bitflipper

Well, I understand Yakety Sax is now a hit again, being the new unofficial theme song of the British Parliament. First debuted by Mr. Johnson, it then became the soundtrack of every sidewalk announcement by whatever politician was resigning that week. P.S. Before anybody starts whining that this is a political post, it's not. Watch this clip at 1.5x speed and see if it doesn't bring back fond memories of Benny Hill.

This little unassuming plugin gets used here on nearly every stereo track that isn't panned center, or that moves around via automation. I wouldn't pay $49 for it, but $19 is about right, I think.

Somebody must have had their heart broken by a brown-eyed girl. Can't imagine any other reason anyone would hate that song. Except, I suppose, that it's often badly butchered.

Didn't know about that one. The one I was thinking of is this one. :

I had a Juno-106 back in the day. I just used it as a string synthesizer, slaved via MIDI to my main instrument, a Jupiter-6. The two were a good pairing, as both used the same sound generators. The Juno, though, had a vastly simpler UI that you could learn in minutes. Plus it was smaller and lighter. When I sold the Jupiter, I threw in the Juno, a Yamaha TG-33 and a Roland drum machine to sweeten the deal, just because I thought I was "done" with music and wanted everything gone before it lost all of its value. Synths had no place in my world, a world of suits and ties and 12-hour workdays and Serious Business. Nowadays, I hate people like that. Aside from its brilliant simplicity, the Juno just had just one feature that made it likeable, a pleasant chorus effect that made even the most basic patches sound good. Today, you can get that chorus effect as a free plugin.

Hey, that's pretty cool. I didn't know that was in there. One of many optional columns I've never used. Should note that no applications that have a user interface can actually be oblivious to screen resolution. Every application I've ever written queries Windows for the current screen resolution and DPI, then creates the UI accordingly. Knowing this, the application is then able to avoid, say, rendering a button that the user can't see. Or to center a dialog, or create a toolbar. But as far as Microsoft is concerned, such applications are "unaware". What they actually mean is that the application doesn't check again after it's started up. A "DPI Aware" program is always checking screen resolution, in case it changes. You can imagine the impact that could have on a program like Cakewalk that needs to be heavily optimized. Imagine if it had to check screen resolution every time it scrolled the track view during playback. I think it's a reasonable assumption that display parameters won't change while Cakewalk is running. The mystery is what kind of magic Ableton is performing to suppress scaling.

Such a down-to-earth guy. And for a guitarist, very attuned to things like instrument balance and separation. He approaches a live mix like he's in the studio. Great quote I'll no doubt use: "you always have that 6th gear but you don't live there" (talking about playing quieter to combat overly-reverberant rooms).

ASIO, by design (for low latency), does not support multiple concurrent applications. People have created wrappers that can do it, and apparently some interface manufacturers have included them. Most don't. You could try something like Blue Cat's Connector, which purportedly makes ASIO multi-client. It's $49 but you can demo it to see if it solves your problem. A much easier solution would be to simply switch to WASAPI shared mode. There could be a slight latency hit, but you probably won't even notice it. [EDIT] Just found out that Steinberg itself has made a multi-client wrapper. I know nothing else about it, but I think it's a free download. Here's a link (ftp server).

Cakewalk is DPI-aware, afaik. At least It has always seamlessly adapted to whatever display I'm using, and there've been a few over the past 36 years. Adapting to different monitors implies that the application "knows" the current resolution (as informed by Windows), which is all DPI awareness means. Yes, there is a more advanced mode that lets programs adapt on the fly to changing resolutions. But that only comes into play when, say, you drag the track view to another monitor that's at a different resolution than your main display. If Cakewalk is distorted or blurry, it isn't because it doesn't know the DPI. In fact the monitor is probably at its default setting of (probably) 96 dpi. The distortions are caused by the monitor attempting to fake a lower resolution. I always use a display's native resolution, because that's always going to yield the best results. At one point I had a 20" monitor that was too high-res for its size, making the text difficult to read. That issue went away when I replaced it with a pair of 24" displays. Nowadays I use a pair of 34" widescreen displays, which work much better with my old eyes. Both are running at the same resolution. As for what the "best" monitor size is, I'd say the biggest one that will fit between your speakers without impinging on line of sight to them. For me that worked out to 34", which was as large as I could go and still have an equilateral triangle between ears and speakers without the display occluding them. My two displays are not side-by-side, obviously, but stacked. I actually prefer that setup because it's not as far when I drag something to the other display.

Good on ya, Frank. Too often an interesting problem is posted but then never subsequently updated, depriving us all of the opportunity to learn something. Once you've figured it out - and you will - be sure to also edit your initial post to preface the thread title with "[RESOLVED]".

I'm surprised no one has yet thought to include a Zombies track in a zombie movie or TV series. It would be such a great gag, having the hero frantically running from a zombie horde accompanied by "Tell Her No". No, no, no, don't hurt me now...

AFAIK, audio interfaces don't tell the driver what buffer sizes to use. That has to come from an application, or from Windows itself (which I think only initializes settings on bootup). So Blindeddie is on the right track, I think. Something's overriding the instructions that Cakewalk sent to the driver when you first opened the project. You didn't specify which driver you're using, so I'll assume it's ASIO. If that's the case, give WASAPI a try. WASAPI supports multiple audio streams, each with its own sample rate. I'm just spitballing here, but it seems that if each data stream can have its own sample rate and wordlength, that implies that each one has its own buffers , making it immune to having two applications fight over buffer settings. If you are already using WASAPI, try switching to ASIO, which normally can only be used by one application at a time. I would think that would preclude interference from other processes. [EDIT] I checked out the WASAPI documentation to be sure I wasn't blowin' smoke. WASAPI does indeed support multiple independent audio streams, each with their own buffers. But that only applies to shared mode. In exclusive mode, WASAPI works more like ASIO, in that only one application at a time can have control over the driver. Exclusive mode is also more efficient, obviously, since it doesn't have to juggle multiple data streams. I use WASAPI here, and I have no problem running other programs while Cakewalk is open, e.g. watching a YouTube video. ASIO and WASAPI can be used at the same time, as they are separate worlds. You should be able to use ASIO for Cakewalk and WASAPI for Windows, and there won't be a conflict.

yeh, I've always liked that version, too. I very much liked that version of Carlos Santana, too - back before he started phoning in his performances. But it was the Zombies' vocal harmonies that drew me in initially. Imagine how awesome Santana's cover could have been if they'd had more than one vocalist. Earlier I described the guitarist, bassist and drummer as "hired guns", but here's a video from 2013 that shows nearly the same lineup I saw last night, with only the bass player changed. So those guys have been zombies for quite a while. Rod still plays the same keyboards. Main difference is all of them are considerably greyer now. So am I.

Yesterday afternoon my bass player called me up and said he had an extra ticket to a concert and did I want to go. I said "sure", even before I knew who the act was. It was at a favorite local venue, a 121-year-old 600-seat theater that's run mostly by community volunteers. I'd played there a couple times and knew that it was a good room, acoustically-speaking. Then he told me it was The Zombies. Right, I thought. Aren't those guys like 80 years old? And I was under the impression that the band's principle creative force, Rod Argent, had retired. But OK, I'd be up even for just a decent tribute band. On the way to the theater, I told my friend the story of the fake Zombies back in the day. It's a great story, google it. It's part of ZZ Top's origin story. Short version: two fake Zombies bands toured the US to exploit the real band's hits. The real Zombies had never toured America, having broken up before they had those hits, so nobody knew what they looked like. The promoter was such a hack that he didn't even bother having keyboards in the fake Zombies. So I was pleasantly surprised when they came onstage and there's Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone. The other three guys were clearly hired guns, but awesome players, especially the bassist. The five of them kicked *****, with extended jams on Hold Your Head High and She's Not There. It was a great performance, and I had the luxury of enjoying from 4th row center. Sadly, the FOH guy must have been one of those volunteers, because the sound was atrocious. I mean, really, really bad. I'd have given them a piece of my mind, had I actually paid for the ticket. Best part of the show was when Rod told extended anecdotes of their experiences at Abbey Road with Geoff Emerick as their engineer, using the Mellotron that the Beatles had left behind from recording Sgt. Pepper, making friends with a new intern named Alan Parsons.

Warren has definitely drunk some kind of koolaid and gone full shill. At least he doesn't call it "musical" here. Just "amazing" and "fantastic". Not to say this isn't a great EQ, as it appears to be quite capable and full-featured. But an EQ has a straightforward job, and as long as it does that job, which EQ you use almost doesn't matter. Warren knows this.

I thought the piece was pretty good. I'd have liked him to go into more detail and give specific examples, but as I was reading it I had no trouble making my own mental list of products that he could have been talking about. Are we just now entering the age of B.S. processors? Nah, we've been in it from the start. But the bad:great ratio has been getting worse as old ideas keep getting recycled, dressed up but not refined. However, I don't believe every useful plugin has already been invented. I've long felt that audio analysis could be approached the same way as any other practical numerical analyses. iZotope has been edging in that direction in recent years. Fabfilter has quietly built in advanced smart features with hardly anyone noticing. It's an area that still has a long way to go before we can call it fully played out.

You mean those $5,000 speaker cables? Magic Stones? Acoustical light switches? Yeh, those guys are the worst. But then, their audience isn't the technically-minded and the critical thinkers. Mr. Huart, otoh, isn't speaking to gullible rubes. At least, I don't think so. Most of his advice is pretty solid. That's why I hold him to a higher standard. Now, if Dan Worrall ever posts a video titled "world's most musical EQ?" I will have no choice but to give up on humanity altogether.

Ugh. I expect more from Warren. While nothing in that video is a lie, he is clearly struggling to put a spin on it, resorting to literally equating "musical" with "quality". As in "Acustica stuff always sounds super musical; I've never heard anybody complain about the quality of what they do". By that logic, every plugin that does what it's designed to do qualifies as "musical". Voxengo SPAN, the musical spectrum analyzer! MNoiseGenerator, the musical white noise generator. Heck, I've got some speaker stands that are pretty high-quality - but I've never thought of them as "musical".

If I get to a point where I can't take care of myself anymore, I plan to move to the Philippines. There, I can hire a maid, a cook, a driver and a fluffer for less than the cost of an assisted-living facility in the US. Probably even bring in live music once a month. Fresh tropical fruit delivered to the house daily. All while enjoying a culture that actually respects geezers, er, elders.

Yeh, it is possible to do damage with a vacuum. But my CPU's heatsink was so clogged that I had to apply my big shop vac to it. Man, that fan was spinning fast! But dust is a computer killer. Well, not so much dust as heat. Dust doesn't conduct or radiate heat well, so everything runs hotter, not just components with heatsinks. Clogged filters impede airflow. Fans can stop working altogether. This applies to laptops, too, but hardly anybody looks inside there unless there's smoke coming out. But laptops have tiny intake and exhaust ports that take very little to clog, and laptops are more likely to be set somewhere with poor ventilation, such as on a bed. Or even a lap. In my case I think a contributing factor was a GPU upgrade. Fancy video cards are great for games, and it's the main reason people prefer the desktop experience over a low-fps console for gaming. But high-end video adapters generate a lot of heat, as indicated by the 2 or 3 fans built into them. The layout of my motherboard is such that the graphics card sat right below the CPU. That, and a sluggish fan and a dust-filled CPU heatsink probably led to the CPU having a meltdown.

I used to listen to several audio-related podcasts. One day I'm listening to an episode where one speaker is drifting off-mic and barely audible, while another speaker is pegging the meters. Ironically, the topic was compression. Another time the subject was acoustics, but sounded like it was recorded in an empty room with a mic 6 feet away. After awhile I started questioning whether I should be taking audio advice from people who make such awful-sounding podcasts. I switched to political commentary for a few months, but gave that up because my walks are supposed to be relaxing, not for raising my blood pressure. Nowadays I listen to audio books, especially comedy. A favorite that I return to often is George Carlin's Napalm and Silly Putty. Another is the original BBC radio production of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Also any of the old Firesign Theater albums, e.g. Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him. These are like Greatest Hits compilations, in that I can recite them from memory but still enjoy hearing them again. Carlin's mellifluous voice is especially conducive to relaxation and falling asleep.

Not a bad idea. Unfortunately, he'd destroy them in a day, and even the cheapest musical instruments would add up over time. That's why I don't scold him when he drags in a tree branch. Got lots of those. Found items are generally fine by me. I only intercede when he's eating glass or ceramic garden gnomes. Lately it's been roofing tiles. I haven't figured out where he's getting them, but I may have to start locking up the ladders.

I can pull a rock out of his mouth and throw it as far as I can into the blackberry bushes. It might take him an hour, but eventually he will return with the very same rock. Kenny, you're not giving me any hope here. Your Milo is older than my Sirius, and I've been assuming the pup will grow out of his destructive phase. Two weeks ago the band was setting up for a gig when the drummer held up an unrecognizable piece of plastic and cursed. It was a crucial piece of drum hardware that my dog had somehow gotten hold of. After a moment of panic, he found a spare one in his tackle box of odds and ends and a crisis was averted. But he'll probably be packing up most of his kit now instead of leaving it in my garage between rehearsals and gigs. At least he (the dog, not the drummer) seems to have lost his taste for microphone cables. Fortunately the drummer is a dog lover too, living with five of them himself.

This is the first time in my life I've taken a computer to someone for repair. But given that the problem is likely the CPU, I don't want to buy a new MB/CPU just to find out. At the same time, anecdotes abound about inexperienced and/or unscrupulous techs screwing up systems or convincing customers their only option was a new system. So it was with some trepidation that I asked around and found a repair shop. As soon as I walked in, though, my reluctance was assuaged when I saw the place was populated, not with tatooed children named Jason, but with long-haired, bearded geezers. My tribe. In the end I'd arranged a CPU and RAM upgrade and a new case fan, at what seemed a reasonable price. Of course, everything seems like a bargain when you only upgrade every 7 years. But I'm going a little stir-crazy without a DAW. It's like being in a power outage, where you pace the floor trying to think of any activity that doesn't require electricity, and realize you have none. But I do have juice, just no DAW. I'm trying to entertain myself by programming synths. Today I figured out how to use one sustain pedal with two synths, a breakthrough. That epiphany was thanks to a page from the Nord manual, R.I.P.

Our bass player's out of town this weekend, so no gig and no rehearsal. That means a weekend to revive stalled months-old recording projects and maybe start a couple new ones. Which is how I spent Saturday. But you know how it goes, as soon as the stars seem to have aligned for happiness, something's gotta blow up. Yesterday the weather was nice so I sat outside with a coffee and read the user manual for my new synth. The sun was shining and my puppy was quietly - for a change - lying at my feet, as content with the day as I was. But my coffee was getting cold so I went into the garage/office/studio to nuke it in the microwave. When I came out the manual was gone. Took me a while to find it - shredded into a thousand scraps by the pup, who was apparently angry with me for leaving him without permission. I'd been putting off reading that manual. Hopefully, it's available for download. Minor inconvenience, I said. Back to a project I'd composed ages ago but had never started mixing. Have a little cannabis for perspective. It's a warm Saturday night, I've got a buzz on and I think this new piece is gonna be pretty all right. Should try out this new sample library, add some interesting percussion. Life can be good at times, at least briefly. Then my computer froze. A hard hang. The kind of hang where you have to unplug the computer. Then, nothing. Power supply seems OK, measured some voltages to verify, USB ports are powered, keyboard lights up, My fancy video card's cute RGB lights come on. I can hear my conventional drives spinning up. Displays are both working. But all I get is the initial BIOS screen and it's unresponsive. I note that I've been lax with preventative maintenance: the inside of the case is pretty dusty, the CPU heatsink is stuffed with dust bunnies, and one of the case fans is barely moving. At this point it looks like I may have fried the CPU. But without a spare motherboard to test - recently did a thorough housecleaning and tossed all my old computers - I can't be sure. Best to take it in to a repair shop, I guess. But I haven't ever done that before and have no idea who's a reputable fixit guy in the area. Regardless, nothing's open today, being Sunday. Maybe there are other things to do on a pleasant Sunday, or so I've heard. Take my puppy to the beach, perhaps. No, f*ck him. He shredded the manual I wanted to read.