Moseph

Shot in the dark, but is it maybe some sort of security feature that got turned on which only lets you do specific things? Are you logged into Windows as the admin?

I'm listening through a not-so-great setup right now, but the overall mix sounds bass-heavy to me. I'm using EQ to cut by about 3 db in the frequencies below 750 hz, and that seems to tighten everything up a bit -- vocals included -- so you might want to play around with that.

I've never used Cubase, so this may be no help at all ... You could try this (it works in Sonar; it may work in Cubase): Open the file with the tempo info you want. Bring up the tempo track view, highlight want you need, and copy. Close the file (or if Cubase lets you have multiple files open, you can leave it open). Open the other file, bring up its tempo track view, and paste.

I just bought 6 pretty recently, but I may upgrade. The MIDI tools overhaul looks like a very good thing.

I haven't played around with this too much yet, but what I've done so far seems promising. I've picked apart the NN-XT patches (for each of the string sections, so far) and set each of an instrument's various articulations as a separate zone in an new NN-XT patch. I've set each of these zones to use a different output on the NN-XT. This basically means that I can use a single MIDI track to trigger every possible articulation, and then automate each articulation's level using a mixer. I guess you could do the same thing by combinating a bunch of NN-XTs with the different articulations, triggering the Combinator with a MIDI track, and mixing the NN-XTs' outputs, but there's duplication of data between a lot of the standard patches, and cutting that out and minimizing the number of NN-XTs (like the method above does) would make a file with an entire orchestra load much more quickly.

Yeah, for most VSTs if the synth properties option isn't checked, it doesn't give you the synth window so you can't really do anything with the synth. If you insert the synth without that option checked or if you've closed the synth window and need it back, the way to bring it up again (in Sonar 6) is Views > Synth Rack, then double-click your synth in the window that comes up. Or, in the mixer, double-click the input field on the synth's track (it should say "sfz 1 Primary Out: Stereo)". Glad we could help!

I have neither Kontakt, nor HALion, but man, 18 gigs of samples for a hundred bucks ... I may have to just buy it and just save it for when I get the equipment to use it.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, here's how I get SFZ to play SoundFonts in Sonar 6. Sonar 3 ought to be similar. Let me know if this is more or less what you've tried. From Sonar's Insert menu, I choose Soft Synths, then SFZ. It brings up the Insert Soft Synth Options box. I ensure that the boxes "MIDI Source," "First Synth Audio Output," and "Synth Property Page" are checked and hit OK. It brings up the SFZ window. I click the long gray field to the right of "File." It brings up a load window. I select, say, Sitar.sf2 and hit Open. The File field now says "Sitar.sf2" and the Program field says "0: Sitar." When I click and drag the mouse along the dark gray strip at the bottom of the window, it previews the sounds. Keep in mind that not every note is always assigned a sound in a SoundFont. There are some SoundFonts where only a couple of notes actually make a sound, and you have to try all the notes to find them (clicking and dragging slowly across the dark gray test strip lets you do this). EDIT: There are some SoundFonts that contain bank and program data which allow multiple patches in one .sf2 file, but SFZ reads these properly, so that's probably not CHIPP's problem. EDIT 2: I just downloaded ns_kit7free and it works with SFZ.

You'll need a microphone, of course. Your $10 PC mic probably uses one of those 1/8" plugs (looks like a headphone plug) and connects to your computer's line-in/microphone jack, right? To get a high-quality recording, you'll want to use a higher-quality mic -- the kind that uses XLR microphone cable instead of headphone-like cable. About the only cheap mic I know anything about is the Shure SM-57/SM-58 ($100-ish), but I'm pretty sure there are even cheaper mics that might work for your purposes. example You'll also need a sound card or an audio interface to hook the mic to. You'll want something with at least one XLR-input so you can connect the mic directly without having to worry about cable conversion or mic power issues. example You'll need some XLR cable to connect the mic to the audio interface. example And you'll need a computer program to handle the recording. If you're not doing anything really heavy-duty, Audacity should work fine. Or if you don't want to do the legwork of assembling your own setup, you could buy an entry-level recording bundle. example

Here's the obligatory WikiLink Maggot Brain

Have you tried any other SoundFonts in it to see if they work? (If you don't have others, you can get 'em at hammersound.net)

What version of Sonar are you using? In the newer versions (4 and later, I think) you can use the included SFZ soft synth to load SoundFonts. If your version of Sonar didn't come with it, you can (as Yoozer said) download it here: http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfz.htm

I'm not well-versed in the guitar repertoire, but this might be a good place to start: The International Music Score Library Project's List of Compositions Featuring the Guitar/Lute I doubt this list is exhaustive, but they have downloadable sheet music for everything listed.

Can't help you with the hard drive, but I would like to chime in that the headphone short is exactly what happened to my Dell laptop. My next computer is so not going to be a Dell.

I am having this problem too, but my monitor setup is the same as it's always been (laptop screen + CRT). My comp will usually go into standby after a half hour or so and entirely skip the screensaver stage. Sometimes the screensaver will start working again, but I'm not sure what causes it. IIRC, this started about a month ago, around the time I installed Windows Media Player 11/installed Exact Audio Copy/updated WinAmp. Also, when I reboot I get an ending program box for some sort of Microsoft .NET 2.0 thing. I think this started around the same time -- not sure if it's related. EDIT: I just tried using mscofig to reboot in diagnostic mode, and the screensaver worked. Then I turned my startup programs, services, etc. back on, and the screensaver still works. Weird. I don't know if it will last.

Next on the agenda: International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Insert > Soft Synths > SFZ

Indeed. That's the main reason I use Sonar instead of Cubase.

I'm downloading the one with the pretty colored buttons. Google Translate seems to call it "Hen lever phosphorus VST," which sounds exciting.

Yeah, the website's a bit weird. There was some other messageboard I ran across where people were having trouble, too, and their conclusion was that the site was overloaded with traffic because Yellow Tools isn't using any kind of mirror to host their 2 gig download. I finally got the site to work (albeit very slowly) at around 3:30 in the morning (EST), and the download itself seemed to run at full speed. EDIT: Also, for whatever it's worth, the site began working with IE before it stared working for Firefox.

Had some trouble accessing the site (too many greedy downloaders like me?), but managed to get it downloaded. The stand-alone program doesn't seem to recognize WDM drivers, but I found ASIO drivers for my laptop's integrated soundcard (http://www.asio4all.com/), so now it works, and all my other audio software has the benefit of ASIO, too. So even if the sounds turn out to be garbage, it was worth the download just for that. Also, the Windows version doesn't need the software key. Coolness.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what specifically are the ReMixes that use the Orkester soundbank? I'm trying to scrape together the money for VSL SE, but I'm stuck with the Reason samples right now and I'm kind of interested in hearing what others have done with them.

The Brawl cancellation got canceled.

By a .mus file, do you mean a Finale file? If so, you can (only on a Mac) convert from inside Finale -- IIRC you go to the print dialogue box and select Print to File, and then it gives you the option to save as PDF.

I'm using Finale (2006). Back when I bought it, I considered getting Sibelius instead, but Finale was what my school was using and I was already fairly comfortable with the program. Sibelius is great, though, because it forces Finale to remain competitive -- the main updates for the 2007 version were basically copied from Sibelius 4 (video scoring, automatic part extraction). I'm told that Finale was much, much worse before Sibelius existed. The big problem with Finale is that when they update they focus on stupid stuff like textured backgrounds, WAV file incorporation, sound libraries, etc. instead of FIXING THE NOTATION ISSUES! (Which is why I'm still on 2006.) As far as I know, it's still impossible to do slashed, beamed grace notes without drawing the slash yourself. (Which reminds me -- can Sibelius do that more easily?) I hadn't realized Sibelius 5 was out . . . I'm reading the features list right now. The idea hub looks like a kind of nice feature. And they added a view like Finale's scroll view (about time -- that was one of the things I preferred about Finale). I'll have to see if there's a demo.