BongStuff

Tell that to the judge Dude I see what you're saying but is using a cracked version of Reason really indicative of a newly arisen lack of ( respect for / support from ) modern society? If so, how did the software ever get made at all? There *was* a market at some point!? BS

Quite interesting but I don't really want to sound like Daft Punk or Air in all my tracks. Pretty scary what it could be in 5 years time though. Add in some algorithmic composition, and you've got auto-generated pop-trash! BS

It's a kind of dancing.

So anyway, back to sequencers...can anyone tell me why Steinberg f****d with interface so much in SL? Was it to become more like Nuendo? Hope not - I wonder the difference in size of userbases CuBase 20 : 1 Nuendo? BS ps. the above word is "farted"

This is a real interesting one. And the issue's never gonna be easily solvable. I can see both sides, although I know where I sit To go forward, my guess from all this is that the software industry will have to adapt to new "selling models" as per the music industry - yeah I'm talking about online downloads. Software on demand! Pay for what you use! That could work. Say 8 hours free. Then a licence - either use-based or outright purchase. No f***ing about with dodgy CDs loaded with virii. BS

Steve - I'd call that "spinning in". A loop is usually something shorter, generally 1 or 2 bars - trigger at the start of every bar or alternate bar. Most typically used for rhythms/grooves. BS

I never use cracked software of any kind. Apart from being ( at best ) a semi pro musician, I'm a programmer by "trade" so for me it's straight theft. A friend of mine, who has never bought any music software in his life, yet has a vast array of Reason2, CuBase SX etc... has the opinion that "as long as I'm not making money from it". I think that sucks ass! Steinberg will ( did :'( ) have a LARGE sector of the hobbyist/semi pro market as part of their turnover. As will most sequencer/VSI/plugin companies. If that drops out then the company cannot survive off "professional" individuals being their only paying customers. These music outfits are not the Microsofts and Oracles of this world! And Dave's point is well stated. These programs are NOT expensive when you consider that they will come v.close to the original sound of the very expensive instrument - *and* it probably took thousands of man hours to develop. I wonder how many of us would be e.g. VST plugin designers and coders if the industry wasn't being killed by piracy and was as active as other "mainstream" software industries? As a manager for a very mainstream ( publishing/finance ) software company right now, I'm hiring for someone with 3 years of commercial experience in Java for 28K (UKP) pa - the point being that it's a pretty well paid field because the software *makes money*. I would bet that most of the skilled and dedicated musical software engineers who are out of work now because of piracy would jump at the chance to make anything like that sort of regular cash - and I'd also bet they'd be better engineers! BS

Well dude if you ask me, I think there's even a strong argument for bringing back SIMPLE midi sequencers - an Atari ST with an old copy of CuBeat ( fnarr fnarr - c'est drole! ) should suffice pretty much any MIDI needs. Fine for songwriting and getting together musical ideas that aren't reliant on huge amounts of technology e.g. melody, structure etc.... BS

WAREZ - cracked software! The artists pages will let you link out to offsite mp3s, but as I understand it, Songstuff itself won't host them. I'm gonna try it by uploading my music to my free ISP webspace, and then having my Artitst page link to there. I've found some old stuff in the crates full of dusty DAT tapes that could be interesting. Some half baked ideas that could be, erm, reheated And maybe some old classics from my gaming days. I still actually get "fan" mail from, well, nutters ( mostly Scandanavians ) asking for copies of old Amiga and Atari tracks that I did 15 years ago. Hey, maybe I could do an album of them, with modern kit?! Problem is, a lot of that music was even pre-MIDI files - the tracks are actually long lists of handwritten bytecodes that sat in memory to be "played" by a music driver. AS for WaveLab and Soundforge - Soundforge is the one I know best, but back in the dark days when I was doing LOADS of editing ( 96/97/98 ), Soundforge didn't do things like batch conversion and MP3 encoding, so I used Wavelab for that. Sheesh - I really am out of date! BS

I grew up with Pro12, Pro24, CuBeat, CuBase, CuBase VST and now CuBase SL. But why the **** did the interface and controls all change so much for the most recent CuBase? I used to be able to play CuBase like an instrument - tappity tap tap and I could create and move things around v.v.fast ( mostly without using the mouse ). But with SL/SX it's all changed and it's put me right off! BS

moving to other thread...

Seriously thinking about it. I've not bought my "new" computer yet, but the prospect of not having to use Windows ( other than at work! ), plus all that power is tempting me. And it's UNIX too! BS

Very nice Dave. I trust there's no WAREZ in there You gonna put up an artist page then? BS

yep that pretty much sums it up...all I produce is the cash to pay for it all BS

do you recommend it? might give ut a try. currently i am also posting to uk.d-i-y to try and work out how best to soundproof our damn boiler - it's in the same room as the "studio" :( BS

Actually, my wife has one of those wooden boxes. The oscillators ( long stringy things! ) drift a lot though BS

It fell off the back of a lorry. Then rolled down University Gardens... BS

Yeah the online version's OK, but I do like - the cover CDs and - being able to read in the bath BS

Sorry can't resist... ...as I unpack I find... Recording Soundcraft Spirit Studio 24:2 2 x Tandy 4:1 mic/line mixers Tascam DA20 DAT Aiwa HDS-100 DAT Sony MZR-1 Minidisc Aiwa ADF 450 tape deck AKG C-1000S mike Tandy PZM mike Monitoring JPW Mini Monitors Mordaunt Short MS35Ti hifi speakers Marantz PM-35 hifi amp Various ( about 5 ) pairs of Sennheiser headphones in various states of repair Synths/Samplers/Modules/Drum machines (ahem) Roland JX10 Roland D50 Roland SH101 ( on loan somewhere ) Roland U110 Roland/Boss DR550 Casio CZ3000 Casio SK1 Kawai K5m Kawai K1-r EMU ESi-32 Yamaha CS1-X Novation BassStation Evolution EVS1 Computers/Software ( nothing pirated ) Dell 8100 P4 512Mb Atari 1040STFM ( somewhere ) NeXT cube Amiga 4000 Various old 486/P1/P2 PCs in various states of repair CuBase SL WaveLab 3.0 SoundForge 5.0 Rebirth 2.0 Outboard Behringer MDX2100 Composer Alesis Midiverb 4 Alesis Microverb 2 ( I'm sure I've still got it somewhere ) Digitech TSR12 Real instruments Bongos BS

Folks, In an attempt to catch up with the cra-zee world of synths, recording, computers and things, coupled with the fact that I now have a permanent address ( woohoo ), I'm thinking of taking out a subscription to one of the music mags. Like I say, I'm mainly looking for up-to-date info on hi-tech and recording gear, but I don't just want a mag full of plugin reviews! I was thinking either "Sound On Sound" or "Computer Music", although the former I've found to be quite stuffy in the past, especially towards dance/techno music which is something I'd consider myself fairly into! Any ideas? BS posting to : Synthstuff, Recordingstuff

Folks, In an attempt to catch up with the cra-zee world of synths, recording, computers and things, coupled with the fact that I now have a permanent address ( woohoo ), I'm thinking of taking out a subscription to one of the music mags. Like I say, I'm mainly looking for up-to-date info on hi-tech and recording gear, but I don't just want a mag full of plugin reviews! I was thinking either "Sound On Sound" or "Computer Music", although the former I've found to be quite stuffy in the past, especially towards dance/techno music which is something I'd consider myself fairly into! Any ideas? BS posting to : Synthstuff, Recordingstuff

To get the sounds from the cards, you should just be able to go "up" a bank until it says "I". Then left/right as normal to select the patch. I've got a U110 too. Had it for about 14 years now. Fabulous instrument. The pianos and strings are *still* good. Nice crunchy 12 bit. Don't use any of the internal FX though as they are terribly terribly noisy. Have fun. BS

Hmmm...yeah you've got a point there dude. And not of course forgetting the cucumber-down-the-trousers too... Well, hey, yeah! Why the **** not? I guess, rather than have to "perform" a dance piano riff ( which is why I reckoned sequencing it would be better ) I guess I could jam over the track a few times "live" then pick the best parts our with an editor then spin them back into CuBase as audio tracks... BS

well maybe - but I can tell you for sure I am a very out-of-practice one! Il faut practiquer, souvent! Anyway. do you think a humidifier would be good for the "piano room"? As for central heating...I now live in England, so it's not really that cold. Not compared to Scotland or Finland anyway. BS

Dudes - sorry to hear your bad piano experiences. I could tell you about the time we picked up a hitchhiker on our way to Glastonbury who had a guitar. Problem was we were already four of us in a MINI 850. I learned to strum whilst someone else held down the chords to various Cure tracks... but I suppose it wasn't that bad actually... ...so ahem, yeah pianos!! One of my favourite pieces is called Kitten On The Keys...a kind of wild ragtime riff that my Mum used to play to me as a kid. "...why, there's Mother now! No Mother! That sailor's suit doesn't fit me any more!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! " ( seymour skinner ) BS