Vocaloid2 - A First Look and Listen

According to the README, Vocaloid2 "has a cool new look with improved user functionality", which makes me very happy. Not the new interface. That doesn't make me happy at all. What makes me happy is knowing that I never experienced the old one. If this is an improvement then the old one must have been the interface equivalent of pepper spray being applied to your eyes with butter knives. I think it was designed for users with VGA monitors. Everything is cramped, tiny, and pointlessly shortened in eye-straining white on black. Remember computers in the 80s? It's like that only it has no excuse.

Upon startup, you can jump right in. The select tool is the one you start with, in case you're ready to select any or all of those zero notes. And yes, it uses the classic tool paradigm, with icons. Select arrow; phallus draw tool; mysterious slash; eraser; tic-tac-toe; and... something. One thing at a time! I think I'll spend a few minutes selecting notes. Then I'll draw some for a while. Perhaps later, after the sun has gone down, I'll delete some. Does nobody else use a mouse? You have a perfectly good multi-function tool right under your hand! I can understand some functions requiring a special tool - like whatever the hell that last one does - but select, draw and delete should all be doable using just the mouse. Unless you're Mozart, you will be doing all three of those things at the same time.

Okay, so I switched to the draw tool (because at this point select is completely useless) and I drew in some notes. They all default to "Ooh [U:]". Let's have a listen.

ohmstudio - First Impressions

I've finally gotten around to installing and trying ohmstudio, which looks to be a very cool new (still in limited beta) collaborative music studio.

One way that I like to judge music software (often called a host, sequencer, or DAW ("digital audio workstation"*)) is its TTMS - time to make sound. There are two philosophies being put to the test here. One is that the primary purpose of music software is to make noise via loaded virtual instruments. The second is that easy things should be easy**. So what I do is try to load an instrument and play it using my keyboard and time how long it takes without using a manual.

Most are miserable failures, in my opinion. Keep in mind, though, that different people will have different work-flows and assumptions. I'm only expressing my own opinion here. (Were you expecting me to express yours?)

Speaking of miserable failures, the program that I feel does it best is Tracktion. It was developed under an understanding that while music has traditionally been done in the physical domain, music software is first of all software and it should work on the strengths of such instead of trying to pretend to be hardware. When you're working on a track, everything relevant to it is easy to see, flowing from left to right. Unfortunately Mackie bought it, developed it slightly, then left it to languish. It hasn't been updated since the start of 2008.

And so here I am trying something new.

Anyways, the TTMS of ohmstudio ain't bad. There were only two obstacles. One was that it comes with only a few plugins, effects and instruments are lumped together, and the Ohmies really like to use cryptic names. Apparently (and I'm not 100% sure about this) only one of them is an instrument. It took a while to load, likely because at the same time I was trying to get the program to find and list all the instruments I already have. It didn't like that. After a few minutes, I noticed there was an error window behind the program window. Meanwhile, "MiniMonsta:Melohman***" wasn't loading.

The error was a mysterious one. It would seem that one instrument was telling me to load a disc from the installation of a different one! NI's B4 wanted me to put the Kontakt disc #2 in the drive, or some such. No idea. Ignored it. Tried a few other more specific folders. Also didn't work.

But MiniMonsta:Melohman eventually did load. Twice. I must have gotten impatient and tried again. But it loaded. The second obstacle was finding whatever it was that let the MIDI from my keyboard route through the instrument. It's a little "ON" button. I only tried about three things until I found it.

Meanwhile, my attempt to have ohmstudio see my VST plugins was making it decidedly unhappy. It crashed. I loaded it again and it crashed again. A reboot solved the problem.

It's a start. I can make some noise.

NEXT: I try to record MIDI and write MIDI!

* I've never been fond of this term, for two reasons. One: it's another TLA****. Second: the term is also used for a physical computer that's been configured to run music software, so you end up with a DAW running on a DAW.

** I don't mind if difficult things are difficult as long as easy things are easy.

*** Incidentally, this is a very nice plugin and its inclusion is very generous! Thanks, Ohmies! (Note that it's not a full VST version that can run in other hosts.)

**** Three-letter acronym

Like a Phoenix!

The Phoenix

Like a Phoenix, my music computer rises from the ashes of its destruction. Or maybe a bit more slowly, like Lazarus.

Anyways, it died a few days back, but I replaced all its innards and now it's running. In fact, it's running much better than before. It should. It has a much faster processor, more RAM, a bigger hard drive and it's running Windows 7 rather than XP. Those are a lot of changes for the better.

The tricky part is re-installing everything. Some things are easier than others. Some are more worthwhile than others. Some probably won't run at all any more. I know of one at least that requires a special key from a server that no longer exists. Let that be a lesson to you: crappy copy protection hurts paying customers.

I'm going to write about this experience, in part because I just want to remember a few things if I need to handle some of the companies that make the software.

Photoshop Follies - Refusing to Open

Here's an odd one, and I figured I should post it in case it happens to someone else and they want to know how to fix the problem. I know it will happen to others because I've read about it elsewhere. Can't hurt to make sure there's another place with the info, though.

I opened up Photoshop CS3 today and tried to open a file to edit. No go. Not through the browser, not via drag and drop. It also wouldn't create a new file. Not just odd, but annoying; scary if you're on a tight deadline, I'm sure.

The fix is to change your default printer to a local one and/or make sure your printer is attached and on. (A reboot may also be necessary.) You read that right. Doesn't matter if it was never a problem before. Doesn't matter that it makes no sense whatsoever.

Photoshop doesn't open or create files? Blame the printer settings.

Hmm... now I have that file open and I forget what I was going to do with it!

Google Chrome Rules

I love Google Chrome. There are so many things about it that are just so nice, but I just found a new one and felt like blogging it. This ties in with Vista (64 bit) and Apple annoyances. Ever since I switched to Vista, my experience playing MP3 files through the browser has been awful. For whatever reason, Quicktime is the default player for MP3 files in the browser and for whatever reason it shows up black on black. I have no idea what's going on, I just know I hate it. The controls exist, they just can't be seen. I'll show you what I mean:

Cool Game: Machinarium

Random browsing led me to a story about a cool, cheap game that had been pointlessly hacked. What's the point of hacking a $10 game? And when you consider that it was lovingly made by a small company, who thinks they're going to be perceived as anything other than a total dick for doing so?

Anyways, the game is called Machinarium. It's a Flash game. You control a little robot who's been tossed on the trash heap. The first thing you have to do is get his torso over to his head and then find the missing limbs. Control is pretty limited, but it's more of a puzzle game than an action game. With limited actions and limited resources, you have to stumble around in each level until you figure out both what you're supposed to do and how you can do it. It reminds me of Adventureland, but with cool graphics and excellent music. (The music is moody, which suits the game. Don't expect a soundtrack you can groove to just because I said it's good.)