Johnbee58

Last year I bought a new PC for my music. The main reason I chose this was the solid state hard drive because of the faster loading speeds. My projects do load much faster than with the old HDD, but my big concern is something I didn't know about until after I ordered it and that is the fact that SSDs have a limited amount of write cycles where disc drives are indefinite. In my research I found that there are ways to find out your current write cycles and how many you have left but in the process of creating a song I do a lot of deleting and re writing audio because I always convert MIDI to audio before mixing, but I do keep MIDI data just in case I want to change something later. My drive is 1 terabyte total and in a recent check I found I was almost half way through the capacity and my tech say you can't add a slave drive to it and SSDs are still pricey so I looked through my files and found that I could re claim about 20 gigs by deleting all of the install files I had. I backed them up on a fairly large external drive (just to play it safe) and re claimed that space but I'm wondering if files like install and configuration files constitute write cycles when you download them from the vendors onto your drive. Thanks John B

I'm in the process of re organizing my Plugins and I came upon one called Pentagon I. It doesn't work. It says it may not be installed properly. I've never used it so it doesn't matter much and it's not in the menu where I would move it from. Should I just delete it? Is it a relic from the past that is obsolute? Thanks 🙂John B

Nice 60s vibe. Very Jagger/Stones-ish. 🙂John B

@noynekkerThanks, noy! 😃 Most of that vocal was recorded wayyyy early in the morning. My studio is situated to allow me to record at all hours without disturbing anybody else's sleep in the house. Most of it was recorded between 6 & 7 AM. The pollen around here has been disturbing my vocal cords of late. That's audible here, but I didn't want to have to wait until the Fall to lay this down. I like your suggestion on the synth bass between the verses. Something I'll consider playing around with. Thanks. The protagonist is wondering if spending the rest of his days in jail would be worse than hanging and "just getting it over with". Thanks again! 😃John B

Thanks for listening and you kind comment @AndyB01. And I hope you're right about EZK2. That would be nice. 😀John B

Love the song. I'd bring the horns in the chorus down just a bit. I like the arrangement but they're a bit overpowering in the mix. 😃John B

Man, this is NICE! The strings and lyrics almost had me in tears. You really know how to write a tear jerker. One small suggestion. Do some automation on your vocal track (lead) and ride the fader on some of the words. A few tend to get lost in the orchestration. 😃John B

@KSband & @STEVE POOLE Thanks guys! Yes EZ Keys is a terrific program and very fun just to play around with. I highly recommend it. The only problem I have with it is it's over 10 years old and is still on version 1. 😠 😀John B

I have it and I've been using it for about 3 years now. I don't use the Artist section or any of the default songs as I prefer to build my own chords, so I really don't hang around too much in those areas. I use the Scales tab and build from there. But if there's anything specific you need help with I'll try my best. 🙂John B

Produced in CbB but added a few new instruments from the Reason Rack, primarily the first sound you hear which is called "Struck Grand Piano" from the Pangia World Instruments module. My attempt at a story. Inspired by Christopher Cross (Ride Like the Wind) and Steely Dan (Don't Take Me Alive). https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=14451566 🙂John B

Enjoying the drums especially. Totally different kind of beat. But the entire song and production are top drawer. 😃John B.

Watching this is like taking a mini vacation. 🙂John B

Great playing and great production and arrangement. Also very relaxing. 😃John B

Never mind. It's not CbB. More that for some reason I was hitting the accents a bit too hard. 🙂JB

How are slide up/down done in SI bass? Must the pitch bend be used or is there a keyswitch or a MIDI control command? Thank you very much. 😃John B

Hi; I'm having a problem with my Trilian bass module when I transfer my MIDI bass track to audio. In a certain part where I'm playing a jazz part where I have 16th notes in accents and slides it sounds fine in the MIDI editor in CbB but when I transfer it to audio some of the notes in audio sound like they're clipping and produce a squeeking sound instead of audio. I tried reducing the accents BELOW 100 but no joy. I tried raising my buffer to the highest setting before transferring. Nothing seems to work. Is there a setting in Cakewalk I can use? I've done this type of thing hundreds of times with no trouble. Is this something I can address in CbB or should I consult Spectrasonics? Thanks. 😃John B

I enjoyed this. Melody straight from Scripture. 😀 🙂John B

This is nice. Great work with acoustic and electric guitars. 😀John B

It sounds like a great base or background for something to develop further. I would add more "instruments" to it in a lead line that stands out in front. Also, expand your beat to more sounds than just the "kick drum" and "Hi Hat". I favor real drum sounds over the electronic "beeps and blips" of electronic kits but even those sounds can be effective when used well. In a nutshell, I'd advise you to get more sounds into it. Develop a lead line. Great start though. Use your imagination and you'll do fine. 😀John B

Wayyyy Cool!! I'm not big on Metal either but this could make me like it a bit more. The effect on the vocal is ear catching, like a buzz saw. 😀John B

Interesting. How did you do the low vocal effect @1:17-1:34? Also, welcome! 😀John B

Relaxing. When I close my eyes I can see a very pretty countryside somewhere in my mind. 😀John B

Kinda like Steely Dan meets Bowie. Cool. I especially like some of the chord changes. 🙂John B

@BapuThank you very much, sir. Means a lot! @Bajan BlueThanks so much, Nigel! @DeeringAmpsThanks Tom! 😀John B

Thanks for listening, Doug 😀. 😀John B