (a situation that is partially based on the cost of such technology), which inevitably leads to a culture of those who have access and those who do not. His solution - the ideal computer music environment - would be one in which there was a wider availability of realistically affordable, home-based systems.