Backstory: My system drive died a couple weeks ago without warning. So I went to Microcenter and picked up a new SATAII drive and 2 more gigs of RAM. One of my friends furnished me with a RC of Windows 7 x64 which has a valid license until next year some time when hopefully I can upgrade to the full version.

Reasoning: Windows 7 is awesome, fast, and beautiful. However it is completely useless for music production. I won't go into too much detail, but it is unusable for me so I had to consider other options. I decided that XP had been working fine for that task and dual-booting would allow me to sandbox my music production OS while still doing everything else on Windows 7 (I already use Linux in a VirtualBox for development).

I already had Windows 7 installed by the time I realized it wouldn't work for music production, but I had planned ahead and left a good deal of space unpartitioned. Windows 7's Disk Manager allows you to resize partitions without having to use third party tools if you weren't thinking ahead. I created a new NTFS partition in my free space for XP and gave it a name to distinguish it during the XP setup.

I created a custom nLite build of Windows XP Pro that was semi-automated, I slipstreamed SP3, and integrated my motherboard, gamer audio, pro audio, ethernet, and graphics drivers. I also used an addon for Notepad2 which is a simple editor I'm rather fond of for trivial tasks (I use Komodo Edit and VIM for serious work). I patched some system files and added some custom themes while removing Luna.

Problems: Later I discovered that the driver integration didn't go so well so I'll probably skip it next time and just put the drivers on my install disk for after the OS installation. I also discovered that Google Chrome's installer is messed up and you can't use it standalone. I was glad I hadn't removed IE so I could download it quickly, but next time I'll include Opera or Firefox on my install media. One of the custom themes I included was non-functional, and another one was just plain ugly, I'd remove these if done again. Overall the problems were trivial and I was very happy with the customizations.

After I burned out my nLite'd XP install disk I rebooted and when prompted selected my newly created XP partition and did a full NTFS format for the sake of completeness. I installed XP, rebooted, everything worked great even after the serious tweaking I gave the OS in nLite.

When XP installs it trashes your existing bootloader and doesn't detect 7, so it boots straight to XP without giving you a choice. What needs to be done now is to reinstall the Windows 7 bootloader and then configure it to work with XP also. Here's how:

1. Reinsert your Windows 7 install media and boot into setup.


2. Select "Repair Your Computer" when the option is given. DO NOT CLICK "Install Now"!


3. Select "Command Prompt" in the Systems Recovery Options windows.


4. Enter these commands at the prompt:
   
   bootrec /fixMBR
   bootrec /fixBoot
   exit


5. Remove your install media and reboot. You will boot back into Windows 7 at this point.


6. Go to the Start Menu or press the Windows Key. The "search programs and files" text box should be selected, click it if not.


7. Type "cmd" and hit ctrl+shift+enter. A UAC window will pop up, click "yes" or hit alt-y.


8. Enter these commands at the prompt*:
   
   bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Microsoft Windows XP"
   bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=D:
   bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
   bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast


9. Profit.

* Replace "D" with the drive letter of your Windows XP install.

You're done, when you reboot the bootloader will give you the option of booting into Windows 7 or XP. If you want to change the default OS or configure the delay time go to Control Panel/System > Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery/Settings.

_{(in roughly the order of importance)}

Hardware

1. Akai MPK61 (or similar midi controller, I hate my Axiom) - ~$400


2. Roland JP-8080 (I want to get rid of my JP-8000, or trade) - ~$400 (should break even)


3. Access Virus Snow (to replace my Virus A) - ~$1,200


4. Korg Mono/Poly (for the win of it) - ~$600-$800


5. (some monitor amp or PA) (mine fried) - ~$300


6. EchoAudio Layla (or recording interface, my old Layla has seen better days) - ~$500

Software

Definately

1. Audio Damage BigSeq2 - $49


2. LiquidSonics Reverberate - $50

Probably

1. Ohmforce Ohmicide, Predatohm - $227 (total)


2. Schwa Oligarc, schOPE, Dyno, Sculpto


3. Vesco Provoker - $29

Maybe

1. Waldorf Largo - $250 (already have Komplexor..)


2. ReFX Slayer 2 (for the FX version) - $100

---

Purchased

Gearl(i/u)st.

Hardware

• Access Virus A


• Alesis Micron


• Roland JP-8000


• Roland HS-60


• Roland S-550


• Korg DSS-1 - $205


• EchoAudio Layla 24


• Wadorf Blofeld - $430


• Behringer Xenyx 1202


• M-Audio Axiom 61


• M-Audio Firewire 410


• Akai LPD8 - $65.00


• Echo Audio - Indigo IOx $187.00


• Korg Radias-R - $535 ($250 less than cheapest new, $1465 off MSRP)


• Roland M-160 Mixer - $42.79 (ebay)

Software

• Native Instruments Absynth 2


• Tone2 Firebird+


• All of Superwave's VSTs


• All of Ugo's VSTs


• de la Mancha's Bullet - $10 (for charity.. and samples)


• Ugo's Ironhead:Spawn (new synth) - $20 (discounted price)


• Wusikstation - as part of a sampling deal for $0


• Gforce Imposcar - $85 (secondhand NFR)


• Prodyon Enchoir - $27 (group buy)


• Cableguys Filtershaper - $44


• Tone2 Gladiator 2 - $0 (NFR license from Tone2 for making demotracks)


• U-He Uhbik - $149 (sale)


• reFX Vanguard - $110 ($99 + some tax crap)


• de la mancha GTO/GTX - $29 (plus GTA for free)


• Audio Damage Kombinat - $35 (second hand)


• Stillwell Event Horizon and Transient Monster - $39 & $49


• Schwa Olga - $80


• CamelAudio CamelSpace, CamelPhat, and Alchemy - $42, $42, & $124 (half off due to group buy)


• de la mancha QB3 - $12 (lower price for GTO/GTX owners)


• Prodyon Livemachine - $65 (intro/preorder price)


• Cableguys Filtershaper2 - $25 (upgrade price)


• Leslie Sanford Cobalt - $35


• Garritan Personal Orchestra 4 - $49.95 (upgrade price)


• Cakewalk z3ta+ - $20 (special)

edits:
Removed some I realized I didn't need.
Added the Purchased section.
2009.07.21 Bought Imposcar :D
2009.08.10 Bought Enchoir
Removed G-8R when I realized it isn't what I need and added BigSeq2 instead.
Removed some plugins that I demoed and didn't find useful.
Added Reverberate to the wishlist.
2009.08.19 Received Gladiator 2
2009.08.20 Bought Filtershaper, and also bought a "skeleton" rack for the studio.
2009.08.26 Bought u-he Uhbiks.
2009.10.03 Bought the LPD8, LPK25, and Indigo IOx. (yay for the new laptop!)
2009.10.26 Bought Vanguard.
2009.10.28 Bought GTO/GTX.

Labels: Music, Wishlist

I happened to notice a little "news" thing on that fancy new Yahoo! front page this little clip:

Smoke screens

Many movie stars light up on-screen. Is it harmful to young viewers, or just a matter of character?

Okay, so, they're throwing a fit about actors smoking in movies. Okay, lets look at this for a minute. Okay, smoking is bad, and kids copy actors because they're little shits like that. However, I'm sure that even if it become "illegal" or whatever to smoke cigarettes on screen, people will still drink, smoke pot, crack, snort cocaine, shoot up heoin, have teen sex, shoot people, torture people.. all in the same movies.

So, now I'm confused.. where's the issue? It's a fucking movie, it's entertainment, it's artist expression (in the best of cases). If they make it so actors aren't allowed to smoke cigarettes in movies, I'll be shaking my head. Don't you think there's something they should be doing that's a little more important than something stupid like that? The only concession I'd make, is if a movie is G, maybe kick it up to PG if one of the "cool" characters in the movie smoked. I can understand that, if marginally. Otherwise, I think it's fucking stupid. No, it is fucking stupid.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, you sir, are an idiot.
James Woods, you are an idiot as well.

James Woods did voice acting in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as well as Scarface: The World Is Yours, as well as acting in movies like Scary Movie 2.

Let me point out this as well, I don't smoke, I've never once smoked a cigarette in my life, not once, never tried it. As a matter of fact, smoking irritates my allergies. (other than cloves, which don't seem to bother me, but I've never smoked them either) And I refuse to buy cigarettes for my friends who aren't old enough to buy them for themselves. However, characters I design for works of fiction I've created, and for games I've played often do smoke. I'm a firm believer in flaws making a character more interesting, addiction is a very good way to identify with a lot of people, everyone has a vice of one form or another. Stories about perfect people in perfect worlds are only interesting to infants who don't understand: that shit doesn't happen in this world.

Fucking christ.

-x

Labels: Essays