Which program is it?

[Rokket]

On the home recording main page, Dragon lists a web page with a program to test how many tracks my pc can handle. I clicked on it, and it's a dead link. Anyone know where I can find this program? Thanks!

[Rokket]

Anyone??? I really would like to test my pc. Thanks!

[MichaelM]

Hmm, it was available from the Echo Audio website, but I couldn't find it anywhere.. A quick google search didn't turn up anything useful either....

[Rokket]

Originally Posted by MichaelM

Hmm, it was available from the Echo Audio website, but I couldn't find it anywhere.. A quick google search didn't turn up anything useful either....

Thanks for trying!

[manning1]

rokket. try this one. report your stats to me. on most configs it works fine,
but some give erroneous results. diskbench from prorec.com.
if you report your stats i'll try and help interpret them and make sense for you.
peace.

[Rokket]

You come through again! I will do this and let you know. Thanks again!

[Rokket]

I ran the benchmark, and this is what I could catch from it. The box kept closing, so I ran it 3 times with 3 different results, but this is what I could get:

Timer = 1000
CPU Check = 50.37%
CPU Index = 4.616549
Open = 0 ms
Write = 1.953 ms, 21.42 MB/s, CPU = 2.30%
Flush = 15 ms
Rewin = 0 ms
Read = 12375 ms, 20.69 MB/s, CPU = 1.20%
Close = 0 ms
Block Size = 131072 MB/s = 7.46 Tracks = 88.79, CPU = .52%
Block Size = 65536 MB/s= 6.14 Tracks = 73.01, CPU = .73%
32768 5.38 63.99 1.15%
16384 5.72 67.97 2.01%
8192 7.21 85.73 4.84%

I will be looking for your interpretation. Thank you for your help.
L8r,
Rokket

[Rokket]

I got lazy with the last ones, too much repetitious typing, I hope you can understand it!

[manning1]

rokket. my answer.
1. its not the worst ive seen. the drive transfer speeds while not great
at 20 mb/sec. certainly ok. you can get work done.
the track numbers are pretty decent.
its not as bad as some peoples laptops i ve seen who wonder why they are having problems when their drives are so slow.
2. the timer is on the mark. the cpu index of 4 shows its quite a bit old compared to todays newer systems. how old exactly is this pc ?

in summary i would say , you should definitely consider a processor and motherboard upgrade with new memory. particularly given your deep interest in video. and a 8 mb cache hard drive. with windows on another drive. if your interest was not audio or video , ie...basic office tasks ....
like word etc then i would say its fine for those functions. but video is a different beast and is one of the most demanding applications to run on a pc.
what i might do in your situation is keep it for internet and running family finances (be carefull storing things like personal financial info on a computer connected to the net0 and get a new machine for the demands of
video and audio.
hope this helps and peace.

[Rokket]

I am going to upgrade the memory this weekend. I can't afford a new machine right now, so I will make due with what I have. I can get up to 25 tracks with what I have before it starts to hiccup, so I am happy. I know I need a new motherboard, but right now, I am just going to deal with it. I am going to put 512 in the memory slots and see what happens. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to do things for me. By the way, my machine is 3 years old, almost 4. I use it for everything. When I do get the chance and some spare change, I am going to have one built specifically for audio and use it as my DAW.
Peace to you, Manning. Have a great day!

[manning1]

best to you too rokket. hope your xmas is great.

[Rokket]

Originally Posted by manning1

best to you too rokket. hope your xmas is great.

It ought to be, since I already know who Santa Claus is!

[Rokket]

Hey, Manning? Do you know of any programs that I could use to simulate a 12-string guitar? I know there are stomp boxes out there, but I don't want to use them, because they don't sound realistic enough. Thanks!

[manning1]

sorry , cant help you there rokket.
but i'll tell you one thing. cant beat combination of live 12 string electrics and acoustics going in a bed track.
only thing you might try is , BUT I DONT KNOW IF THIS WILL WORK WELL,
because not tried it. in powertracks is this new harmony feature.
built for vocals. record an acoustic guitar track then tell ptpa to do a harmony of it. you might ask on the pg forums. lots of gurus there.
they might know some midi tricks as well.

[Rokket]

I'll give that a shot. I tried it with pitch shift, but the only strings on a 12 that are octaves are the top 4. The bottoms are just doubled. It could work if I was playing arppegios, but not on strumming. Maybe I will just break down and buy another 12 string. My old one suffered in a plane ride (it was the last time I ever checked one). Thanks any way. I will mull along. By the way, check out the mp3 clinic. I posted a song or two I want your opinions on!

[manning1]

if your going with a 12 string look for a used electric 12 string. far more versatile imho. will try and check songs. helping some people out here right now.

[Rokket]

Originally Posted by manning1

if your going with a 12 string look for a used electric 12 string. far more versatile imho. will try and check songs. helping some people out here right now.

That's a thought. One thing I didn't mention, though, is that I'm left handed. I have to special order most instruments because the average guitar store doesn't carry lefties. I don't have access to a guitar center or anything like that.... I'll figure it out. I am going to try a little trickery with the guitar. I read somewhere that the Black Crows get their sound because one of their guitar players will play the upper register of the chord while the other plays the lower. That might work. I will let you know.

[manning1]

one of the best sounding guitar amps i ever heard was a pignose. not the really baby one, but next model up. try a 12 string electric into one with a little chorus pedal (small amount of chorus) and mic it.
do two tracks. for thickness with counterpoint playing off the first track.
can sound great if your a great picker. i'm not.
also a tip for saving bucks. check out on google "tape op diy mic".
its how to build a mic for 20 bucks using panasonic capsules.
btw - that video product at hitsquad was called full motion video 5.99.
might be usefull. its in the whats new section.
also note. and i forgot this band in a box from pg might have some way of simulating some guitar styles for you. just ask the biab forum users as they know more than me bout midi tricks. some midi modules have pretty
impressive guirar strums in them etc. its all trickery how you use them to full effect. also pg have various guitar orientated products. one is called guitar masterclass. but i dont know if it might interest you.
apparently its very good.

[Rokket]

I'll go on the web site and check it out. I don't know jack about midi except that it exists, and it's used for karaoke. I would have to learn it from the ground up, and by the time I do, I could have figured out how to get the sound I am looking for. I've played that pignose amp you are talking about. you're right, it don't look like much, but it has amazing tone. I am a fairly decent picker (nose, ass... hahaha), I can fingerpick with all my fingers, classical style, and I am pretty clean and fast with a pick. I may just track each part separately and bring it all together and see what happens. I did something similar to that on the track "daddy's little girl" in the mp3 clinic. I didn't like the sound of playing the full chords on the string section, so i just recorded the root, and used pitch shift for the 3rd and 5th. I changed the root to the octave, and it turned out pretty good. Please let me know what you think of my work when you get a chance. I've had 20 people view my post, but they seem to be ignoring my song.

[manning1]

i tried getting to your songs. got into soundclick ok but got a server error. my isp is pretty busy prolly now. will try early tomorrow when the net traffic is lower.
btw - you SHOULD learn midi. one major benefit is lower processing load on your pc versus proper live audio tracks. particularly running an older pc. on your pc you could get loads of midi tracks.

[Rokket]

Other than serious net surfing, where could I learn it? I have problems digesting information from a computer screen, and most tutorials are pages and pages long. I only have an ink jet printer that's pretty slow... Know of any good books I can order, a "Midi for Dummies"?

[manning1]

actually i think there is a midi for dummies book now you mention it.
if youve grasped using a pc which your obviously good at as we are exchanging messages you should find it easy.
just get a book. (loads under google.) and play around with the demos of biab and powertracks. just start off importing midi files into ptpa (for example you can get loads of free midi files off the net) and start playing around with them. you can get lots of free midi drum tracks off the net as well as full songs. in ptpa (powertracks) is a extract to channels command which will if you do it right extract the song file to individual tracks so you can play around with them . then learn notation and how to do scoring etc. you can print scores out as well . once you get this down. learn about midi send receive channels. then try some test midi recording.
anyway - gotta go ....got a session. also wife wants me to take her out
for a spree later so i need some shuteye.
peace.

[Rokket]

Goodnight then, and thanks for all your help. Let me know when you check out my stuff. I am eager to know what you think of my simple set up and the results. I know I have lots to learn about mixing, and that's why I posted them. To learn. Have a great one!