VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Drew · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:52 am Post subject:

I think it's been mentioned here before that the computer you use to produce audio for business should be as free of superfluous programs and applications as possible. The more stuff you have running, the greater your chances of encountering competing interests with regard to your OS in general and your recording software in particular.

I think I learned that lesson just over a week ago when certain key applications started to crash as a result of having too much stuff loaded into my older computer. Now, I'm running 1 gig of RAM with over 300 gigs of combined hard drive capacity. As a result...Cool Edit Pro has 220 gigs of free space for recording. Gone are the clicks, pops and skips that were a daily issue for me in longer recording sessions... which is primarily the loin's share of my business. I'm most leery of either downloading or disk loading stuff I really don't need for the business of recording.

Is Skype that important to you to keep running in the computer you use for making money? I would suggest a second computer connected to a router for all that "other" stuff. It's apparent that Skype wants to take over your mixer.
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Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

mcm · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:16 am Post subject:

Drew · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:23 am Post subject:

Okay...I can't freakin' spell. "Lion's Share" Okay? More like a typo anyhoo. There I go again, treading over the line. LOL.
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

mcm · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:54 am Post subject:

I figured we could get away with it 'cause the Boss is too busy flying to Cali to catch us.... Kiss

Heh.

Drew · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:57 am Post subject:

Yeah...but when she comes back...
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

Hart · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:13 am Post subject:

Loin.... (insert a beavis and butthead laugh here)

I gotta say I'm of two minds here. On the one hand, I'm very snobby with my computers. For example, I just did a complete reinstall on my prod machine at work. Format the drive, install Windows XP, Make sure all my drivers are up to snuff, then I immediately tweak it to be a better performer as a Digital Work Station. Do a google search, you'll find tons of stuff on this. Then I install Audition....and basically I'm done. Add my few plugins, one free program I use to help me find and sort my audio files... I'll set up another computer to scan it for viruses evernight as I refuse to put even antivirus on it. I did cave in and put Adobe reader on it this time as I needed to read some documentation, but I'll probably uninstall that on Monday. And then have to clean the registry to make sure there are no remnants of it left to bug me.

On the other hand, I've set up machines running email, internet, accounting software, games, all the bells and whistles with windows set up on multiple accounts and I've made it work. So it can be done, and done pretty well if that's the only option. But it certainly isn't the first choice in an ideal world.

With the price of computers dropping, it seems to be less necessary as well, as one decent booking can buy you a new computer. Heck, a couple of days greeting the people at Wal-Mart part time can buy you a new computer if you already have a monitor and stuff.

mcm · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:23 am Post subject:

I couldn't really make heads or tails of that Skype link - they don't take into account the "real" microphones and I don't dare touch my settings, since at least right now I know what to do - the trouble is I don't know what makes it revert back to the wrong setting, since it doesn't only happen during reboot.

I got a computer for my kids for Christmas so I could get them the heck off of mine. But they still get on mine. At least one of their computer games apparently allows only one installation, so they can't put it on the new machine-- and mine's the machine with the wicked cool video card anyway. And then there are the darn iPods. Apparently once you have a library, you can't move the library to another machine (according to them - I don't believe it). So they have to buy their music and recharge their iPods on my computer. This seems incredibly stupid and there must be a way around it.

I was hoping Skype might eventually be a replacement for my business phone, which is Vonage and which has incredibly poor sound quality. And since getting the kids' computer, and a router to accomodate it, I haven't been able to get the Vonage phone to work despite following the instructions and configuring it according to the drawing... so I have to forward the business phone to my cell phone, and....

Despite the move toward solid state, the world just has too many moving parts for me....