craigb

batsbrew
still on 6PE.
it's working great......
 
what am i missing??

The chance to drop some of that extra money you have laying around?
 
(Heck, I'm still getting along fine with 4PE!  Of course, even when I could afford the upgrades, I couldn't afford the new PC that will be required. *Sigh...* )

When I was wondering how to answer you Bat I started thinking about what Leadfoot and Craig hit on.
I thought about all the money I have into software and hardware that you probably don't have because
I know you prefer to record "live" and the differences became such a big list and the fact that what you're doing is working great...how does one respond?
 
I can tell you that the path I chose so I could record "in the box" and record almost anything I could imagine just hasn't been possible until now.
 
I too have gone through;
Guitar Studio 1
Guitar Studio 2
Guitar Tracks Pro 2
Sonar 5, 6, 7, 8.5
X1 and X2.
 
Up until now I have struggled with unbalanced issues. I would have software that the computer couldn't handle; Software that was junk; Computer that was junk; Or Microsoft changing everything and causing BS with both. Not to mention interface crap to deal with because of all the other changes.
 
I do know that the computer I have combined with X3 is simply amazing.
Just as Win 7 64 bit was a major deal for the processing and power needs....X3 has covered the
rest....so it seems.
Of course I'm sure that I'm doing things that you aren't and it's very cool to be able to process
so much without having to deal with all the BS that I've always encountered.
 
You can probably surmise how impossible it is for me to answer "what am I missing?" when I imagine
our differences. (as Leadfoot mentioned)
Combined with the money I have invested in software and hardware to build my system...then Craig hit it...you better have some deep pockets. Off the top of my head I can tell you that to get close to what I'm working with you need $10,000.00 at least. ( I'm just considering my PC, monitors and software...not my instruments...)
Now can you do the same with less money? I don't know. Sometimes the software and hardware prices go down and sometimes one has to invest more, as we know. So the money part is as hard to
determine as what the many differences are.
 
I can only think, as in my first reply to you....that if one is content because things are working great then nothing else matters...because it's all about be content making music.
I will also say that I'm glad you're content because you make music that I enjoy very much and I think
you are doing a fantastic job with whatever equipment you are using.
You deserve the best answer that can be given...I don't know if we have done that but you do know folks care enough to try.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Spacey, just a suggestion as I have no idea how well the new patch or X3 itself is working but if you are having good luck with X3b perhaps create a restore point before installing the c patch. I know you don't go upstairs often but it seems there are a few threads saying that patch has done a couple weird things for certain users with certain setups. It looks like the list of fixes is extensive and worthwhile but it would suck if you didn't have an easy escape route should things go wonky. All in all though X3 is indeed looking pretty awesome by most accounts. Hope you get to post some tunes. I know I'm trying to get back to work myself now that life has settled down a little.
 
Cheers.

Thanks Beepster!
 
With every change to my music PC I make a system image. I keep all programs up to date (upgraded).
 
I do read and once in awhile I'll post upstairs.
The problem is, and I know from experience, that many of the problems are beyond my scope of
resolving.
What I mean be that is that I know many folks are going to go through the exact same thing I did with
X2. Except they may spend all their time trying to find workarounds or dealing with BS and never resolve anything...something I wasn't going to do with X1/2.
 
It's simple to me...sometimes ones computer and the software is not going to work together. I know
that's a fact. I have X2 still on the same computer as X3 and it will not work. I don't care why and glad I found other hobbies to enjoy while I waited for X3. Of course I didn't know if X3 would work but I wasn't going to start over without taking a 150 gamble...and it paid off.
Music is a great hobby but I spent many years focusing on it and now it has a place within all the other
things I enjoy doing rather than absorbing all of my free time.
 
I've been jamming (writing parts) on the project I started with X3b, with X3c and a few issues have been corrected in the update. I'm glad I've stayed with Cake and have seen the progression through
the years. I think they are really shining now that they've got a handle on the major change to the X series. I think some of the pressure is off and allowed them to be a team again and that's been
 showing by their participation here. Now they can focus on fine tuning...and they are.
 
I'm glad they got a handle on it so quick too...I know I wasn't going to make a long ride with them in hopes....because of me being burnt out dealing with BS and backtracking isn't the way for me.
Keep moving forward. With or without them. Glad it's still with them.
 
I would hope you'd find a way to get it except I know there's that gamble factor. One just doesn't know how this stuff is going to pan out and obviously there are some experiencing that upstairs.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Spacey,
 It's been a pleasure to read such thoughtful posts.
 
 best regards,
mike

spacey
Thanks Beepster!
 
With every change to my music PC I make a system image. I keep all programs up to date (upgraded).
 
I do read and once in awhile I'll post upstairs.
The problem is, and I know from experience, that many of the problems are beyond my scope of
resolving.
What I mean be that is that I know many folks are going to go through the exact same thing I did with
X2. Except they may spend all their time trying to find workarounds or dealing with BS and never resolve anything...something I wasn't going to do with X1/2.
 
It's simple to me...sometimes ones computer and the software is not going to work together. I know
that's a fact. I have X2 still on the same computer as X3 and it will not work. I don't care why and glad I found other hobbies to enjoy while I waited for X3. Of course I didn't know if X3 would work but I wasn't going to start over without taking a 150 gamble...and it paid off.
Music is a great hobby but I spent many years focusing on it and now it has a place within all the other
things I enjoy doing rather than absorbing all of my free time.
 
I've been jamming (writing parts) on the project I started with X3b, with X3c and a few issues have been corrected in the update. I'm glad I've stayed with Cake and have seen the progression through
the years. I think they are really shining now that they've got a handle on the major change to the X series. I think some of the pressure is off and allowed them to be a team again and that's been
 showing by their participation here. Now they can focus on fine tuning...and they are.
 
I'm glad they got a handle on it so quick too...I know I wasn't going to make a long ride with them in hopes....because of me being burnt out dealing with BS and backtracking isn't the way for me.
Keep moving forward. With or without them. Glad it's still with them.
 
I would hope you'd find a way to get it except I know there's that gamble factor. One just doesn't know how this stuff is going to pan out and obviously there are some experiencing that upstairs.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Right on, man. Just thought I'd mention it. I wish I had enough extra storage to do images all the time but I don't so I use restore now and keep my images limited to good start point configurations in case of catastrophe. Then I just move/update important files around as needed. Between the DAW and my laptop I'm already pushing the limits of my storage capabilities but now that I've found the official MS ISO releases of windows I can wipe out a few hundred gigs of images I made for the lappy (fuggin' thing was filled with stupid bloatware from Acer so those images are before and afters and in betweens of my attempts to remove as much as I could).
 
Personally I think originally I started out with your mindset of "I just want to freaking record". Then decided I'd better accept and learn the tech side of things because it seems to be a prerequisite to get anything done with these bleeding things (which it seems you've had to suffer through as well but perhaps not as willingly). Now after a couple years of that I'm right back to where I started and wanting to just get things done musically. I can't really say it was wasted time because I know a lot more about production and the guts of my system but as a musician I could have written ten albums worth of material with all the time and effort I've put into this crap and bought a dream guitar, amp and all my favorite pedals with the money spent.
 
BUT... now I don't need to rely on bandmates because I have the tools and skills to do it all myself. I don't need to pay for and upkeep a rehearsal space with all the accoutrements. I don't need to constantly worry about where I'm going to come up with the money to pay for studio time. I can pretty much get any little musical brain fart out of my head and produced the way I want if I choose to put in the effort. I've certainly had my problems with all this and it sucks losing a couple years of creativity to get all this together but at this point it should all be gravy. If I can just keep life from going stupid I should be able to just settle in now and crank out the tunes. I woke up excited about the day for the first time in years because I've finally got a project lined up and in the works and it's going rather well for once. It's just a remix of one of the first things I did with Sonar but knowing I can get out of bed, roll over to the studio room and start hacking away is pretty awesome.
 
If all goes well in another year and I think I'll be back to being relevant again. Perhaps I'll even be able to recoup some of my expenses. Wouldn't that be nice.
 
Cheers, dude. Let me know if you get something posted over in the songs forum. I love good guitar work.

mike_mccue
Spacey,
 It's been a pleasure to read such thoughtful posts.
 
 best regards,
mike

Thanks Mike.
I've been doing guitar repair work/building pups for folks and backed off building guitars...just buying wood here and there replenishing my stash...so I could have some music time- being at the PC(s) has given me time to babble. :) Burning vacation time too so not working many days this month or next.
(ya'll been warned! LOL)
 
Beepster...
I do think that system restore overwrites previous ones so not much space is needed.
I don't know- but it warns that it does that when I create one.
I use to save them on an external but now I just use the second hard drive. Never restored from one though...hope it works if need be!
Well I sure hope to get something recorded...not sure if it'll be good but so far it's all been fun and looking forward to hearing you too!
 
 
 

Restore points are indeed much smaller and take far less time to create than images but unfortunately they cannot (AFAIK) be saved. In fact they eventually get knocked off the system as the computer makes other restore points for things like windows updates, program installs and other stuff some programs do. There's a limited amount of storage for these points which can be upped through the control panel though so on my laptop (which I abuse far more than my DAW so I restore it often) I increased the capacity lest I neglect to restore the computer for a while. Then it wipes out all the new restore points and aside from my files the system is technically back to that point in time. Of course this means that all the Windows and program updates since then need to be redownloaded and installed but that's not such a huge deal. I am however going to snag a Win7 ISO, as I said, and do a clean install, set the system up how I like (which is a lot easier with a clean install instead of having to meticulously remove all the bloatware then use CCleaner to clean up the drives) then make my image.
 
The DAW is a little more problematic with the two drives and all the extra gack on it like the audio libraries. That image is huge and it doesn't help that I didn't know what I was doing with Sonar for a while so I've got multiple versions of project audio all over the place from saving tunes in a really stupid way. I could probably purge a few hundred gigs just by cleaning it up and keeping any new files reasonable by setting my data paths properly in Sonar. That's gonna be a lot of work though so I'm holding off until I'm absolutely ready to totally wipe the system and start from scratch. Between the purging, wiping, reinstalling everything and tweaking it I figure I should expect to be out of commission for at least a few days... and that just doesn't sound like fun.
 
As far as tunage I'll have something up soon but it's just a remix of something and it's metal (albeit kind of quirky guitar metal) so you may not find it that interesting if that's not your thing. Just trying to put all the mixing stuff I've learned to the test before starting writing or working on more important material. I'm torn between writing a blues album or a metal album for my first venture but I'm leaning towards metal because it's what I know and far easier for me to write and produce... which may sound odd but it's true. I also already have a fan base so even though they're broke I can just put it out there and I wouldn't really have to market it too much or prove myself to new scene/genre. I might even get some work mixing people's demos or live stuff too which would be nice but we'll see. At worst it'll be a nice hobby to keep me from going completely insane here in my little bubble of existence. ;-)

Beep you probably realize that I said, "system restore" when I meant "system image".
I have system restore turned off.
 
I listen to most anything but there is a lot of music I don't purchase and metal is one.
I've enjoyed listening to members here and the genre wasn't really why.
 
Once I'm done with a project-meaning I mixed it down to a "finished" tune, I'm done with it.
I don't care about saving the parts because I'm not going back. I know of one tune that I have
gone back on and it really was a complete re-write in the end and was no different that just
starting a new project over.
I think I'm that way because it's more the process "at the time" for what it was. Rather than spending
my time redoing something because I think maybe I've learned more and fix stuff I'd rather leave it
and apply myself to a new "at the time". Well....that makes sense for me. :)
I read often from people having issues with a project they had in a previous version not opening in
their new version...one less problem I don't have to deal with LOL.
 
Well it's been a couple of years for me so learning X3 is a trip. Nice not to be interrupted from the trip
with BS. Now I break because I want to, not because I'm pissed at sorry software. Pretty cool.
If things go as they have I may finish this tune by next weekend. Not sure it'll be any good but it's
sure been fun.

batsbrew
still on 6PE.
it's working great......
 
what am i missing??

WOW , i thought i was the only one around here that felt that way about 6 PE .
I did go out and pick up a Win 8 lap top and upgrade to X3 , now I'm totally lost and I can't answer your question  
 
Kenny