Thursday, October 30, 2003
Mac "Panther" drivers...
As is so often the case, the latest Mac OS X update - "Panther" breaks a number of audio and MIDI programs and drivers. Fortunately, vendors are starting to respond more quickly to these changes. Edirol, Tascam and other manufacturers have already released updated drivers. So, if you are having problems with your software or hardware after upgrading, be sure to visit the manufacturer's site to see if they have a patch.
- Kelly
Posted at 4:37 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Saturday, October 18, 2003
Finale 2004 for OS X Delayed...
MakeMusic has revealed that Finale 2004 for Mac OS X has been delayed until December 15th at the earliest. As many of you know, we predicted a delay early in their development cycle - almost every Mac release in recent memory has been delayed due to problems with OS X development.
In the meantime, Sibelius has announced a Competitive Upgrade for Finale users, hoping to cash in on those who are tired of dual booting and fighting with OMS, Quicktime and MIDI interfaces. Sibelius, of course, is OS X native.
- Kelly.
Posted at 6:41 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Thursday, October 16, 2003
UA-700 and Sonar...
We've just posted an article from Edirol that gives some really detailed instructions on getting the most out of the UA-700 and Sonar. A great read for anyone that uses Sonar, and especially useful if you have a UA-700.
- Kelly
Posted at 8:22 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Free Blog hosting...
So you've been reading our Blog, and have been thinking "Gee, I wonder how I could get a nifty blog like that." Guess what, you can! And it won't cost you a cent. Check out RJS's free Blog hosting.
- Kelly
Posted at 5:28 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, October 13, 2003
Live 3.0
Live 3.0 is now available, and continues it's tradition of offering revoluationary new ways of working with audio.
The initial release of Live built on the concept of loop based music production that was pioneered by Sonic Foundry with their Acid series. However, Live offered a whole new way of working and interacting with loops - "Live" was an apt choice for a product name, since it offered live, real-time control over loops.
Live 3 now offers another new concept - working "inside" the loop or sample. With Live 3, you can easily change individual notes or a specific part of your sample. You can instantly "draw" changes to volume, pitch, pan, effects controls and more on any part of the sample.
The concept is great - it allows you to add dynamic musical expression to what were previously static samples.
Check out the demo today!
- Kelly
Posted at 2:17 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Sound Forge 7.0
Sony Pictures Digital, the new owners of Sonic Foundry's desktop media products has released Sound Forge 7.0
Some of the notable new features include:
- effects automation
- automated time-based recording (great for recording at specific times)
- prerecord buffer (finally - this is perfect for 'jammin' sessions when you don't necessarily want to record everything, but want the option to record if there was a great musical moment)
- Undo past save - undo is a great feature, but if you are like me and save your work every 5 secs, the undo feature has to work past the most recent save - and now it does.
There was some concern when Sony bought Sonic Foundry that they would focus on the video market to the detriment of the audio market. Although it doesn't totally eliminate the doubt, Sound Forge 7 is certainly a step in the right direction.
Posted at 8:37 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Saturday, October 04, 2003
USB 2.0 Audio - say goodbye to latency!
Low latency audio recording via USB - is it possible? Audio forums are full of tales of pops, clicks and painfully high latency when working with USB audio. Although it is possible to cram up to 4 audio tracks down the USB 1.1 pipe, it isn't always pretty if you don't have the right motherboard, USB controller, BIOS, or software tweaks.
Fortunately, USB 2 is finally here, and with up to 480MB/S, it has the bandwidth for at least 16 stable audio tracks. Yes, I said stable, and I'm going to add another claim - low latency!
The new UA-1000 from Edirol offers 8 channel recording via USB 2.0 and latency as low as 2 ms. The lowest latency I've come across in PCI cards is 1 ms with the DA-2496 (also from Edirol), so 2 ms is incredible! Sporting pre-amps, ADAT, MIDI, wordclock and a control panel that remembers all of the settings in hardware (i.e. move your UA-1000 to a different PC, and it remembers previous settings!) Don't believe me? Check out this review.
So what if you don't need 8 channels? Well, hopefully Edirol will release some 2 or 4 channel USB soundcards that take advantage of this stability and low latency. Perhaps USB can restore it's tarnished reputation with 2.0?
Posted at 11:44 AM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Newsletter... and spam.
We sent out the September newsletter last week, and Brian is hard at work on October's issue.
Did you get your copy? Just like you, we get a lot of spam (that's what happens when you put your e-mail address on your website!) Unfortunately, it looks like some spam filters out there object to any message with the word "unsubscribe" in it.
I can understand why a spam filter would add this criteria to their "bad word" list, but the effect is a bit silly! By giving you the control to decide if you want to continue to receive the newsletter, spam filters decide that we must be sending spam. If we don't give you the option to unsubscribe, then it goes through fine. A bit odd, isn't it?
So, what to do? Obviously we don't want to send the newsletter to anyone who doesn't want to receive it, so we have to find more obscure wording. Unfortunately, spammers are already ahead of the game on this, and as soon as it goes into common usage with spammers, the spam filters are on top of it.
So here's my question - are you subscribed to the newsletter, and if so, do you receive it?
- Kelly
Posted at 1:28 AM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::