Most musicians will be waiting some time before running Vista, so if you can’t upgrade to a new OS, upgrade the OS you’ve got. Our friend Brad, aka Internet indie singer-songwriter star Brad Sucks, is getting into laptop performance and wants some tips for tuning Windows XP. He writes:

I’d be interested in asking your readers how they set up their laptops for live performance OS-wise. I’ve been giving some thought to doing a dual boot WinXP install. So I can have one install as my desktop, mail, etc. And another one with say XPlite or nLite with Live set up, audio drivers and everything ready to go for rock steady live performance. Wondering if anyone has experience with doing this, if it’s worthwhile, what their favorite tools are, etc.”

Both of those items sound like great advice to me. Setting up multiple accounts works well on both Windows and Mac OS X, in fact, though generally it’s been XP where I’ve most wished I had done this. (Thank you, annoying pop-up balloons and rampaging Logitech webcam drivers.) I also like the idea of using nLite for a custom OS install in emergencies, though nLite is also good at cleaning out settings and tweaking Windows to your liking.

But, Windows mavens, any further tips? (And I imagine a lot of this — like the multi-install — would work just as well on Vista.)

Happy New Year’s, everyone. It’s been a lazy, rainy day here in New York opening up 2007, but I’m contentedly looking forward to what for me, at least, promises to be a good year for making music. Sure, forming New Year’s Resolutions is a pretty arbitrary activity, but I say any excuse that lets you add to your resolve is a good one. Here are a few resolutions that come to mind:

1. Play out more: I’ve been in a cycle, personally, of going back to develop material and ideas and get out of the playing-out mode, and I’m ready to cycle back and go play some more. How about you?
2. Practice: It’s all too easy as an electronic musician to let your chops go to slush. Fortunately, I have the staff of Keyboard Magazine to intimidate me, and the fact that they’re such brilliant players is easily enough to drive me back to running some scales and finger exercises and getting back in shape. For added inspiration, you can fire up GarageBand or another easy looping program to build some interactive accompaniments (or go to the old-fashioned method and put on a Jamey Aebersold CD). Trust me: scales are a lot more fun when there’s a rhythm section behind you, even as a classically-trained player.
3. Build some software patches: I’ve been spending time teaching tools like Max/MSP and haven’t gotten to build my own performance patches. Fortunately, it’s possible to keep your projects on a manageable scale, something I’ve learned from my students. Find a simple solution and solve that is usually the advice I give, and now I’ll go take it myself. With tools like Ableton Live, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to performance: it’s easy enough to add custom tools built in Reaktor or Max/MSP to Live.

I’ll be checking my own progress against some of these goals. But I’m curious what our readers have as resolutions for 2007. What are your goals for the year?

I get a regular stream of Q&A in my inbox, so as a new feature on CDM I’ll be answering selected questions for all our readers. Today, we’ve got a new Mac switcher wondering if an iMac will suit his needs, and a reader who wonders why he hasn’t been able to find any of those Novation keyboards I keep raving about.

iMac: Sufficient for Music?

Michael writes: “I have been running Ableton Live and “[Propellerhead] Reason on a very outdated 800MHz [Pentium III] Gateway which I’ve owned for over five years. I’m finally ready to purchase a new computer and was looking at an iMac, due to the fact that I am on a limited budget. I was going to run Ableton and Reason on it with a PreSonus FIREBOX; do you think that an iMac would be sufficient?

Okay, CDM readers. We’ve got a dual challenge this week: what headphones are perfect for gigging, perfect for DJing, and make a perfect birthday present? Reader-turned-CDM columnist atariboy writes:

I am looking for some good headphones for my girlfriends (jemgirl) birthday later this week. Around the $100 mark. Will be used for DJing/gigging. The Sony mdrv700dj’s seem to fit the bill. What else should I look into? Thanks! -atariboy

I was going to suggest the Sony headphones, assuming you want the DJ-style design. (If not, there are plenty of classic headphones, like the Sennheiser HD280s; I’ve used my Sennheisers on a gig.) If you can get a deal on them, the Pioneer HDJ-1000 models are terrific; see Jason O’Grady’s piece on them for CDM.

So, what do you think, fair readers? Headphones ideal for yourself AND your significant other? (Too bad my birthday’s in January . . .)

In celebration of tonight’s monthly Eyewash party here in NYC, CDM brings you a day of VJ coverage. And yes, I’ll be on tonight, so New Yawkas, stop by and say hi. To get things rolling, we’ve got a letter (cue the Official Mailbag Theme Song). Wally writes:

I saw that you are going to be VJing soon, and I wanted to ask what tools you use to VJ, and also, what is your approach? I’ve been asked by some friends of mine to VJ a gig of theirs on July 9th, and while I’ve played around with a couple tools here and there (Union, Resolume, Grid) I’m a little intimidated by the project.

At any rate, a friend of mine loaned me a Panasonic video mixer, so I’m planning on running Resolume on the PC, and either Grid or Union on my Powerbook — can’t decide which. My goal is to have tightly integrated video with the audio, but it seems like that’s more difficult with VJ apps for some reason. I realize that one has to have an exact number of frames to get video to loop in sync with audio at certain BPMs, but very few VJ apps seem to have clip playback control that starts and stops with MIDI clock.

(Read more for the answer)

Pierre Hilaire writes:

Thank you for taking my e-mail. I am a Recording Engineer who has [Cakewalk] SONAR Producer Edition Software. Can I Master songs on SONAR? I know the ideal mastering tool is Pro Tools, but how about SONAR?

This sounded like an important opportunity to correct some common misinformation — namely, that Pro Tools is the only “real” digital audio tool. Secondly, mastering, which traditionally meant making a final 2-track stereo mix from which you could produce a stereo record (though a master these days might be in surround), is a process that can be done in any Digital Audio Workstation app.

Different DAWs have different facilities for mastering, so I went to the source, and ask Steve Thomas from Cakewalk. Steve has some great insider insight into what SONAR can do on the mastering front. Read more for Steve’s answer . . .

Once upon a time, “composers” wrote only for Classical instruments. The greatest found ways of pushing their instruments — even violin pizzicato was once avant-garde extended technique.

Now, of course, composers are writing for film, digital media, multimedia, robotic guitars, cell phones, and yes, video games. While Hollywood movies have remained conservative in their taste for original music, games have become a new field for exploration.

So, while we’re on the topic of orchestral concerts of game music, I’m curious: what video game scores do you think are the most original and inspirational? 8-bit or 64-bit, I’ll compile your faves — email or comment here.

(Watch for an interview with composer Jesper Kyd soon; I’m editing it now. And if you write for games, by all means drop me a line!)

You the readers remain my best resource, so here goes:

What are your favorite tools for recording audio from applications that don’t have a recording/render-to-disk facility?

I’ve been stunned when I’ve seen Windows users suggest that you wire up a recorder, bounce out through the analog outs on the computer, and then re-record. Nonsense! On the Mac, we have four great options:

$$: Use Ambrosia’s WireTap Pro

$$: Use Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack (my favorite option)

FREE: Route audio from app to app with Jack (also possible on Linux)

FREE: Route audio from app to app with Cycling 74’s Soundflower

Much of this trickery is possible thanks to the Mac’s Core Audio — since all audio runs through Core Audio, recording is simple. But I know there are similar, if slightly less impressive, hooks on Windows. So why can’t I figure out a good way to record audio from a Windows app?

Suggestions? Which apps do you use? (My current setup is Audio Hijack + Soundflower on the Mac)

Creating the ultimate workspace for digital music creation
isn't easy. You need the right mood — available liquor cabinet and
copious candles lining the piano is always a good start. And you need a
great desk and office chair. Right now, I'm thinking about finding a
great new, ergonomic chair — see Joy of Tech's clever analysis of office chair options, and what I really want, of course, which is the Herman Miller Aeron.

CDM asks its readers: what's your workspace look like? What's your furniture of choice? And what workspace do you dream of?

Send us photos via email (see Contact Editor) link and links to
favorite furniture here in comments. I'll pick the best entries and
make you famous, so include links to your Website / online music
catalog / whatever you like.

Guitarists have had the right idea for a long time: when you
run out of hands, get your feet in on the action. Now with us
keyboardists busying ourselves with complex synth patches and
triggering grooves from Ableton Live in live performance, the time is
right for mainstreaming the stompbox-style foot controller.

Strangely, finding an affordable (sub-$400) foot controller is hard to do these days. The first model I found was Behringer's FCB-1010
– but I was immediately suspicious. Behringer usually means a) cheaper
than hell (good), b) will fall apart after a couple of weeks if not
already dead on arrival (bad), and c) ripped off from someone else
(unethical). Ethics aside, cheap means nothing if the gear is crap.

Sure enough, the design of the Behringer is ripped off verbatim from Roland's FC-200,
which has a street just above US$360. Even the typeface and pedal shape
and layout is the same, for crying out loud! (See Roland's lawsuit against Behringer
for ripping off their effects pedals.) I'll opt for the Roland because
I trust the company, though if you're the sort who likes buying fake
Rolexes in Chinatown, be my guest with the FCB-1010.

So, I'm set to give the FC-200 a try — but has anyone else found other
MIDI controllers that are better? (And do me a favor, please don't buy
up the entire stock of FC-200s before I get mine!)