Moseph

Yeah, in my experience it's normal for a DAW using ASIO drivers to completely take over the sound card. Even when I set Sonar to driver-sharing mode, it still doesn't always release the driver for other programs.

It sounds like the problem is that you're trying to import a type 0 MIDI file (where everything is bunched together on one track), you want it to be a type 1 file (where everything is separated), and Ableton doesn't let you convert the type on import. I found another message board thread in which someone has the same problem with Ableton, and there are a couple of conversion programs listed in that thread. I've never used them myself so I can't vouch personally for them, but it's a place to start, at least. Googling midi type converter would probably also be fruitful.

The judges should see it if you post the question in this thread: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14735.

In the precise usage, it refers to things written between approx. 1750 and 1820.

If I had kids, I'd totally do this, but I'd turn Link into a potato rather than a girl. My kids will grow up into strange, strange people.

I'd be up for it. Do you have a starting ReMix in mind? Which reminds me, I promised Gario a Schenkerian analysis of the Mario theme some time ago and then never delivered.

I got Ultimate with the upgrade discount this summer ($400 because I already owned Kontakt), and I was surprised that Komplete 9 wasn't announced at the end of the summer. I was totally expecting it to be, though that was mostly just because I assumed they were trying to liquidate stock with their summer upgrade sale. I still have hardly scratched the surface of what's in the collection, but the big things that made me go for Ultimate over the base package were Session Strings Pro, the Gamelan, and Evolve Mutations. For me, I think Ultimate was worth the extra $200 I paid for it, but if I were buying at full price, I think I'd have just gone with the base package. Also, as a side note, if anyone else uses Session Strings Pro and is absolutely infuriated that they give you only six key switches per instance, I can hook you up with a Kontakt multi script that lets you key switch between instruments so you can use all of the articulations from a single MIDI track.

I've never heard of the brand, and it looks like it's geared toward home entertainment rather than prosumer audio work. This being the case, I'd be a little concerned about the quality of the drivers. Caveat emptor, I suppose. EDIT: And the mic inputs are 3.5 mm jacks. Usually you have 1/4" or XLR on interfaces that are actually designed to do professional-level recording.

Also, if your GFX and/or CPU temperature is high, the culprit could be dust. I had a bout of crashes in graphic intensive games a while back that turned out to be caused by dust in the graphics card. If you haven't cleaned out the inside of your computer recently, it certainly wouldn't hurt to do so. EDIT: Have you tried directly running the executables for the games and bypassing Steam altogether? The executable files for the games are in the Steam/steamapps folder.

Yeah, I had a Radium 49 and the keys were always sticky and didn't register velocities accurately. I tore it apart and used its guts to make a MIDI organ pedalboard.

Your synth can probably do that. You'll need to use an LFO to control pitch modulation. As far as terminology goes, vibrato is the more correct description of the effect. In general, "vibrato" refers to variation in pitch and "tremolo" refers to variation in loudness.

On the download page where it asks you to choose your platform, choose "music."

The upgrade to X2 should still be $99 for you for the download. It would be 8 Studio to X2 Studio, right?

Sonar X2 is now available.

I can't speak for X1 specifically, but when I upgraded from 6 to 8.5, the boxed upgrade was the full install for 8.5. I imagine it will be the same for the X1 upgrade, especially since Sonar can be installed alongside previous versions of itself, so even if you upgrade from an already-installed previous version, it still has to be a fresh install. As long as your registration of the old version is still acknowledged by Cakewalk, I doubt you'll have any trouble. Also, as an aside, if you get X1 make sure to register it before Oct. 31st so you get the free X2 upgrade. (http://www.cakewalk.com/page.aspx/Free-SONAR-X2-upgrade)

I usually work from rough paper sketches because I find that I work more efficiently if I make big picture decisions before I start trying to do detail work in a sequencer. Usually, I try to have at least the complete form and some of the melodic content decided before I move to the computer. My sketches tend to look something like this:

Drum samples are no different from any other samples.

Slight possibility I could make it to this, as I may be visiting family near there on the 13th.

The noise is a little clearer in the dry version. It sounds to me like a slight buzz in the piano strings/frame that got picked up when the samples were recorded. If you sweep frequencies with a notch filter or a high-Q EQ you may be able to figure out where exactly the noise is and then EQ it out. For generally improving the sound, I think cutting some of the midrange frequencies (~600-900 hz) would help soften the harshness.

I'd suggest spraying the jack with electrical contact cleaner rather than WD-40.

The lessons would probably be an hour a week, which is $37.50 per lesson assuming a twelve-week semester. That's not an unreasonable rate for private study with university faculty, though it's definitely an unpleasant surprise for anyone who didn't know they'd be required to take the lessons. It's perfectly reasonable to limit private lessons to their own faculty. All of the performers who are taking lessons are limited to the faculty except in very unusual circumstances, and the whole point of lessons in this particular case is that they're preparation for the music program's ear training requirements. You wouldn't want to take these lessons with an outside teacher, because an outside teacher wouldn't know exactly what areas the college expects you to be capable in as far as ear training requirements go, and the administrative powers-that-be wouldn't be able to track your progress unless they were in active communication with the teacher. They're calling it voice lessons because it would be with voice faculty and that's what the lessons would officially get registered as, but they're not trying to turn people into singers with this -- the point of the lessons is remedial ear training study, not performance per se.

Sight singing, which is the ability to look at written music and sing it and which being able to match pitch prepares you for, is considered a really big deal in academic music programs. Every music department everywhere requires that you become good at it. Certainly it's possible to be a musician or composer without being able to sight sing or match pitch, but it's much, much better to be able to, and they're skills that you will be building on as a musician for the rest of your life. Ideally, notes you hear, notes you play, notes you sing, notes you hear only in your mind, and notes you see on the page should all basically be the same thing to you. The curriculum is supposed to help you develop the ability to deal as effortlessly as possible with music in all of its forms, and matching pitch and using your voice to communicate musical information are parts of that. Anecdotally, in my private lessons in composition, my teacher made very little use of piano/computer playback. He'd just look at my written score and say something like, "I don't like how the major sixth here sounds. You might consider using a minor third instead," and might sing an example of what he had in mind. That's the goal. That's what you ultimately want to be able to do. Speaking as someone who taught ear training labs for two years, their thinking on wanting you to take private lessons before or in place of starting the ear training curriculum is this: people who are significantly behind the rest of the class in their sight singing skills won't be able to get the help in a classroom setting that they need to catch up, because the teacher won't have time to extensively work with them one-on-one without neglecting the rest of the class. The curriculum assumes that incoming students are at certain level, and if they aren't at that level initially, they're likely to fall more and more behind as the course progresses. Requiring voice lessons, which in this case would likely focus more on basic sight singing skills rather than on singing proper, is the department's attempt to get you up to speed on the things you need to know before tackling the ear training courses. It sounds harsh to say this, I know, but they're doing the ear training teachers and students a favor by not letting people into the classes until they're able to deal with the course material -- otherwise, the students who were reasonably fluent with the material would be held back by the fact that the teacher had to spend an inordinate amount of time with those who were still trying to learn the basics.

Wavosaur is a wave editor and not a DAW, the difference being that Wavosaur doesn't have MIDI editing or multitrack mixing capabilities like a DAW does.

Speaking of impulse responses, does anyone have any recommendations for high-quality impulse response collections? Among other verb plug-ins, I use Reverberate, which is really inexpensive and has a lot of nice features, but it doesn't come with much in the way of impulse responses, and using Reflektor's impulse responses (unfortunately, not with Reverberate since they use a proprietary format) has made me realize just how much better professionally-sampled impulse responses sound than the free ones I'd been using with Reverberate.

That's nice sound. Is it a plug-in, or an impulse response, or what? Google's not really giving me anything for 2cAtherVerb. My favorite verb I've found so far is the scoring studio impulse response included with Reflektor.