Thanks Rounik! What exactly do you mean by "address" when speaking of RAM? Does that mean at it's maximum, Logic could potentially accommodate 4GB of RAM at once? Jamie's computer credentials: Buying gadgets/computers: REALLY good at it. Learning programs? Pretty good at it. Understanding the internals? Not a clue... Jamie

Thank you Darren! Very interesting, indeed. Jamie

I just got one a couple of days ago at the Apple Store in NYC when I was visiting for the holidays, and I must say that the quality of the sound is stunning. This isn't really an informative post for anyone in particular, but if you've thought about getting one but were afraid of the $500 price tag, DON'T be. It's well worth it... Next on my list is a quality pair of reference monitors. I was thinking about $200-250 a piece. Any recommendations? Hope all is well with the regulars and admins here! Happy New Year to you all! Jamie

Thanks, Lighter! Believe it or not, I was giving a serious look at the second generation KRK Rokit 8 series. Reviews of those are quite positive and seem to display happy customers for the most part. I actually do have a question, however, about hooking those up to the Duet. I'm by no means an electronics expert, so I'll try to pose my issue as clearly as I can. I've noticed that the outputs to the powered monitors are "unbalanced." I've done some reading about the differences between a balanced and unbalanced system, most of which was way too technical for me. What I gathered is that the most noticeable difference is the reduction of noise through the balanced versus the unbalanced line. I would like to have the cleanest sound possible when I do get some monitors, and wondered if anyone here could confirm or deny the benefits of converting the outputs of the Duet to TRS or XLR inputs, or if simply leaving the Duet alone and connecting through 1/4" unbalanced inputs is sufficient for the clarity of sound. Of course, I would rather minimize the number of connections between the Duet and whatever else it is connected to (computer, microphones, monitors), thus avoiding any third-party boxes that claim to balance the Duet's output signal. Thanks all! And Happy New Year! Jamie

Hi Rounik! Hope your new year is going well so far! When you say 1/4" "balanced" does that mean you are running the cable from the Duet output into the TRS input on your KRKs? From what I've gathered, going from the Duet's outputs into either balanced input on the monitor won't make it balanced at all. Jamie

Perhaps I'm missing the question, but I think you can humanize the notes by clicking Functions>Transform>Humanize from within the piano-roll pane menu. The transform window will appear and you can set your own preferences for the amount it moves by fooling with the numbers in the "position" column. The (. . . 10) figure being manipulated to say, (. 1 1 0) can yield some pretty wild results. To read this correctly, the first would be a +/- random shift of up to 10 ticks, whereas the second example would randomly shift your note position by up to one beat and a subdivision. (Bar Beat Subdivision Ticks) So I'd say tailor that entry in the transform window to your liking and see what you get. Humanizing position by any more than 75-100 ticks or so within the transform window really makes the music sound drunk, unless of course that's what you want. More than that and you start getting into Aleatoric-styled music, which can be quite fun under the correct circumstances. Hope this is what you were after! Jamie

Ok. Make sure you have selected the region you want to quantize. Then open the piano-roll. When you do this, be sure to click-drag and select the specific notes in the piano-roll on which you want to perform the operation. After selecting the notes, then follow the path I provided above. See if that works. Jamie

If you are new to the program, I would strongly suggest Core Logic first. It is quite long, but there isn't much that Martin misses to get you up and running quickly and with confidence. I watched that after I had learned lots of basics myself, and found it to be extremely helpful. With this tutorial and all the other's I've seen (I've viewed ALL of the videos except Steve's Mastering course), I find myself often saying, "Oh, THAT'S how you do that?!?"

C'mon, Glenn. Let's give the guys a break. Considering my day job as a college professor in music, and I can safely say that GOOD teachers do a great amount of preparation to ensure that their students get the most complete, quality-saturated instruction possible. I don't think it's any different with the folks at MPV, and certainly not anything to do with "business practices." In addition to the type of instruction you're getting with the tutorials, you have to consider the fact that lots of production work goes into them from and audio/visual standpoint. I use powerpoint presentations in each of my History of Rock Music and Music Appreciation classes, and can honestly say that 4-5 hours of work is put into each one when you include the research, organization, and construction of the slides, complete with linked audio files, videos, and slide animation to make it look and sound pretty. Consider the other important fact that Steve has recruited someone outside of MPV to handle the series, giving us a viewpoint from someone who does THIS as their day job. Allow me to project my professional experience here by saying that sometimes, professionals are NOT the best at explaining basic/intermediate concepts about things they do almost instinctively day-to-day in their own studios. Nigel might not have the "instructors touch" when it comes to breaking down the things he does automatically. In other words, Nigel might need lots of editing and "help" from the guys at MPV in explaining what needs to be explained. It doesn't mean he is less than excellent at what he does. It's just that some people simply don't "have it" when asked to explain how they perform certain tasks in Logic. Who knows? It's tantamount to asking Jimi Hendrix or Vladimir Horowitz how they were able to do what they did on the guitar or piano, respectively. I imagine they'd say, "Just do it!" This is the extent of their instructional talent, so to speak. The reason why I am responding in this way is because with the tutorials from Steve, Martin, Rounik, et cetera, I rarely find myself asking questions like, "Whoa, what'd he just do there?" or "Wait, how'd he get that?" With the DnB and Olav's Electronica tutorials, I had many more questions of this sort which leads me to believe they are NOT instructors for a reason. I would just say that there is obviously a LOT of work that is put into these videos for us to learn from and if it takes a while longer to get quality, it's probably worth the wait. Just my $0.02... Jamie

Excellent! I have two hours free at work today and am looking forward to it! I'm very happy to see lots of mixing advice in the new portion, especially for vocals. Jamie