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I’m really angry right now. I knew that by getting SONAR I was going to have to get a new copy of Windows. I tried to find a copy of Windows2000, unsuccessfully. So, with a “gotta have the right tools for the job” mentality, I made arrangements to get Windows XP.

I just found out that a new, full copy of Windows XP Pro is Three. Hundred. Fucking. Dollars. Ouch. And so I’m mad. I’m made that Microsoft pulls this crap, charging so much money for an operating system that is inferior in every way, except application availability, to Linux. Luckily there is an upgrade version of XP that I can get for $100. But it means I’ll have to install Windows98 on my computer first, then install XP. Shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but just yet another fucking hoop to jump through so that Bill Gates can get his check.

I really wish Cakewalk would port Sonar to Linux. Linux audio developers have made remarkable progress, particularly the ardour project, but the state of Linux audio is such that I can definitely get work done more quickly and easily using Windows tools, because SONAR is light years ahead of audio programs available on Linux.

I’m surprised by how pissed off this is getting me. If even me, someone who has spent literally years raging against the Microsoft machine, learning Linux, and espousing its technical and sociological benefits, is forced to buy Microsoft products, what does that say?

I remember years ago vowing to myself to never buy another Microsoft product. And here I am, doing exactly that. No wonder I’m pissed.

Needless to say, I’ve been reading lots of interesting stuff online about sonar and general studio things. So here’s a list of interesting posts I’ve found that I want to bookmark (don’t worry if you don’t get this severe geekspeak, this is mostly for my purposes):

• Cakewalk’s Sonar forum
• Reclaiming SATA for audio
• Split MIDI drums on same track to separate audio tracks
• Sonarama.com

all for now… I’m definitely in input mode. Lots of information gathering.

OK, now that the gear™ is on its way to me, I’ve started to think about the studio itself. I looked up acoustic treatments and found the following:

• bass traps
• bass absorbers
• gobos

Matt, if you read this entry, click on both of those links. Good stuff on acoustic treatment for the studio.

I now have three books of about the same size to read on Sonar 3.1. The first is sonar 3 power by Scott Garrigus. After that, it’ll be Craig Anderton’s new book, Mixing and Mastering with Sonar 3. Finally, there’s the manual that comes with Sonar 3 itself. It should be a good collective 1600 page read. I kind of want to blog it. Not sure if that’s a good idea or not. Oh well.

Off to read…

So given my new employment status, it would appear that a studio upgrade is imminent. First, I need to upgrade the computer. This means a new motherboard, along with a new chip and RAM to run on it. At some point, I’ll also probably add a new super-fast SATA hard drive to it as well.

On the software front, it’s soon to be a SONAR moment. This is a serious upgrade from Pro Audio 9, which is what I’m currently running. It should speed up the workflow considerably for the Freakwitch production, and it comes with all kinds of effects plugins. Very nice. The only negative is that I’m going to have to buy a copy of WindowsXP, which rubs me the wrong way big-time. But, you have to have the right tool for the job, and there currently is no Linux software that does what this setup will do.

For audio hardware, I’m going to get one more A.R.T. Tube PAC, and two A.R.T. TPS II preamps. This will give me a total of 8 channels of A.R.T. Tube preamps. In addition, the M-Audio Delta 1010LT I am getting has 2 more mic preamps on it. This means that the studio will have 10 channels of high-quality inputs directly to the computer, 8 channels of which are tube channels, so they’ll have a bit warmer sound. And also, we’ll be able to record basically the entire band at once, rather than just 4 inputs at a time (which is our current capability).

I’m also going to pick up a new set of near field studio monitors by Tapco (which is made by Mackie). These speakers will be necessary, especially when we get to the mixing stage.

I’m still working out the financing options. Once I order the motherboard and Windows, I’ll have to see what sort of financing I can do. I’ll either get all the above at once, or I may get it in 3 installments (SONAR/soundcard first, then mic pres, then monitors).

This is very exciting for me, and it bodes well for the Freakwitch album production. I’m just floored by the technology available at a reasonable price, especially considering production capability like this didn’t even exist 10 years ago. The fact that it’s affordable for someone like me is just amazing.

Yay. I found out the other day that my “seasonal” status at work means that I’ll be employed until the end of nextseason. In other words, they plan to keep me around until at least the end of this year. This is a good thing. The extra cash flow has been very useful for the family, and this is a perfect job for me. I have the right skill set for the job, it’s basically zero added stress in my life, and it pays pretty well for the work I do.

It also means that I can afford some studio upgrades. So the wheels are turning here…more later.

From this article originally published in the Washington Post:

Songs that were heavily downloaded showed no measurable drop in sales, the researchers found after tracking sales of 680 albums over the course of 17 weeks in the second half of 2002. Matching that data with activity on the OpenNap file-sharing network, they concluded that file sharing actually increases CD sales for hot albums that sell more than 600,000 copies. For every 150 downloads of a song from those albums, sales increase by a copy, the researchers found.

Very interesting indeed. But I wonder what p2p filesharing’s effect on songs that aren’t on “hot albums that sell more than 600,000 copies”? For many years, I’ve believed that p2p filesharing can only help such songs. But I’d love to see some empirical research to support this.

Another passage:

Oberholzer-Gee and his colleague, University of North Carolina’s Koleman Strumpf, also said that their “most pessimistic” statistical model showed that illegal file sharing would have accounted for only 2 million fewer compact discs sales in 2002, whereas CD sales declined by 139 million units between 2000 and 2002. “From a statistical point of view, what this means is that there is no effect between downloading and sales,” said Oberholzer-Gee.

Now, I am of course suspicious of statistical analyses. But this is good stuff. Bottom line, p2p filesharing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The music industry will either adapt or die.

There is an article by that title published on New Republic‘s website. I wanted to link to it here for reference.

Must…read…later.

Lawrence Lessig‘s new book, Free Culture, is out. It’s also released under a Creative Commons license and is available as a pdf for free download.

In addition, Lessig was on NPR’s Talk Of The Nation recently. There is realaudio available.

I have the book downloaded, and I hope to read it soon. Free pdfs are nice, but they’re damned inconvenient. I still haven’t gotten around to reading my printed copy of Cory Doctorow‘s novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

Well, so far the comment feature on this site has been, to say the least, underutilized. I have no idea how many people read this site, but I humbly invite more of you to make a comment. For the uninitiated, simply click on the ‘Comment (x)’ button at the bottom of each entry to add a comment. Pretty simple. I’d love to hear what’s on your mind, as it interacts with this virtual representation of my mind.