Moseph

FruityLoops is really popular here. You can't really go wrong with it. If you haven't found it already, there's a demo available here.

You can spend thousands if you're really into music production, but there's stuff available for free/cheap that will work. As far as software goes, Audacity (free) and Reaper ($50 for a non-commercial license) are popular free/cheap programs. You can find free sample libraries and software synths at Hammersound and KVR, and other places if you look around. If you're thinking about recording live instruments and want something better than a dinky computer microphone, you'd be looking at a $50 to $250 purchase.

Almost, but under the 6/8 definition the length of the beat varies between quarter note and dotted quarter note, and under the 3/4 2/4 variation it always remains a quarter note. (This is assuming there isn't anything weird that goes on with the 3/4 2/4 version, since I haven't seen an actual example.)

I hadn't heard the term before, but here's what the Harvard Dictionary of Music says about furiant: "A Bohemian folk dance in a rapid tempo alternating 3/4 and 2/4 meters. Examples in art music are in 3/4 with strong accents forming pairs of beats resulting in occasional hemiola patterns". [it goes on to list examples of such works.] So it sounds like the original folk music from which the term was derived used the 3/4 2/4 alternations, and then composers developed it into "3/4 with strong accents forming pairs of beats resulting in occasional hemiola patterns," which is basically a less rigid way of applying the idea. What your father described resembles the latter. I found an art music example. Check out the first movement in this Smetana piece from the International Music Score Library Project. It's in 3/4, but the phrasing feels like 2/4 most of the time. There are also parts which seem more like 6/8. EDIT: Forget what I said about the phrasing. Just listened to part of a recording of this piece -- I hadn't noticed the presto marking when I glanced over it and it moves much faster than I had thought. Parts of it feel very much like the meter your father was talking about.

And therein lies the problem -- people expect musicians to enjoy what they do, and because the job is "fun" (or art, or whatever) people refuse to believe that payment can legitimately be requested. 'Cause if you need to be paid, then it's obviously not as fun for you as it should be and you need to GTFO and make way for the real musicians who enjoy what they're doing. The ridiculous idea of getting paid to make music is like expecting to get paid to play football, hur hur, owait, people DO get paid to play football.

Indeed. We go through this EXACT SAME discussion every four months.

If someone's lyrics suck it's because he's a sucky lyric writer, not because he doesn't work at McDonald's. Top 40 radio is not worth listening to, and its particular failure to be worthwhile says more about the poor taste of mainstream America than it does about musicians in general.

No. People commissioned them to compose music and paid them for it.

Check out The Film Music Network. I've never personally pursued any of the work opportunities listed there, but I keep my eye on the things that get posted. There tend to be a lot of requests for library music and tracks for indie films.

Wasn't July power-up month a couple years back?

Foobar2000 has a double-blind testing utility for audio comparisons if you're interested in running a test with your own audio files. The speakers/headphones/soundcard you use can all impact how easily you hear a difference.

Your Core 2 is better than a P4.

Start menu > Run ... then type osk and hit enter to use the Windows on-screen keyboard. EDIT: Actually, copy/paste osk from here since you can't type it without a keyboard. EDIT 2: Actually, you're trying to log into Windows, so this still won't work. Yay for not reading the OP thoroughly.

Not only that, but according to the rebate form, you need to make the purchase at a physical store and not online:

Somewhere underneath the label on the back, there's supposed to be a screw you can turn to adjust the contrast. Might or might not help. linky

Warcraft Battle Chest (Warcraft/Warcraft II/Warcraft II expansion), Prince of Persia 1 and 2, and King's Quest VI for maybe a dollar each at the local thrift store. I love thrift stores.

This probably means I can safely stick with XP for the remaining duration of Vista's life without getting burned by compatibility issues.

Back when I was about seven, before I owned a game system, my brother and I used to occasionally rent an SNES. Dino City was one of the games we liked. Ah, memories.

Man, I haven't even seen the new pyro in action yet because I haven't had any time to play since the patch went live. Maybe things will have settled down a bit by the time I get back into the game.

I know that at least some of them are XP 64-bit compatible, but I think the chart only refers to XP 32-bit. The DAW companies' websites ought to give specific compatibility info.

So in other words, having a reserved slot doesn't keep other people from playing if you don't happen to be on at the moment? Cool. I'm interested in this because I'm considering joining the donor list, but since I'm not on every night, I'd hate to be keeping other people out even while I'm not playing.

Bahamut, how do the reserved slots work? When you add a reserved slot, do you increase the server's player limit to accommodate it, or do you take it out of the existing non-reserved slots?

Oooookay ... I have sigged this.

Um, I guess I should go make some Project Eden avatars. Until then, I remain Froggy, because no one else has him and Froggy is cool. The blasé expression on his face matches mine most of the time.

I may drop in tonight. I think I'm now familiar enough with the game that I won't completely embarrass myself. (SteamID is mozzif.)