Monthly Archives: January 2010

Tell Me a Story

Posted on January 31, 2010 by midiguru

Today I uploaded four more short stories to my humble website. For years I resisted doing this type of self-publishing, and for a very simple reason: Most of the fiction people put up on the Web is utter crap. It’s … Continue reading →

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Okay, Everybody out of the Pool

Posted on January 29, 2010 by midiguru

I’m trying to like Sonar 8.5. It’s got a lot of little tiny buttons, but I’m starting to think maybe I can deal with it. And then… And then I discover that the 64-bit version won’t import REX files. Isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in music, technology | 1 Comment

RTFM? Gee, I’d love to…

Posted on January 29, 2010 by midiguru

One of the dubious benefits of being a music technology guru is that I have ridiculous numbers of high-end programs on my hard drive. After my fiasco earlier today trying to get Cubase to handle multi-output audio coming from VST … Continue reading →

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Underrun Run

Posted on January 29, 2010 by midiguru

Music technology sucks. In the story I’m about to tell, I want to make it clear that I’m not blaming any particular company or software development team. The problems I’m having today are symptomatic, rather, of the entire state of … Continue reading →

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Chicken Man

Posted on January 29, 2010 by midiguru

This is a story about the power of positive reinforcement. I no longer remember who told me the story — possibly it was my friend Aishala, whose brother knew the participants. In any event, it has the ring of truth. … Continue reading →

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Stuck in Lodi

Posted on January 28, 2010 by midiguru

Today I’m thinking it would be very nice to have a group of local artists to hang out with — preferably people with whom I have a modest amount in common. Maybe even a group of musicians. I mean, it’s … Continue reading →

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Slotted

Posted on January 25, 2010 by midiguru

So I ordered a new PCI card for my new computer in order to get it to work properly with the Yamaha mLAN driver. But — whoops, silly me! I looked at the back of the computer, saw metal tabs … Continue reading →

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How to Make Yourself Unpopular

Posted on January 24, 2010 by midiguru

Over on rec.arts.int-fiction, one particular individual (who shall remain nameless here) has been doing an unusual amount of ranting and raving lately. It’s an unmoderated newsgroup, so anyone can post anything they care to. It’s to be expected that misunderstandings … Continue reading →

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It’s … Blue

Posted on January 24, 2010 by midiguru

Creating music with Csound is a slow and fiddly process, granted.  But I’m still playing with it. The essential thing, it seem to me, is this: Conventional music software makes certain assumptions about your music — that it will have … Continue reading →

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Keeping Track

Posted on January 19, 2010 by midiguru

Update on the “swirly shit” mystery track conundrum: A Yamaha tech support professional explained to me that there are actually two different Motif XS editors for Windows 7. One is stand-alone and the other is a VST plug-in. (In fact, … Continue reading →

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