Here’s interesting and maddening read (even if I just got the gist of it).

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
===================================================

Peter Gutmann, http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

What’s at issue here is somewhat different than what has happened in the roll-over of other, earlier milestone OSs. Yes, for those performing mission critical functions as an end-user, it’s ridiculous to think about changing your OS for at least 6 months from release. (The driver issue alone would be enough to give most semi-educated user pause, forget about all the hacks, freebies and goodies most of us have on our systems.) This isn’t even about bloat. This is Vista apparently attempting to strong-arm a restrictive DRM onto everyone who is not Microsoft. And in the long term it’s looking like Vista could be a very bad thing for either users and vendors or a bad thing for Microsoft.

How does this relate to digital lofi and computer-based audio production? Well, audio geeks along with video editors and gaming freaks demand a lot from their machines, are constantly looking to to upgrade performance. If the OS starts throwing intensive restrictions on the the functioning of hardware, especially how it deals with audio & video streams, and makes it more difficult for users & programmers to legitimately circumvent these restrictions, then the fallout will be long and far-reaching.

Certainly there will be ways to hack around it for those who are inclined, but programmers and hardware manufactures will want to go for as wide a user base as possible and (again, apparently) it will become that much more difficult for them. And a lot of the hardware we have set up on our machines (S/PDIF, lots of video equipment) may not play nice, if at all, with Vista.

It seems to me, that the thing most tempting to those with tweaked-out PCs is the removal of the 2gig RAM limit. But wouldn’t a better solution be would grabbing XP64 while you still can and hoping that most of your software survives or will be updated? Me? With disc-streaming samplers, and my stripped-down, non-networked DAW, I’ve got everything I need covered.

Everyone who is involved in media content creation should watch this video:

It’s obviously not specifically about Home Audio Production, or music at all, but what it addresses it pretty universal. If you’ve spent any time on audio geek boards and heard the old-school audio dudes gripe about how crap everything is now that everyone suddenly thinks they’re a musician/dj/producer then this will speak to you. Plus, the Ugly My Space song is really catchy.

At one point I had the thought of subtitling this site something along the lines of “Reading KvR so you don’t have to.” (Obviously, a nod to Ze Frank and his brilliant bit of catchphrase.) However, that’s way too software-geek for even me. That said, there are still interesting things happening there among the bickering, snickering and teapot controversies.

Right now, the big digital lofi props go to users Fuzzpile & grymmjack who are each contributing towards the development of the soon-to-be-truly-mighty Oatmeal.

If you don’t know, Oatmeal was a synth that was quietly announced on KvR roughly a year ago. No press-release, no public betas, no pre-release hype. The developer, Fuzzpile (who apparently has toyed with a blog of his own) just started a thread in the instrument forum announcing “Available Mediocre Free Synth.” He very modestly explained the project and what the synth did, and how he didn’t think the sound was anything particularly special though he was proud of his work. Of course, the denizens of KvR are all over anything that is free (I guess that’s everywhere… sigh), and Oatmeal immediately gained champions among the rank and file. There were a few who grumbled about how it wasn’t really all that great, but the wealth of great sound banks that followed in it’s wake made those arguments academic. Oatmeal is a more than capable subtractive/VA-style synth, with some really nice features (x/y pad, arp) and probably the most slick randomization features of any plugin I’ve seen (it names your random presets).

The only real drawback to Oatmeal was indeed it’s interface, the only arguably mediocre aspect of the original release. It was small and sometimes fiddly, and the layout/groupings were a little unintuitive for less experienced synthesis dabblers (such as yours truly). Wisely, Mr. Fuzzpile opened up the skinning engine while he was fine-tuning the release with the feedback of the KvR users. Several graphically inclined users stepped in and whipped up a batch of skins of varying quality (depending on taste). And all was good.

Enter grymmjack, who advertises “Will work for VST” and has skinned a bunch of freeware apps. A few weeks ago he undertook a massive redesign of Oatmeal, and as you can see from the screen-cap at the top of the page, it is looking really, really slick. He’s basically been live “blogging” his work in this thread, and you can see complete screen caps for all aspects of the synth. I can’t wait to try this out.

While you’re at WFMU’s Beware the Blog, here’s a good test for your sampler:

Maria Seeks Broken Glass and Water Remixes

Really, if you’re not reading this site you’re missing one of the most consistently interesting spots on the web.

Okay, I give in. All the cool blogs do it. So, my first digital lofi YouTube embed.

Might as well post this here, ’cause it is very cool. And definitely keeping in the digital lofi ethos I think.

Big ups to the WFMU’s Beware the Blog for the point.

I know it goes against the whole digital lofi ethos, but over the last few weeks I have been indulging in the most Typical Home Studio Operator/Investor/Enthusiast behavior: you know, coveting gear. But this is not so much the “Nice toy, I bet that would be fun” variety, but rather “There is an weak link in my recording setup that needs to be addressed.”

As I’ve discussed elsewhere in my ramblings, my audiocard/mixer setup is less than perfect. It has gotten me through all these years as I’ve been learning recording and digital audio software. But I know that if I’m really going to continue with this it’s time I moved onto a more serious audio interface, with unquestionable timing, proven AD/DA converters, and a few less wires wouldn’t hurt.

Hell, I could even keep the EZBus slaved to the RME. (Though, as I may have mentioned, I would still like a little more information about the internal workings of my EZBus. )

This looks like exactly what I need. The marketing copy & product specs certainly read impressively. But we all know it’s best to take that for what it is, the verbiage of over-excited engineers and musicians-turned-marketing guys (yes, guys trying to sell you on their product (thereby ensuring they get paid). (Yeah, yeah…) Anyway, since this is the latest & greatest from RME there’s not much in the way of user reviews out there, at least not that I could find. But I challenge someone to find a bad review of the Fireface 800. This is a company that knows how to make great hardware. I have no doubt that this would be a great investment for digital lofi.

Of course, the problem is I don’t have a whole lot of capital to plow back into my studio right now. And when you start eying those Sweetwater credit card banners you know it’s time to figure out how to, you know, actually finance one.