Snowmageddon Round Two? (Random Stuff Post)

 Art, DIY, Education, Music, Photography, Technology  Comments Off on Snowmageddon Round Two? (Random Stuff Post)
Jan 282014
 

Well, we’re all waiting for the snow to start. We’re supposed to get anything from 2 to 6 inches of snow today through tonight, and as I’ve said many times, we don’t do snow well here. I’m staying off the roads today and tonight, so that means no piano class.

Bummer.

If I Can’t Go to the Music School, Bring the Music School to Me!

I’m going to catch up on my Coursera classes: the Write Like Mozart class, and Pat Pattison’s Songwriting class, which I signed up for again last night.

I signed up for his Songwriting class last year, but I didn’t have time to finish it. What I saw, I really liked. He gives a really good insight into how pro songwriters write songs, and how to improve my own songwriting. (Hint: it involves lots of practice, just like anything else.)

I might also watch some Max 4 Live tutorials. That also looks really interesting.

Bitwig Studio

Bitwig Studio is coming out in late March for $399. The part that’s really interesting to me is the ability to run it in Linux. I think that’s a brilliant idea. But from what I’ve heard, there’s no ReWire compatibility yet, so that’s a big minus for me. This is a good preview of Bitwig, and you can find more videos on their channel.

I wouldn’t mind demoing it to see what it’s like, but $400 is a bit steep for me after G.A.S. ate a lot of my money over the holidays.

I probably shouldn’t buy another new instrument until I’ve gotten good at using the ones I already have.

Rewire and Vocaloid Editor

Speaking of ReWire, I finally found a VST that will let me ReWire the Yamaha Vocaloid 3.0 Editor into Live or Cubase. Cool! You can find it here (the site is all in Japanese). Look for this text “V3Sync ReWire Synchronizer Version 1.3.0 をダウンロード” in the middle of the page, click the link, and install like any other VST. Point the Vocaloid 3 editor to the VST, and it should work.

I know you used to be able to ReWire directly from most Vocaloid 2.0 editors. What happened with 3.0? I have no idea.

Piapro Studio is a good alternative now that it’s at version 1.2. Now you can use sound banks from other companies, too, if you register your non-Crypton sound banks at Crypton’s Sonicwire.com website. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will soon.

Monitor Stand Update

The monitor stand is working really well. I installed it about a week ago, after letting it off-gas for a few days. It adds about 4.25 inches to the height of my monitors, so it took a few days to get used to, but I’m used to it now.

Naturally, just as I say that, I noticed a crack in the wood filler on the right side, near my heater vent. That’s what touch-up paints are for.

Slide Duplicating Project

This is a project I’ve been wanting to get back to for a while. I’m waiting on a Leica Screw Mount to Sony E Mount adapter, and then I may be able to make some good progress on it. I’m going to try what someone did here and remove the FD mount from my Canon FL Bellows, then attach it to my NEX with a LSM to E Mount adapter. That should give me enough focal length to get the duplicate slides in full view.

I hope.

Or I can just throw the whole mess on the copy stand. But I’d rather use a slide copier, because I can aim that at Mr. Sun, and get natural daylight for copying the slides. Artificial light always has weird spectra, even light bulbs that say they are “daylight balanced,” only do so in a way that fools your eye. It does not fool the sensor or the software.

Miku In The House // New Computer // Glass Coming to the RTP

 Japan, Music, Technology  Comments Off on Miku In The House // New Computer // Glass Coming to the RTP
Oct 022013
 

So the Vocaloid software showed up yesterday from Tenso. It came in great shape. The install went smoothly, and everything runs fine.

Today I upgraded to Cubase 7.0 full version to get more flexibility with making music. Artist is fine, but the upgrade was cheap.

New Computer Up and Running!

Oh yeah, the software was all installed on my new desktop, which gets a 7.8/7.9 on the Windows performance index. That makes me happy, but also wishing I could get that last 0.1 out of it.

The SSD makes booting a dream. I go from BIOS screen to login in about 10 seconds. Maybe 15.

I tried to create a custom install for Win 7 using a streamlined set of drivers, apps, etc., but I found I was spending more time on getting a perfect slipstream than it would have taken me to just install everything.

I headed to the Black Viper’s website for info on de-cluttering my registry and services, and I also followed the advice in this post about getting the most out of my SSD in Win 7.

The only major pain in the butt was deregistering a lot of my software and uninstalling it from the old system. I wish there was an easier way to handle licensing. The Cubase USB dongle is useful, but if you lose it, you’re kind of screwed. I like what Adobe does with Lightroom: they trust the users not to abuse the number of licenses. Besides, it’s not like you can run more than one instance at a time, anyway.

I really like the new Vocaloid de-authorizing tool from Yamaha. That worked out really well. Uninstalling/reinstalling was a snap.

Glass!

There’s going to be a Google Glass event in Durham this Saturday, too. I RSVP’ed ASAP. I want to see Glass, and see if it’s going to be a game-changer or not. It’ll probably be a zoo there.

Miku 3.0 Bundle

 Japan, Japanese Language, Music, Technology  Comments Off on Miku 3.0 Bundle
Sep 192013
 

Crypton Future Media, who makes the popular Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, announced an English version earlier this year, and also announced a bundle of the English version with new versions of the older voice banks for an upgrade price for those who own previous versions.

Since I own the older voice banks, I was intrigued. I haven’t given up on my grammar music project yet, even if it is on the shelf for now.

The deal is that if you owned and registered both previous editions, you could get the bundle for ~$150 US.

The bundle comes with a special edition of PreSonus’ Studio One DAW, so it gets a new user in the door of using a DAW. It also comes with Crypton’s new VST, Piapro Studio, that will handle its Vocaloid voice banks inside of any DAW that can use VSTs.

The only downside to Piapro Studio is that for now it only handles Crypton’s voice banks, and that’s minor. You could always create a track with Miku or any other Crypton voice bank, then output it in VSQX format to the Yamaha editor, then change the voice to the voice bank you need to use, and export it out as a stem.

I wanted to get the Yamaha Vocaloid VST plugin for Cubase, but this makes things easier, and saves me another $100 or so. It also comes with some extra VST plugins.

All in all, it’s a great deal, and for beginners, it’s great starter package.

Getting It…

There’s a catch of sorts. You have to have a Japanese address to get the upgrade bundle at this price.

To be fair, they have a US distributor, and that’s where a this restriction comes from. But the US distributor isn’t selling the bundle at this time. I don’t know when they’re going to sell it. Right now, the cost of the English bank from the US company is as much as the cost of the whole bundle from Crypton.

After some talking with customer support, I got myself a Japanese address at Tenso, who will gladly ship it for me. I set up an account with them, and voila! I have an address in Japan now.

There is another caveat: I won’t get support from the US distributor. I’ll have to get support from Japan. I am totally okay with that, because the Japanese customer support has been great.

Now I just have to wait for the software to be released on the 26th or so, and I’ll get it a few days later. Can’t wait.

Jamming With Meg

 Japanese Language, Music  Comments Off on Jamming With Meg
Sep 082012
 

One of my weirder ideas to improve my Japanese is to pick up a Japanese Vocaloid and write some grammar songs. I grew up on Grammar Rock, and I remember “Conjunction Junction” to this very day.

My idea is that by creating something that tunecrimes me into remembering grammar, I’ll jump ahead a few spaces on the board.

The problem is that buying the Vocaloid software is convoluted. Buying direct from Japan requires using a shipping agent, which adds fees to the already-expensive shipping. Going through a seller on Amazon means that the price is significantly higher, and that’s not figuring in shipping from Japan. (Again.)

So I went back to Vector, my online software store of choice, and found Megpoid Native for 9,000 yen in a download version. I also got Vocaloid 3 editing software from Bplats’ Vocaloid Store, also a download version. So for ~ 18,000 yen, I got a solid voice bank and the editor I need. It’s still kind of pricey, though.

Meg (or GUMI as she’s commonly called in Japan) had a good voice and solid range. I wish the software was more open, in the sense of working with ReWire and Reason. And I wish I could run it like I run Reason– use a USB key or a login and let me use it on more than 1 machine (like a laptop and a desktop.) Unfortunately, the license is one computer only, which sucks for when I travel. If I want to use a laptop, I have to shell out another 18,000 yen for more software.

Another annoying thing: the Japanese Vocaloid store is run by a different company than the English version. So the products they carry are different. And if you want to get job plugins for Vocaloid 3 software, the English store has a paltry 18, while the Japanese store has over 100.

I wish Yamaha and the other companies behind Vocaloid would work harder to reach out to the global users. It’s not easy to just “pick it up,” and it should be. The easier, the better for their bottom line, and my blood pressure.

Buying Japanese Software Online

 Japanese Language, Technology  Comments Off on Buying Japanese Software Online
Aug 102012
 

Download versions of Japanese software are available in large quantities these days from online software vendors that have sprung up all over the place. Not all publishers are on board, but many are.

I finally took the time to get a copy of my favorite Japanese OCR software, e.Typist 14.0. Rather than import it and pay shipping, I bought a copy from an online software site called Vector, downloaded it and registered it.

Here’s the deal: you can find some good software this way for cheap. It’s legal, and you save a ton on shipping. (You’ll still get crushed by exchange rates if you’re unlucky enough to use dollars, though.)

There’s a BIG caveat: If you don’t know how to read Japanese, don’t waste your time. Seriously. Don’t.

For starters, the website be in Japanese.

You have a translator app to turn it all into English? Well, will your translator website also translate the program for you as you run it? Probably not.

I’d say the only exceptions would be for things like games or Vocaloid soundbanks. Even then, installation is going to be painful at times, and a Japanese Vocaloid soundbank is really only useful if you’re going to use it for Japanese. Yes, there are people who can force them to do English, but English has many more sounds than the Japanese soundbanks have… and I’m digressing big time.

I really love e.Typist, by the way. It’s a great program for doing Japanese Language OCR.

This blog is protected by Dave\'s Spam Karma 2: 3159 Spams eaten and counting...