Hugo Martinez - electronic violinist: Home studio

Tech notes

Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Goodbye, everyone -- and THANK YOU

Monday, May 7, 2001 I replaced my MOTU Midi Express XT with Emagic's amt8. I had considered its upscale relative (the Unitor 8 Mark II) but the extra features are overkill for my needs.

Tuesday, April 10, 2001 Cakewalk's Pro Audio new upgrade is actually a replacement: Sonar 1.0. The features and interface are awesome and quite promising though they take a little while to get used to. CAVEAT: Buggy. Check the comments at Cakewalk's newsgroups. If you need to get work done, wait until 1.01 or 1.02. Bummer #1: Yamaha DSP Factory users are disappointed that Sonar's AudioX console is unchanged and so these users will continue to use C-Console, LUI, etc. along with Sonar. Bummer #2: Remember the LiveSynth Pro full version that Cakewalk had advertised, to be part of both Sonar and Sonar XL? Well, that was fiction. The so-called full version is really just a time-limited (30 days) demo nagware that has the nerve to install itself as though it were a functioning component of Sonar instead of the cheap advertising that it is. Many upgraders rightfully feel ripped off. Meanwhile, Cakewalk refuses to accept responsibility. The LiveSynth folks tried to ameliorate this mess by offering an additional small discount... this discount also expires in a few days...

Wednesday, November 29, 2000 John Svoboda just wrote me with bad news: Gadget Labs is out of business. As of today, their site is still up, so for now I will keep this one link for those who need drivers and such. I have removed all other links.

Wednesday, June 21, 2000 If you are curious about the music business, read this eye-opener by Courtney Love at Salon.com.

Friday, May 12, 2000 Folks insist that my CD is ready; that I should stop agonizing and just release it. Fine. You can now buy my Tech Fire CD.
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 is fast and solid. Yet users of the Yamaha DSP Factory will again be disappointed with its support (through AudioX). Cake's AudioX console brings needed function but some things are oddly missing, such as automation (I can live without this; I do enough with clip envelopes), track labels (how is one to remember which instrument is in which channel?) and channel linking (can't work with stereo files without it; fader grouping doesn't do it all). So, to control the DSP Factory, I continue to use C-Console and LUI while focusing on the positives of this new Pro Audio.

Monday, March 15, 1999 Okay. I've make a quickie Real Audio file of Junkers and Limo's. RealPlayer G2 (or newer) is needed to play it. To hear Junkers and Limo's now, click here.

Tuesday, February 16, 1999 All the violin tracks are done. I'm doing final tweaking using Cakewalks 8's vector automation. Then, I'll mix with my recently-bought Yamaha DSP Factory.
People have asked me why I don't have my recordings here. I used to have a WAV that was recorded in 1996 but I increasingly disliked it. For one, the production was poor. Also, I play better now than in 1996. I will soon have files for download. The idea is to have versions of my upcoming CD tracks in either Real Audio or MP3 format.

Thursday, September 23, 1998 I checked the Gadget Labs site and found an updated Wave/4 driver at version 3.30. I tried it and found that it fixes the stuttering I got with some freeware softsynths. No problems with Alesis Soundbridge either. Great!

Monday, September 14, 1998 For me, Cakewalk's 7.01 patch didn't fix much and even introduced new problems. The console and audio latency - some of the worst problem areas - seem unimproved. A new patch - 7.02 - is due later this month but it won't fix the console or latency. For these and other enhancements including 24-bit support and vector mixing, version 8 is due at the end of this month. Upgrade cost is $20.

Friday, July 17, 1998    The bugfix for Cakewalk Pro Audio 7.0 was released a few days ago. It raises the version to 7.01 and is available at the Cakewalk web site.
     The Gadget Lab's Wave/4 audio card's driver is at 3.10. It has tighter sync and supports DirectX (DirectSound), I've noticed that sometimes with certain obscure freeware softsynths found on the internet (plus the Alesis Soundbridge 1.2) I get stuttering at the end of audio files (this has also happened with earlier driver versions) but I'm not too concerned since the Wave/4 works well with all the apps I care about.
     Another Gadget Lab product I use is the WaveWARM DirectX plugin. It emulates tube overdrive and analog tape saturation and it's great for smoothing my electric violin. I've been using it as an insert, ahead of other effects. Check out the demo.
     A new DirectX vendor: Sonic Timeworks L.L.P. A stereo reverb and a stereo delay are available A "Phazer 1" is expected this month. Effects can be bought singly or as a package. I really like the reverb and the delay is also very nice, but I'm waiting to try the Phazer before I buy anything. Demos are fully functional for 30 days.
     For the record -- I try not to buy or recommend software that uses a "dongle," "key disk" or other obnoxious form of copy protection. However, a serial number that is typed during installation is something I can tolerate.

Sunday, June 21, 1998 I recently upgraded to Cakewalk Pro Audio 7.0. The interface has been redone -- it's a huge improvement and even beats the Cubase demo I tried last night. On a down note, I find this to be the buggiest Cakewalk since I switched to Cake 4.5. I cannot recommend 7.0 unless one is willing to endure various bugs and performance issues. I'd wait for a fix. For more info, check out the Cakewalk area at ProRec and/or try the Cakewalk demo. Still, some folks seem to like this release... warts and all.

Friday, March 20, 1998 Now that all the backing tracks to my eleven tunes are written and recorded, I am adding my violin parts, tune by tune, section by section. When that's done, I'll review and do fine tuning. A test CD will come later.

Tuesday, November 11, 1997 Version 2.0 of the WAVE/4 driver is out. It now supports "all of the standard sample rates" including 8 & 16 bit and mono & stereo.

Thursday, October 23, 1997 About Gadget Lab's WAVE/4 audio card: with the latest driver (1.06) I no longer get crashes when playing non-supported formats... just a nice, polite error message. Great! Also new is support for two sound cards and some other goodies.

Thursday, October 2, 1997 I recently bought the Alesis QuadraVerb 2 to replace the non-MIDI Alesis MicroVerb III. Also, I traded-in other things: an ART DR2a reverb; a Boss DR-5, a Korg KMX-122 line mixer and a Tascam patch bay. For now, the QuadraVerb will be used for the violin only.

Tuesday, September 16, 1997 I had odd experiences with the WAVE/4 due to the current driver's (1.02) support of only 16-bit stereo files (no 8-bit, no mono). I accidentally tried playing mono files more than a couple of times. Some of those times brought my system to a halt. I'm talkin' about a frozen partially blacked-out screen, horrific repetitive noise...
Happily, once 16-bit mono files are in Cakewalk tracks, they playback just fine. The thing to remember is to *NOT* click the Cakewalk's "Play" button that appears as one is about to insert a mono WAV file.

Monday, September 8, 1997    Days ago I installed the Gadget Labs WAVE/4 audio card (4 inputs, 4 outputs, mini wavetable synth daughter card support with its own stereo output, MIDI port, ISA Plug&Play) to replace the Digital Audio Labs CardD+ . I like it!!! Its manual is understandable, it installs easily, sounds great, everything works without glitches... I do miss 8-bit and mono WAV support, but this is promised for a future free driver update in October. Also, I have not tried the wavetable and MIDI features.
     I should mention that Cakewalk Pro Audio 6.0 sometimes stopped amidst recording and/or playback. Increasing Cakewalk's buffers a few notches took care of that.
     The manual has set-up instructions for Cakewalk, Cool Edit Pro, Musicator Audio, Samplitude 4.0, SAW and Sound Forge 4. The current driver (for Windows 95 only; an NT driver is expected "within a few months") supports 32.0, 44.1 or 48.0 kHz stereo 16-bit sampling. Four Y-adapter cables for RCA connections and a 9-pin to MIDI adapter cable for In/Out/Thru are provided.

Friday, August 2, 1996 I recently upgraded the pickup on my Barrett violin with the Barbera bridge. The improved tone is warmer and fuller and the volume is even across all strings. I understand that the Barbera bridge is now standard on newer Barrett violins.
Note that the sample sound file HUGO.WAV was recorded with a Fishman transducer. Perhaps this transducer sounds better on an acoustic violin.