Feathers
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Posts posted by Feathers
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Yes but the idea of controlling one sequencer with another just to use a speech synth seems pretty strange to me. Anyway... I believe Fruity's Speech is rendered as a sample before it's dropped into a music track and so maybe I could save that sample? My current machine wouldn't have enough power to run too many music apps @ once. As far as reason as a VSTi goes... Again, it would stress me out I think. If I use Reason then it will probably be just as a standalone for it's own sounds. I have some very good VSTI's for use in Sx etc. And of course I have the Z1 as well. I will certainly find an easy way to make use of the Fruity speech synth though.
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Hmmm... This message board sucks. I got an error message when I tried posting my reply and so I tried again... And again and again. You can see the results of my frantic attempts to post one little reply.
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
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Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
Maybe I should copy and paste this text many times also?
:-)
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I use Windows XP because it's the best version of Windows ever created.
Logic Audio Platinum is not so good however. Ever thought about changing to Cubase Sx?
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Who windows? Don't know that version of Windows. I use Windows XP because it's the best version of Windows ever created.
Logic Audio Platinum is not so good however. Ever thought about changing to Cubase Sx?
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Who windows? Don't know that version of Windows. I use Windows XP because it's the best version of Windows ever created.
Logic Audio Platinum is not so good however. Ever thought about changing to Cubase Sx?
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Who windows? Don't know that version of Windows. I use Windows XP because it's the best version of Windows ever created.
Logic Audio Platinum is not so good however. Ever thought about changing to Cubase Sx?
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Do you actually have the software for transferring to minidisc?
Do you have a Creative Minidisc program?
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Use a sound editor such as Soundforge or Wavelab. Load the audio in and look for the gaps. I don't know if these programs can automatically detect silence. You could also use a program like Acoustica Mp3 CD Burner which can rip audio from cd and convert to wav/mp3.
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To date, I have tried a number of Sequencers on my PC. They all have good points but each one seems to have it's own set of problems and peculiarities.
I will list each one and describe the problems I've encountered. Feel free to respond and let me know of your own experiences...
1:Fruityloops 3.56:
When I first saw Fruity 3.56 I was blown away! I was amazed by how much it had moved on from it's previous versions. I liked the Speech Synth and the VSTi Support. I also found it very easy to play around with and figure out it's various features, even without consulting the manual or help guide. After playing around with it some more and actually trying to use it as a serious tool, things seemed to slide downhill. Firstly it wouldn't synchronise with my Korg Z1 synth. I spent ages configuring both the Z1 & Fruity in order to make Fruity act as Master and drive my Z1's clock. I gave up after a while and tried to persuade Fruity to receive the Z1's clock signal. No way! Forget it! Even after consulting the help guide I still couldn't get the two in sync. After a while I abandoned the synchronisation and moved onto recording notes from the Z1. This was much easier but I soon discovered that Fruity was totally uninterested in recording my Z1's modulation wheel. After some searching I eventually got it to respond but it would only control things like - attack, decay etc from this wheel. Why was it such a pain just to get Fruity to record the modulation wheel? I'm sure there's a way to do it but with every other sequencer I've used, it's not a problem!
I feel that Fruity has some nice features but is lacking some of the refinements we've come to expect on Pro Sequencers.
2:Reason 2.0:
It certainly takes a lot of Hdisk space for full install! I was impressed with Reason in terms of it's sound quality and unique design. I love the CV/Gate wiring on the back of the machines and it has some very powerful Synths. Reason had no problems in synchronising itself to my Z1. In fact I had the feeling it was very eager to respond to the Z1's timing signal. I didn't have to refer to the help guide or spend hours trying to get it synced. I could turn the speed dial on my Z1 and watch Reason's tempo change accordingly. Problem? Ummm.... How do I get Reason to play an external midi device? Well of course I now know that Reason isn't actually able to control external devices... Shame! Well it's still a pretty amazing piece of software and worth using, but at this time, it's simply not enough for my needs.
3:Cakewalk Sonal XL:
Yuck! Ugly flat windows 98/Me style interface but it seemed to work ok. I didn't have to spend too long figuring out how to play samples and midi at the same time. It was only after a day or so that I noticed all of the samples were playing in mono. I've tried configuring and reconfiguring but apparently Sonar thinks I have a mono soundcard (adlib perhaps?). Apart from this minor problem, I also think it's not as capable as some other sequencers.
4:Emagic's Logic Audio Platinum 5.10:
Nice looking interface! It certainly looked very capable. After setting up the hardware I tried recording some notes from the Z1. No problem. Next I decided to add some audio tracks and so I preceeded to import a wave file. Well actually I didn't get very far. One hour later I was still trying to import a single wav file into a single 'Logic Audio' track. I consulted the 'help' of course. It explained very clearly how to do this... I followed the instructions and still nothing happened. Now I'm sure there are many people reading this who will be able to tell me exactly what I should be doing in order to play audio. Well I'm sorry but I don't want to hear it. :-) After trying to carry out some other basic actions I quickly learned that there is nothing Logical about this sequencer. It's the most illogical and unintuitive program I've ever attempted to use! It kind of reminds me of some of those awful MAC ports, you know? Those sugar coated programs that Mac users are used to. Very pretty with sculpted, photorealistic buttons, but actually lacking in all of the basic features and user-friendliness that PC users are used to. Am I right in thinking that Logic Audio began life on the Mac?
4:Acid Pro 4:
I've always liked Acid (spare the jokes). I found this program very easy to use and I was able to create whole tracks in a very short time. Acid is great for getting ideas together and giving you totally new ones as well. It's very inspirational and pretty user-friendly. Unfortunately I haven't found a version that's been entirely stable. Every version of Acid I've owned has crashed and crashed again. Pro 4 maintains this crashing tradition and so Acid users won't be disappointed on that score. Acid is great with samples/loops and now of course it supports VSTi. I eventually got it to record and play my Z1 as well. I was shocked to discover however, that you can't create a track and then record into it (as such). You can't re-record either. All you can do is record midi into a new track and edit in step time. To make matters worse... I can see no way of changing the midi channel to anything but 1!!! What use is midi out if it only works on one channel? If anyone here can provide answers then I'd be grateful.
Acid pro is certainly great for getting new ideas and producing tracks within a very short time but it's midi support is bad.
5:Cubase Sx:
Hmmm... The only sequencer that seems to score on all counts. It syncs with the Z1, It plays audio without any problems and it's very intuitive unlike the Logic Audio thing. I actually used to hate previous versions of cubase. I always found them to be unstable and unfriendly. It used to be a major deal just trying to get the metronome to sound. Sx is much better, it's very easy to create a drum track and play VSTi's and to drop in audio and slice automatically. The software also seems very stable these days. The bottom line is that it's not really worth me spending weeks/months learning other sequencers when they lack important features or don't function well with external hardware. I would like to play around with Reason2 because it's still a very good sequencer but at this time it's not worth my while. I like the speech synth in Fruity but it sucks in some other ways and so again, it's not worth learning at this time.
It looks like I'll be relying on Cubase for quite some time...
Comments?
Feathers.
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All originals, hey? Including manuals?
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Do u know that Eat Static originated from Ozric Tentacles?
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Alpha Range - 8 to 13 HZ (I'm relaxed but awake).
You could use any oscillator to generate these frequencies. I would use something like Soundforge which can generate a range of waves at frequencies you specify. You could create a binaural beat wave which consists of left and right at slightly different frequency. This technique is used by many people for 'brain entrainment'. You'd create a frequency of 100hz for left and say 104hz for right. The brain then creates a third frequency which is the difference between the two which is 4hz (104-100=4). 4hz-8hz is the Theta range and is present in dreaming and is associated with mental imagery. Q:Why not simply create a 4hz wave and listen to it? A:How many stereo systems do you know that extend down to 4hz? Most Amps/Speakers begin at 8-20hz or higher. Binaural tones are a way of creating that 4hz cycle without having specialist audio equipment to reproduce it! Any Amp can reproduce 100hz... See?
There are a number of ways you could create an 8 to 13hz cycle. With Soundforge for example, you could generate a tone that's pretty low but not too noticeable in your music (30hz?) You could then apply an amplitude modulation to that tone at 8hz. The result is a 30hz tone which comes in waves of 8hz. Of course you could forget about generating tones and concentrate on the drum pattern or bass rhythm. You could make those elements hypnotic.
Feathers.
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Hallo,
I'm running Cubase SX on a P3-560mhz with 192MB PC100 Ram. Obviously this is far from ideal but it works ok. I've just given cubase it's own partition and XP to run on. XP is more demanding of resources but it gives better performance than all previous operating systems. My Partitions are all FAT 32 but it looks like I'll be converting to NTFS.
There are certain steps you can take to increase performance. Obviously the first step is to give cubase it's own partition and OS. Secondly you can run windows in 16-bit colour. For anyone with 512mb RAM then you can turn off the swap file altogether (you can do this from SYSTEM properties or get yourself a copy of Tweak-XP). Steinberg recommend setting performance/processor scheduling to Background tasks (XP) but I'm not sure if this really does improve things (I'll be testing this later).
Since my Cubase SX has it's own installation of XP then it doesn't need internet access. This means I don't have to install Firewall/Virus killers on that partition which further increases performance. You can also turn off visual effects if you really want to maximise speed.
Defrag is important for FAT-32.
Regarding your new system. It's worth paying a little extra and going for Intel rather than AMD. AMD are good for games and useless at multitasking (any program running within windows constitutes multitasking:-)
Feathers
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One of the keys went dead on my old GEM-S3 Turbo workstation.
I opened up the machine and underneath the keys there are diodes on a circuit board. These diodes are usually very small glass/clear cased cylinders soldered to the circuit port. They are used by the keyboard scanning circuit and it could be one of these that needs replacing. On my GEM it was a very simple matter to find the diode since it was directly inline with the key position. A diode is a very inexpensive component. Perhaps you can find someone with knowledge of electronics?
It could of course be a switch/contact problem as Portamento said. WD40 is good for cleaning/lubricating electrical contacts. I even spray it on the gold edge connectors of my PC parts (it reduces wear and tear and cleans the surface as well).
Feathers.
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The US Military have invested great sums of money into mind control using various forms of radiated energy. A device has already been patented that can read brainwaves and decode thoughts by firing two microwave beams through a persons brain. The designers also suggest it can be used to 'alter' a persons thoughts or put images into their heads as well.
It seems odd that these people spend billions of $ developing weapons to control other people and yet they are unable to control themselves.
:-)
Feathers.
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Checkout the Novation K-Station. It's a very reasonably priced synth and it has great sounds. It has a vocoder and audio input as oscillator which means you can create some very unique and interesting effects. You could for example feed the output from a sampler or other synth to the audio in.
The ultimate synth in my books, is the Novation Supernova 2. It has a 40 band vocoder and extremely powerful synthesiser.
If I had to choose between K-Station, Korg MS 2000 or Microkorg, I'd go for K-Station (it has more voices as well!). Novation have a new synth out now so you can check that out as well.
:-)
Feathers.
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Hi,
Why don't you use soundforge or Wavelab to tell you the pitch of a tone? They both have excellent spectrum and wave plotting functions and will give you a very precise readout of frequency and note value for a given sample.
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Hallo,
Next to each instrument there's a little green light that tells you if that instrument is selected. If the lights on then you will record on that track.
Fruity should record a set number of beats/bars and then keep looping. Which version are you using?
Feathers
Replace my Audiophile - with..?
in Music Making and Production/Industry
Posted
Why don't you invest in Cubase SX? It's much better but maybe it's more expensive? (I don't know how much Sonar costs). I've tried pretty much all of the sequencers out there.
DMX-6 is good. It's not too expensive either.
Feathers.