Wow. Things sure can change quickly. Having moved into the new place, my plans have centered aruond the idea of putting a booth inside my new studio space, and then putting my IT stuff in the storage room that shares a wall with the studio.
Little did I know that my wife had a much better idea!
So no I'm completely revamping my plans to take the booth space out of the storage room as well. This means a permanent booth construction project, instead of my oroginal plan for a pre-fab temporary booth. Things are getting very, very interesting. So I'm planning on posting progress reports as we go along on this project. It's going to take quite a while, but we'll see how it goes.
First step, I'm off to work up some plans to see how much space I have to work with.
Stay tuned...
Friday, August 14, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Burn Continues
Well, nothing ever goes as planned. I hit a bit of a snag while getting ready to rebuild the old PC. I went out and bought a new SATA hard drive, and an enclosure to house the old drive. I knew the machine had a SATA hard drive because I looked up its specs on the manufacturer's support site.
That was my first mistake.
After opening up the machine, it became immediately clear that the hard drive was an IDE drive, not a SATA at all. Worse still, the mother board didn't have SATA support at all. Time for Plan B.
Fortunately, the enclosure I bought was IDE/SATA configurable, so I removed the old hard drive and put it in the enclosure. Then I decided to bite the bullet and move all my audio hardware out of the old machine and into a newer box I've been using for video editing. So out came the sound card and its drive-bay interface unit, and the PCI wireless card. These went into the newer machine, and I plugged the old drive into a USB port.
Several reboots for installing drivers and updates later, and Bob's your uncle! Everything works, and I can now install my audio editing software(s) on the newer machine.
On a (somewhat) related note, I also scored some very inexpensive gear at a yard sale over the weekend. Five bucks each for a new PCI-E video card, a gigabit Ethernet switch, and a Wi-Fi access point. If you don't haunt yard sales, you're probably missing some great deals. Besides, I have a fun time driving around with my wife on Saturday mornings, even if we don't find any deals.
That was my first mistake.
After opening up the machine, it became immediately clear that the hard drive was an IDE drive, not a SATA at all. Worse still, the mother board didn't have SATA support at all. Time for Plan B.
Fortunately, the enclosure I bought was IDE/SATA configurable, so I removed the old hard drive and put it in the enclosure. Then I decided to bite the bullet and move all my audio hardware out of the old machine and into a newer box I've been using for video editing. So out came the sound card and its drive-bay interface unit, and the PCI wireless card. These went into the newer machine, and I plugged the old drive into a USB port.
Several reboots for installing drivers and updates later, and Bob's your uncle! Everything works, and I can now install my audio editing software(s) on the newer machine.
On a (somewhat) related note, I also scored some very inexpensive gear at a yard sale over the weekend. Five bucks each for a new PCI-E video card, a gigabit Ethernet switch, and a Wi-Fi access point. If you don't haunt yard sales, you're probably missing some great deals. Besides, I have a fun time driving around with my wife on Saturday mornings, even if we don't find any deals.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Burnin' Down the House
I've decided that old PC needs a clean start. So I went out and bought a new hard drive and a USB enclosure to house the old one. I figure a clean Windows installation should provide a better foundation for Audition and my other audio essentials. I'll post more as the effort progresses, if for no other reason than to share my pain...
Thursday, August 6, 2009
It Never Did That Before...
Now here's something you don't get to do every day: I spent part of yesterday evening mixing concrete to close up a couple of holes a groundhog has dug under my front stoop. I'm leaving one hole open to let him leave after I toss some repellent in there for him, but I closed the others. It's been a long time since I did any concrete work, and my back wasn't happy at all with the prospect. But, it's done and off the "honey do" list.
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm now in the process of trying to set up equipment and stuff that came over from the old house, and it's causing me fits already.
The gripe of the day/week/last couple of months has to do with Adobe Audition 3. Now, I like Audition quite a lot. I've liked it since it was CoolEdit back before Adobe bought it. But right now I don't like it at all. Not one little bit.
Why? Because the first time I tried to run it after setting the computer up in its new digs, Audition claims (even though I've been running it on this machine since it came out) that "Audition cannot start because it is not correctly installed. Please reinstall and try again." So I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, to no avail.
A friend suggested that I try creating a new Administrator-level account on the computer (Windows XP Pro) and use Audition from there. Apparently the problem has something to do with how Audition saves settings and config info for the current user. So I tried creating a new user account and running Audition there.
Nothing.
Same result.
Now, there's another interesting tidbit that may or may not be related: when I start the machine (or logout and log back again), there's a Windows error that says the Microsoft Process Kill Utility (kill.exe) could not start. According to some search results, opinions are opposed as to whether this program should be trying to start by itself. However, I also have no "remove" options when I look at the programs list in the Add/Remove Software control panel.
It may be time to replace the hard drive on this thing and start over--the machine is about 5 years old. I don't relish the thought, but right now I can't get anything done.
If you have any thoughts about any of these problems, please drop me a note. I'd love to solve a problem and sing your praises here on the blog.
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm now in the process of trying to set up equipment and stuff that came over from the old house, and it's causing me fits already.
The gripe of the day/week/last couple of months has to do with Adobe Audition 3. Now, I like Audition quite a lot. I've liked it since it was CoolEdit back before Adobe bought it. But right now I don't like it at all. Not one little bit.
Why? Because the first time I tried to run it after setting the computer up in its new digs, Audition claims (even though I've been running it on this machine since it came out) that "Audition cannot start because it is not correctly installed. Please reinstall and try again." So I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, to no avail.
A friend suggested that I try creating a new Administrator-level account on the computer (Windows XP Pro) and use Audition from there. Apparently the problem has something to do with how Audition saves settings and config info for the current user. So I tried creating a new user account and running Audition there.
Nothing.
Same result.
Now, there's another interesting tidbit that may or may not be related: when I start the machine (or logout and log back again), there's a Windows error that says the Microsoft Process Kill Utility (kill.exe) could not start. According to some search results, opinions are opposed as to whether this program should be trying to start by itself. However, I also have no "remove" options when I look at the programs list in the Add/Remove Software control panel.
It may be time to replace the hard drive on this thing and start over--the machine is about 5 years old. I don't relish the thought, but right now I can't get anything done.
If you have any thoughts about any of these problems, please drop me a note. I'd love to solve a problem and sing your praises here on the blog.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Hello? Is This Thing On?
As the world's least consistent blogger, I'm embarking on a new experiment. Rather than wracking my brain trying to think up topics that might be of interest to you (and losing the battle most days), I'm going to try to put something on here every day, be it ever so small. Hopefully the discipline will make me write better stuff for you, but I'm making no guarantees. Anyway, here we go.
The reason I've been out of the pocket so much in recent months is housing. Not only have my wife and I recently bought a new house and sold our old one (along with all the accompanying packing, moving, unpacking, reorganizing, cleaning, painting, fixing, etc.), but we've also been helping her parents sell their house and finish moving to their new location as well. So it's been a bit crazy around here.
Now that all the real estate has been handled, I'm turning my attention to getting my studio set up again. One of the nicest parts about the new house is a terrific room in the basement (can you say, "dirt block sound!"?) that is now my workspace/multimedia studio. So I'm in the process of getting it set up to handle all the fun stuff that I've typically done in other people's studios in the past.
One of the first things I did was get some working furniture. I needed a workspace with plenty of horizontal surface, some storage, etc. So I started haunting Craig's List, and sure enough, I soon got hold of a great Hon office workstation. It's the whole enchilada, baby: cloth panel steel walls, desk with return, peninsula, overhead bins, task lights. Very nice for spreading out. By the way, I had to buy two of them, so I have an extra one. If you're interested in a great workstation for cheap ($400 or so), and you're in the DC metro area (northern VA), let me know. Here's a pic for the curious--you have to look past all the boxes and disorganized gear:
Anyway, I got the workstation in, and started unpacking computers and equipment to get at least some minimal voice recording capability set up. That's where my trouble began. Why can't things work the way they did before you packed them in the boxes? Well, that's another story, so I'll tell some of it tomorrow. Meanwhile, anybody know a good source for inexpensive bass traps?
The reason I've been out of the pocket so much in recent months is housing. Not only have my wife and I recently bought a new house and sold our old one (along with all the accompanying packing, moving, unpacking, reorganizing, cleaning, painting, fixing, etc.), but we've also been helping her parents sell their house and finish moving to their new location as well. So it's been a bit crazy around here.
Now that all the real estate has been handled, I'm turning my attention to getting my studio set up again. One of the nicest parts about the new house is a terrific room in the basement (can you say, "dirt block sound!"?) that is now my workspace/multimedia studio. So I'm in the process of getting it set up to handle all the fun stuff that I've typically done in other people's studios in the past.
One of the first things I did was get some working furniture. I needed a workspace with plenty of horizontal surface, some storage, etc. So I started haunting Craig's List, and sure enough, I soon got hold of a great Hon office workstation. It's the whole enchilada, baby: cloth panel steel walls, desk with return, peninsula, overhead bins, task lights. Very nice for spreading out. By the way, I had to buy two of them, so I have an extra one. If you're interested in a great workstation for cheap ($400 or so), and you're in the DC metro area (northern VA), let me know. Here's a pic for the curious--you have to look past all the boxes and disorganized gear:
Anyway, I got the workstation in, and started unpacking computers and equipment to get at least some minimal voice recording capability set up. That's where my trouble began. Why can't things work the way they did before you packed them in the boxes? Well, that's another story, so I'll tell some of it tomorrow. Meanwhile, anybody know a good source for inexpensive bass traps?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Amazing Vanishing Blogger has returned! I make no guarantees about how long it might be before I post again, but I'll give it a go.
Since my last post, I've moved to a new house, helped my in-laws sell their house, and am trying to sell my old house. In all the shuffling, I've barely reconstituted my studio in the new house. No acoustic treatment up yet, barely able to record, etc. The space is there and will eventually be wonderful, but it's going to take some time.
Meanwhile, here's a nifty bit of kit for the mobile VO. (It's also a great way to inexpensively bypass a noisy sound card in a PC).
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.html
It's called the m-audio Transit. It's just an analog/digital IO interface that plugs into a USB port. It can handle recording at up to 96K, and also has a digital output so you can send directly from PC to other digital equipment. At $70-$90 on the street, it's a steal.
I keep one in my laptop bag, and I've even used one to resurrect an old PC on which the sound card produced the most gosh-awful hum when recording. The Transit bypasses the sound card, and it's easy to move if you replace the machine. While it's not exactly pro studio equipment, it's a lot better than many "pro" sound cards of a few years ago, and much more portable.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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