Sunday, August 31, 2003
Cakewalk Project Tutorial...
Cakewalk just posted a helpful tutorial for their Project 5 software. They also have a patch available - if you have Project 5, download the update to 1.01.
Posted at 6:15 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (1) ::
Saturday, August 30, 2003
A few tech tips...
Since we are one of only music technology retailers to offer free tech support to our customers, I thought I would share a few tips from our years of experience :-)
1. Never install the drivers that came with your hardware! The CD that comes with your soundcard, MIDI interface, printer or any other hardware probably includes the first version of the drivers ever written. Although it would be nice, most manufacturers don't update the CD that ships with their products when they come out with newer, more stable drivers. So, the first thing you should do is head on over to the manufacturer's site and download the latest drivers before installing your new device.
2. Update your drivers! Some manufacturers come out with drivers every few months, so be sure to stop by their site every now and then to see if they have a new version available for your equipment - you might be missing out on some new features or improved stability.
3. Defrag. Be sure to defrag your hard drive at least once a month, if not once a week - you will notice hard disk intensive programs (especially recording software) start much faster.
More tips later...
- Kelly.
Posted at 8:43 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Cubase SX 2.0...
More new version rumours for you today :-)
We've had to keep our mouths shut for a while, but since Steinberg finally has it up on their site, we can let you know that Sept 4th will see the release of Cubase SX 2.0. To get a hint at some of the new features, check out their site.
- Kelly
Posted at 10:14 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, August 25, 2003
Band in a Box for Mac OS X?
Mac users have been feeling a bit left out since PG Music hasn't released an OS X version of Band in a Box, and the PC Version is a bit ahead of the Mac version.
An OS X version might be available soon - according to a post at the PG Music forum, they are looking for OS X beta testers :-)
- Kelly.
Posted at 10:33 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Catalogues - off-line or on-line?
For the past month or so, I've been working on putting together the new Kelly's Music & Computers catalogue. The catalogue is a great way to provide people with information on a wide variety of products, giving them access to information they might not otherwise find, or even realize exists! There are even mini info guides, like the ones on the website, to help you choose the right product for your needs. I always enjoy flipping through catalogues to see what exciting things are being offered - I can't wait to find all the instruments in instrument catalogues to start supplying my music therapy clinic next year!
The one major drawback of a catalogue is that it does not include very much information on any one product - if it did, the catalogue would be more like a textbook, and probably no one would want to read it.
To keep your interest in the wide variety of products we carry, we keep the descriptions in the catalogue short, providing some of the most important features you'll want to know about, so we can fit in as many great products as possible. However, even shortening this to the main features can be challenging in the little space available in the catalogue - there are still some important features that have to be left out because of space constraints.
Our website, however, provides much more detailed product information. You can find out much more information about each product on the website, including everything left out in the catalogue, because these descriptions are not limited to a sentence or two.
To really learn about any particular product, I would say both the catalogue and the website are important parts of the process - the catalogue to discover a cool new product, and the website to find out all about it. What do you think - do you prefer the printed catalogue, the website, or both?
- Kristin
Posted at 5:29 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Brian's next soundcard...
With today's technology, we can actually have a full recording studio based on one portable laptop computer. I use aFujitsu C series laptop and the Edirol UA-700 audio/MIDI interface. The UA-700 is a USB interface works great, has built in effects and allows me to record from 2 channels simultaneously.
But I am thinking that I want to record from more channels simultaneously, so I am looking at a couple of different options including the Edirol UA-1000 and the Nuendo Audiolink 96 Multiset with a Nuendo Audiolink Mobile.
The UA-1000 is Edirol's new soundcard is the world's first USB 2.0 interface. The UA-1000 offers 10 inputs and 10 outputs, 4 XLR/TRS combo jacks with Phantom Power, high quality microphone preamps, S/PDIF (Optical/Coaxial), 8-channel ADAT, MIDI and Word Clock.
The Nuendo Multiset offers 8 inputs and 8 outputs, ADAT, SPDIF, Word Clock. I have also heard that the Nuendo cards are made with very high quality parts are extremely stable.
Both options are quite appealing, however, I am a little weary of USB 2 as it is such a new feature and this is the first USB 2.0 interface - so I am leaning towards the Nuendo option. The Nuendo 96 Multiset also doesn't have preamps though, so maybe an DMP3 preamp is also in my future?
How about the Layla - the Layla is another PCMCIA laptop option available that has 8 inputs/outputs, WordClock, ADAT, S/PDIF, MIDI I/O - and the Layla also has a nice price, so it's definitely in the running.
I also don't want to forget about my hard drive - my laptop's HD speed is 4200 rpm, however, for multi-track recording, a 7200 rpm is ideal, so a FireWire Hard Drive would also be nice!
- Brian
Posted at 11:23 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, August 18, 2003
Paying for e-mail... and avoiding spam!
I finally got around to buying my own personal domain, primarily so that I have my own permanent, spam free e-mail address.
Now before you send me an e-mail telling me about free services such as Hotmail (yes, I have heard of Hotmail!), here are my reasons for paying for my e-mail address:
1. Permanence
By buying my own domain name, I now have an e-mail address that won't change for the rest of my life. Can you say that about your own e-mail address?
We have many customers who have had to change their e-mail address three or four times over the past year because their ISP was bought by another company, changed names or just disappeared. (ATT Broadband customers know what I am talking about!)
Others have been using free services who decided not to offer their service free anymore, or went bankrupt because - surprise - you can't make money by giving stuff away free. Sure, you could go with a big name like Hotmail or Yahoo (if you don't mind the spam), but even they are slowing moving everyone to a paid service - there is no guarantee it will be free forever.
I could use my work e-mail address, since I doubt I'll be fired (one of the benefits of being the owner!), but I would rather have my own personal e-mail address not subject to the legal complexity of receiving personal e-mail at a work address. Thus, my own domain name solves all of these problems.
2. Spam Free
Sure, Hotmail and Yahoo have both been beefing up their spam filters. Although they work fairly well, sometimes they work too well - meaning you don't receive important e-mail. (Ironically, Hotmail, which is owned by Microsoft often deletes Microsoft's own messages as spam!)
My e-mail address with RJS Networks (the company I choose to host my personal e-mail and website) is protected by their own sophisticated spam filter - but unlike Hotmail, I can always access any messages it determines is spam. However, my solution to fighting spam that is better that any filter!
With RJS, I get access to my own mail server. Thus, I can set up any number of "aliases" when I need to give my e-mail address to an untrusted site. The alias redirects the mail to my "real" account, but if at anytime I find that this alias is getting spammed, I simply delete the alias. No more spam! Although you can set up multiple addresses with other services, you then have to worry about checking them, forwarding messages, etc. The "alias" trick is simple and fast and you don't have to remember to check multiple accounts!
3. Stability & Support
For me, e-mail is just as important as snail mail. I can't take the chance that a message gets lots because my ISP or free service messed up. RJS recognizes that, and since I'm paying them, they have an incentive to make sure that I always get my e-mail - and if there is a problem, they have 24/7 tech support ready to help. My ISP and free services such as Hotmail really don't care if they lose your messages - and why should they since don't have any financial incentive?
So, although you may think I am crazy for paying for e-mail, I think that having a permanent, spam free and stable e-mail address is worth it. Plus, with RJS I also get web space for uploading pictures, a personal blog or anything else that I need. Since I choose a domain name that I can make available to my entire family, so my extended family can also take advantage of having their own e-mail address too - thus the $9.95 a month can be easily spread between dozens of people.
- Kelly
Posted at 4:55 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Too many cables in a wireless world...
Right now I'm blogging out on deck. I'm connected to the 'net via WiFi, and I love it! Yet despite all of the advances with WiFi, Bluetooth and the fact that you can now have a wireless keyboard, printer, mouse and phone, my life is still full of cables!
Not only do I have too many cables to deal with, but I also have to decide between USB 2 or Firewire. So I've got a couple of Firewire hard drives that are perfect for audio recording, but I'm trying to decide what my next soundcard will be.
Edirol is clearly in the USB 2.0 camp - which makes sense, since most new PCs have USB 2.0 and not Firewire. So maybe the UA-1000 will be in my future. On the other hand, Firewire is a great spec. Why do we have to choose? Wouldn't it be great if we could all decide to have one standard? Do we have to repeat the Beta/VHS over and over? DVD-R or DVD+R? Co-ax or optical?
Maybe the future will bring one high-bandwidth wireless spec? Wouldn't that be great - wireless soundcards and wireless MIDI? Not needing to worry about what spec to choose, not worrying about a mess of cables. Maybe some day...
- Kelly
Posted at 5:17 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, August 11, 2003
SmartScore 3.0 - the future of scanning music...
SmartScore 3.0 will be out later this fall, which means it will be time to update our popular FAQ on scanning music.
Some of the highlights of the new version include:
- improved text recognition
- improved guitar chord recognition
- "tweakable" playback of symbols (perfect for people who scan to listen and learn music!)
The ability to immediately convert your scanned music to a wave file for burning to a CD is also a very cool addition for anyone who is scanning music to use for playback.
Improved text recognition is a also welcome advancement, since this was a curiously weak area in the past. Although regular OCR works fairly well these days, scanning text or lyrics almost always resulted in poor (and often humorous) results. Admittedly, scanning a regular text document offers the advantage of intelligent analysis by looking for grammar, common word usage, etc. Music doesn't offer this "context" for text scanning, but we should expect better results than gibberish!
The concept of "context" will be the most challenging to accomplish with music scanning. Voice recognition, for example, listens to the entire sentence or paragraph, and then uses "context" to try to understand what you are dictating. In music, however, this is a bit more difficult - it would have to understand theory, harmony, rhythm along with counterpoint and form to offer better results when scanning.
Maybe someday we will see software that takes a guess at the "smudge" it scanned in the final chord of your music in D major and decide that it is F# and not an F natural!
Posted at 9:37 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Friday, August 08, 2003
Finale 2004 - will Finale pull ahead of Sibelius?
Finale 2004 for Windows will be out later this month, with the long awaited OS X version shipping later in October.
So what's new? Is the upgrade worth it? Well, many of the new features seem to be aimed at keeping up with Sibelius, with a few unique ideas to try to stay ahead.
Features similar to those found in Sibelius
- Intelligent/human playback
- Finale script - similar to Sibelius's scripting language, MakeMusic finally figured out that the average user isn't interested in programming using their developer's kit. They will probably also find out that most people can't be bothered to script either! Still, the option is nice to have for us power users :-)
New features that are you unique to Finale:
- SmartMusic SoundFont is included, so if you don't have a great MIDI sound module (such as the SD-80), you will still get something a bit better than the built in sounds in your computer!
- Save as audio file. By taking advantage of the built in soft synth (sound font), Finale 2004 will allow you to automatically save your work as an audio file - perfect for burning to a CD or posting to the web! Almost every day someone asks me how to convert a Sibelius or Finale file to audio, so this is a great feature. Now, if they could only get this feature to work with any soft synth, that would be cool. One of those features that makes you wonder - why didn't they think of this before?
- Improved Mic Notator. How can you not improve it? It never worked well enough for me to waste my time editing!
So will Sibelius 3 go further than Finale 2004? Given Sibelius's history for innovation, I think that the battle is just heating up :-)
Maybe my dream of a VST or DXi enabled notation program that allows you to take advantage of the great soft synths available on the market will finally come true!
- Kelly
Posted at 1:12 AM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
CD Sheet Music - all of Beethoven's Music for only $19.99?!
As a music student, you are frequently learning new repertoire, and with that comes the potential of shelling out a large amount of cash to buy the score. With CD Sheet Music, the hefty price tag attached to buying new music disappears. These little CD's contain a huge number of pieces, for quite a nice price. There are also a huge number of titles available, mostly for piano and voice, but there are also works for orchestra and orchestral instruments. You can get the complete Beethoven works for solo piano on a single CD, for only $19.99 US! An amazing deal - you can't get a single volume of Beethoven's sonatas for that price.
The CD's include a copyright notice that you can print if you're going to perform any of the pieces, and being able to print as many copies as you want makes it great for festivals and competitions. You don't have to worry about finding multiple copies of the pieces -for your accompanist, and for the adjudicators.
So, what's the catch? The editions that CD Sheet Music uses for the music are not the best versions available. They used editions that have gone out of copyright, and include Schirmer and Carl Fischer, not the greatest editions; however, there are some works using the Peter's edition, which is not a bad edition. The music is saved in PDF files, allowing you to see all the music contained within the CD on a single screen. You can print any page, work, movement, or the entire CD if you wish - without any restrictions.
While I probably wouldn't give up my Urtext editions for the CD Sheet Music titles, for the price, it's definitely something I'll consider in the future, even if it's just to own a copy of the complete works of Beethoven.plus there's always the library to consult for authenticity.
- Kristin
Posted at 10:57 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Friday, August 01, 2003
M-Audio Buys Evolution...
In a surprise move, M-Audio announced the acquisition of Evolution today. Evolution is the UK-based keyboard company that markets the UC-16, UC-33 and other keyboards and controllers.
It is hard to say what M-Audio is going to gain by this purchase. The only products that they gain access to that isn't already in their own line would be the UC-16 and UC-33. For the most part, the rest of the keyboards carried by Evolution are similar to what M-Audio produces.
Since neither company actually manufacturers keyboards themselves, but instead outsources them to Asian companies, M-Audio doesn't really gain any manufacturer capacity. It is hard to believe that the purchase would be just to gain the U-Control line. Would eliminating competition be one of their reasons? Only time will tell...
- Kelly
Posted at 1:55 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (1) ::