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Musical Day 2
Feb. 21st, 2025 11:15 pmThe sound problems were largely corrected in today's show and everything was much more audible than it had been before. There was one brief mic malfunction which (per K) mysteriously corrected itself without anything being done to it, but other than that, everything was fine and it was a lovely performance. (I'm suspecting that the headset mic got knocked a bit out of position and then got moved back to where it was supposed to be, but I could be wrong. It had that sort of hollow, off-axis sound to it, so...)
Meanwhile, I'm not sure *which* thing that we did fixed the problem, but the new work computer is now working, which means that I had better do some of that next week. :) (It may have been a fix to the proxy settings, as that was one of the things that we tried.)
Right now, K is out at the after-party and we are trying to decide how long we will stay up waiting for her to come home. :)
Meanwhile, I'm not sure *which* thing that we did fixed the problem, but the new work computer is now working, which means that I had better do some of that next week. :) (It may have been a fix to the proxy settings, as that was one of the things that we tried.)
Right now, K is out at the after-party and we are trying to decide how long we will stay up waiting for her to come home. :)
Recording Made Less Simple
Dec. 10th, 2024 11:04 pmIt's easy to record a track down in the basement studio. Really. Yeah.
Ok, this reminds me of why I decided to record a couple of scratch tracks up here in the office. But it got better.
It didn't start well. I had gone down to the basement earlier in the evening and discovered a fair amount of disarray in the recording booth. I'm not sure why, but I have children, so that's always a leading suspect. I saw that the new mic was mounted on the stand that I wanted it on for vocals, but there wasn't a guitar mic in the room.
Before I started doing final renders for other tracks on the album, I decided to hunt down the guitar mics. I found a bunch of the cheap Marshall mics, but I remembered having bought a better pair of small diaphragm instrument mics some years back. They weren't in the mic locker though. Hmm.
I started poking around on the bookcase and found a box of small reel-to-reel tapes of some origin or another. And under the box was a big wooden box with two still-unused small diaphragm instrument mics in it.
I really need to do more recording in the studio. And I have another album that I should be working on that calls for that. But I digress...
Anyway, I finished rendering all of the other tracks on the album and went upstairs for dinner. After dinner, it was off to the basement with the guitar (in case), the lyric sheet, and my iPad. I repositioned the mics, because I planned to do this standing up, adjusted the music stand, cleared the space for my iPad, and then said "Where is the guitar stand?"
There had *been* a guitar stand in the room the last time I was there. It was not there now and it was something that I really wanted, so I went out and found it disassembled on top of the pool table. Why? I don't know. So I put that back together, put it back where it belonged, and then got the guitar out of the case and took it off to the room.
Happily, the guitar was still nicely in tune for not having been touched since Windycon. Ok, let's go get the iPad remote working.
I had downloaded Avid Control the last time that I had to do recording in the studio, because the Cubase remote app was just broken in so many ways that it was both unusable and unprintable. But I had noticed that a new version of the app had come out, so I figured I'd update the iPad to that version and see what happened.
When I went to the App Store, I was informed that they needed my password, which I provided, which was followed by my being told that I needed to go enter my password in Settings, which was followed by a demand for my phone number, which I entered, which was followed by a text message to my phone with a code that I needed to enter, which I *would* have been able to enter much more easily if the iCloud app hadn't kept coming up on top of that window asking for my password, and then after I entered the code, I was told I would need to make a new password, which I did, and then I could finally go back to the Cubase app page where I discovered that the app had been automatically updated at some point.
But I didn't come here to talk about that. I came here to talk about the draft...
(No, I didn't, but this was starting to feel like "Alice's Restaurant" there.)
Anyway, I downloaded the Steinberg SKI remote software and updated it, went into Cubase, activated the remote, connected the iPad to the computer, and amazingly, everything worked. This was good, because if I had just gone through all of that to see things fail, I would have been very unhappy.
I pulled up the UA Console, powered up the mics, and set some trial levels which at least got signal. Then I had to figure out what was wired up correctly in Cubase, because Cubase was hearing nothing, which turned out to be just a matter of setting up the hardware routing.
Ok, let's go record.
Since the original album had been two tracks direct to tape, no punch-ins, no saving throw, I figured I'd do the bonus track the same way. It's a two minute song. How hard can it be?
It's a two minute finger-picked song. Harder, as it turns out. I had a ludicrous number of false starts, but that's ok, because you just reset and start again. I wasn't trying to synchronize with anything, so I wasn't messing with headphone mixes. I was just playing.
Cubase tells me that I pushed the record button 18 times doing this. I think there were only six or so complete takes and I finally decided that the last one was good. I rendered it, compared levels to the existing tracks around it (all good), and then compared the levels to Clif's bonus track.
Clif's bonus track was substantially less loud than the surrounding tracks. Grump.
I opened Cubase back up, adjusted Clif's levels, compared it to the surrounding tracks, and rendered it again.
At this point, I need to duck over to WaveLab and apply the opening and closing fades. Then I can assemble the album, burn a CD to test with, and make the DDP master.
And if everything is good, I can upload this to the duplicator.
But that will be *tomorrow's* project.
Ok, this reminds me of why I decided to record a couple of scratch tracks up here in the office. But it got better.
It didn't start well. I had gone down to the basement earlier in the evening and discovered a fair amount of disarray in the recording booth. I'm not sure why, but I have children, so that's always a leading suspect. I saw that the new mic was mounted on the stand that I wanted it on for vocals, but there wasn't a guitar mic in the room.
Before I started doing final renders for other tracks on the album, I decided to hunt down the guitar mics. I found a bunch of the cheap Marshall mics, but I remembered having bought a better pair of small diaphragm instrument mics some years back. They weren't in the mic locker though. Hmm.
I started poking around on the bookcase and found a box of small reel-to-reel tapes of some origin or another. And under the box was a big wooden box with two still-unused small diaphragm instrument mics in it.
I really need to do more recording in the studio. And I have another album that I should be working on that calls for that. But I digress...
Anyway, I finished rendering all of the other tracks on the album and went upstairs for dinner. After dinner, it was off to the basement with the guitar (in case), the lyric sheet, and my iPad. I repositioned the mics, because I planned to do this standing up, adjusted the music stand, cleared the space for my iPad, and then said "Where is the guitar stand?"
There had *been* a guitar stand in the room the last time I was there. It was not there now and it was something that I really wanted, so I went out and found it disassembled on top of the pool table. Why? I don't know. So I put that back together, put it back where it belonged, and then got the guitar out of the case and took it off to the room.
Happily, the guitar was still nicely in tune for not having been touched since Windycon. Ok, let's go get the iPad remote working.
I had downloaded Avid Control the last time that I had to do recording in the studio, because the Cubase remote app was just broken in so many ways that it was both unusable and unprintable. But I had noticed that a new version of the app had come out, so I figured I'd update the iPad to that version and see what happened.
When I went to the App Store, I was informed that they needed my password, which I provided, which was followed by my being told that I needed to go enter my password in Settings, which was followed by a demand for my phone number, which I entered, which was followed by a text message to my phone with a code that I needed to enter, which I *would* have been able to enter much more easily if the iCloud app hadn't kept coming up on top of that window asking for my password, and then after I entered the code, I was told I would need to make a new password, which I did, and then I could finally go back to the Cubase app page where I discovered that the app had been automatically updated at some point.
But I didn't come here to talk about that. I came here to talk about the draft...
(No, I didn't, but this was starting to feel like "Alice's Restaurant" there.)
Anyway, I downloaded the Steinberg SKI remote software and updated it, went into Cubase, activated the remote, connected the iPad to the computer, and amazingly, everything worked. This was good, because if I had just gone through all of that to see things fail, I would have been very unhappy.
I pulled up the UA Console, powered up the mics, and set some trial levels which at least got signal. Then I had to figure out what was wired up correctly in Cubase, because Cubase was hearing nothing, which turned out to be just a matter of setting up the hardware routing.
Ok, let's go record.
Since the original album had been two tracks direct to tape, no punch-ins, no saving throw, I figured I'd do the bonus track the same way. It's a two minute song. How hard can it be?
It's a two minute finger-picked song. Harder, as it turns out. I had a ludicrous number of false starts, but that's ok, because you just reset and start again. I wasn't trying to synchronize with anything, so I wasn't messing with headphone mixes. I was just playing.
Cubase tells me that I pushed the record button 18 times doing this. I think there were only six or so complete takes and I finally decided that the last one was good. I rendered it, compared levels to the existing tracks around it (all good), and then compared the levels to Clif's bonus track.
Clif's bonus track was substantially less loud than the surrounding tracks. Grump.
I opened Cubase back up, adjusted Clif's levels, compared it to the surrounding tracks, and rendered it again.
At this point, I need to duck over to WaveLab and apply the opening and closing fades. Then I can assemble the album, burn a CD to test with, and make the DDP master.
And if everything is good, I can upload this to the duplicator.
But that will be *tomorrow's* project.
Shouda Woulda
Nov. 29th, 2024 06:52 pmI had plans to do some things this afternoon and became sidetracked by working on the new computer. The good news is that the new computer is creeping up on being ready to go. There are probably still a bunch of files on the old computer that need to be copied over, but I'm definitely in the vicinity of done.
Until I find the next thing that I've forgotten to install...
Until I find the next thing that I've forgotten to install...
Parts, Mr. Rico!
Nov. 23rd, 2024 03:48 pmI ran down to Micro Center this morning and picked up the bulk of the parts for the new computer, so I guess I'm committed at this point. I ordered the M2 drives from Amazon this morning, because it saved me a few dollars and let me use a gift card that I've been sitting on since I got my new phone. The case is supposed to arrive from Newegg on Friday, so all of the parts may be in order for a Thanksgiving weekend computer assembly. (Except the OS. Still need to grab an OS.)
There are a silly number of things that we need to do around the house. I think I'll go down and consult with Gretchen and see what we should take a run at. :)
There are a silly number of things that we need to do around the house. I think I'll go down and consult with Gretchen and see what we should take a run at. :)
I was playing around in the studio late this afternoon and decided that I wanted to try decomposing a WAV file to stems. I've done this trick before using Izotope RX 10 and I figured it was worth trying again. it worked, although not quite as well as I might have hoped, because the choices of how to split up the instruments into the stems were pretty limited.
Now, the technology for splitting a mixed file into stems has been getting better and better. On the very high end, there's what Peter Jackson did to remix the audio for his Beatles documentary a couple of years ago. And the nice things about really high end technology is that it has a way of trickling down. So I did some research on the Internet and discovered that there are a number of choices, including Steinberg's SpectraLayers Pro, which has a one month free trial right now.
Free. Free is a good price. :) I downloaded it on the studio computer and went at it. The results were pretty good.
But then I messed something up trying to save the individual stems. I'm still not sure what. The net result was that I overwrote the original WAV file.
That's ok. There's a backup on the NAS.
Which now contained the overwritten version of the file. More poking around on the NAS found nothing in the way of older, untouched backups.
Damn, damn, damn. This is the thing that I promised Gretchen I would never do with digital recording.
And then the light went on. I went upstairs to the dining room and turned on the *old* studio computer, which I had moved there for general usage when I built a new studio computer. There was the folder and there was the file.
I have copied the file to a transfer folder so I can get it back down to the basement.
At some later date, I will figure out *how* I managed to overwrite the original file instead of writing out the stems. The documentation for the new version of SpectraLayers is being opaque.
But I will figure this out.
Before the trial runs out. :)
Now, the technology for splitting a mixed file into stems has been getting better and better. On the very high end, there's what Peter Jackson did to remix the audio for his Beatles documentary a couple of years ago. And the nice things about really high end technology is that it has a way of trickling down. So I did some research on the Internet and discovered that there are a number of choices, including Steinberg's SpectraLayers Pro, which has a one month free trial right now.
Free. Free is a good price. :) I downloaded it on the studio computer and went at it. The results were pretty good.
But then I messed something up trying to save the individual stems. I'm still not sure what. The net result was that I overwrote the original WAV file.
That's ok. There's a backup on the NAS.
Which now contained the overwritten version of the file. More poking around on the NAS found nothing in the way of older, untouched backups.
Damn, damn, damn. This is the thing that I promised Gretchen I would never do with digital recording.
And then the light went on. I went upstairs to the dining room and turned on the *old* studio computer, which I had moved there for general usage when I built a new studio computer. There was the folder and there was the file.
I have copied the file to a transfer folder so I can get it back down to the basement.
At some later date, I will figure out *how* I managed to overwrite the original file instead of writing out the stems. The documentation for the new version of SpectraLayers is being opaque.
But I will figure this out.
Before the trial runs out. :)
I installed two new drives in my Synology NAS today. They are now getting incorporated into the RAID array and should be available later.
This is good, because I was running out of space. I expect that I will not be running out of space any time soon once this is done. :)
This is good, because I was running out of space. I expect that I will not be running out of space any time soon once this is done. :)
Monitoring the Situation
Oct. 5th, 2023 05:19 pmI seem to be collecting refurbished monitors.
A couple of months ago, I decided to see if some higher resolution refurb monitors that I found would improve my recent problems with eyestrain. They were nice enough, but didn't solve the eyestrain problem.
Earlier this week, I found a pair of refurbished 16x10 Dell monitors of the kind that I like with HDMI connectors (which my older Dell's didn't have and which are required for the new KVM switch), but instead of desk stands, they came with desk mounts to clamp to the back of the desk, which meant that I could, in theory, position them a bit further away, which should help with the whole eyestrain problem.
They came today. I have now hauled them upstairs and installed them, which was a bit of an adventure until I figured everything out. But they are now where they belong (more or less) and working with both of the computers.
We'll see how the whole eyestrain thing goes.
A couple of months ago, I decided to see if some higher resolution refurb monitors that I found would improve my recent problems with eyestrain. They were nice enough, but didn't solve the eyestrain problem.
Earlier this week, I found a pair of refurbished 16x10 Dell monitors of the kind that I like with HDMI connectors (which my older Dell's didn't have and which are required for the new KVM switch), but instead of desk stands, they came with desk mounts to clamp to the back of the desk, which meant that I could, in theory, position them a bit further away, which should help with the whole eyestrain problem.
They came today. I have now hauled them upstairs and installed them, which was a bit of an adventure until I figured everything out. But they are now where they belong (more or less) and working with both of the computers.
We'll see how the whole eyestrain thing goes.
Bits and Pieces
Aug. 14th, 2023 09:03 pmOzempic is back in stock at our pharmacy, so I went out and picked up the prescriptions for me and Gretchen. This is a good thing.
While driving there, I switched to the Cardinals game on the radio. KMOX has been coming in nicely this summer (other than the usual urban interference), which isn't abnormal for a clear channel 50,000 watt broadcaster, although getting a good signal early in the evening in the summer is not always something you can count on. And then I thought about it for a moment and realized that we are somewhere around the solar maximum, so the ionosphere is nicely recharged and prepared to bounce AM radio signals with high efficiency. If I were more motivated, I'd hook the old shortwave radio up to an antenna and see which of the international broadcasters are still there to pick up.
I am not sufficiently motivated.
The Cardinals are probably motivated, but this didn't stop them from coughing up the lead before I got home.
School resumes tomorrow, so both kids will be out of the house again. This has not been a common phenomenon this summer. K is still planning to go see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but it looks like that's going to be on a weekend.
The new monitors in the office are working ok, but are not a cure for the eyestrain problem. Maybe an improvement, though. We'll see.
A shipment arrived from the mint carrying proof specimens of the 2023 Morgan and Peace silver dollars. In case you missed the news, the mint started minting these again for the 2021 anniversary and the issue turned out to be way more popular than they had anticipated, so they are doing this as an ongoing thing. Looking at the proof of the Peace dollar I am struck by just how pretty a coin this is. Maybe not as nice as the way-more-money-than-I-want-to-pay-for-one St. Gaudens 20 dollar gold piece, but a darn sight more affordable.
K has become hooked on White Collar after reading a Batman / White Collar crossover fanfic. She binges faster than we do, but it will take her a while to catch up to us. Maybe not that long, but the start of school will slow her down.
That's probably enough for now.
While driving there, I switched to the Cardinals game on the radio. KMOX has been coming in nicely this summer (other than the usual urban interference), which isn't abnormal for a clear channel 50,000 watt broadcaster, although getting a good signal early in the evening in the summer is not always something you can count on. And then I thought about it for a moment and realized that we are somewhere around the solar maximum, so the ionosphere is nicely recharged and prepared to bounce AM radio signals with high efficiency. If I were more motivated, I'd hook the old shortwave radio up to an antenna and see which of the international broadcasters are still there to pick up.
I am not sufficiently motivated.
The Cardinals are probably motivated, but this didn't stop them from coughing up the lead before I got home.
School resumes tomorrow, so both kids will be out of the house again. This has not been a common phenomenon this summer. K is still planning to go see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but it looks like that's going to be on a weekend.
The new monitors in the office are working ok, but are not a cure for the eyestrain problem. Maybe an improvement, though. We'll see.
A shipment arrived from the mint carrying proof specimens of the 2023 Morgan and Peace silver dollars. In case you missed the news, the mint started minting these again for the 2021 anniversary and the issue turned out to be way more popular than they had anticipated, so they are doing this as an ongoing thing. Looking at the proof of the Peace dollar I am struck by just how pretty a coin this is. Maybe not as nice as the way-more-money-than-I-want-to-pay-for-one St. Gaudens 20 dollar gold piece, but a darn sight more affordable.
K has become hooked on White Collar after reading a Batman / White Collar crossover fanfic. She binges faster than we do, but it will take her a while to catch up to us. Maybe not that long, but the start of school will slow her down.
That's probably enough for now.
Monitoring the Situation
Aug. 11th, 2023 03:17 pmThe additional cables arrived from Amazon early this morning, so I went to work on swapping out the various pieces of the system and getting the new stuff up and running. This involved first unplugging the existing monitors and weaving the cables that connect them out from the considerable nest of cables on the desk. Then I grabbed the new KVM switch and carefully unplugged the mouse, keyboard, USB port, and speakers from the old switch and into the new switch. I wired the computers into the KVM switch. Finally, the new monitors went onto the desk and were plugged in.
Uh, no. They weren't. It turns out that both of the ports that go to the monitors were HDMI ports, which was a surprise, because I had thought there was one display port and one HDMI port. I was wrong. (Queue song.)
I am positive there is a spare HDMI cable somewhere in the basement. I didn't feel like ransacking the basement right now, so I stole the HDMI cable from our Roku in the bedroom. Ok, *now* the monitors were plugged in.
And nothing happened. Even when I remembered to turn on the power to the KVM switch. This would be easier if I had the manual for these monitors, but they are refurbs and shipped without such. I could probably find one online somewhere, but I would have to use my phone, because, well, no working monitors.
Eventually, I managed to find a switch on the back of the monitors and switch them from USB-C input to HDMI input, at which point I started seeing a mouse cursor on one of the monitors, but nothing on the other. I was staring at the docking station for the work computer and the ports on the video card for my office computer and starting to greatly regret the absence of manuals.
Messing around followed. It turned out that the office computer had been plugged in such that the display port and the HDMI port were sharing the same output, so I just moved the HDMI connection to another display port using the adapter that I had bought, and things there started thinking about working better. It turns out that the docking station had come unplugged from the work computer, as they are attached together by a *very* short Thunderbolt cable. I could plug that back in.
I managed to get the office computer sorted out in fairly short order, convincing it that the screens were the resolutions that they were supposed to be, that this screen was here, and that screen was there, and that everything ought to work.
The work computer was another challenge, because it did not want to let me extend the desktop on the two big monitors; it would only duplicate it. Eventually, I found the keyboard control to turn off the laptop screen and just send signal to the desktop monitors. Now, I could extend the desktop on both desktop monitors, I could get them positioned, I could (eventually) get them both to the right resolution.
Let's try using Remote Desktop Connection to connect to my VM. And that works, except the VM is convinced that my main screen is the subsidiary screen and vice versa. More messing around ensued, including swapping back the HDMI output cables on the back of the KVM to the original configuration which I had abandoned at some point during the entertainment.
A bit *more* messing around on all of the machines and everyone (including the VM) now agreed on which monitor was the main monitor and where all of the monitors are sitting on the desk. They look nice.
Not too long after that, I managed to get the speakers working again. I think that's the last of the cleanup that needs to be done. Other than the surface of the desk, which looks like a tornado hit it.
Now, let's see how the eyestrain goes.
Uh, no. They weren't. It turns out that both of the ports that go to the monitors were HDMI ports, which was a surprise, because I had thought there was one display port and one HDMI port. I was wrong. (Queue song.)
I am positive there is a spare HDMI cable somewhere in the basement. I didn't feel like ransacking the basement right now, so I stole the HDMI cable from our Roku in the bedroom. Ok, *now* the monitors were plugged in.
And nothing happened. Even when I remembered to turn on the power to the KVM switch. This would be easier if I had the manual for these monitors, but they are refurbs and shipped without such. I could probably find one online somewhere, but I would have to use my phone, because, well, no working monitors.
Eventually, I managed to find a switch on the back of the monitors and switch them from USB-C input to HDMI input, at which point I started seeing a mouse cursor on one of the monitors, but nothing on the other. I was staring at the docking station for the work computer and the ports on the video card for my office computer and starting to greatly regret the absence of manuals.
Messing around followed. It turned out that the office computer had been plugged in such that the display port and the HDMI port were sharing the same output, so I just moved the HDMI connection to another display port using the adapter that I had bought, and things there started thinking about working better. It turns out that the docking station had come unplugged from the work computer, as they are attached together by a *very* short Thunderbolt cable. I could plug that back in.
I managed to get the office computer sorted out in fairly short order, convincing it that the screens were the resolutions that they were supposed to be, that this screen was here, and that screen was there, and that everything ought to work.
The work computer was another challenge, because it did not want to let me extend the desktop on the two big monitors; it would only duplicate it. Eventually, I found the keyboard control to turn off the laptop screen and just send signal to the desktop monitors. Now, I could extend the desktop on both desktop monitors, I could get them positioned, I could (eventually) get them both to the right resolution.
Let's try using Remote Desktop Connection to connect to my VM. And that works, except the VM is convinced that my main screen is the subsidiary screen and vice versa. More messing around ensued, including swapping back the HDMI output cables on the back of the KVM to the original configuration which I had abandoned at some point during the entertainment.
A bit *more* messing around on all of the machines and everyone (including the VM) now agreed on which monitor was the main monitor and where all of the monitors are sitting on the desk. They look nice.
Not too long after that, I managed to get the speakers working again. I think that's the last of the cleanup that needs to be done. Other than the surface of the desk, which looks like a tornado hit it.
Now, let's see how the eyestrain goes.
Get the Picture
Aug. 10th, 2023 09:36 pmI've been having some problems with eyestrain with the monitors on my desk lately. Now, I might be able to improve the situation with reading glasses, but I really dislike having to use them. And new contacts might help, but I still have a large supply of the current prescription. But the monitors that I have are both running off a VGA connector at 1920x1200 through a KVM switch and it's just possible that the conversions involved are contributing to the problem.
I have lately been on the email list from a computer reseller that has an enormous number of refurbished products available and they had a pair of Samsung QHD monitors for $170 plus shipping and tax. You know, that seemed like not a huge amount of money to see if they would help out and, if not, I could surely find some other place to use them.
Except that the KVM switch I use to switch between my home computer and the work machine is VGA. The new monitors are display port and HDMI. This set off a lot of research into KVM switches and the discovery that dual monitor KVM switches need to support something called EDID or else Windows will thoughtfully move programs between monitors every time you switch computers. Oh. And getting EDID support with display port turns out to be moderately expensive. I found a KVM with display port for one monitor and HDMI for the other, which is a combination that I can make work with just one adapter for the home computer, which has lots of display port and no HDMI.
And then Amazon put the KVM switch on a Lightning Deal yesterday. So I bought it.
The monitors and KVM are now sitting upstairs in my office, but I am short one display port and one HDMI cable. Another Amazon order will fix this in the morning.
I'll wire it up and we'll see how this looks.
I have lately been on the email list from a computer reseller that has an enormous number of refurbished products available and they had a pair of Samsung QHD monitors for $170 plus shipping and tax. You know, that seemed like not a huge amount of money to see if they would help out and, if not, I could surely find some other place to use them.
Except that the KVM switch I use to switch between my home computer and the work machine is VGA. The new monitors are display port and HDMI. This set off a lot of research into KVM switches and the discovery that dual monitor KVM switches need to support something called EDID or else Windows will thoughtfully move programs between monitors every time you switch computers. Oh. And getting EDID support with display port turns out to be moderately expensive. I found a KVM with display port for one monitor and HDMI for the other, which is a combination that I can make work with just one adapter for the home computer, which has lots of display port and no HDMI.
And then Amazon put the KVM switch on a Lightning Deal yesterday. So I bought it.
The monitors and KVM are now sitting upstairs in my office, but I am short one display port and one HDMI cable. Another Amazon order will fix this in the morning.
I'll wire it up and we'll see how this looks.
Plugging In
Sep. 29th, 2022 09:16 pmCubase has offered a bunch of free plugins to current users, but you have to download them by this weekend. Since this weekend is rapidly approaching, I figured I should take care of that.
The plugins are now all safely downloaded and installed.
Now I just need time to play with them.
The plugins are now all safely downloaded and installed.
Now I just need time to play with them.
Picture This
Jan. 17th, 2022 09:09 pmI took a load of laundry to the basement today and figured I would spend a bit of time in the studio today looking at some Cubase features and seeing if I could learn a few things. I learned a few things, but they weren't what I intended to learn.
The video on the studio computer has been a little glitchy in the Chrome browser lately, for reasons that I don't understand, but it's dropping boxes of flashing text onto the wrong spot on the screen. This is not good. After staring at this for a bit, I decided that maybe I should try updating the video drivers. So I went to the Nvidia site and let it download the GeForce Experience app and install it. I also pulled down the latest Windows 10 update in case that was the problem. And then I fired up Cubase.
The screen was now a complete mess (I mean, garbage and bad vector graphics everywhere) and the system crashed, eventually blue screening. This was followed by Windows doing the recovery dance, checking the hard drive, failing a boot, and eventually getting its act back together.
Off to a Google search which suggested that I needed to make sure that I had the latest Cubase version installed (I was one minor -- bug-fix level -- release behind) and that I should uninstall all of the Nvidea software and reinstall *just* the video driver. Ok, I could do that.
Well, no, I couldn't. The Cubase update install crashed the machine again.
So I made sure that the audio interface was turned off, rebooted, and started uninstalling Nvidea software. A couple of reboots later, it was all gone and I was looking at a VGA-sized screen. Then I installed the latest video driver (from 2018). And then I installed the Cubase point release and fired it up, loading the giant-sized demo project.
Which played correctly with no audio or video glitches.
Further examination indicates that the video card in this machine is an Nvidea GTX 560 TI, which originally started shipping in 2011. I guess that explains why driver releases are few and far between now.
I am really starting to believe that the current studio computer is aging out rapidly.
The video card, however, is not a part that I really wanted to replace in a new build.
*sigh*
The video on the studio computer has been a little glitchy in the Chrome browser lately, for reasons that I don't understand, but it's dropping boxes of flashing text onto the wrong spot on the screen. This is not good. After staring at this for a bit, I decided that maybe I should try updating the video drivers. So I went to the Nvidia site and let it download the GeForce Experience app and install it. I also pulled down the latest Windows 10 update in case that was the problem. And then I fired up Cubase.
The screen was now a complete mess (I mean, garbage and bad vector graphics everywhere) and the system crashed, eventually blue screening. This was followed by Windows doing the recovery dance, checking the hard drive, failing a boot, and eventually getting its act back together.
Off to a Google search which suggested that I needed to make sure that I had the latest Cubase version installed (I was one minor -- bug-fix level -- release behind) and that I should uninstall all of the Nvidea software and reinstall *just* the video driver. Ok, I could do that.
Well, no, I couldn't. The Cubase update install crashed the machine again.
So I made sure that the audio interface was turned off, rebooted, and started uninstalling Nvidea software. A couple of reboots later, it was all gone and I was looking at a VGA-sized screen. Then I installed the latest video driver (from 2018). And then I installed the Cubase point release and fired it up, loading the giant-sized demo project.
Which played correctly with no audio or video glitches.
Further examination indicates that the video card in this machine is an Nvidea GTX 560 TI, which originally started shipping in 2011. I guess that explains why driver releases are few and far between now.
I am really starting to believe that the current studio computer is aging out rapidly.
The video card, however, is not a part that I really wanted to replace in a new build.
*sigh*
Thoroughly Amortized
Nov. 7th, 2021 04:48 pmI am downloading and installing the latest updates on the recording computer. A bit of investigation indicates that it is twelve years old, which explains why it seems to be slow. The computer in the studio is, if I recall correctly, at least seven years old and being a bit long in the tooth as well.
I foresee new computers in my future, although the current chip shortages may delay that a bit.
(I am looking at the Alder Lake CPUs with a covetous eye, but I am also waiting for the motherboards with built-in Thunderbolt support to show up at a reasonable price. And since I'm using this for recording, not for gaming, I think planning to use the integrated graphics is going to be in order. We'll see.)
ETA: The computer in the basement is ten years old, having been built in spring of 2011. The addition of an SSD and a whole bunch of RAM *has* pepped it up quite a bit. :)
I foresee new computers in my future, although the current chip shortages may delay that a bit.
(I am looking at the Alder Lake CPUs with a covetous eye, but I am also waiting for the motherboards with built-in Thunderbolt support to show up at a reasonable price. And since I'm using this for recording, not for gaming, I think planning to use the integrated graphics is going to be in order. We'll see.)
ETA: The computer in the basement is ten years old, having been built in spring of 2011. The addition of an SSD and a whole bunch of RAM *has* pepped it up quite a bit. :)
Pottering Along
Jun. 28th, 2019 07:03 pmI happened, by coincidence, to pick up the new Wizards Unite game from Niantic on the day that it popped up in the Play Store. I have been playing it since and have managed to bull my way up to level 10.
I have not necessarily been playing it *well*. If I had, I would have gone out to dine at inns and to fortresses for wizarding challenges far earlier than I did. And then I would not be quite so blocked on the S.O.S. activity challenges where I placed all of the *easy* Dark Arts items fairly early. Ah, well.
I live in a zone where I get more than the average amount of Magical Games and Sports traces, so those come pretty easily; and next to a zone for Magical Creatures. Those are doing quite well.
In the meantime, if anyone would like to add a friend, my code is 2785 4767 1694.
See you around!
I have not necessarily been playing it *well*. If I had, I would have gone out to dine at inns and to fortresses for wizarding challenges far earlier than I did. And then I would not be quite so blocked on the S.O.S. activity challenges where I placed all of the *easy* Dark Arts items fairly early. Ah, well.
I live in a zone where I get more than the average amount of Magical Games and Sports traces, so those come pretty easily; and next to a zone for Magical Creatures. Those are doing quite well.
In the meantime, if anyone would like to add a friend, my code is 2785 4767 1694.
See you around!
I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together
Nov. 25th, 2018 09:57 pmWell, it took a while, but Cubase 10 is finally installed and configured so that it finds all of the existing plugins on this computer. I had to remember to update Melodyne too.
Phew.
Phew.
One Step At A Time
Nov. 25th, 2018 03:31 pmI bugged out of Chambanacon early this morning (although slightly less early than I'd feared I might need to) due to the approaching winter storm. Thus, do I carry on the tradition of the Passovoys. :)
It took a little while to get out of the hotel proper, because I had to go down to the front desk to sort out my bill. I wanted to make sure that I hadn't been charged for what should have been free Internet. I could have looked at the PDF folio that they'd emailed me, except it appears to have been corrupt, as it wouldn't open on two separate devices, even after downloading a new version of Acrobat Reader. Thus, it was off to the front desk.
There was no charge for Internet on the bill (good!), but there *was* a vagrant charge for one night of parking which I missed on first reading (bad!). So we got that taken off, a fresh copy of the bill printed, and it was off to load up the car and get on the road ahead of the weather. There was, in fact, no more than light drizzle until I got to I-355, after which there was construction and full-on rain. But I made the trip in two and a half hours, including a drive-thru to grab some breakfast and a stop for gas in Channahon (2.199 at the new Thornton's there where I'd stopped on the way down; turns out it was 2.099 at the Speedway eight miles further up the road. In any case, this was better than the 2.899 a station a few miles south of there was charging on the highway or the 2.999 at the station across the street from the Thornton's, which caused me to wonder how they sell gas at all and to speculate on what they are selling instead.).
After lunch, Gretchen and I went to the basement so that she could clean up some of the Christmas stuff that was still piled up from last year, while I downloaded and installed an update to Izotope Nectar 3. And after I installed that, I had to authorize it. And the iLok License Manager had an update that needed to be installed. And once that was installed, I had to reboot, and Windows had an update waiting for me. But then I was able to authorize the new copy of Nectar 3. (And I now recall that there seem to be four more Izotope minor updates to install. Better go do that.)
So I could start up Cubase to play with the new Nectar plugin and see how it works. But maybe I should check to see if there's a Cubase update. Oh, look! Cubase 10 is shipping. So I have now purchased and am *very slowly* downloading the 21 GB update package.
In the meantime, I reduced the mass of boxes that were sitting in a chair outside the studio to rubble and debris and sent them upstairs with Katie, which -- along with Gretchen's work! -- improves the chances of navigating to the studio without knocking anything over.
Eventually, the computer will be completely updated. I will not have *done* anything *with* the computer, but it will be updated.
Whee!
It took a little while to get out of the hotel proper, because I had to go down to the front desk to sort out my bill. I wanted to make sure that I hadn't been charged for what should have been free Internet. I could have looked at the PDF folio that they'd emailed me, except it appears to have been corrupt, as it wouldn't open on two separate devices, even after downloading a new version of Acrobat Reader. Thus, it was off to the front desk.
There was no charge for Internet on the bill (good!), but there *was* a vagrant charge for one night of parking which I missed on first reading (bad!). So we got that taken off, a fresh copy of the bill printed, and it was off to load up the car and get on the road ahead of the weather. There was, in fact, no more than light drizzle until I got to I-355, after which there was construction and full-on rain. But I made the trip in two and a half hours, including a drive-thru to grab some breakfast and a stop for gas in Channahon (2.199 at the new Thornton's there where I'd stopped on the way down; turns out it was 2.099 at the Speedway eight miles further up the road. In any case, this was better than the 2.899 a station a few miles south of there was charging on the highway or the 2.999 at the station across the street from the Thornton's, which caused me to wonder how they sell gas at all and to speculate on what they are selling instead.).
After lunch, Gretchen and I went to the basement so that she could clean up some of the Christmas stuff that was still piled up from last year, while I downloaded and installed an update to Izotope Nectar 3. And after I installed that, I had to authorize it. And the iLok License Manager had an update that needed to be installed. And once that was installed, I had to reboot, and Windows had an update waiting for me. But then I was able to authorize the new copy of Nectar 3. (And I now recall that there seem to be four more Izotope minor updates to install. Better go do that.)
So I could start up Cubase to play with the new Nectar plugin and see how it works. But maybe I should check to see if there's a Cubase update. Oh, look! Cubase 10 is shipping. So I have now purchased and am *very slowly* downloading the 21 GB update package.
In the meantime, I reduced the mass of boxes that were sitting in a chair outside the studio to rubble and debris and sent them upstairs with Katie, which -- along with Gretchen's work! -- improves the chances of navigating to the studio without knocking anything over.
Eventually, the computer will be completely updated. I will not have *done* anything *with* the computer, but it will be updated.
Whee!
Form-ally Tired of This
Oct. 10th, 2012 10:36 pmI've spent a lot of time fighting through the idiosyncrasies of Windows Forms in the last month or so. Today's entertainment was the Browse Edit user control that I wrote and getting the validation to work the way that I wanted it to.
If the user clicks the browse button associated with the edit control, I want to allow the form that contains the control to pop an arbitrary dialog to collect the information. That turns out to be not too difficult once you get the EventHandler information set up correctly.
The problem was that I wanted to populate the edit control and validate it immediately if you hit the OK button in that arbitrary dialog, but not if you hit the Cancel button. Populating the edit control was easy. Triggering validation wasn't.
Until I finally figured out that my event handler function for the browse button in the Browse Edit control class could then call the function also in the Browse Edit control class that looks for a validation handler supplied by the parent form, because that will actually do what I wanted. If I check to make sure that I've stuffed text in the edit control, that is.
*thud* *thud* *thud*
Well, that only took a couple of hours to sort out...
If the user clicks the browse button associated with the edit control, I want to allow the form that contains the control to pop an arbitrary dialog to collect the information. That turns out to be not too difficult once you get the EventHandler information set up correctly.
The problem was that I wanted to populate the edit control and validate it immediately if you hit the OK button in that arbitrary dialog, but not if you hit the Cancel button. Populating the edit control was easy. Triggering validation wasn't.
Until I finally figured out that my event handler function for the browse button in the Browse Edit control class could then call the function also in the Browse Edit control class that looks for a validation handler supplied by the parent form, because that will actually do what I wanted. If I check to make sure that I've stuffed text in the edit control, that is.
*thud* *thud* *thud*
Well, that only took a couple of hours to sort out...
Exterminate!
May. 26th, 2010 10:38 pmWith a lot of help from the tech support guys in Denver, the infection on my work PC has been exterminated. A lot of help.
It appears that I managed to acquire a new version of the Tdss rootkit. The article describes a slightly older version. The newer one is no doubt nastier.
But it's cleaned out now. I just have to take care of the collateral damage.
Which is better than rebuilding the whole computer by a long shot.
It appears that I managed to acquire a new version of the Tdss rootkit. The article describes a slightly older version. The newer one is no doubt nastier.
But it's cleaned out now. I just have to take care of the collateral damage.
Which is better than rebuilding the whole computer by a long shot.
