POLL: Which Operating Systems Do You Use?

[2_dup13]

Simply and straight: OS X for all my needs... and more.

[Geoff Grace]

Um...

 

Maybe the next question ought to be, "Which Operating System Does This Poll Software Use?"

 

(The poll's total exceeds 100%.)

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[where02190]

I just noticed that also, the results total 160%.

[Chuck Surack]

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

Alright, who are the two people still using Mac OS 8.x? And, uh... why? Nu-bus Pro Tools system you're attached to or something?

 

- Jeff

Ok, I am one of the guilty!! I still have an ancient Kurzweil K250 that can only talk to old Macs for loading and saving sounds.

 

I use OSX (Tiger) and Windows XP for all my other music stuff.

 

Now, get off my case .

 

Chuck

[nursers]

Originally posted by 2:

Simply and straight: OS X for all my needs... and more.

Yep - OSX and the world-beating Pro Tools is all I need

[RABid]

Was this a poll that allows more than one selection? That may be why it exceeds 100 percent.

 

Why no differentation between XP Home and XP Pro? I'm using two PC's and a laptop with XP Pro and one PC with XP Home. All SP2.

 

Robert

[Botch.]

Originally posted by Chuck Surack:

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

Alright, who are the two people still using Mac OS 8.x? And, uh... why? Nu-bus Pro Tools system you're attached to or something?

 

- Jeff

Ok, I am one of the guilty!! I still have an ancient Kurzweil K250 that can only talk to old Macs for loading and saving sounds.

 

I use OSX (Tiger) and Windows XP for all my other music stuff.

 

Now, get off my case .

 

Chuck

And I am the other guilty one, see my post above as to why, Mr. Jeff-14,000posts-richguy-dude. (Congrats on 14K!)

[Anderton]

<>

 

People can check more than one answer.

[Ernest Buckley]

OS X is a beauty. Sometimes I still need to work on OS 9 and cannot believe how foreign it looks even though I worked there for 4 years.

[theblue1]

Originally posted by Botch.:

Originally posted by theblue1:

Originally posted by Anderton:

Of course not! Whoever it is has the tightest MIDI timing of any of the systems!!

Are you talking Atari, here?

Well, no, I was the single vote for Mac 8.6. I recently gave my Atari away (a Mega with Notator as Phil mentioned) because it couldn't record audio, and I play enough "analog" instruments to warrant it. I'm still using my G3/8.6 combo with Opcode's Vision (Opcode was purchased and disbanded three weeks after I bought Vision, a Studio 128X audio interface, and a Translator Pro MIDI interface; would you like some guaranteed stock tips from me? ). I keep looking at the G5, Yamaha 01X and Logic, but since Craig won't take up a collection for me I'll still be looking.

Mac 8.6 has the tightest timing?

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

On the Opcode thing... yeah, we've all doh-si-dohed when we should have alemán-lefted... but just think of the fun you've had telling that story over the years...

 

 

[theblue1]

Originally posted by Lee Flier:

LOL sounds like we need to have a "Rube Goldberg recording" contest. Whoever can come up with the most arcane way to record and the most twisted signal path wins.

That one totally deserves its own thread. If not its own forum.

 

Alndln's signal path reminds me of the echo I set up before I got my (well used) Echoplex around '84. I was doing a jingle in a dub style (for a campus radio station) and I needed echo bad.

 

So I looped the signal flow through two tape machines and used the PB head feeds in series looped back around to get enough delay time.

[Anderton]

<

 

Heavens no! I thought he was talking about Atari. Although Core MIDI is pretty darn good, especially after all those years of OMS trying to swim upstream with an operating system that for many years emulated access to the serial ports...

[where02190]

Even though we can pick more thanone OS< the total number of users % shouldn't exceed 100. There's a glitch somewhere.

[Philip OKeefe]

Originally posted by Lee Flier:

Originally posted by Alndln:

]You mean like in the old days when I used my voice into an MXR delay because I didn't have a synth for effects? Or in the early 70's when I turned a Breakstones Cheesbox into my homemade mixing board? Don't get me started.

LOL... one of the best ones I've heard here is Phil syncing his whole rig to an old ADAT machine so he can use the varispeed.

 

It's true! And it actually works. http://foxtick.com/foxboard/images/smiles/Phil-Thumbs-Up-Small.gif

[ViLo]

Originally posted by Philip O'Keefe:

Originally posted by Lee Flier:

Originally posted by Alndln:

]You mean like in the old days when I used my voice into an MXR delay because I didn't have a synth for effects? Or in the early 70's when I turned a Breakstones Cheesbox into my homemade mixing board? Don't get me started.

LOL... one of the best ones I've heard here is Phil syncing his whole rig to an old ADAT machine so he can use the varispeed.

 

It's true! And it actually works. http://foxtick.com/foxboard/images/smiles/Phil-Thumbs-Up-Small.gif

[phaeton]

Well, since you asked...Some horrible recording setups i've used:

 

(pre four-track)

 

- Multiple boomboxes i chained together to create a 3-track recording deck. I synchronized the playback of two decks by linking their cassette driving mechanisms with a shaft i hacked out of a small plastic tube (pipe from an HO Railroad kit, iirc).

 

Two of them allowed me to engage the "high speed dubbing" feature during both record and playback, as well as play both sides of the dual-cassette at the same time. Other effects were the ability to dial in various radio stations, and one of these boomboxes was the one that would bring in the "data repeater" stations i've mentioned before. Another boombox had recording level controls (and VU meters!) that would allow me to overdrive the inputs. This was my first distortion effect!

 

(post four-track)

 

- Reverb units built out of a square metal frame with various coil springs and metal wire stretched across it, set in a styrofoam cooler with a mic and speaker. Other designs used a set of screen door springs in a 4' length of PVC with a speaker on one side and a mic in the other. Yet another design employed the styrofoam cooler, a mic, a speaker, and an entire roll of alyewmineeum foil cut into carefully textured sheets that sat on top of each other and gave a "splattery" reverb sound. I vaguely remember a few other variations on these ideas, but it's been about 10 years or so. I originally did this because the reverb went out on my amp. I later used variations as an outboard effect for my 4-track.

 

- An assortment of slapback/flanger/chorus type effects out of the remnants of the boomboxes i mentioned earlier. One of my most elaborate setups involved a loop of cassette tape that was pulled through various Lego pulleys and wheels and things across all the recording and playback heads of a pair of dual-cassette boomboxes. I created "Tremolo" effects by varying the distance of the tape from the head, "phaser-esquent" effects by moving the tape side to side on the head. Sometimes, i would record with one head and (through a ratcheting motion of 2 steps forward, 1 step back) run the tape backwards-ish across the other head. It made for a very strange reverb/delay effect. Since none of these boomboxes had "METAL" setting, using METAL tapes (as opposed to Cr02) would result in the sound not getting fully erased the first time around, so things would repeat several times instead of once. Lo-fi tapes sounded warmer, btw.

 

- Mechanical panning effects with Lego machines operating one or more volume knobs.

 

- Rotating speakers (erector set, this time)

 

- Various "soundtanks" as i called them. Essentially speakers in an enclosed, insulated container with a microphone that i could move to different positions and angles. Unfortunately, a great deal of my recording inspration would come after 11pm and go long into the morning. I was looking for a better sounding alternative to recording direct, but without disturbing anyone. I used a bajillion cardboard, styrofoam, cast expanding foam, pvc, wooden and even once concrete cinder-block enclosures, all packed with combinations of fiberglass, expanding foam, cotton balls, junk t-shirts from the goodwill, naugahyde, foil, layers of drywall and foam insulation, even once bags of thick mud. I experimented with everything. Some boxes were big enough to put my whole amp in, but other times i used a boombox speaker, headphones or an assortment of other small, naked speakers i had collected over the years. Sometimes I drove the speakers with my Peavey Pacer guitar amp, sometimes with a G-Blaster pocket amp, sometimes with a walkman or one of the boomboxes. I have several dozen tapes of noodling up to complete songs recorded between 1994 and 1997, and 85% of everything used a soundtank in some form or another. In some cases i got some really amazing, deceptive sounds that would make you think "wall of stacks" but you'd be disenchanted to discover it was 2 dixie cups taped together, bottoms cut out, with headphone speakers glued to the outside, all wrapped in a towel. One speaker acts like a speaker, and drives the other one (which acts like a microphone) with the semi-airtight seal.

 

I'd also mounted a speaker in one end of a PVC pipe, put a microphone in the middle, and utilized lego/erector/??? contraptions to move a plunger in and out, for a bit of a phaser type effect.

 

- Guitar-->stompbox-->4-track. *cringe*

 

- Sometimes doing the above to get an idea down at 3 am, then later bouncing it to another track by sending it out through an amp and back in through a mic to minimize the 'raspiness'.

 

- I had 2 phone numbers in the house. I called one phone with the other. I recorded through the USWest Telephone System. More than once. Tried to enlist the participation of a friend to record long distance. Attempts were unsuccessful.

 

- I've clamped various small speakers and piezoelectric buzzers to the various parts usually the headstock) of my guitar, and fed them some of the mixing console-amplified signal in an attempt to develop harmonic feedback while recording direct. I've had semi-successful results. The biggest problem is that you only get feedback from certain frequencies, and they're usually not the ones you want, or they're not enough to really take off. I *have* however, used speakers and buzzers right up against the pickups to induce microphonic squeal, for that "punched-in pickup wail" effect. I went through a phase where I was trying to get the illusion of impossibly loud guitar at line-levels. I must say that i've got a few examples i'm quite proud of, and a lot that i'm not.

 

- Before I had an acoustic guitar, i miked the rear chamber of my strat. Later i cut up a foam 'beer can cooler' to fit the back and hold the mic. It was pretty convincing, except when my stomach gurgled.

 

- I've made believable banjo sounds with a sock rolled up under the strings up against the bridge of the guitar.

 

- I've electrified kazoos. I've built rubberband guitars, harps and stuff, and electrified those too. I'm farking crazy, you do realize this, right?

 

- Special effects... Oh geez... you think the post above is long winded... i'm reeling with the number of stuff i've 'simulated' on tape- bombs dropping, explosions, spaceships, planes/trains/automobiles, sounds of bong hits, crickets, dogs, birds, cats, other instruments... On and on. We once here talked about my set of 'drums' i made. I could dig up the thread, but i just don't have the time now.

 

I've got more, but i should probably stop here

[Anifa]

Great Windows vs. Mac thread Craig!

 

I see that Windows RuLZe!!!

[phaeton]

I see that Windows RuLZe!!!

 

fUx0r j00 bIllYb0x

 

\/\/I|\|D0Z3 i$t t3h h4rd $uX..

 

Fr33b$d i$t t3h 3733tz0r

 

eYe w|ll r0x0r j00r b0x0rz!! j00 wIll b t3h m4d pWn3d bI4tCh!! http://foxtick.com/foxboard/images/smiles/Phil-Thumbs-Up-Small.gif

[Anderton]

<>

 

I see that the percentage of musicians using Macs far exceeds the population at large, and also, that a lot people use both platforms. But certainly, the days when people thought no one could make serious music on a Windows machine are loooong gone.

[phaeton]

But certainly, the days when people thought no one could make serious music on a Windows machine are loooong gone.

 

Hopefully, the days where people thought you couldn't do anything serious on a Mac are looong gone too....

 

Unfortunately i still run into people that think that way, and refuse to listen to reason. (not Reason, reason).

 

Linux? Well, people will always doubt/hate/fear linux

 

FreeBSD? No one's ever heard of it, so it's safe for now.