Kanthos

When I installed the drivers on my laptop, there wasn't a choice of where to put them. Drivers generally don't install to a user-specified location like programs do (although additional software needed to use the hardware, such as an application for controlling volume and mixing and so on for a surround-sound sound card will typically be put under C:\Program Files), so I doubt that's an issue. Assuming you've done everything right so far, I suspect that your problem is either with old drivers or with the USB port itself. Do you have another USB device, ideally a mouse (since drivers won't matter in that case, at least for basic "move the cursor around the screen" functionality) that you can plug into the USB port? I've seen machines with fried ports before that work fine in all other ways. Worst case, if you're not intending to use your keyboard and laptop for live performance, you could put your DAW on both machines, record MIDI data from your keyboard on your family PC, and edit it and apply effects and so on using your laptop.

Does the keyboard turn on properly when powered by USB only? Does it show up in M-Audio's Enigma software (a free download from their site that lets you program the controls of their keyboards from your PC and then dump it to the keyboard via MIDI SysEx)? You could also try asking their tech support directly, if they don't have anything in their online knowledge base (go to Support on their site). I've asked them a couple questions before, like whether I could use two keyboards together, and they responded quickly.

I've finished all the Mario games, both of the Zelda games, and all three Final Fantasy games. I've tried Battletoads, and have finished Ninja Turtles 2 (admittedly by using the konami code to get level select and 10 lives; I was the only one of my friends with fingers fast enough to enter the code when I was growing up, so I'd often play it at someone else's house). Never tried any of the NES Megaman or Castlevania games or Metroid. I'll probably start with those. More suggestions welcome

I never had an NES growing up, since my parents were against video games for some stupid reason, so I've missed out on playing a lot of classic games. I'm on a bit of a retro kick right now and feel like playing the classics. Anyone have any recommendations of must-play games?

Have you tried removing the drivers and reinstalling them? What version of the M-Audio MIDI drivers are you using, and did you even install them? I've got an Axiom 61 and Prokeys 88es (just got the latter yesterday), and the Prokeys manual didn't tell me to install the M-Audio drivers first. I ignored it and used the drivers, and had both keyboards working at the same time without problems. FYI, they released version 4.3.00 of the drivers on something like December 31st.

@TDKenyon: I was asking why it made sense.

Does anyone know why the 5 vowel one is the way it is?

Crap, stupid typo. Good catch.

IV6 - V, with the root of V approached by a half-step from above

Huntsville's not a bad town. The company that contracts us has an office there, so I was down for a week in the summer (during the heat wave; lucky me).

Ontario, outside of Toronto.

Have fun everyone! Maybe I'll be able to make it next year.

I'm guessing that's only amazon.com, and not any of the international sites?

Fair enough. I'm not saying that this shouldn't be done, especially as a third-party thing (although I do especially like darkesword's idea of making it a generic tagging system as opposed to something specifically indicating genre; if nothing else, it's more useful that way with not significantly more coding). I was, however, saying that it's not exactly accurate to say that it's *only* a good thing

I have never played Megaman 2. That is something I shall have to change when I go home tonight. I have, however, played Mega Man II for Gameboy, which I assume isn't what you're talking about. Happy birthday!

Dark Forces?

I disagree. I've expanded my musical tastes a great deal since first coming to OCRemix. I wouldn't have, for example, tried any of zircon's non-remix music if I hadn't heard and liked his remixes first, despite none of them being able to be classified in any genre I'd have been interested in previously. The biggest problem with both genres and ratings is that they act as a negative filter, and I suspect more people will see it this way than ans a positive filter. How many people are likely to search for, say, jazz remixes but will actually end up listening to all of them? Perhaps for those who have been around the community long enough to hear all the mixes, being able to filter out songs that aren't of a specific genre might be great if you're only in a mood to hear jazz on a given day, but for someone who's relatively new to the site, I strongly suspect the tendency will be to say "I like jazz, let me see what OCRemix has", which is fine on its own, but when it's not accompanied by a followup "now that I've heard all the jazz, I'll listen to everything else too", listeners miss out on a lot that they might like if they were to hear it. I'd call this a bad thing. And even listening to music you don't like once or twice is still good, as it reinforces your idea of what you do like. Exposure to all kinds of music isn't a bad thing, and genres will likely limit that for most new listeners.

Didn't realize he'd done a Christmas album. I'll have to get that one. The second jazz album I owned was Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio, and I recently discovered his album Night Child, one of, if not the only, albums featuring Oscar playing a Rhodes. I was lucky enough to see him live a year and a half ago: it was a spur-of-the-moment thing (I'd heard on the radio that he was playing a benefit concert for World Vision, a Canadian charity about two days before the concert happened, and there were still tickets, so I bailed on another event to see him), and I was so glad I did. I missed out on seeing Joe Zawinul when he brought the Zawinul Syndicate through Toronto in 2003, and Joe passed on this September, on 9/11 ironically, so I'm really grateful to have had the chance to see Oscar as well. He will definitely be missed. I'd argue that he was the best Canadian musician, period, across all genres.

My card is an Edirol UA-25, which gives ~5ms latency. I've used it for playing live at church with an M-Audio Axiom 25 and a Korg EC-350, with the Korg's MIDI out sent to the Axiom's MIDI in, with the Axiom sending to the laptop via USB. I ran the UA-25's output through a DI box into the system, and was able to play using only the house speakers (before we got the monitors running) without any noticeable delay. On my old setup, I was at 12ms latency and found it impossible to play with using only one MIDI keyboard and PC speakers or headphones as the audio output source. Basically, your sound card drivers and setup make all the difference.

Just a note: the latency rating that you get in Cubase is based on your sound card alone. The *only* thing that will affect that number is adjusting the latency and/or buffer size in your sound card's control panel. Cubase can't change that for you, as far as I know (been a week since I last looked at that panel in Cubase, so I'm going by memory; I'm using Cubase 4 if it makes any difference). If you're unfamiliar with your Device Setup panel, let me know, and especially if you're using Cubase 4, I'll fire up my copy and take a look. I'm just not going to do it now since my Steinberg key is upstairs Feel free to ask me any other Cubase questions you might have. I'm no expert, but I'm online a fair bit, and there aren't that many Cubase users here. A faster CPU won't affect the latency rating you see in Cubase or in your soundcard's control panel in any way, although it will affect the *overall* latency. Let me explain (and sorry if this seems too basic; I don't intend to insult). Basically, when your soundcard is playing back data, it buffers some of the audio before playing it. Imagine there was no buffer for a minute: your sound card would have to request data from the CPU to be played back instantly. That's fine, unless your CPU can't give data instantly (for example, another process is running on the CPU for a few microseconds, something like one of the numerous background processes Windows needs to run). Without any buffer at all, there won't be any sound to play, so you'll get clicks or pops in your audio. Instead, the audio card uses a buffer to hold some data for a bit before playing it: the CPU puts data at the end of the buffer, while the audio card reads from the front. As your buffer size approaches 0, you're more likely to get a buffer underrun (the sound card wants to play data but there isn't any), causing clicks or pops. As your buffer size gets too big, it'll take longer for data sent by the CPU to get played. This is your sound card's playback latency. There are, of course, other kinds of latency: the time it takes for the audio signal to get from your instrument through your soundcard to your CPU, the time it takes for the CPU to process the sounds and/or MIDI data it wants to play and send output sound to the soundcard, and the time it takes your ears to hear the sound the soundcard produces. Obviously, minimizing your sound card latency is an important step in minimizing the overall latency. Now if you're not recording (whether MIDI or audio) along with existing audio, you might think that you can get away with setting a really big buffer for your soundcard, and if you do, you might wonder why you still hear clicks and pops. Your CPU speed does matter here (as do things like plugins that read from your hard drive instead of storing all the samples in memory; a lot of Native Instruments products and EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra do this to reduce the memory load), and even with a large buffer, if you're pushing your CPU too hard, it may not be able to keep up. As for what you can upgrade: your CPU sounds like it's the biggest problem. A better soundcard might not be that bad, but I'd start with a new CPU first. More RAM never hurts, particularly if you're doing much with samples instead of low-memory synths. I'd suggest a better computer, and try and tweak your existing sound card to perform well with the new machine before you get a new soundcard, assuming it meets all your needs in terms of input, sample rate, and so on.

Hmm. I want an 88-key keyboard with MIDI out and good action, although I won't get that. Also, I want Prophet's Rhodes. Gypsy would really suit your style, I think. Good luck!

Good taste in rings, and nice photos. The photographer did a really good job for you guys.

Theory is simple if you define theory to be keys, major/minor scales, and triads. Start adding the various 4-note chords, modal music, 4-part arrangement, counterpoint and harmony techniques, cadences, and also keep a good sense about when and how those techniques should and shouldn't be used, and things start getting really complex really quickly. I have a reasonably high understanding of theory, through classes when I took piano lessons, a university course extending that (would've covered the next theory course I'd have taken if I'd kept up my piano lessons), self-taught learning, and actually applying the theory to what I play, particularly in jazz (knowing how to form chords is one thing; seeing that actually used in real music and understanding the form of pieces you're playing is very different). I think some theory is 100% essential. If you're trying to play in a group setting or read music, you really can't get away with not knowing keys and scales. More advanced stuff is, I think, a big asset, particularly if you're writing or arranging for certain genres. I can't, for example, write a piano chart for a jazz song and expect any competent player to play it if I don't understand the chords I want used. I could write it out note by note or I could just write chord symbols; either way, if it's going to work, I need to understand the chords. Theory isn't as important in performance, but it does help a lot. I generally don't have time to analyze theory when I improv, other than looking at the root notes of the chords; beyond that, I just "feel" the nature of the chords given what the rhythm section is doing combined with the knowledge that sticking strictly to the notated chords doesn't always give the best solo anyway; they just roughly define what the rhythm section is doing. The more I know about the chords, the better I'm likely to be, although I'm not good enough to do that when sightreading.

Not sure if I'll have time or not; I won't be able to get to this until Saturday but I have next week off. If I do, I have a good concept for Angels We Have Heard On High on the B3.

If you're only using a step sequencer or piano roll, that latency is fine, because any good DAW will compensate for it and the end result is that you'd be hearing the sound roughly 13.5 ms later than you would on a machine with 0 latency (which, of course, doesn't exist, but theoretically...). If you're trying to play with your audio, whether you're using a MIDI controller or recording your live playing, latency that high can be really painful. That said, humans have varying threshholds for noticing that kind of thing. Dafydd, you may be able to deal with a latency that high, while Prophet and I can't (10 ms or higher and I can't deal with it; I keep mine around 5 ms). Either way, knowing exactly what kind of machine Skummel has and what kind of synths/VSTs, gear, and so on, will make a difference to what we can recommend.