JWL.Freakwitch.net

Sonar installed

First, some philosophical/ethical thoughts. This is, if I am not mistaken, the first time I have ever been a licensed, official windows user. This is the case because I have usually gotten my computers used, and they already had windows (95 or 98) running. These you could just, pragmatically speaking, just use. They worked, at least as well as Windows 98 could work.

Windows XP doesn't work that way. You have to register each copy of Windows XP. Once I got the correct version of Windows, I was all set. It was admittedly strange. Like I was joining "Bill's club" or something. I still feel very weird about it. But I'm running with the "right tools for the job" argument; Windows is just a means to employ the right tool. Until someone makes a mature DAW that runs on Linux (ardour is trying very hard, but it only records audio. It doesn't really work with MIDI yet, much less have the ability to work with loops).

I'm sure at some point, a Linux DAW will be capable. I can't wait.

I'm stuck at 1024x768 resolution on a monitor that flickers anytime someone walks on the floor upstairs, which is ergonomically unacceptable for a program like Sonar. This is exacerbated because I'm getting by with a makeshift video card. I need to get a new video card, and one with 2 monitor ports makes sense for this application. Ideally, I'd use 2 19" flatscreen LCD monitors, but as that's not in my budget, I'd get by with what I have (a 17" that doesn't work quite right and a 15" that is a bit dim from years of steady use).

At some point, I'll have to add an audio-only hard drive. What I should do, since these drives will be used for the precious audio data I'm working on, is get 2 identical drives, and run them in a RAID 1 configuration, which means each drive would mirror the other. That way, if one of the drives fails, my data is still safe. It's basically 2 redundant drives running together. The computer may run a fraction slower in this configuration, but much safer, and it should have adequate speed for my needs.

Sonar is sweet. I can't tell if it's just wishful thinking, but the Cakewalk tracks opened in Sonar just seem to sound better. The Sonitus plugins, and the Lexicon reverb are just sweet. This is a very deep and capable program. I now have to translate all the theory I've been absorbing for 3 weeks into practice.

Once I get into a workflow rhythm, things should start to move fairly quickly. This new studio bodes well for our creativity as a band.

posted by JWL at 12:00 AM |