Amberwolf

Pshaw....bites are nothing compared to the way people with computer problems treat the tech trying to help them.

But they've already named all the streets, so I'd guess you're out of luck.

Yes, and even worse are people with computers that have problems (usually caused by them), when you're the tech that has to fix them. That's why I went to work at a pet supplies store after CompUSA went out of business a couple decades ago instead of running a techshop somewhere else. Pets and people with pets are MUCH MUCH nicer, even when there are problems, than computers and people with computers (even when there aren't any problems).

Things that delay some systemwide process or something that's in a high priority or realtime process could cause an apparent temporary system freeze or pause, until the process finishes or releases. I had this with one of the external video "displaylink" boxes for a while, regardless of which driver was used...but the same drivers on a different displaylink box worked fine. It would be a randomly timed thing, and it would usually just hang for a second or two, just long enough to be nearly sure that the system had frozen, then it would come back. Really annoying. I forget which diagnostic I used, probably ProcMon, to eventually find the culprit, and that's when I tried a different DL box i already had, and fixed the issue. Same cables, so it was something in the box (but could have been a connector). On my present laptop i had something that would pause like this, and sometimes actually BSOD, but nothing ever told me exactly what it was; the crash dumps (when they happened at all) were incomplete. My only clue was that almost everytime there was an audio buffer repeat d-d-d-d-d- you know the sound, immediately before the pause or crash. Eventually I fixed it by uninstalling and cleaning out all traces of the realtek audio drivers for the built in hardware. Something is probably just wrong with that hardware somewhere, as it didn't matter what version of driver was used for it.

The KSHMR Wild Ride contest ends submissions today, so I posted up my version: https://www.labelradar.com/artists/Amberwolf/profile?track=394d9ad7-2796-4226-b3ab-690febbcfa0d I don't think they have a voting system but they do have a "like" button... They have VERY limited set of "genres" to pick from, so I'm sure it's the wrong one for what it is, but I couldn't find a better one than "electronic - indie dance". They don't have "soundtrack" or "soundscape" or anything remotely like that.

The KSHMR Wild Ride contest ends submissions today, so I posted up my version: https://www.labelradar.com/artists/Amberwolf/profile?track=394d9ad7-2796-4226-b3ab-690febbcfa0d I don't think they have a voting systme but they do have a "like" button... They have VERY limited set of "genres" to pick from, so I'm sure it's the wrong one for what it is, but I couldn't find a better one than "electronic - indie dance". They don't have "soundtrack" or "soundscape" or anything remotely like that.

Are you using Splat (sonar platinum) or are you using the new sonar premium? Don't know if it makes a difference, but...

There are some that are both: https://www.ebay.com/itm/387830215415 or this one that's much older and not actually midi...i have one around here somewhere, AT-style keyboard plug (looks like midi but isn't), flip it over for whichever side you want to use. https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72413.0

You're probably thinking of Bars & Pipes Professional by Blue Ribbon Software on the Amiga... They were working on a Windows version (for win3.1 IIRC) when Microsoft bought them out; nothing ever came of the software except that the first (maybe first few) DirectX SDKs included some version of it for devs to implement things with (but I didn't find out about that till much later, after I was using Cakewalk 3 for windows, or I would've found a way to get that SDK just to use the B&P) I don't know CB's full history, but I thought they were concurrent with B&P's time, but CB was on the AtariST?

Updated Don't Know Why You Stay with extensive backing vocalizations. I have to fix these up the same as I would the lyrical vocals, so it's time consuming (I first have to find the right ones, then make them fit the rest of the track). 08-30-25: 082525 000001 100070m https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/dont-know-why-you-stay

I never knew who this song was by but I have always liked the feel and sound...I think I am going to try my hand at it. Unlike the KSHMR wild ride track, though, I have no idea where to go with it yet. That one I immediately heard a soundtrack as soon as I heard the vocals...

My first remix contest submission, for W.A.Productions' Larry Ohh remix contest here: Feel free to vote for me. https://www.waproduction.com/contests/larry-ohh-remix-contest/amberwolf-this-life-w-a-production-larry-ohh-remix-contest I have another one being worked on for this contest https://www.labelradar.com/contests/KSHMRremixchallenge/portal but it can't be posted outside the contest, so until I've finished and submitted it I can't post a link to it here.

Updated Don't Know Why You Stay with some of the backing vocalizations. I have to fix these up the same as I would teh lyrical vocals, so it's time consuming (I first have to find the right ones, then make them fit the rest of the track). 08-30-25: 082525 000001 000063k https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/dont-know-why-you-stay

It only records what is sent. So if the CC your Q49 sends is recorded at a specific value, that's what the Q49 sent over MIDI to be recorded. Why it would send a value it doesn't respond to is unknown, but there is probably a setting within the Q49 to change what it sends or what it responds to, or both. If for any reason you can't, you can use TenCrazy's MIDI Fx to translate what was recorded into what's needed. Sustainfix might do it, but if not maybe CCmap would (can't remmeber if it remaps values within a CC or just which CC goes to which other CC).

Is the sustain actually recorded in the MIDI track? It's usually controller 64 if you look in the event list, or the CC pane in PRV. Also, there is the option to disable recording controllers in the MIDI section of the global / main settings. If this is done, live controllers work but they're not recorded into a track. There may also be a setting in the Alesis itself for how it responds to external controller data. (haven't used the Q49, just the ancient MIDIverb3).

BTW, if your freeze method leaves the track fx bin fx still live, rather htan baked into the audio, then *those* will still cause variations in every pass, but it probably won't be as extreme as the way a synth self-modulates with LFOs and the like. Depends on the specific fx; some are designd to be random, and those will probably have mroe variation than those that are not.

I would always change the way this is said to "SaveAs early, SaveAs Often, and don't forget to SaveAs, and Never Save." (because the Save function overwrites a file that you already "know" saved, and if something goes wrong during this process, you lose both old and new. SaveAs does not overwrite anything (assuming no OS or hardware failures ).

With any synth that does any form of realtime generation of it's waveforms that are self-modulated (LFOs, arps, etc), or has any form of effects internal to it that are self-modulated (LFOs, etc) within the synth, the output will be different every single pass, and so the volume at any instant will be different. The exception to that is if it has a true sync of all of those generative things to the host clock, *and* that all those syncs are all turned on. Many don't have them turned on by default because the sound may be more interesting when they can self-modulate against each other in what might seem a random way...which won't happen if the sync is on. So, if you don't want the volumes / sound to change, you will need to freeze the synth, so that the output is now a wave file and will not change. If you still need to edit parts, then you can do what I usually do--freeze the synth once I have the basic idea down, then clone that entire audio track to a new track (fx, properties, automation, clips, events, routing, sends, etc all get copied). Then unfreeze the synth, and mute all the midi clips that drive it that you have now got in the new track as audio. When you find you need a part to change, mute those portions of the clips created in that audio track (the copy of the frozen audio), and do what you need to in the MIDI track that drives the synth. I sometimes also do this for stuff where I need multiple different sounds with similar or the same MIDI driving it, from the same synth, rather than have multiple instances of it, especially in an already-cpu-heavy project. I'll freeze the synth, clone the audio track, unfreeze, change the patch in the synth, do whatever to the MIDI, freeze that, clone it, unfreeze, rinse and repeat. An in-progress example of that is Don't Know Why You Stay https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/dont-know-why-you-stay where all the rhythm synths are Z3TA+2, four different patches, mostly the same MIDI but the patches respond differently to it in some cases, some of them were edited, some parts muted, trimmed, etc., so different patches play at different times, or at different levels, octaves, etc. The bassline is one Z3TA+2 patch for the "thunk" part and one TAL Bassline patch for the deep smooth part. (The primary "Juno" lead was a rendered waveform from something else, so was the guitar-ish distortion synth).

Do you mean that you get a different output level on different passes of the track at the same point in the track? That would be strange, unless you have a plugin in the bin or on a clip's bin, that does modulation that isn't synced with the host or has some random character to it (which would mean a different output every time, and could be different levels by some amount depending on what the fx does). Or, do you mean that if you do the exact same automation for the exact same prefader audio level at some point in a track, you get a different output level at each of the two points? But each point always remains the same output on each pass of playback? Or do you mean something else? More detail / specifics is better.

My version of that I've used for as long as I can remember is "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is."

I used to dream of getting one of those....far out of my budget (I'd already blown all my credit and savings on the ASR88, the one new synth I ever bought)

What do you see, exactly, when it does not work as expected? More detail is better, to see if we can figure out what's going on.

Thanks! I have to build the vocals out of existing phrases, words, etc. that I have in various sound bundles, so it is going to take quite a while to do. It's likely that I'll end up using some from a couple of Black Octopus bundles, possibly Ghosthack, as these have enough words in them in different phrases and styles that I might be able to find enough pieces to cut up into the stuff I want. A bit like I did the spoken word stuff in The Beaten Dog, but much more complex because I ahve to fit the timing of the vocals to the existing music (instead of building both aroudn each other), and I have to cut up and pitch shift each syllable, etc, too. (and can only do that a couple of semitones and keep it reasonably realistic, so...). (even if i could sing usefully, I can't do it fast enough and just speeding up my voice won't get the right result, so since i will have to do all that work anyway, I might as well do it on vocals that already sound good. :lol: )

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're doing vs what you're seeing. So I will just explain my understanding of the control I think you're using, and see if this matches your expectations of it: You can set a track volume with automation, but this doesn't change the audio itself *to* that volume, it just moves the volume fader to that position, essentially either subtracting that many dB (-values of automation) or adding that many dB (+values). So just like having a track volume at 0dB doesn't mean your audio will be output at 0dB, setting the volume to say, -3dB doesnt' make it -3dB, it just reduces whatever volume the audio actually is at by -3dB. If your audio is peaking up at +4.3dB at that point, it will now peak at +1.3dB if the volume is set to -3dB, because it reduced it by that much. Does that help, or am I misunderstanding what you're doing and seeing?

Updated, lengthened, improved and filled out Don't Know Why You Stay https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/dont-know-why-you-stay Original version still here https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=15091036