Jerry Gerber

I'm going to wind up my contribution to this discussion now, but if you read my first post I stressed the importance of diet and health. Also, in the 5 factors I stated are important I guess it wasn't clear that education is a part of one's social development. In any event, your argument seems to give scant recognition and little importance to human volition, which says to me you do believe in (if grudgingly) limited free will, even though you assert you don't believe in it... Nice chatting with you! Best, Jerry www.jerrygerber.com

Here are the factors that can determine the trajectory of a person's life: 1. Genetics (nature) 2. Parenting skills or the lack thereof (nurture) 3. Social/economic/political conditions under which that person was born 4. Luck, both good and bad 5. Decisions and choices made by the individual Out of these, the only one a person has some degree of control over is #5. There's long been the debate regarding the influence of nature vs. nurture. I think this debate leaves out a crucial third component, and perhaps the most mysterious of all: Personality. By "personality" I am not referring to the outer garments, the mannerisms, our likes and dislikes, the face we portray to the world. Instead I mean personality in the most profound sense, the fact that each of us is a unique individual, unduplicatable throughout the cosmos. Personality includes values, relationships, aspirations and goals that a person aspires to, it is influenced by nature/nurture, very much so, yet at the same time the uniqueness of personality cannot be dismissed or ignored. The subjective experience of personhood is as real as is gravity, water and stars. And since everyone of us is interconnected, we all have the same ultimate origin, whatever that may be, the sense of "I" cannot be complete without a sense of "us" and "we". Society breeds into us a sense of "they", and some classes add to that a sense of unearned and delusional superiority, for which there is no evidence to back it up. Everything in this world is a means to an end, excepting relationships. True relationship is an end in itself. When the majority of the people in this world get that, and live by that, the world will evolve in ways we cannot even imagine. Or, conversely, we either blow ourselves up or heat ourselves up to oblivion. Nature doesn't care. Caring is a human attribute. If we stop caring, and our institutions continue to reflect that lack of caring, we're doomed. but if we awaken to our true condition and potential, there's definitely reason for hope...

Well, I guess you slid right back into your ideology, I actually believed, and wanted to believe, that you were capable and willing to recognize the small, delicate, important and critical part of a human being: volition. What you're saying about political and economic injustice, racism, institutional failures, class bigotry and bad environments are all true. But you then go a step further, which in my opinion is where your extremism is, and declare that people have no free will, no volition, no capacity to overcome their misfortune. I'd go back and read Maslow again, he spoke of the hierarchy of needs, and that the need to self-actualize is as real as the need to eat and sleep. Many people who've achieved something of value in their lives had crappy childhoods, many wealthy people came from poor beginnings. The eradication of poverty is a social problem and our institutions are failing us in nearly every way on that score. But to then leap to the conclusion that people cannot, do not and will not act from their own volition is absurd. Let's do an experiment today: Notice how many decisions you make; whether they are little, medium or big decisions. Observe which decisions further your sense of well-being, and which decisions do not. Observe when temptations to speak or act in a way that will increase suffering arise and how you handle them. Observe how tensions in your body affect your thinking. Try to be aware of your emotions without over-identifying with or exaggerating them. If you are willing to do these little exercises, you may begin to notice there's a power in you to shape your existence. You can't control most of what happens in life, nobody can. But the tiny bit that is under your control is the most vital and important part of your life. This is why we are not merely animals, reacting to life as instincts demand. We have choice. It is the very thing that distinguishes us from other animals. I've long believed that cynicism about how bad human beings are, or pollyana positivity about how good we are, are not helpful at all. There 's a quote, I paraphrase it here: Your thoughts create decisions, your decisions create actions, your actions create habits, your habits create character, your character creates destiny. It's not about reward and punishment, it's about cause and effect. Cause and effect are as true in the inner world of the psyche, the emotions, the intentions, as they are in the physical world.

Yep!

I'm pretty sure that if I close the file first and wait a few seconds and then close Sonar, the problem seems to not be happening...

"Some free will" isn't free will. Ah, so you're an absolutist, one either has free will or one does not. Can you give examples to back up your assertion? So far you've mentioned narcissists, psychopaths and mentally ill people, but perhaps you haven't noticed, or cared to notice, all of the countless high-functioning, creative, healthy people that are actually contributing something of value to humanity. You twisted my words into something I didn't say and didn't imply. Your cynicism may serve you when it comes to protecting your sense of vulnerability but as contribution to a discussion it is a complete dead-end. Your opinion of humanity is so low probably because your opinion of yourself is also low. There are many outstanding people in this world, people who achieve some level of happiness, success and service to others, contributions to our world that are desperately needed. It's amazing that you interpret my understanding of free will exactly as the opposite of what i am saying. "Religion is just "old government" run pretty much the same as new secular government, a bunch of narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths who just want power over others and claim they represent an even higher power." Such sweeping over-generalizations are meaningless. Sounds like your parroting the same stale ideas without differentiating the subtleties and variances that exist not only between religions, but within religions. Humans cannot surpass their ego anymore than they can pull their brains out of their head and continue to walk around. Actually people can, but they first must have an ego to surpass in the first place. I see selflessness in others and I see people transcending the tendency towards self-centeredness all the time.

You're confusing the laws of the physical world with the inner laws of consciousness that govern human evolution on a mental, spiritual and emotional level. You're right in your example that as so long as we are on earth we are subject to accidents and the actions of others that we have no control over. But that is not the level that I am discussing. I am talking about inner development--the psychological, moral, intellectual and spiritual levels of life that not only do we have some control over, but it's what allows humans to transcend, at least partly, the physical and material aspects of life. For example, take attitude. Have you ever noticed that what happens to us is of less consequence than what we learn from it, and how that experience shapes future decisions and future attitudes? If a man or woman lives totally, in their mind, in the physical world, then they of course have no free will at all--everything they do or say is governed by genes, hormones, impulses, social regulations and mores, other people's approval or disapproval. The source of all real science, art, philosophy, and religion is the part of us that is governed by higher functions such as creativity, the capacity to love and be loved, to care for others, to sacrifice one's ego and selfishness for something bigger than the self. I don't think you actually believe that you personally have no free will, when in fact you do have some free will (whether you take responsibility for it is another matter). Perhaps you're stuck in attitudes that you know don't work very well for you but you won't let them go because you are afraid. I've never met you so I really cannot say. I hope one day you actually do realize you have some say in life and that you exercise your free will. Otherwise you might as well have been born a bear or a leopard or a salamander. You're human, so get used to the fact that there are unresolvable contradictions and paradoxes in every human being. Light and darkness, to varying degrees exists in everyone. Maturity is about integrating and coming to conscious terms with what and who you are. Good luck!

Yes, of course we have free will. But more accurately, we actually have limited free will. Within certain laws and constraints I can make decisions and choices and carry out those decisions and choices in action. There is no predetermined destiny, your destiny is in your own hands, you make or destroy your life through your choices, decisions and values. But many think they are using their "free will", when actually they are not. In many people free will is more potential than actualized. For example, a person addicted to cigarettes might believe he or she is "choosing" to reach for a cigarette. But this so-called choice is so strongly influenced by habit, the addictive properties of nicotine, anxiety and other emotions, often unconscious, so that what we might think is free will is actually compulsion, a kind of inner psychological slavery. In order to really exercise free will one also needs "free won't"--in other words discipline, self-restraint and self-control. To develop real will takes a lot of work on the the self. It take takes emotional clarity, ever-increasing sincerity with one's self, good habits, including diet, exercise and mental habits. It also takes integrity, choosing not to violate your deepest values and working to overcome the all-too-human propensities toward secrecy, hypocrisy and insincerity. Then the possibility of real will becomes available. There is no teacher like your own life experience. If you really humble yourself and devote yourself to learning truth through your own experience, you will discover more of what is called free-will, and it may produce subtle, positive changes in your personality. In other words you become a better version of who you are as a unique person. Jerry

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking too. There's a very specific condition that causes the program to get stuck in memory, and about 85% of the time it doesn't get stuck. If I can find what that condition is, I can find the workaround.. Thanks, Jerry

That's correct. Calling up the right-click context menu for editing in the notation editor in Sonar is a one-step affair. In Cakewalk Bandlab, one has to either click CTRL and right-click first, or, even slower, change tools. This might sound like a small thing, but over time these extra clicks really add up, particularly when writing symphonic music with 40 MIDI tracks, dense counterpoint and huge amounts of midi programming. I am still wondering why and how Bandlab is giving Cakewalk away for free. To my mind, after using Digital Performer for a year and a half, and experimenting with Cubase, Reaper and Pro Tools, Sonar Platinum, and now Cakewalk by Bandlab is the best DAW ever produced. It's the most beautiful ergonomically, it makes so many operations simplified so I can focus on music composition and, after using DPs notation editor, I realize that Sonar's notation is actually better in several ways (even DP's editor doesn't display either dotted or tied triplets correctly, I forgot which). But I am still wondering how a $500 DAW is being given away for free. Bandlab must have a business model that I don't know about! Thanks, Jerry www.jerrygerber.com

No, have never used it. Most of the sounds in Omnisphere are are too orchestrated and thick for my purposes, they don't give me a lot of sonic room to work with, at least that was my impression..

I have no idea what "the wrench", "river of plasma" or "oozing about the spire" are. Are they bands?

This piece appears on this album Enjoy! Play

Sure, when Bandlab repairs the notation editor so that right-clicking calls up the context menu, without having to press CTRL, I'll download it and use it. Until then, the little time I lose when Sonar OCCASIONALLY requires a reboot is substantially less than the time having to relearn and use an extra keystroke to do what now takes just a right-click of the mouse.

Are you entering notes in the staff view or the PRV? If you are entering in the staff view make sure the staff is not too small, that can make it more difficult to get a note placed accurately. I've never used PRV so can't help there.. Jerry

Yeah, everything is up to date and nothing non essential in startup. One thing I notice is that most of the time, Sonar closes properly. When it doesn't, I'm suspecting it has to do with certain window and/or screensets being open at the time I close the program.

This is puzzling, Here's what I have tried when, on occasion, Sonar gets stuck in memory: 1. Use the Task Manager to end the task, including on the details tab. 2. Ending the tasks for the audio drivers (in my case MOTU). 3. Opening Windows PowerShell and using taskkill /IM SONARPLT.exe /f to kill the task. 4. Turning off the audio interface (MOTU 1248). 5. Signing out of Windows and signing back in (curiously, this removes Sonar from the task manager list but does not resolve the problem of shutting down the computer What happens is when I try and restart or shut down the computer, it simply doesn't shut down or restart. The only solution is to do a hard reset on the actual computer case, a soft reset on Windows 10 won't shut it down or restart it. Once I do a hard reset the OS boots normally, Sonar is no longer in memory and I can work again. Any other ideas that might resolve this? Thank you and much appreciated! Jerry

Thanks, I'll try that if it happens again. Reinstalling Sonar seems to have done the trick, but we'll see...

Yeah, I've tried that (shutting it down from the Details Tab of the Task Manager.) That's where I get the message "access denied". I did reinstall Sonar and that seems to have fixed the issue.

Hi msmcleod, Native Instruments Kontakt is the only plugin that's being used in the current piece I'm working on and its' definitely 64-bit. I try to avoid all 32- bit plugins, I don't even have any installed... The Task Manager is reporting that Sonar is the program that is stuck in memory, I don't see any reference to Kontakt or any other plugins in the Task Manager, but maybe that's normal... Thanks, Jerry

Every once in a while Sonar gets stuck in memory and using the task manager to end the task doesn't work. I tried opening the command prompt and typing: taskkill /IM Sonarplt.exe /f /t But I get the message that this program is not in memory (even though it is). When I go to task manager-details, it shows that Sonar is still in memory and when I click on it to end task, I get a message saying "access denied". When I try shutting down the computer it won't shut down until I do a hard reset. Then, everything is OK. Anybody know what's going on and how I can fix this? Thanks! Jerry

Thanks people for the comments, glad you liked the composition and the virtual orchestration! Jerry

Thanks Skook! Jerry

Hi Canopus, I did that, I have the theme editor opened, I went to Control Bar-Modules-tools and I see both the tools as they are and the original tools, but what do I do next? How do I substitute the originals for the newer ones? Do I copy and paste? Drag them? I cannot seem to do either... Thank you! Jerry