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chrissydamage
Silver Member
United Kingdom
180 Posts |
 Posted - 12/08/2009 : 20:37:25
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Already got all of the materials I need too- one studio full to the brim of gear, one can of petrol, a book of matches and a lot of anger.............
Please allow me to share with you all my tale of misfortune.......
Here is my studio 'Damageland' built in my garden in a purpose built shed a few months ago (a very large shed, the frame you can see in the nearest window is actually a 3 tiered synth stand!)
'Damageland' as I refer to it has taken on a complete new meaning since it was built- I have damaged nearly every single piece of equipment inside through an eclectic mix of ignorance, very bad luck, clumsiness and other external factors far beyond my control.
The first thing I did after opening the doors was to drop my mixer on the floor face down and take out one of the channels. Great start!
I then proceeded to take out a pair of Akais with a faulty SCSI lead (or at least thats what I'm telling myself), managed to get them working again using the termination power on the ZIP drive and aside from getting an annoying 'drive not ready' message from time to time, worked great until a floppy disk disintegrated in the S1000 and that had to come apart.....
Next I blew the Steinberg dongle up- now thats been replaced at my expense and a couple of weeks with no machine
I'm also on my 4th main laptop in the last 6 months (3 backed for serious performance issues rendering them totally useless for audio aplications), my secondary laptop is on its 5th OS in the same time (Lost Windows XP disc, moved then to Ubuntu Studio (too slow) then Slackware (lol), openSUSE (again slow, and don't understand YAST) and finally Debian (fingers crossed).....
In a year where I was meant to be realising my ambition of actually recording and producing some kind of album before I hit the big 30 I seem to have just wasted an entire year messing around with stuff that really should not concern me.....
Wind0ws V1sta has a lot to answer for certainly- that has been the major source of annoyance, problems and timewasting so far. If the midi/audio latency wasn't such a joke and the OS wasn't such a RAM killer I wouldn't even have to resort to half of all this pecking about with such old gear and could just use a PC for everything- I just can't get the laptop to sync adequately with anything though and its a total waste of time me even trying it seems (its quite a powerful laptop too, 4GB ram Dual core t5800 etc etc)
But anyway I digress...... All this time was not spent (entirely) in vain, while all this was going on I actually had 3 working tracks on the go in varying stages of completion......
.......until the sodding hard drive packed up yesterday with a corrupted boot sector. Everything is lost, all my work, ideas, experiments, every arrangement I created during this entire time is gone.
So the way I'm feeling right now I could quite happily torch this entire building 'Black Ark' style.......
But nobody likes a quitter......I'm not giving up just yet- I just need a fresh approach and we'll soon be rocking again- at least all the construction kits I spent months creating are all on floppy :)
If anyone out there has any experience of using PCs as either DAWs/instruments/sequencers/trackers please feel free to share the knowledge of how you make it work, what hardware/software/spec/OS you have and how good it is...... I'm thinking of giving the PC another try........
At least all my Boss pedals still work  |
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DasBeef
Gold Member
United Kingdom
704 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 20:50:25
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Sorry to hear about you misfortune. Hopefully things will start looking up soon!!
Best thing I've ever bought for messing around with recording?
A Mac. They're just ace...
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 22:14:30
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That's rotten luck. Hope things start changing for the better soon.
Typical that the Boss pedals are still working. Boss should make computers  |
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chrissydamage
Silver Member
United Kingdom
180 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 22:22:18
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Now that might be a very good idea.......
Whats the latency like on the Macs? I need ideally 16 channels of 44/48kHz audio running simultaneously and driving maybe a couple of external machines via midi
Are they backwards compatable with the old Macs too? All the Akai editor programs are all written specifically for the Mac and I actually have them all here on floppy disk but never actually owned a computer to use them on and always resorted to pressing buttons on the machines.......
......thats pretty dumb actually isn't it? The answer to all my problems has been potentially sitting in a cupboard gathering dust for about a year just crying out to be used-
I bet the discs probably don't work any more either knowing my luck at the moment........ |
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chrissydamage
Silver Member
United Kingdom
180 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 22:42:31
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quote:
Originally posted by bossarea
That's rotten luck. Hope things start changing for the better soon.
Typical that the Boss pedals are still working. Boss should make computers
Cheers dude :)
I wish Boss did make computers I'd certainly buy one......They had a sister company that made them in the 80's though.......
Anyone ever seen one of those before? Wonder how many of those there are in the world....... |
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Laurie
Double Platinum Member
Canada
4854 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 22:56:04
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chrissydamage...
I feel your pain. Parts of your story are familar to many of us. Perhaps you are the first to have such a comprehensive alignment of f%$k-up fairy dust though 
I have a registered copy of Cubase that hasn't seen the light of day for years. Why? Because it took so much sodding time to make everything work together. I ended up going back to my "roots" and bought a couple fo guitars and "a few" pedals...
That being said, if one wants to record, one really does need to set oneself up with the right gear. To that end, the experience you have gained in the last year probably couldn't be learned in a course. I believe that you have lived through the worst.
Often the very best results come from rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the first failed attempt. Perhaps "strip it all down and start again using what you learned" is what the universe is saying to you? (excuse the cosmic crap, but sometimes it is a good model to cope with adversity  )
My own recent experience with the design of the HZD Boost pedal that I've been rabbiting on about in other threads wasn't too different. The first attempt was pretty abysmal, and I nearly smashed it and never finished it. Perseverance, time, help from friends, and 12 subsequent design revisions(!) have produced something wonderful.
Keep at it mate - even if you don't end up where you plan to be, at least you will have walked the road where others sat in their armchairs in front of the telly.
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Edited by - Laurie on 12/08/2009 23:00:09 |
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DasBeef
Gold Member
United Kingdom
704 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 22:58:37
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quote:
Originally posted by chrissydamage
Now that might be a very good idea.......
Whats the latency like on the Macs? I need ideally 16 channels of 44/48kHz audio running simultaneously and driving maybe a couple of external machines via midi
Are they backwards compatable with the old Macs too? All the Akai editor programs are all written specifically for the Mac and I actually have them all here on floppy disk but never actually owned a computer to use them on and always resorted to pressing buttons on the machines.......
......thats pretty dumb actually isn't it? The answer to all my problems has been potentially sitting in a cupboard gathering dust for about a year just crying out to be used-
I bet the discs probably don't work any more either knowing my luck at the moment........
I can't answer all of you questions, but if you have a Mac store near by, then the people in there generally know their stuff. There will be someone usually who's clued up on all the music side of things.
My current set up is a microphone going straight into my mac, and I'm currently using Garageband. It's a savage setup I know, but I'm not looking for proffessional recordings. Just demos for funsies. Garagege band only allows 8 real instrument tracks. I have no idea how many virtual instrument tracks it would let you have, but I have used all 8 real tracks, and 2 virtual instrument tracks, one of which was recorded via a Midi keyboard, with the setup I mentioned and suffered no latency whatsoever. My mac is the mac book white, not the current model but the one previous. I specced up the RAM to 4gb, and got a slightly bigger hard drive. I think the current incarnation is a pretty similar spec to what mine ended up.
If you're serious about recording, I would certainly reccomend you get a better Mac than mine. Especially if you are wanting proffessional sounding recordings. You will also require Logic if you're needing more tracks. You can find plenty info on all of this via the web. Feel free to fire me any more questions though!
If you want to hear what I managed to record using a guitar plugged straight into garageband, using the simulated pedals and amps, and using their drum loops, check out this thread....
*edit - messed up my BB code. Doh! |
Edited by - DasBeef on 12/08/2009 23:00:17 |
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chrissydamage
Silver Member
United Kingdom
180 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2009 : 03:00:36
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Thanks for the kind words guys......F up Fairy Dust lol I enjoyed that one particularly......
Dasbeef- thats nice work man- like the guitar tones especially that lead tone
I've heard great things about Garageband and I bet that makes recording guitar a piece of the proverbial but I've got quite a 'hardware heavy' studio and I dunno if its the best thing to use for me cos I'm not really doing 'band' type music really.....
Macs do cost so much money as well and to get a good one with all the peripherals is gonna be a fortune..... I think an older one might actually suit me better if I can get the right hardware but who knows - I might go down the shop and speak to them and do some research on Macs and see what the options are....
I actually found the results of my last 'experience' with PC audio on my laptop- not a proper recording at all, but the only surviving fragment of a tune I was working on back in the good old days of functional harddrives: (don't all laugh)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ndgmmzjmawf/drum146break.wav
http://www.mediafire.com/file/lwwz2w2kqxm/drum146harder.wav
I was trying to record from my Akai via a coaxial-toslink converter -into my laptop and the results were horrid, digital latancy was just as bad even on the way in.....
Even using 4mm thick optical cables and the PC just didn't like it.....
It was gonna require so much editing and clearly there were issues and I just couldn't be bothered and abandoned it after a few attempts and bought a DAT recorder- alas I didn't quite manage to get it fired up in time lol....
Most of my music is about 80% drums anyway at the moment, I love the sound of the Akais and I think I would want to preserve an element of that in my music for sure, if I could sample the loops digitally onto a proper computer and edit them/sequence them that would save me time, If I could drive the Akais and other gear with the same computer in question as well that would be perfect......
Thats actually all I've ever wanted to do with a computer since about 1996 but technology always seems to stand in my way somehow......
I've got an Access Virus A sitting here that sounds absolutely wicked and is just crying out to be used....hasn't really seen much use yet either because I've just been working purely on drums and can't even get them right
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2009 : 03:03:10
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Hi crissydamage...
love the shed don't torch it just yet bro'.... .. i have a shed that i NEED to convert for my gear due to lack of space/little sticky fingers.... ,sorry to hear of your recording problems....maybe the way to go is to back it up on some older technology that can't crash....a DAT machine etc.... |
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natthu
Gold Member
Australia
756 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2009 : 11:16:18
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Whoa... that sucks.
When I was living in the UK I had no way to record my work. All the songs I wrote (over 3 years) were written down on bits of paper which promptly disappeared somehow when I moved back to Aus.
I recorded the songs I remembered when I got home only to have my HDD blow up some time later, taking it all with it.
Annoyingly I think that 3 years was when I wrote my best stuff (maybe I just think that because I can't remember how most of it was!).
Now-a-days I rely on a friend who owns a properly working and not-cursed studio for all my recording needs. We meticulously make Back-ups of everything no matter how unimportant it seems at the time.
I'm sure you'll recover from this run of crappy luck, and like the others said - as annoying as it is, it's all a learning experience.
I'm looking forward to hearing some great bad-experience-inspired angsty tracks from you |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2009 : 12:48:16
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Hi chrissydamage
On the subject ot the Hard Disk with the bad boot sector.
Don't know if you have ever heard of:
Steve Gibson's gift from the Gods application called,
Spinrite.
Saved many peoples butts many times,
it's been around since the early 80's.
If you haven't seen it, I seriously recommend you check it out.
I'm not affiliated with the company,
but highly recommend it to everyone who has suffered some kind of HD issues.
In most cases you'll get your HD back.
It is very meticulous & can be very slow,
but when your HD comes back online, you'll forget it may have taken 1 hour to 3-5 days to fully restore the HD.
It's not a backup program, it's a HD diagnostics & auto repair tool.
I've seen it fix almost everything me & my Tech mates have thrown at it.
Short of stuffed & worn out spindle bearings, or fried embedded PCB on the back of the drives.
Please don't ignore my suggestion, you may just get all your data back.
It's not free, but what is your recovered data worth to you?
Corrupted boot sectors are a POP for this app.
guess what the guys in the back rooms of the HD repair/recover data Labs use first.
You can trust the guy with your new newborn or 50's Stracocaster.
He's also a part time advisory & consultant of some of worlds most prestigious & well respected security agencies.
Gibson Research Corporation.
www.grc.com
Regards Dr. Bob |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2009 : 13:17:01
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Hi chrissydamage
I thought it best to keep the hardware issue in a seperate post.
Please clarify:
16 channels of real-time recording, or real-time playback?
There's a huge difference in the requirements.
If it 16 Channels of simultaneous real-time recording?
That's some seriously heavy processor, CPU cycles & hardware you are going to need.
Either platform - you'll probably need to look at Pro-Tools HD
(HD = Hardware solution), & you're stating to loot as some serious $$'s in USA$$'s.
Do you understand what freezing tracks means?
This will help reduce the hardware & processor overheads.
Both ProTools & Logic use this to save overheads.
I belive some apps like Cubase use a similar approach, but call it by some other name.
If it's 16 channels of simultaneous playback, then the requirements are lower.
Just reading your posts,
I feel that you are locked into the PC-WinDOZ side of things.
It can be a gut wrenching difficult decision to make the platform transition.
But n the long tern, you have to take inconsideration just how much real $$$Cash$$$ you've spent with your current non-workable, just-workable solution.
And could it have been more wisely spent on the other platform?
May I suggest you find a Mac based studio,
talk to the guys there;
Most will be only too happy to tell you about there systems.
Also try to locate a Mac dealer that specializes in studio & recording hardware setups.
Lastly consider this:
Lucas Films Studio's, take one guess what they use?
Abby Road Studios, guess what they use?
EMI, guess what they use?
Call a bunch of local recoding studios, guess what most of them will be using?
Re-calculate what you've already spent.
Check what that would have bought for you on the other platform.
I've been there, done work on & a few project studios here in Oz.
I now no longer support anyone with the PC-WIN platforms.
Too many variation or Drivers-Cards-OS's (98-2000-NT-Me-XP-Visa-Win7)
And that's before you even start pluggin in the hardware & loading the DAW apps.
Keep one/some of the faster PC's, use them as slave VST-VSTi, sound sample library servers,and/or for off board backup.
Run GigaNet or Firewire 400-800 to the PC's.
Even fast internal(house) 802.11n WI-FI with a decent 8-32 character password.
I'm not a PC verses Mac basher, but have done the miles.
& no longer wear Microsoft shoes.
Don't forget my previous post regarding recovering the data on your hard Drive.
Sincerely good & better luck for the future.
Regards Dr. Bob
PS I love the Virus, see you do have some good luck.
I really wish they were affordable her in Oz.
But my daughter need a small car,
does that give you an idea of the exorbitant local pricing on these?
PPs
Nice dedicated studio space.
Regards again Dr. Bob |
Edited by - Dr. Bob on 12/09/2009 13:24:01 |
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chrissydamage
Silver Member
United Kingdom
180 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 03:16:30
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Wow thanks Dr Bob, thank you for going to trouble to answer so many of my questions, and in such detail.......
That SpinRite program looks really good..... was reading the specs and it looks perfect- even offer a 30 day money back guarantee if it doesn't work
I will give that some serious consideration.......
As for audio requirements, just 8 channels of good high quality Audio playback would be sufficient, 16 would be perfect......
I haven't been able to get a PC to handle more than 2 with any success......
For recording that will be just stereo via a single digital input but just needs to be a lot more 'precise' than what I'm using at the moment....
Mac is looking very much like the one.....
In fact I'm thinking that I need to have at least one machine like this in my studio for sure-
....I'm thinking maybe just go for an older (cheaper) one and have a play about with it first while I save up for a proper one...... |
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I'm thinking of burning myself a 'Black Ark'......
