Alex

Thanks for the replies, guys. @Icelizarrd: I've checked those things you recommended, and none of them worked unfortunately. :/ And it's now permanent, I'm afraid. Whether I'm tweaking VSTi's or not. (I have EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold, by the way.) SYS: Your suggestion sounds very helpful, but I really don't know how to go about messing with the sound cards and stuff. Could you enlighten me on how to do what you've instructed? If you could, that'd be a big help. Thanks! :)

They don't work together. At all. Not for me at least. From what I can see, using ASIO4All in Windows 7 is hit or miss. I've scoured the internet, checked manuals, etc. for a solution, but so far, everyone's said the same thing: ASIO drivers have had issues with Windows 7 since it was released and we need to just wait for a patch. Well, there isn't a patch, or a solution as far as I have seen. And I doubt there will be a patch anytime soon. The issue in-depth: I've upgraded from the ancient and MIDI-ineffective ProTools LE 7.4 to the new version of REAPER. I made the switch to get away from latency, etc. I also upgraded my machine. Specs: Intel i5 quad-core 3.2 ghz, 6gb of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Professional 64-bit. Basically, when I run REAPER with the ASIO driver, I can see audio running through the tracks, but nothing comes out of my speakers. This is even more frustrating because it initially worked. Some minor tweaking of VSTi's later (nothing serious) and it quits. I've looked through the Cockos forums, gearslutz, google, etc. but no one has a solution. Any thoughts?

@Andy: Seems like Avid finally pulled their heads out of the sand and realized that some of us might like to use more than 3.5 gb of our RAM. :P

Well, after some research, I found out that ProTools is not available in 64-bit. Absolutely horrible design flaw. It's not even compatible in a 64-bit operating system. REAPER it is!

I'm gonna use Reaper for now, but after awhile I think I'll upgrade to PT9, or try Sonar, or maybe try Cubase. I've thought about Cubase, and it looks absolutely phenomenal, but I don't have the money for it unfortunately.

Hey all. As some of you may remember from my previous topic, I've had some issues with my current DAW, ProTools LE 7.4. I've decided enough is enough and I'm thinking about either upgrading to a later version of ProTools or getting a new DAW altogether. PT 7.4 LE has next to no midi capabilities. It absolutely sucks. What I've heard is that ProTools 8 and 9 are significantly better for midi work. Keep in mind, I'm also upgrading to a substantially better machine. What do you all suggest? Spend circa 150 USD to upgrade my ProTools rig, or 300 + on a new DAW altogether?

Thanks for the replies, guys! I tried Phantom's suggestion, and it didn't work. But it lead me to discover the real issue: EWQLSO won't unfreeze in protools if I have an instance of Xpand! running, which is currently what I'm using for synthesizer patches and drum loops. Any ideas on how to get around this?

Bach is always good! I'd suggest maybe trying the Anna Magdalena notebook if you're really a beginner. I don't want to sound condescending, but the two-part inventions are trickier than they might seem, more so if you want them to sound musical and polished! Bach always takes more work than it would seem. I would recommend practicing all of the scales, both major and all groups of minor scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic). Every pianist should learn the scales and fingerings for them and such. What you should focus on is a proper balance of things you need and things you want. Learn a piece or chart that you want to learn, but make you sure you balance it out with about 60% more of stuff you need. Not only does this provide goals for you (being willing to work through the stuff you need to do in order to reward yourself with stuff you like) but it also provides something to look forward to before every practice session. Practice slowly when learning your music, and even after you've "mastered" it, go slowly back over all of the sections for accuracy. Once you learn all of your theory and are technically proficient enough to play a large portion of the standard piano rep, you're more able to put the stuff you need on the back burner and actually play what you want for 90% of the time. Just so you know, this takes years of dedication. But it's easily achievable for anyone with the focus and desire. So, get at it! :) Now, I know this thread is about rep, but I felt like I should say something. :P I don't want to step on your teacher's toes, if you have one. Good rep ideas: Mozart K1-K5, or if you're looking for something a little tougher, Haydn has some wonderful piano sonatas that are technically achievable. Clementi and Kuhlau have some fun stuff as well! You might take a look at some of their sonatinas. If you want something more romantic, some of the Chopin mazurkas are do-able, though expressively, they're an enormous challenge. Stephen Heller wrote some fine piano etudes as well, you might check some of those out. Anyways, I think this is quite enough to get started with, so have at it and good luck! ;)

Hey everyone. I've been using EWQLSO Gold Play in Pro Tools 7.4 LE on my PC for quite some time now. I know my machine isn't the greatest thing in the world, and I've had many an issue with running the software properly since I've gotten it. But I have a new issue now, one that I've never seen and can't find any help for on Google: In a particular project I'm working on, I tried to open an instance of Play. It opens, but it's totally frozen. I can't click any of the buttons or select any instrument patches. This is only happening in THIS project. I have at least one or two other projects where Play is working just fine, and it works well as a standalone. The only things I could think of doing were re-booting my machine and fiddling with a couple of settings, but thus far nothing has worked. If anyone knows what might be going on, I'd appreciate some help! This is a really frustrating issue.

:lol: Hahah! Good point. I was just passing on my wisdom and revelation to people with much more life experience than I. :P Jk. And I wasn´t saying anything to spite anyone, I was just making my opinion clear. I couldn´t resist. :o

Music is whatever you want it to be. That´s one of the coolest things about it, for me. I´ve said this millions of times to musicians who ask questions like these: IT'S ALL A MATTER OF OPINION. We can apply all the Darwinistic reasoning we want, but will we come up with an actual answer to this question? My thought is no. We can debate all we want, and think in circular logic all day. But honestly, what's the point? I've thought about things like this alot in the past year or two, when I really began trying to grow in my own logic and thinking. A great realization for me was this: I just like to make music. Thinking in circles about questions like this wastes my time because it keeps me from doing something productive. This is just my own opinion, of course. ;) The point is, this is a question that there really isn't a black-or-white answer to. Music is a tool to eloquently express what we cannot in words. If you use it to bring something good, or interesting, or fun, or thought-provoking, or whatever into the world, than it's a good thing. We're creating a piece of art that wasn't there before, something intellectually and emotionally stimulating. If we focused as much time on improving our musical craft as we did on debating fairly useless questions (Sorry, but it kind of is. In my opinion, of course :P) than music would have more good things to offer. I think this is really one of those "It is what it is" things. Music is just music. Whatevs. That's just my two cents.

A smattering of U2 albums: The Joshua Tree, All That You Can't Leave Behind, and The Unforgettable Fire mostly.

Why is it that we always assume aliens are technologically advanced? :o They could be cavemen for all we know. :P Even so, they would probably love Bach. At least, some type of music. If they didn't, they would probably love to discover it. Everyone needs music. :w00t:

Not legally, probably. Barber's music is all still under copyright protection. He died in 1981. His music won't be public domain in America for another 40 years or so, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah that happens to me alot. Probably because I'm using Internet Explorer on an antiquated machine, but nonetheless. :P