From: someone@anywheret.net   
      
   "JimD"  wrote in message news:2018101710582669347-email@nowherecom...   
      
   > Not all.    Midi files are just a piece of the puzzle.  A piece of the   
   > system.   I also use the DAW and laptop for the sounds of my keybooards   
   > and as a guitar amp simulator and effects rack. All of that is possible   
   > because of what's inside the LOGIC program.   
      
   So instead of the standard midi synths built into the computer's   
   audio/video, 'naturally', there were some proprietary ones added, is that   
   it?   
      
   > Without the software synths in Logic, I'd have to have a keyboard with   
   > built in sounds.   
      
   Or add some to the computer in a library of sorts - better than proprietary   
   Fascism!   
      
   I'm sure there's some open source freeware DAW that could handle it.   
      
   > Without the analog processing effects in Logic, I'd need a guitar amp, or   
   > some hardware thing like a Line6 Pod to connect my guitar to the pa.   
      
   I thought that was all done through the software, so it would still be   
   digital only simulating analog.   
      
   > So I'm using the laptop for a lot more than just playing back some   
   > prerecoreded files.   
      
   Yeah, like preserving a Monopoly ;)   
      
   > Now, moving past that, even if we were only using it for midi playback I'd   
   > still have the issue of sounds. Either buy an outboard hardware synth (   
   > have those in the basement ), or reassign each and every instrument, in   
   > each and every song to some new softsynth in the new DAW.  If it even has   
   > any useful ones. And then rebalance all the levels of each and every   
   > instrument on each and every track of each and every song ....   
      
   That should all be 100 percent standard and interchangeable, open source,   
   and public domain!   
      
   > I'm thinking, if I wanted to change the color of my house, I could buy a   
   > hammer and a chisel and a stack of bricks in a new color. Then one at a   
   > time, I chisel each brick out and replace it with one of the new bricks.   
   > Then, after that brick sets, chisel the next brick out and replace that   
   > one.  Heck, I could probably do 3 or 4 bricks by noon, maybe, depending on   
   > how hard it is to get the old mortar out.  At that rate of, say, 5 or 6   
   > bricks a day, I could have a whole new outside on my house in, ah ,,,,,   
      
   > maybe in say 10,000 years or so.   
      
   > I'll get right on that.   
      
   Why do it the hard way? ;)   
      
   > I've switched platforms before, from mac to pc.   
      
   Platoforms, i.e. OSs, should  make no difference, so might as well have it   
   for Linux.   
      
   Besides, Linux has a WINdows Emulation (WINE) that makes it possible to run   
   windows programs.   
      
   > Lost years of work in the deal. I'd go from mac to a pc, and then, after a   
   > year or two, I end up switching back to mac, because I need this to   
   > actually work, all the time, period.  Period.   Now, I know there are pc   
   > fan boys out there who will argue that pc's are reliable.   
      
   PCs are as reliable as computers go.   
      
   > Heck they play Doom 9 on them for hours on end and it only locks up   
   > sometimes :-)   I make a joke there.   
      
   Not really, windos is a Crap OS, in ALL its versions, always was, right from   
   the very first, because it was built on a Stupid concept, to emulate   
   crApple's OS, that one's bad enough, Strike One! It's also a full time GUI,   
   even though unless you're using a flight simulator or something that   
   actually *needs* GUI, then there's  NO NEED for a GUI because it Wastes   
   computer resources and thus Invites Unnecessary problems! Strike Two! Then   
   add to that of course, Total, Rabid Devotion to being into the Root of ALL   
   Evil as the be all and end all and to Hell with all the bugs and other   
   problems in the OS, so long as Stupid Sheople keep overpaying for the   
   SPYWARE Crap, and there's Strike Three!!!   
      
   > I don't know the current hot vidoe game names.  I do know that reliablity   
   > is why macs basically own the live music scene.  Gotta work. Gotta work   
   > all the time, period, no matter what, no backups, gotta work.   
      
   From what I've seen, it appears that macs are used for more serious stuff   
   rather than nonsense, but then Linux OS machines are used like that even   
   more so.   
      
   > And even then, if it crashes, it still has to work :-)   
      
   Robust software is the way to make that happen.   
      
   > I mention that because of something that happened to us sunday.  One tune   
   > we do, Girl Crush, is cpu intensive. Not sure why. It's a track I made   
   > from scratch, so there aren't any hidden midi things in it. It's a   
   > straighforward backing track, bass, drum sync track, fifties vibrato   
   > guitar track, a B3 track, a 5 part string section, and then my two live   
   > instrument tracks. Those have no " notes " in them, they just hold the   
   > sounds I need for the live keyboard and live guitar.  This particular song   
   > crashes the smaller of my laptops sometimes. Probably the strings and the   
   > two B3 tracks ( one prerecorded, one live ).   
      
   Sounds overcomplicated from the beginning, and while they're amazing at   
   number crunching, even computers have a hard time with overcomplication,   
   particularly in view of the ultimate reality that  garbage in equals garbage   
   out. Computers need things input just so, and if they don't get it, they   
   start acting weird.   
      
   > The B3 synth hits the cpu pretty hard, and my smaller 13 inch  macbook pro   
   > only has a core 2 duo chip.   
      
   A software tonewheel generator simulation ;) That would tend to load up the   
   machine's capabilities and resources, particularly when simultaneously   
   running all the other processes.   
      
   > Anyway, there we are, onstage, place is full, dance floor is full, it's   
   > the middle of a set, and  --- POP ---- ups comes a dialog box on the   
   > laptop that said something like System Overlod - Audio Engine .   
      
   Panic time!   
      
   > And the backing tracks stop playing.  Luckily, we're still alive, and the   
   > overall sound barely changes. All you'd notice is the bass line dropped   
   > out.  The live drums .. still going.  The live rhythm guitar .. still   
   > there.  The three of us singing ... still happening.  My live guitar lead   
   > work, still works.  I did lose the B3 simulator, but eh.  I just didn't   
   > play the keyboard until the song stopped and I could reset things.   
      
   See, you can't count on the Non-living, but you can on the Living ;)   
      
   > The mac didn't lock up.  Logic crashed.  In fact, Logic still worked in a   
   > sense, all it did was stopped the midi playback section.   
      
   Insufficiently robust software...but who cares...just so long as their   
   Monopoly continues! Now That's what really should  CRASH!!!   
      
   > Averaged out, I'd say this sort of things happens maybe once a year ?   
   > Very rare. And generally because of some specific programming issue with a   
   > particular song file.   
      
   But a backup system would probably have done the same thing. ;)   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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