tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15463449944032946162024-03-13T12:00:03.949-04:00bobby prince MusicUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-35699837718650326842018-10-02T19:25:00.001-04:002018-10-02T19:25:39.698-04:00Flattening A PDFI downloaded a W-9 pdf file from the IRS (the form you provide to someone you contract to work for so they can let the IRS know how much they have paid you -- and can write it off as a business expense).<br />
<br />
Nice, it is set up as a fillable form. So I typed everything in. Now to email the completed form. But, I don't want to send a form that can be edited. What I need to do is "flatten it" so it is no longer an editable form.<br />
<br />
After trying the many steps Adobe requires to flatten the pdf, I realized the IRS locks the form so you cannot change it. I guess they want everyone to print the file and mail the form -- this must be to help out its sister organization, the USPS.<br />
<br />
After a lot of experimentation and reading, I was ready to quit. Then I thought, "I'll take a screenshot!" Well, that didn't work so well due to screen size restrictions. The, I went to save the completed form and noticed under the Acrobat Edit menu a selection "Take a Snapshot." I tried it and realized it is a VERY simple method of flattening a pdf. Note that I know this works in Acrobat Pro X. Not sure about other versions (but it's worth a try).<br />
<ol>
<li>With the form open, click Edit > Take a Snapshot.</li>
<li>Swipe the whole document page -- don't include anything outside that page.</li>
<li>Click File > Create > PDF from Clipboard.</li>
<li>Voila! A flattened version.</li>
<li>For a single page, just save this file and email/store it/whatever! </li>
<li>If there are more pages to the form, it's a bit more complicated, but still easier than most methods I read on the web.</li>
<li>Take a snapshot of each page, creating a separate pdf for each page. </li>
<li>Save all the pdf's, I suggest using their page number as the file name.</li>
<li>File > Create > Combine Files into a Single PDF ...</li>
<li>Open the folder containing the pdf's of the pages.</li>
<li>Drag them into the "Combine Files" window and arrange them in order (if they aren't already arranged).</li>
<li>Save the pdf. It's flattened -- you can email/store it/whatever!</li>
</ol>
Hope this helps someone(s). Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-695795873772471942018-10-02T18:40:00.005-04:002018-10-02T18:40:58.622-04:00ReaperOver the years I have tried many DAWs. I was a user of Cakewalk from the very early days, so I pretty much stuck with it. When things went to the subscription/update system, I was careful not to update unless a new feature made it easier to use. I didn't do much updating.<br />
<br />
The Cakewalk Application Language (CAL) was one of the things that I really liked about Cakewalk. It was "somewhat" easy to figure out by looking at how others got CAL to work. Over the years, it was only maintained for backward compatibility. It's a shame it wasn't improved upon and made a bit easier to use without having to take a lot of time to learn it.<br />
<br />
Years ago, I tried Reaper. I don't actually remember much more than I tried it. Because of a recent recommendation from a friend that I try Reaper again, I did. Very soon, I saw the tremendous potential of this DAW. As with any new software, there is a learning curve, but there's plenty of help on the web to straighten the learning curve quite a bit.<br />
<br />
I've always stayed away from recommending DAW's. The biggest reason for that is that one could write a #1 song using any of the DAW software available today.<br />
<br />
I will recommend Reaper for several reasons:<br />
<ol>
<li>You can download the latest version and try it out for 60 days. After that, it still works, but you're supposed to pay for it to continue use. </li>
<li>You can install it on as many computers as you wish as long as only one copy is being used at a time. </li>
<li>You can install it as portable software because the program saves all program files and settings in the install directory. So no more having to chase down files from all over your hard drive just to take a copy of the program and run it on another computer.</li>
<li>It's $60 for personal, non-profit or educational use. If you use it commercially and your gross yearly income is less than $20,000, it's still $60 -- more than $20,000, it's $225. </li>
<li>There are a ton of actions (similar to running a CAL script in Cakewalk) that are not built into the core program but can make repetitious actions for you. They are NUMEROUS, but you can search them with keywords to find what you want. And they can be mapped to keystokes.</li>
<li>As stated above, YouTube has many good to great videos explaining the basic to the advanced. </li>
<li>It has a performance meter that lets you know the percentage of CPU use overall and for each track. The program itself doesn't appear to be a CPU hog.</li>
<li>It boots up fast.</li>
<li>Keyboard shortcuts can be set to mirror other DAWs you may have used before.</li>
<li>Once you have some of the basics down, the program just makes sense.</li>
<li>There are Reaper related sites and blogs galore.</li>
</ol>
The down side for me has been frustration in learning some of the Reaper terminology. What most DAW's refer to as a "clip," Reaper uses the term "item." When I was looking to separate a stereo track into two mono tracks, I discovered that I needed to "Explode" the items on the stereo track. One click from that discovery, the L and R channels appeared on separate mono tracks with both in a folder. "Imploding" will do the opposite action and make two mono tracks a stereo track.<br />
<br />
I'll update this as I learn more.<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-17153238166063755542018-03-02T11:46:00.001-05:002018-03-03T01:07:57.877-05:00Helpful PC ToolsHere are some PC tools (some have Mac versions) I find indispensable. I'm sure many of you reading this already know of them. I hope the info is helpful to those who aren't aware of some of them. They are in no particular order:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo" target="_blank">MediaInfo</a> - displays file information including containers, tags, video, audio and subtitles. Adds an entry on the context menu, so you right click on a file to use it. Or it runs in a window and you can drag-drop files into it. You can export the information to text, html, xml, html and MANY more. I find the Tree View the best for individual files, but you can add whole directories (sub directories included) and choose files from a drop down menu. It's free, but you might want to donate something for the project.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.dbpoweramp.com/" target="_blank">dBpoweramp</a> - if you're often in need of changing an audio file from one type to another, this is the Swiss Army knife for that. Select a file or files, right click and select convert, select the file type, and you get a quick conversion (uses multi-cores). There are lots of codecs available on this site for use with this utility.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.voidtools.com/" target="_blank">Everything</a> - this replaces Windows' slow and ever-running in the background search. It is <i style="font-weight: bold;">fast!</i> When you add a file, it appears in the Everything window immediately. It can be set up to live in the notifications area of the task bar. There are all sorts of search possibilities. It has a portable version. This is one you'll want to support with a donation. What a time saver!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php" target="_blank">Bulk Rename Utility</a> - "BRU" is another Swiss Army knife utility that is a file re-namer on steroids. I don't use this often, but when I need to, it is a huge time saver. Did you misspell a file name that is replicated like filenam000 - filenam999 (1,000 files)? Where is the %$@# E in filenam on all 1,000 files?!!! Using BRU, you go to the file directory, select all of the files to be renamed, select the BRU Add section, click insert, enter the alphanumeric(s) you want to insert and the position you want them entered. And you don't have to guess what's going to happen if you make the change -- the New Name column updates as you set up the changes you want. You can change file dates, add a folder name to the file names, replace alphanumerics with other alphanumerics (this is another way you could add the "e" to "filenam" -- search for "filenam" and replace it with "filename"). Copy/Move files, change file attributes, timestamps, and ... enough said -- check it out. Free for personal use, but a donation is appreciated.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.snapfiles.com/get/cathy.html" target="_blank">Cathy Disk Cataloging Tool</a> - got a lot of data CD/DVD's? Do they have cryptic notes as to what is on them? Do you wish you had a catalog of all the files on all your data disks? Well, this tool is the one for you! You run Cathy, put a CD/DVD in the drive, and it catalogs the files. It's fast and just does the job. Keep on putting the data media in and the catalog grows to include them, too. It's free.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.videolan.org/" target="_blank">VLC</a> - plays most any video/audio file. General MIDI files, too.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://mpc-hc.org/" target="_blank">Media Player Classic</a> - plays many media files. There's an announcement that the latest version may be the last one.<br />
<br />
OK -- how about adding your favorite utilities to this list. Just comment them in.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-58055042007442608672018-02-04T20:36:00.000-05:002018-02-04T20:36:51.321-05:00Sorry About Going Dark!When I first started this blog, I had a lot of things I wanted to share with anyone who had an interest in the subject matter. My health "experience" of the past three years surely put a damper on a lot of those plans. Of course, dying would have made the plans impossible! :-) So I'm thankful for the "experience." I'm in a position of getting somewhat good health news from time to time, which gives me periods of vacation from any heavy healthcare. I'm making the most of these times.<br />
<br />
There are a lot of songs I've written along the line that I've intended to arrange and record "later." Well "later" is here, so I spend a lot of time doing that.<br />
<br />
I'm also going to give some of the instruments and outboard gear I've stored for years a new home by auctioning them off. This includes one of the what I could call "Doom" guitars that I used to come up with music for many of the game projects I worked on. It's a red Gibson ES-330 that's had the pickups raised a bit (reversible). I bought it to celebrate not losing any fingers while in the Army. That was shortly after I returned from overseas. I bought it from George Luther at Rhythm City in Atlanta. It was my first of many purchases from him. George started the music superstore as you may know it today. If you have the time, watch George recall his and Rhythm City's experience in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sirb0CHQCMs" target="_blank">NAMM 2008 Oral History (video)</a>.<br />
<br />
George started Rhythm City in 1961 with money he and his wife had saved for years. He bought all of his merchandise with cash and never borrowed money from a bank. He would beat anyone's price to get a sale. Other music merchandisers didn't like his competition, but they had to respect his success.<br />
<br />
Sorry about going off on this, but I always loved to deal with George. When I lived in Florida in the late 90's, I was in a Sarasota mall, and well ahead of me, I saw George from behind. I caught up with him and discovered that he had retired after selling Rhythm City to Guitar Center. Reading about the sale later, suppliers and competitors praised the "shrewd move" by Guitar Center Management, and one supplier noted Guitar Center got an immediate presence in Atlanta and "<b>[took] out a major competitor</b>." I had to laugh out loud when I read the last part of that statement!<br />
<br />
I'll put up another post with more about the auction, including the reason, recent photos, the serial number and such.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-89665509327051192152017-08-15T14:32:00.001-04:002017-08-15T14:36:21.134-04:00Boss Sounds In Duke Nukem 3DFace Off wrote and asked the following question:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">"Hi Bobby.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">I have a quick question about Duke Nukem 3D. In fact it's a question I've been wondering about for years: the sounds/growls of the Battlelord and Octabrain, where did you source those sounds from? Were they from real animals??"</span></blockquote>
One of the good things about finding the old 90's data CD's was that I can give you a more definitive answer to this question than my memory would serve.<br />
<br />
These sounds were produced at a very hectic time in the production cycle -- between the release of the shareware version and the full version.<br />
<br />
According to Wikipedia:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The shareware version of the game was originally released on January 29,
1996, while the full version was released on April 19, 1996 as version
1.3d." <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_3D" target="_blank">Duke Nukem 3D - Wikipedia</a></blockquote>
I received artwork of two bosses (BOSS2.pcx and BOSS3.pcx) on around March 12, 1996. And I do mean "artwork," not animation:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KTXgrxt-u7I/WZMjZwLgVQI/AAAAAAAACuM/r9dv1RV7zS0s9YygRwjHTgVJ95fzap4dwCLcBGAs/s1600/BOSS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KTXgrxt-u7I/WZMjZwLgVQI/AAAAAAAACuM/r9dv1RV7zS0s9YygRwjHTgVJ95fzap4dwCLcBGAs/s320/BOSS2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BOSS2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k2W60UaC2Mk/WZMjZysg-DI/AAAAAAAACuQ/C8MAyf_JwrUKQE9iJnXXapFsMfnVEccKQCLcBGAs/s1600/BOSS3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k2W60UaC2Mk/WZMjZysg-DI/AAAAAAAACuQ/C8MAyf_JwrUKQE9iJnXXapFsMfnVEccKQCLcBGAs/s320/BOSS3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BOSS 3</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This explains my text to Greg Malone, the project director, when I sent potential effects to him on March 19, 1996. By the time I sent these effects, I had sent thousands of sound files. As with almost all of the projects I have worked on, the earliest potential sound effects I sent were usually the ones that were used, even though I may have sent scores of possibilities after the first one.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Note that "time and sleepiness" mentioned below probably helped me in thinking that this was written in 1995 instead of the actual year, 1996.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<blockquote>
March 19, 1995</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Hey again! </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Here are some more sfx. It is difficult to know exactly what route to<br />
take regarding the death sounds without seeing how the bosses die --<br />
but, I tried to hit a happy medium on it. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
As usual, many of these sounds are fairly interchangable, so please<br />
don't let my file names mislead you. A roam sound may be what you<br />
consider perfect for an attack sound, an attack sound for a pain sound,<br />
etc. Also, some of these may work for an earlier alien/critter if there<br />
is still some lack there. I guess plugging things into the game will be<br />
the ultimate test. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Also, I included a few walking sounds for Boss 3 -- don't know if you<br />
planned on that or not. I would think that the walking sound _could_<br />
take the place of the roaming sound. If Boss 3 is the only critter to<br />
have a walking sound, it would set him apart and people would definitely<br />
know that he is coming for them. I know that the programming aspect<br />
might be the problem with this idea. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Files included here:<br />
Boss 2 attacks -<br />
B2ATK01 WAV 11,688 03-19-96 11:48p b2atk01.WAV<br />
B2ATK02 WAV 17,494 03-19-96 11:48p b2atk02.WAV<br />
B2ATK03 WAV 8,982 03-19-96 11:48p b2atk03.WAV<br />
B2ATK04 WAV 16,376 03-19-96 11:48p b2atk04.WAV<br />
B2ATK05 WAV 18,018 03-19-96 11:48p b2atk05.WAV<br />
Boss 2 deaths -<br />
B2DIE01 WAV 18,464 03-19-96 11:48p b2die01.WAV<br />
B2DIE02 WAV 27,158 03-19-96 11:49p b2die02.WAV<br />
B2DIE03 WAV 44,828 03-19-96 11:49p b2die03.WAV<br />
Boss 2 pain -<br />
B2PAIN01 WAV 14,132 03-19-96 11:49p b2pain01.WAV<br />
B2PAIN02 WAV 9,732 03-19-96 11:49p b2pain02.WAV<br />
B2PAIN03 WAV 11,950 03-19-96 11:49p b2pain03.WAV<br />
B2PAIN04 WAV 6,182 03-19-96 11:49p b2pain04.WAV<br />
Boss 2 recognize -<br />
B2REC01 WAV 14,576 03-19-96 11:49p b2rec01.WAV<br />
B2REC02 WAV 17,546 03-19-96 11:49p b2rec02.WAV<br />
B2REC03 WAV 18,342 03-19-96 11:49p b2rec03.WAV<br />
B2REC04 WAV 10,656 03-19-96 11:49p b2rec04.WAV<br />
B2REC05 WAV 12,010 03-19-96 11:49p b2rec05.WAV<br />
B2REC06 WAV 6,844 03-19-96 11:49p b2rec06.WAV<br />
Boss 2 roam -<br />
B2ROAM01 WAV 16,850 03-19-96 11:49p b2roam01.WAV<br />
B2ROAM02 WAV 18,248 03-19-96 11:49p b2roam02.WAV<br />
B2ROAM03 WAV 11,698 03-19-96 11:49p b2roam03.WAV<br />
B2ROAM04 WAV 12,698 03-19-96 11:49p b2roam04.WAV<br />
Boss 3 attack -<br />
B3ATK01 WAV 26,882 03-19-96 11:49p b3atk01.WAV<br />
B3ATK03 WAV 17,990 03-19-96 11:49p b3atk03.WAV<br />
Boss 3 death -<br />
B3DIE01 WAV 13,160 03-19-96 11:49p b3die01.WAV<br />
B3DIE02 WAV 32,200 03-19-96 11:49p b3die02.WAV<br />
B3DIE03 WAV 24,104 03-19-96 11:49p b3die03.WAV<br />
B3DIE04 WAV 14,308 03-19-96 11:49p b3die04.WAV<br />
Boss 3 pain -<br />
B3PAIN01 WAV 12,214 03-19-96 11:50p b3pain01.WAV<br />
B3PAIN02 WAV 11,078 03-19-96 11:50p b3pain02.WAV<br />
B3PAIN03 WAV 12,564 03-19-96 11:50p b3pain03.WAV<br />
B3PAIN04 WAV 21,630 03-19-96 11:50p b3pain04.WAV<br />
B3PAIN05 WAV 30,306 03-19-96 11:50p b3pain05.WAV<br />
B3PAIN06 WAV 16,094 03-19-96 11:50p b3pain06.WAV<br />
Boss 3 recognize -<br />
B3REC01 WAV 11,506 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec01.WAV<br />
B3REC02 WAV 18,874 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec02.WAV<br />
B3REC03 WAV 15,482 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec03.WAV<br />
B3REC04 WAV 22,962 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec04.WAV<br />
B3REC05 WAV 12,190 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec05.WAV<br />
B3REC06 WAV 19,264 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec06.WAV<br />
B3REC07 WAV 22,314 03-19-96 11:50p b3rec07.WAV<br />
Boss 3 roam -<br />
B3ROAM01 WAV 22,972 03-19-96 11:50p b3roam01.WAV<br />
B3ROAM02 WAV 29,016 03-19-96 11:50p b3roam02.WAV<br />
B3ROAM03 WAV 21,658 03-19-96 11:50p b3roam03.WAV<br />
Boss 3 walk -<br />
B3WALK01 WAV 14,664 03-19-96 11:50p b3walk01.WAV<br />
B3WALK02 WAV 14,692 03-19-96 11:50p b3walk02.WAV<br />
B3WALK03 WAV 10,334 03-19-96 11:51p b3walk03.WAV </blockquote>
<blockquote>
I will try to do something with the music -- time and sleepiness may<br />
take their toll there. Wish that George had made these problems known<br />
earlier when there was plenty of time. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Bobby</blockquote>
<div>
For those of you who were not working/playing on a computer in the DOS days, you should be aware that file names in DOS could be a maximum of 8 characters, followed by a dot, followed by 3 characters. Thus the sometimes cryptic file names. The REC files are "the boss recognizes me" sounds. ROAM are the sounds made when the boss is roaming and "thinking to himself."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As for the sounds used, many were animal sounds. I used a lot of animal growls, grunts, screams, hisses and such. For BOSS3, I added mechanical/metallic sounds for his walk.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As I've mentioned in at least one other post, I record sounds whenever I travel (or hear some local, usable sound). I've been to quite a few zoos, several rain forests and other places where I might luck up on some really usable sounds. Of course, I've made use of sound effect CD's too.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A lot of the mechanical sounds I used in Duke 3D were recorded at Apogee headquarters. The coke machine: coin servo, drink supply mechanism, coins dropping in the change slot, hum of the refrigeration unit, etc. The copier cycling. The urinal flushing. The general "buzz" of multiple conversations at one time. The sky was the limit.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In recent years, I have saved the multitrack audio software files and all of the tracks' raw effects, settings, audio effects, etc. so I know how I came up with the sounds.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For Duke 3D, in those megabyte hard drive days, I would not have had disk space to store all of the raw effects I used, especially given the number of final effects that were required. Besides the effects, I also edited all of the voice over files, and there were many hundred's of those since the final voice overs were not chosen until the edited ones were completed. Add to that the rush of having to complete sound effects "yesterday," there was really no time to think about keeping track of anything more than getting things done.<br />
<br />
I'm not trying to gain any sympathy here. My wording is an attempt to show the time pressure toward the end of the project.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
It's too bad that Blogger doesn't give audio in a blog the same respect as video. It would be nice just to have an audio widget built in. Note that these are mono files, so on SoundCloud they will play on the left only. The link provided is private to keep it from cluttering up the song files up there.<br />
<br />
Hear them here: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/bobbyprincemusic/sets/boss-sounds-for-duke-nukem-3d/s-pRdb2" target="_blank">SoundCloud</a><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-71176796123790774692017-08-13T11:47:00.002-04:002017-08-14T10:49:29.619-04:00The Dark Ages of PC GamesEven for one who remember the early days of PC gaming, it's an eye opener to find documentation of what was actually happening. I recently found an old CD that contains some correspondence about my work on some of the earlier games. This was not really the Dark Ages. I remember saying it was the equivalent of Hollywood in the silent movie era, and the first "talkies" were just beginning to come out.<br />
<br />
Here's what I think is the first <b>letter</b> I wrote to Scott Miller of Apogee software on April 25, 1991. My comments upon reading this for the first time in 26 years are in brackets [FWIW].<br />
<br />
Mr. Scott Miller, President<br />
Apogee Software Productions<br />
April 25, 1991<br />
<br />
Dear Scott,<br />
<br />
I appreciate your letter and the chance to work with you and <br />
your family of software authors. I promise that I will work <br />
diligently to compose and arrange music you will be proud to <br />
include in your software. I have to apologize for not yet <br />
including the tape I promised. It will follow as soon as I have <br />
received the latest version of Sputter, the program that will <br />
allow me to translate my 16 bit samples to 8 bit SoundBlaster <br />
samples. That should be only a short time in the <br />
future.<br />
<br />
[I looked for information regarding Sputter and it has more recently been the name of some software to "accelerate BitComet downloads." Yes, this was the DOS computer days where a PC would greet you with a "C:\" followed by a flashing prompt. I well remember the computer BBS's (Bulletin Board Services) filled with questions like "What good is a PC? All I get is a "C:\" on the screen -- and when I type anything, it doesn't understand" or words to that effect. These were very confusing times for those who bought the early PC's and had never owned a computer. By this time, I had owned a "Trash 80" -- TRS-80 and had built a TRS-80 clone (it even had a color monitor way back then)!]<br />
<br />
[So, the operating system had no included software for editing audio, and Sputter was the answer to that. I have no memory of actually using Sputter.]<br />
<br />
Since I last spoke with you, I have come by some good <br />
software and instrument sounds. To me, the sounds of the <br />
instruments playing the music is as important as the music <br />
itself. I think that the music on Dark Ages is commendable, and <br />
for the most part, the choice of instruments was excellent. <br />
Anyway, I got one file that contains over 900 instrument sounds, <br />
most of which are garbage, but the task is to find the good ones. <br />
I have written a little program to audit the sounds, but it will <br />
take a while yet to get through all of them.<br />
<br />
[Dark Ages was the first "shareware" game to have AdLib sound card music. The AdLib was an FM synthesizer. It did not play digital audio, so any sound effects used in a game had to use the FM synthesizer. You can read about Dark Ages here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(1991_video_game)" target="_blank">Dark Ages (Wikipedia)</a>]<br />
<br />
[Some of the FM instrument sounds I found (called "patches" back then) were very good, and were credited to a person with a username at one of the nationwide BBS's -- Prodigy or CompuServe. I messaged him so I could send him some money for his work. I never heard back from him, or his username was no longer recognized. I never found him. Remember, there was no internet search engines back then.]<br />
<br />
[The program I wrote was in the BASIC language. I don't remember writing it. I do remember it played a melody and maybe some high and low end pitches for each new patch.]<br />
<br />
I have received the Software Development Kit for the <br />
SoundBlaster, and it has helped some. It mentioned a Composer's <br />
Utility (not included), which has not been advertised as it is <br />
new. I called Creative Labs and lucked upon talking to a <br />
salesman who is sending me those programs free (he says I will be <br />
the only one to have them outside of Creative Labs). He <br />
expressed interest in Commander Keen and Dark Ages, so I sent him <br />
a copy of the Shareware Versions. I have tried to impress upon <br />
Creative Labs the importance of helping us get good sounding <br />
games out so they will sell more cards.<br />
<br />
[I have very little recollection of this except to say I remember trying to get both AdLib and Creative Labs more interested in games that would greatly increase sound card use and sales.]<br />
<br />
I am including a list of the phone calls I have charged to <br />
your number thus far. I apologize for several very short calls <br />
where my computer failed to link up with another. The calls have <br />
been well worth the cost, especially the ones to VGER BBS, which <br />
specializes in AdLib and SoundBlaster software. All but one of <br />
the successful connections was made when I charged the call to my <br />
number (for some reason the operator assisted calls were a poorer <br />
connection).<br />
<br />
[What's an "operator assisted call?" Ha! These were still the Dark Ages for telephones. They were all wired. Many people still had rotary dials. I didn't -- touch tone dial was "the way to go" for speedster dialers like me! "Operator Assisted" meant that I actually talked to a person at the phone company (usually a lady) who made a long distance connection for me. Long distance call costs were based on time and distance, and they were not cheap, even for back then.]<br />
<br />
Also enclosed are invoices for purchases made thus far out <br />
of the $400 you sent. I have an AdLib card on order, and it <br />
should be here very soon.<br />
<br />
[One of the reasons I believed Scott Miller was the real deal: he put his money where his mouth was. He sent $400 for me to purchase what I needed to get started with sound cards. I already owned some high end synths and samplers, but they did little good to produce AdLib and Sound Blaster ready music.]<br />
<br />
[About this same time, I spoke with someone at AdLib and was told they were going to be in Atlanta for the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention in a few weeks. I went to that convention where AdLib had a booth. Surprisingly, they were not very interested in music for games. I never understood that. Evidently, AdLib felt that the sound card was going to sell well to Broadcasters?]<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I am spending time learning the instrument <br />
sounds and how they may be used as sound effects as well as <br />
musical instruments. I downloaded a program that will change <br />
Standard MIDI files to Creative Music Files and AdLib files. It <br />
is relatively primitive, but at least I can get started at <br />
hearing what things will be like on the SB/AdLib. I have also <br />
ordered a copy of a sequencer package that supposedly will allow <br />
me to compose directly on the SB/AdLib. Also, it is supposed to <br />
allow me to edit the instrument sounds -- we shall see, as what <br />
is advertised is not always what works.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[I don't remember the name of the program that translates MIDI files to Creative/AdLib files, but I do remember the name of the "sequencer package" -- it was Sequencer Plus Gold, and it was everything they advertised it to be.]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
I tried Dark Ages on my 10MHz XT, and it works just as good </div>
<div>
as it does on the 386 25MHz. Maybe your ad for it should specify </div>
<div>
a fast machine rather than a particular type of CPU?</div>
</div>
<br />
[I still have the bill for that XT PC clone. I bought the thing at Rhythm City in Atlanta from the owner, George Luther. At the same time, I bought Texture -- a pattern based sequencer. Some time after that, I bought Cakewalk 1.0. All of this was before I had started working on game music. And, WOW, a 10 MHz XT! Can you say "FAST!" And then a 386 25MHz! Can you say "BLAZING?"]<br />
<br />
I have yet to show Commander Keen to anyone that they don't <br />
sit down and get lost playing it -- it is a real winner. I look <br />
forward to working on the music for the sequel trilogy.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[As I've said before, just a week or so before I was first contacted by Scott Miller, I had downloaded the first "Commander Keen" trilogy (using the Prodigy BBS). Like others who had done the same, I was very impressed with the game. When Scott messaged me on Prodigy, I had no idea he had anything to do with Keen. He somehow picked me out of 50 or so people that responded to his post about needing someone to write music for games. In our first call, he mentioned that he marketed Commander Keen. That was all I needed to hear to accept his offer.]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
The W-9 is enclosed as requested.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[Let's don't forget TAXES!]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I will keep you posted on things as they progress. I am </div>
<div>
working on your theme, but I haven't found the right instrument </div>
<div>
sounds yet. I am enclosing a 360k disk with Color My World by </div>
<div>
Chicago on it. It is my first attempt at putting something out </div>
<div>
through the SoundBlaster. I chose it as I found instrument </div>
<div>
sounds that reminded me of the song. Just type "PLAY" and it </div>
<div>
should run, as the driver and program are included.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[I don't remember doing this. But how about the massive storage on a 360k floppy! I don't have the "Color My World" sequence or the patches I used for the sequence.]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Talk with you soon, and until then take care.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sincerely,</div>
</div>
<br />
Telephone Calls Charged to Apogee Software Productions<br />
<br />
Date - Time - Called - Reason<br />
<br />
04/17/91 - 10:30 PM EDST - VGER BBS (California) - D/L files<br />
Several attempts<br />
Charged successful call to my number<br />
<br />
04/17/91 - 11:30 PM EDST - SB BBS (SoundBlaster-California) - D/L files<br />
<br />
04/18/91 - 07:30 PM EDST - MicroMusic BBS (Atlanta) - D/L files<br />
Several attempts, no success<br />
<br />
04/18/91 - 09:00 PM EDST - MicroMusic BBS - D/L files<br />
45 minutes<br />
<br />
04/19/91 - 09:40 PM EDST - VGER BBS D/L files<br />
Unsuccessful attempts<br />
<br />
04/20/91 - 07:47 PM EDST - VGER BBS - D/L files<br />
32 minutes, charged to my number<br />
<br />
04/21/91 - 12:30 PM EDST - Creative Tech Support<br />
Told to call back next day<br />
<br />
Several calls made to Creative Labs 800 order line and transferred to Tech <br />
support, so no charges for these.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[See the notation "45 minutes" to download a file. Today you'd say, "How many gig?" Back then you would have said "Gosh, that had to be a huge file, even at 2400 baud!" Greatly simplifying it, the dial-up modem was receiving 600 bytes per second. 45 minutes is 2700 seconds. So the file must have been roughly 1.6 MEGABYTES -- a truly huge file for that time in history! Now, even at "slow" cable speeds, you'd get this file in seconds. Aren't we lucky to live in these times?]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[How does one get into writing music for video games? For me it was being prepared when LUCK STRUCK.]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-49330006421552963502016-11-11T15:19:00.001-05:002016-11-11T15:23:44.411-05:00Programs I Used When Composing On OPL FM Synth SoundcardsJason wrote with the following inquiry:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a community dedicated to composing on OPL soundcards and we
were wondering about your Doom and in general DOS music compositions.
First, what program you composed with and are the FM patches available. I
imagine they were GM patch banks defaulted by the midi composition, but
some folks were asking.</blockquote>
In the early days of the OPL soundcards, the "gold standard" sequencing software was Sequencer Plus Gold ("SPG") by Voyetra. The reason for this was it had an OPL instrument/instrument bank editor. It is still available as an "as is" download. It will run in DOSBOX though getting it to interface to MIDI devices is something I've never had time to work on. I've used it to save a few native SPG files as General MIDI files.<br />
<br />
Here's a post I put up back in 2013 that should help you some: <a href="http://bobbyprincemusic.blogspot.com/2013/07/voyetra-sequencer-plus-visited-again.html" target="_blank">Voyetra Sequencer Plus Visited Again</a> <br />
<br />
To rough out compositions, I used Cakewalk ("CW"). I had been using it for several years already and had it all set up to use the analog boxes for sound output. Having "real" sounds from those boxes helped me visualize (audiolize?) what I wanted musically. I would save the CW files in *.mid format and load them into SPG to create the OPL instrument for each track. I built different instrument banks for the different genres of music.<br />
<br />
As I said in the post linked above, I have no idea what I did with the CW and SPG native and *.mid files I created. I also have no idea about the instrument bank files. They may be on some old magneto optical disks, ZIP disks or floppies, and "one of these days" I may get the time to go through those.<br />
<br />
This information may help, too. It looks like it could possibly be used to recreate the instrument files by reading the data flow to the virtual OPL FM synth in DOSBOX: <a href="http://bobbyprincemusic.blogspot.com/2013/12/dosbox-vst.html" target="_blank">Blog post on DOSBOX-VST</a><br />
<br />
I haven't had time to check any of this out myself.<br />
<br />
The early 1990's files I created were not GM files and did not use GM patches. The *.mid files that were generated later was me taking the original non-GM files and choosing GM instruments to replace the OPL instruments. Sometimes it was a bit shocking to me how close the instruments I had created for OPL play sounded like the similar GM patches. While the GM 1.0 standard came out in 1991, it really had no used for me in the video game music until years later.<br />
<br />
If there are any specific questions that you may have, feel free to comment on this post and I'll try to answer them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-54310701785287976552016-07-12T16:00:00.000-04:002016-07-12T16:00:05.689-04:00Does Your Windows Audio Interface Sometimes Quit Working (Maybe Along With A DAW Crash)?Mine does all too often! Exasperating!<br />
<br />
At first I would just reboot. Time wasted.<br />
<br />
Then it hit me that maybe I could disable and then enable the audio interface in the Device Manager (under Sound, video and game controllers). That worked and took a lot less time, but it was still a pain.<br />
<br />
Finally I decided that there had to be a way to create a batch file to do this for me.<br />
<br />
If you're a power user, you can skip down to the numbered steps. Even then, please don't take offense if some of those steps insult your intelligence.<br />
<br />
A batch file is a text file with a <b>.bat</b> extension. It can include commands to run a program and/or computer commands. The .bat file you create automatically runs in a command prompt window. That's the window you get if you click Start, type "cmd" and Windows suggests cmd.exe. Then press Enter.<br />
<br />
The window that opens hearkens back to the early days of the PC. It's what you saw back then when you booted your computer. You had to know the name of any program you wanted to run, or you typed "dir" to get a directory that would remind you of program names. Very barbaric! BUT, it was and is a very powerful, too.<br />
<br />
I had no idea how to run the Windows Device Manager from a command prompt. Research told me it was not a simple matter of typing the name of the device manager file. There was more to it which I won't go into here.<br />
<br />
Further research revealed a program that works like the Windows Device Manager but is also easy to include in a batch file.<br />
<br />
So, here are the steps I took after this discovery. Note that you probably have to have administrator privileges to run the batch file you're going to create:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/device_manager_view.html" target="_blank">http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/device_manager_view.html</a>. Scroll to the bottom of the page and download the appropriate version of DevManView. It and the help file and a text file are in the Zip file you download.<br /></li>
<li>For tools like DevManView, I have created a directory C:\Tools. It makes it easy when you go to reference the program in a batch file. But, you can unzip the downloaded file to any directory you wish. So unZip away!<br /></li>
<li>Open Notepad.<br /></li>
<li>Highlight the text in #5 just below. Copy it (Ctrl-c).<br /></li>
<li>@rem batch file to disable and then enable the <b>AUDIO INTERFACE</b><br /><br />@rem DISABLE<br /><br />@echo.<br /><br />@echo.<br /><br />@echo Disabling <b>AUDIO INTERFACE</b> . . .<br /><br />@echo.<br /><br />@echo.<br /><br />@<b>C:\Tools\DevManView\</b>devmanview.exe /disable "<b>AUDIO INTERFACE</b>"<br /><br />@rem ENABLE<br /><br />@echo Enabling AUDIO INTERFACE . . .<br /><br />@<b>C:\Tools\DevManView\</b>devmanview.exe /enable "<b>AUDIO INTERFACE</b>"<br /></li>
<li>Paste the text into Notepad (Ctrl-v).<br /></li>
<li>Find the name of your Audio Interface as it is listed in Windows Device Manager <b>Start>Control Panel>Device Manager</b>. It will be listed under <b>Sound, video and game controllers</b>. Make sure you write it down exactly as it is listed. Keep the Device Manager window open.<br /></li>
<li>In Notepad, replace each <b>AUDIO INTERFACE</b> in the text above with the exact name of your audio interface.<br /></li>
<li>Replace the path <b>C:\Tools\DevManView\</b> with the path to where you unzipped devmanview.exe.<br /></li>
<li>Save the file to your desktop. Give it a name that will remind you what it does (Restart Audio Interface.bat, etc.).<br /></li>
<li>Find the batch file on your desktop and right click it. Select <b>Rename</b>.<br /></li>
<li>Change the extension <b>txt </b>to <b>bat</b>, This "tells" Windows that it is a file to be processed by the command prompt.<br /></li>
<li>Click on the new batch file to run it.<br /><br /> It will open a command prompt window and <b>Disabling AUDIO INTERFACE . . . </b>should appear (with the name of your audio interface instead of the words AUDIO INTERFACE).<br /><br />After that command is completed, <b>Enabling AUDIO INTERFACE . . .</b> should appear.<br /><br />After that command is completed, the command prompt window should close.<br /></li>
<li>I am NOT superstitious!</li>
</ol>
<div>
To watch the batch file in action, place the Windows Device Manager window next to where the command prompt window appears when you run this batch file. Make sure to have your device showing in that window. As the batch file runs DevManView you'll see your audio device first marked as disabled and then marked as enabled.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What exactly does the batch file do?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The <b>rem</b> lines are remarks and are there to explain what's happening. Because the output of a batch file includes the path of the batch file before each line of output, the screen output is full of gibberish.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The <b>@</b> before each line suppresses the gibberish (except lines with <b>echo</b> still show on the screen, but without gibberish).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If you want to see everything that's going on while the batch file runs, you can safely remove all of the <b>@</b>'s.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Kudos to <span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #0040ff; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 17.3333px; font-weight: bold;">Nir Sofer</span>, the author of DevManView and some other helpful tools that save users a lot of time.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I hope this helps someone!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-28547234005559286912016-03-06T03:23:00.002-05:002016-03-06T03:23:29.638-05:00A Notice from Google to Me"<span style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.</span><span style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><br />
<br style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" />
<span style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" />
<span style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you."</span><span style="background-color: #f9edbe; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<br />
OK, I'm hereby giving any European Union friends who visit this blog notice that I have no control over any cookies that are set on this blog. The notice mentioned above was not apparent on this blog when I looked a few minutes ago. And I do not "employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features."<br />
<br />
So I will say that if the EU friends who visit this site don't want to consent to whatever cookies Google uses, they should either not visit this site OR get <a href="https://www.ghostery.com/" target="_blank">Ghostery</a>, which blocks Google Analytics, AdSense and most other "trackers." You should note that some trackers have to be enabled for you to use certain aspects on websites (like playing media files). You can whitelist sites or pages so Ghostery will not block their trackers, so it's not an "all or nothing" kind of thing.<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-81972606173969621032015-12-30T23:03:00.000-05:002015-12-30T23:03:05.071-05:00A CARDBOARD Guitar!This is not a joke! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oo2H-W7d6AUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-48723299519221143962015-06-04T15:12:00.003-04:002015-06-04T15:12:44.701-04:00Staying In TuneThe Pano Tuner for iOS and Android is a free chromatic tuner that uses the microphone on your smart phone to let you know what pitch you're playing (both note name and Hz). You'll always have a tuner with you as long as you've got your phone.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There's a paid version ($1.99) but I couldn't find any info on what the "upgrade" adds. My wife uses the app dozens of times a day to keep her ukulele in tune. It works better than the clip on tuner she used before the Pano Tuner app.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The app works on any instrument. If a band has someone playing a non-tuneable instrument (for example, a xylophone or an old piano with old strings) that is not tuned to A-440, You can record the xylophone/piano playing what should be an A-440 and the app will set its A to the same freq as the xylophone/piano. Then the rest of the band can use the tuner to tune their instruments to match the xylophone/piano. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Pretty cool app!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-16906671192200002342015-01-02T11:31:00.000-05:002015-01-02T11:31:03.022-05:00Here's to Future Sound Effects DesignersYou have been around at a time when sound effects cannot get any louder. If you look at a waveform of many modern sound effects, the waveform covers the screen. When working on the sound for the pistol in Wrack, I decided to use a part of numerous gunshot effects I had. But first, this ....<br />
<br />
Do you like to travel? Are you interested in creating sound effects? OK. Start travelling for the purpose of collecting raw sounds for your own sound effects library. Check with your tax expert, but you <u>should</u> be able to deduct the cost of these trips off of your Schedule C "Sound Designer" business taxes. The trip has to be for the purpose of collecting your sound effects. As I understand it, if you do anything as a tourist, you cannot write that off.<br />
<br />
But, if you open your ears, there are worlds of sound effects waiting to be captured. Say you go to the Eiffel Tower. There are plenty of environmental sounds to be recorded. Has anyone ever recorded the sound of the tower using a contact mike? I'll bet there are some "unworldy" sounds there. Could you capture the same sound from some other tower? I doubt it. It certainly wouldn't have the same frequencies. Plus it wouldn't have the same "bragging rights."<br />
<br />
Making something you love to do a business is not a secret, but lots of people don't yet know about it.<br />
<br />
Check out the possibilities!<br />
<br />
.... Back to the Wrack pistol. What I did was take my own and stock recordings of guns firing (not just pistols). There are <b>twenty-one</b> different pistol sounds layered into the one effect. There's one lightning effect (recorded during a Florida thunderstorm). There's a bit of cannon fire, too. I used no compression and was careful not to add too much of any single sound. The waveform is recognizable if you look at typical single pistol audio waveforms.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you have to use compression, but I prefer not to if I can get away with it.<br />
<br />
Now, take a trip for the purpose of recording some new raw material for your sound effects.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-1244772358168270752014-12-27T01:06:00.001-05:002014-12-27T01:06:40.908-05:00Moog EP-3 Universal PedalThis pedal came today and I like it a lot. The only problem is it has no documentation.<br />
<br />
The pedal has smooth output throughout the pedal's travel. I tried an FC-7 (Yamaha) before this pedal and it didn't have linear output throughout the pedal's travel. It was difficult to make smooth volume/expression changes.<br />
<br />
The EP-3 has a "scalable output knob." I thought that would be a way to require less pedal travel to go from 0-127. Not so. I'm not sure what good this knob will do.<br />
<br />
I ran some tests. FWIW.<br />
<br />
Setting the knob all the way counterclockwise, my keyboard reflects that setting is data equal to zero. Moving the pedal results in no data. It's zero no matter where the pedal is set.<br />
<br />
The position of the pedal is somewhat important to the results you'll see below. I set the knob with the pedal all the way up (heel all the way down). This is the low value position.<br />
<br />
Most of the time, the knob changed the setting by two's, but it would also sometimes jump by one -- sometimes even numbered, sometimes odd. I moved the knob clockwise until there was a change in data.<br />
<br />
Knob value Low High<br />
002 002 004<br />
004 004 010<br />
006 006 012<br />
008 008 019<br />
012 012 027<br />
013 013 028<br />
014 014 030 <br />
017 017 039 <br />
<div>
018 018 039<br />
019 019 045 </div>
<div>
022 022 054 </div>
<div>
024 024 057 </div>
<div>
026 028 081 </div>
<div>
Here's where things get strange. The low number starts decreasing while the high number increases. And I'm still turning the knob clockwise.<br />
024 024 095<br />
021 021 102<br />
020 020 104<br />
018 018 107<br />
017 017 110<br />
014 014 113<br />
013 013 115<br />
011 011 118<br />
010 010 117<br />
008 008 121<br />
006 006 122<br />
005 005 123<br />
003 003 127<br />
002 002 125<br />
000 000 127<br />
<br />
Does anyone know the logic behind this?<br />
<br />
As for the pedal, it feels expensive. There is a pneumatic kind of feel to pedal movement. That will probably change over time, but it's nice now. The base is metal. The working parts look like they're metal. The upper case/pedal is plastic, but it seems to be tough. It's heavy enough not to slide when you're trying to use it. It's comfortable when used seated or standing up. The pedal travel is sufficient to enable accuracy in volume/expression changes.<br />
<br />
I hope this helps someone out there.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-79070785626278140562014-12-22T13:51:00.003-05:002014-12-27T00:04:37.781-05:00Wrack Official Soundtrack ReleasedThe Wrack Official Soundtrack (26 tracks) has been released on Steam as DLC. It will be on iTunes after Apple's seasonal vacation, which ends December 29. It's will also soon be available on Amazon, Beats, Deezer, Google, Rdio, Spotify and YouTube.<br />
<br />
Spotify: <a href="https://play.spotify.com/album/2JztVwteK04P5P5hnzvXsp">https://play.spotify.com/album/2JztVwteK04P5P5hnzvXsp</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-37479202799211729142014-12-22T13:44:00.000-05:002014-12-22T13:54:09.937-05:00Music You Remember From The First HearingThe earliest music I pretty much memorized from my first hearing was off the radio. But lots of it was from the old television serials. For me, some of the best music was the background music for the Lone Ranger. That series has been rerun many times over the years. Episodes were run during many of the local TV station Saturday "kiddie shows" back in the day.<br />
<br />
Here's the cut from the Lone Ranger that has haunted me ever since I first heard it. I wish I knew who wrote it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrr0IT2-utM#t=148">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrr0IT2-utM#t=148</a><br />
<br />
More of this piece is played in other episodes, but this is the most of it I could find right now.<br />
<br />
The music from the Lone Ranger got used over and over, from one episode to another. It gets so familiar that after a while you realize the music is often a hint as to what's about to happen in the episode.<br />
<br />
There are a lot of good lessons in this "old" music.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-17203230518500641632014-12-22T10:20:00.000-05:002014-12-22T13:57:20.598-05:00Sound Effects Can Live ForeverFor those of you interested in sound effects, this is a fascinating article written back in 2007 and republished at this link: <a href="http://www.damninteresting.com/the-wilhelm-scream/">http://www.damninteresting.com/the-wilhelm-scream/</a><br />
<br />
After posting this a friend sent this YouTube link with a sampling of movies using the Wilhelm Scream. It's hilarious: <a href="http://youtu.be/cdbYsoEasio">http://youtu.be/cdbYsoEasio</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-46363519966065211012014-11-02T17:19:00.001-05:002014-11-02T17:19:03.878-05:00Working With Game DevelopersIt has been interesting over the years to work with different game developers and development teams. As you can probably tell by many of the games I've worked on, I'm more at home with independent developers. Back in the days of working with id Software, there would be a decision to be made, and it would be made very shortly after the need for a decision. More recently, in working with Brad Carney on Wrack, I'd suggest something and Brad would make a quick decision. This is generally not true of larger development teams, and decisions usually come very slowly from them.<br />
<br />
Larger teams are also generally not interested in hearing what a composer/sound developer has to say about anything to do with a project except music/sound. If you talk about game play, graphics, ideas for additions to the project, they look at you like you're speaking a foreign language. This has often been the case with movie production teams, too.<br />
<br />
When Wolfenstein 3D was getting close to release, the artists showed everyone the game manual they had designed. It was impressive work. I looked it over and read it. Something jumped out at me. Instead of using the word "Nazi" for the enemy, they had used the word "German." I said something to the effect that "German" included many people that did not support what the Nazis did, so those German people would not like being the enemy in the game. They got what I was saying and changed the term. They were willing to listen to what I had to say though it was not about music/sound effects.<br />
<br />
After working on many projects, I decided that the most important thing about a project would be the people I'd be working with. I've turned down projects because I had a feeling they only wanted a musician, not a team member. That's not to say that I would have anything to add to a project other than music/sound effects, but I'd like to think if I did have something to add it wouldn't fall on deaf ears :-)<br />
<br />
For me, a decision to work on a project also comes down to whether the others working on the project love what they are doing. If the project is only for making money, alarms go off in my head. I'd much rather work with people who love what they are doing (and happen to make money at it). Money doesn't make up for a mechanical working environment. And projects for the principal purpose of making money usually don't do that great in the end.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-10288787880521678652014-10-22T08:55:00.003-04:002014-10-22T08:55:34.904-04:00Sequencer Plus vapimpu driverDoes anyone know where this file can be found? I've had a request for it from someone who owns an older copy of SPG. It didn't come with this file. The copy I have doesn't have it, either.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-20712362320356445132014-10-20T16:37:00.001-04:002014-10-20T16:37:24.364-04:00CAL - Cakewalk Application LanguageFor those of you who use Sonar, there is a pretty well hidden gem, CAL, which is an event-processing language that allows extending SONAR with custom editing commands. You get to the CAL scripts by clicking Process>Run CAL or CTRL-F1.<br />
<br />
Doing so gives you a list of CAL Scripts that shipped with Sonar (and maybe some you added).<br />
<br />
So what do you do with this list? First of all, notice that some of the file names are in all CAPS and they are no longer than eight alphanumeric characters followed by the .cal. This means many of these scripts were written back in DOS Cakewalk days when a file name could not be longer than eight characters.<br />
<br />
It may also mean that the CAL no longer works because Cakewalk has broken CAL over time, and they no longer actually support it except to include what is old code for backward compatibility.<br />
<br />
For those of you familiar with Cubase, CAL is the Cubase Logical Editor on steroids (when CAL works in its present state).<br />
<br />
Many Sonar users think CAL is merely a macro capability. It can be that, but it can manipulate data based upon the state of that and/or other data.<br />
<br />
How do you find out what one of these CAL's with cryptic names do? They are merely text files with a .cal extension (instead of .txt). You can open the list of CAL files (as explained in the first paragraph), right click on one of them and open it with Notepad to read the comments by the author.<br />
<br />
A CAL script works like any of Sonar's built-in editing commands. You have to select the data you wish to be edited [track(s) and time selection (From and Thru)].<br />
<br />
One of the shipped CAL scripts is named "ANY_THIN.CAL." If you right click on it and open it in a text editor, you'll see Marty Schor wrote it to thin controller data based upon the change from one controller value to the next. You, the user, chooses which controller you want thinned and the minimum difference you want between two consecutive controller values. This is much better than just deleting every 2d, 3d, 4th, so on controller value. It keeps the data smoothly changing in keeping with the original shape of the controller data (the visual representation in Sonar). This CAL still works -- I just tested it.<br />
<br />
Why would you want to thin controller data? Maybe for reasons unknown a lot of controller data causes glitches in playback on a VSTi or hardware module. You can thin the data and see if that removes the glitches.<br />
<br />
In case there is a problem with undoing a CAL command, you should always work on a copy of the track you run a CAL on. I've not lost data due to CAL, but it could happen.<br />
<br />
So, think about this: How would you do what ANY_THIN.CAL does if CAL were no longer supported in Sonar? Any method I can think of would certainly be extremely time consuming.<br />
<br />
Yes, it could be built in to Sonar.<br />
<br />
But how about this? You have a stringed instrument VSTi. It allows setting a capo to any of 24 frets plus Open -- no capo. It accepts key-switch data or Controller 4 data to set the capo. You don't know the final key of a song you're working on, so you decide not to use key-switches so you won't transpose them when you transpose the key data on that VSTi's track.<br />
<br />
The capo position chart in the VSTi docs gives the CC#4 values for each fret. You have a lot of fret changes. So you start inserting Controller 4 data in multiple places, each time having to check the position chart for an appropriate value. You use this VSTi a lot. All of this gets very tedious. Macro software won't help you here. How will it "know" what values to insert for proper capo placement?<br />
<br />
Here's where a CAL script can really help. Reading this script in Notepad, it says you should run it in Event View for the track(s) you want to use it on. You click on the first note you want the capo to affect. You also select the note to set the From/Thru times for that note (click in the leftmost column of Event View on the same row as the note and the cell turns black).<br />
<br />
Now you CTRL-F1 and double click FretInsert.cal. It opens a small window with "Capo at which fret position? (0-24)." you enter 8 for the 8th fret. Blam, a Controller 4 event with a value of 43 is inserted one tick before the note you selected.<br />
<br />
How does this work?<br />
<br />
Using a CAL function called "switch," the script finds the appropriate controller data based upon your capo fret selection. Say "FretPosition" is the variable that stores the user's input and "FretPositionData" is the controller 4 data required to set that fret position. Switch takes the value of FretPosition, looks that value up and sets FretPositionData to equal the controller data for that fret.<br />
<br />
(do<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(switch FretPosition<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> ; set the CC# 4 data value for the chosen fret position<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>0<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 0)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 3)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>2<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 9)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>3<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 15)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>4<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 20)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>5<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 26)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>6<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 33)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>7<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 38)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>8<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 43) <<< The user entered 8 so switch ran this function<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>9<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 47)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>10<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 53)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>11<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 58)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>12<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 64)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>13<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 69)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>14<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 74)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>15<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 79)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>16<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 85)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>17<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 91)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>18<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 96)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>19<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 103)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>20<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 108)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>21<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 114)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>22<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 119)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>23<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 124)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>24<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(= FretPositionData 127)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>; now insert the event one tick before the Now time (which the user set when he/she clicked on the note in the Event List.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(insert (- Now 1) Event.Chan CONTROL 4 FretPositionData)<br />
<br />
(- Now 1) is the computereze version of Now minus one (Now - 1).<br />
Event.Chan inserts the selected note's channel for this controller event.<br />
CONTROL means insert a controller event.<br />
4 is the controller number to insert.<br />
And FretPositionData is the value that switch looked up -- 43 in this case.<br />
<br />
This is explained only to show you how powerful and time saving a CAL script can be.<br />
<br />
And I'm not an expert on CAL -- I hack the code/test it/hack it/test it and so on seemingly out to infinity before I get a script to work.<br />
<br />
There are a lot of CAL scripts on the internet. If you decide to try some of them out and they work or do not work, post a message here with the name of the file. Maybe there are some that do not work but are worthy of editing so they do work. Maybe others should be tossed because they do not work any more.<br />
<br />
For those of you reading this who do use CAL, please post a reply and let us know which scripts you use. Also, if you know of some that do not work, post that too.<br />
<br />
Maybe a fire can be built under Cakewalk so they will bring CAL back in a big way, with great documentation for its use. Else it will certainly be well behind Reaper SWS and Cubase Logical Editor.<br />
<br />
Right now CAL is like a map based computer game that doesn't have a fully working, updated map editor, but it can still help do things with CAL that no other DAW I know of can do. SWS (for Reaper) may be able to do it, but I didn't see anything like it mentioned in the SWS docs.<br />
<br />
For those of you who write your own CAL scripts, I learned the hard way that you cannot insert data where no clip exists. This means even between clips. The insert goes into limbo. Also, there is already a documented problem working with CAL and Linked Clips<br />
<br />
For documentation on CAL, do a search for "Cakewalk Application Language Programming Guide for Sonar." The latest I've found is version 2.2 (24 FEB 2010). There's other documentation out there, too.You won't find any documentation like this in Sonar's help file.<br />
<br />
Thanks to Glen Gardenas, Ton Valkenburgh and Frans H. M. Bergen for putting the CAL info together!<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-79277755945803452752014-09-07T11:58:00.000-04:002014-09-07T11:58:07.937-04:00SoundCloud -- You Have A ProblemI decided to upload the music I've written for Wrack so far -- to SoundCloud. I went ahead and paid for an account since I'm going to upload other music too. I have 21 tracks for Wrack so far. Using the SoundCloud Upload link, I selected the files and watched as they uploaded.<br />
<br />
Then I received an error saying that the tracks had a problem. There was an error message on each one of them. What?<br />
<br />
After loading and reloading pages for a few minutes, I realized that all of the tracks were there -- except one.<br />
<br />
The site kept reporting 21 tracks in the playlist I uploaded to, but clearly there were just 20.<br />
<br />
After double checking the track names, I saw a warning that one track had an error uploading (a song I named "Wreckoning")..<br />
<br />
I re-uploaded it. Still there was a cryptic message to the effect of an uploading error.<br />
<br />
All the while I was logged in, there was a notification that I had messages. I had checked them and had clicked "Mark as Read" MANY times because the same messages were still popping up.<br />
<br />
About to give up, I happened to click to open the messages once more, and there it<br />
was:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D5H6VnB7qe8/VAxgizzPGaI/AAAAAAAAAvE/jNiNvghhjTc/s1600/WreckoningDisputeMessage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D5H6VnB7qe8/VAxgizzPGaI/AAAAAAAAAvE/jNiNvghhjTc/s1600/WreckoningDisputeMessage.png" height="338" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By the time I saw this, I had been working for two hours to check and double check the uploaded songs. I had also re-uploaded the song with the cryptic "there's been a problem" message. "Case 12175768!" If they started at case "1," then they' have issued over twelve million copyright notifications!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
I clicked on the link to dispute the "violation." This came up:</div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IIkehs54nac/VAu1C2x6AOI/AAAAAAAAAu0/xVnF2hVExYw/s1600/WreckoningCopyrightTakedownNotification.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IIkehs54nac/VAu1C2x6AOI/AAAAAAAAAu0/xVnF2hVExYw/s1600/WreckoningCopyrightTakedownNotification.png" height="444" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We've received a report ..." -- yeah, from your "automatic content protection system."<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I searched on SoundCloud for the artist and song listed -- a song of that name was listed, but under a different artist name.<br />
<br />
Next stop YouTube. Found the song. It was obvious that the "automatic content protection system" has some bugs. When I listened to the song I 'infringed," it was not even vaguely similar to Wreckoning."<br />
<br />
Here's the "reportedly infringed" material: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htxZZKv4pMw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htxZZKv4pMw</a><br />
<br />
Here's Wreckoning on SoundCloud*: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/bobbyprincemusic/wreckoning?in=bobbyprincemusic/sets/music-from-wrack">https://soundcloud.com/bobbyprincemusic/wreckoning?in=bobbyprincemusic/sets/music-from-wrack</a><br />
<br />
*[3 hours and 33 minutes after I submitted the "Contest copyright claim" form seen below, I received an email from SoundCloud advising that Wreckoning "has been released to my account." No apology for the intrusion on my time was included in the email,]<br />
<br />
After clicking, "I want to dispute the copyright claim, I landed on this page:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uk8IEa6VjRk/VAxn4zIyuAI/AAAAAAAAAvU/Hp5QJXODPB0/s1600/WreckoningDisputeContestClaim.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uk8IEa6VjRk/VAxn4zIyuAI/AAAAAAAAAvU/Hp5QJXODPB0/s1600/WreckoningDisputeContestClaim.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorry for the oversized graphic. Blogger has no size between "Original" and "XLarge" that's readable.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After going through this procedure, I have a problem with the following:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>SoundCloud makes customers jump through hoops because some "automated system" reported a copyright infringement. A human should double check the "automated system" before a notice is sent out.</li>
<li>SoundCloud's cryptic "problem uploading file" message should say their automated system has flagged this file as possibly being subject to the copyright of someone else, and a human will check this matter and notify of any further action taken.</li>
<li>Why would SoundCloud "share my contact information with the party making the allegations of infringement" when that party is an "automated content protection system?"</li>
</ul>
<div>
SoundCloud is still in the early alpha stage as far as I can tell. It's not really ready for prime time. Maybe I made a mistake paying for it?</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-74113808292292204262014-08-29T12:59:00.003-04:002014-08-29T13:06:04.016-04:00"Happy" Makes Me HappyTo me, the song "Happy" was an inspiration to those of us who try not to write "flash in the pan" music. The overall vibe of the recording seems to attract listeners of all ages. And I think people will feel good about the song when they hear it many years from now. It will far outlast the "bubble gum" music that's being crammed down the public's throat these days.<br />
<br />
I'm sayin' there's hope for good music yet.<br />
<br />
This morning on the Today Show, the pop artist of the day/week/month/summer/year was Ariana Grande, singing (maybe lip syncing) a couple of her mega-hits, including "Problem." There was no pretense of a band or any musicians or background singers. Just dancers making the typical moves of the day.<br />
<br />
As for the lyrics to "Problem," they prove that when five people write a song, it can be as monotonous as the best. The music strongly supports the lyrics in its own monotony. Wonderful stuff with a wonderful message for the young women who have learned every syllable of the lyrics. How could they not learn them? The chorus is monotony and repetition on steroids.<br />
<br />
This all goes to say once again -- "MARKETING DUDE!" If you get the right marketing people, you can sell any music -- and quality won't matter. Of course you've just got to get a producer/engineer who's up on the latest plugins and equipment, to give "the sound" and max VOLUME so even your ballads can compete with Death Metal.<br />
<br />
With marketing, you can become an overnight sensation -- the best singer/songwriter/producer in the world! And if you sign with <i>Universal Music Group</i>, you can appear on the Today Show (NBC/<i>Universal</i>), hold your head high and lip sync, "play" along with your hand syncing band and danceyourazzoff to your studio recordings!<br />
<br />
Make sure to instruct your marketing experts to stress that you are:<br />
<ol>
<li>an actor</li>
<li>a singer</li>
<li>a songwriter</li>
<li>a musician</li>
<li>a multi-instrumentalist (the instrument list is too expansive -- basically, give me the freaking thing and I'll make some kind of music with it!)</li>
<li>a rapper</li>
<li>a dancer </li>
<li>a record producer</li>
<li>a recording engineer</li>
<li>a re-mixer</li>
<li>a DJ</li>
<li>a television music competition coach</li>
<li>an author</li>
<li>a poet</li>
<li>a fashion designer</li>
<li>a chef</li>
<li>almost out of puberty</li>
<li>an entrepreneur</li>
<li>a volunteer to all worthy causes</li>
<li>a human <i>and</i> animal rights activist</li>
<li>a philanthropist</li>
<li>a reformed drug addict who "doesn't often do them any more"</li>
<li>prone to violence only on "very rare" occasions</li>
</ol>
<div>
Oh, and you must have the word "featuring" on all of your songs -- followed by the name of a rapper whose own marketing people have everyone convinced that he/she is the best rapper in the whole universe!</div>
<br />
I could go on, but I won't. And I'm not bitter about any of this. It's just the way it is.<br />
<br />
I'm just having fun and "keepin' it real" for this one post.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-66814701536665925942014-08-29T11:31:00.002-04:002014-08-29T13:04:57.674-04:00Finding Inspiration For WritingAlexander D. asked when the soundtrack for Wrack will be available. <a href="http://wrackgame.com/" target="_blank">Wrack</a> is a game in production. It has grown and changed a lot since its inception. With Episode One to be completed by the end of September, the work on the other episodes will begin. As a result of the longer production time, I have had the opportunity to write music as levels have been more or less finalized. I'm not writing ahead. The reason is that I get inspiration from the new/updated artwork and storyboards. You can hear the style of the level music change from Level One to Level Six. The changes have inspired a different mood for the music on the later levels.<br />
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So, do I release a partial soundtrack? That wouldn't seem fair when there's lots more music to be written yet. It would be nice if albums could be released through the mainstream like Wrack is being released -- where I could add/update tracks and they'd be available to anyone who already bought the album. But "services" like iTunes are not set up that way. It's an opportunity waiting for anyone interested in sales and marketing of music. Anyone up for competing with iTunes and the like?<br />
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I guess the album will finally be ready for release when the game is completed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-77041885533141457272014-06-10T13:59:00.001-04:002014-06-10T13:59:30.514-04:00Data Backup DiscoveriesIn a previous post about backing up data, I was looking for some usable software that didn't try to do everything. The other day, I ran upon <b>AutoVer</b> for "automatic versioning & backup." It's freeware written by Hunter Beanland, and it does exactly what I wanted -- any files I edit/save in my data directory are mirrored to another drive. I have not used it for versioning yet, since I create versions myself whenever I make a change in a file that I'm not sure is going to work.<br />
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To set up AutoVer, you create "watch folders" and set where the backup will be kept. At the same time, you can have the software create an initial backup. All of this runs in the background with no effect that I can see on continuing to use the computer for other things. It's as fast (or even faster) at doing what it does as any commercial backup software I've used.<br />
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The files are directly readable on the backup drive, so no having to wait for one huge backup file to be read before you have access to your backup file.<br />
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If you try this software and decide to use it, please consider sending Hunter a donation for his efforts.<br />
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<a href="http://beanland.net.au/AutoVer/">http://beanland.net.au/AutoVer/</a><br />
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A couple of weeks back, I was thinking about replacing a Thermaltake BlacX single external eSATA/SATA/USB drive bay with the dual model, and the day I was going to place the order, the single bay quit working. I ordered the dual model. Only one drive was accessible when I connected everything up. After searching, I found a footnote in Thermaltake's website FAQ that says the connected motherboard must support port multiplying. A footnote is no place for important information like that.<br />
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So, I'm running the drive bay via its other connection -- USB 2.0. It's as fast as I need for mirroring the files. Otherwise I'd have sent the bay back.<br />
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There's great peace of mind in having the backup drives. I'm alternating backup drives once a week (to keep one off site). That way, I am almost assured that I'll lose no more than one week of work in case of a studio disaster.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-3797112610664697742014-04-27T10:42:00.000-04:002014-04-27T10:42:56.729-04:00What Would Your Ideal Software DAW Include?I use different software for different genres of music. I hesitate to mention particular software most of the time because there is no "best" DAW overall. They all have major strengths, the strongest being you can take a good song in your head and bring it to reality. The goal here is not to start an argument over what's best.<br />
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If you have some ideas about features you'd like to see in a DAW, I'd love to hear them. Also, if you especially like some features that already exist, I'd love to hear them too.<br />
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If you'd like to comment and review the software you use for music production, it would be helpful to all of us. Please exclude commercial comments.<br />
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The first inclusion I'd like to see is the ability to list/print all of the settings in a project. Most important would be the plugins used and all of their settings. It would also be helpful to save a project including the required plugins and samples. Plugins that would work only within that one project -- and only the original "owner" of the project would be able to further edit the project. That way, backing up a complete project would ensure the life of that project beyond the life of a plugin.<br />
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What would you like to see?<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546344994403294616.post-74802531059363918392014-03-04T23:14:00.000-05:002014-03-04T23:14:26.660-05:00DistroKid.com Part 14I am happy to report that DistroKid continues to move forward in delivering on its promises. It has reported on iTunes, iTunes Match and Spotify through December 2013. Google Play and Amazon still reflect they are "Coming soon."<br />
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While it would be great to see more income from the one album and one song, I didn't expect anything from them since there's been no marketing or advertising -- just the mention on this blog.<br />
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I like the way DistroKid lays out the data on the "Bank" link. More about that below.<br />
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I put in a request for withdrawal of some of the earnings, and that went through without a hitch. You need a PayPal account to receive the funds. My withdrawal was $44.16, minus the $0.88 PayPal fee.<br />
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In the Withdrawal area, there is a link to "excruciating detail" regarding the earnings. The word "excruciating" is an understatement! There is a listing for every sale and royalties from <b>each stream. </b>The info for each row includes:<br />
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<ol>
<li>Sale Month</li>
<li>Store (iTunes, Spotify, etc.)</li>
<li>Artist</li>
<li>Title (Name of album or song)</li>
<li>Quantity</li>
<li>Customer Paid (song/album cost to customer</li>
<li>Your Royalties (EUR, USD, CAD, etc.)</li>
<li>Country of Sale</li>
<li>Exchange Rate (USD)</li>
<li>Tax Withheld</li>
<li>Earnings (USD)</li>
</ol>
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The rows are grouped by Title and that is presently hard coded. The groups of titles are not in alphabetical order.</div>
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iTunes sales are listed in three columns (Album, Song and Quantity). There were six albums and two songs sold. The earnings were among the "excruciating detail" listings.</div>
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iTunes Match has three columns (Album, Song and Streams). Every song on the album was streamed twice on iTunes Match (42 streams total), which generated royalties of $0.09! While that is a very low per stream rate, iTunes Match stores customer's entire music collection and streams it from the cloud to any device. If they stream your music (whether they bought it on iTunes or not), you get paid for the stream.</div>
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The Spotify information has the same column names as iTunes Match. There were many more streams because the music has been on Spotify for almost as long as they have been in the iTunes store. These streams range from a high of 67 down to 11. A total of 492 streams generated $2.41. That's almost half a cent per play.</div>
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DistroKid remained true to it's promise not to take a cut of any of the royalties. They have passed all royalties on to me.</div>
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I'll report more when the "Coming Soon" services come through.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1