Hi. New member, old guy. I have been on this forum some years ago, when I got my first BIB, but I have been overwhelmed with the work of building a house and farm, so I had to back away from the learning curve.

Having been a musician since I was a child, I have managed to acquire some knowledge and understanding.

I tell you all this, because I do not want to waste the valuable time of members, trying to figure out what I need to resolve my problems.

A number of unresolved issues first:

1. Missing bass notes in REAL TRACKS, (reported to PG), they appear in the dots, but are absent in sound?
2. A click and jump, like a fault on a vinyl record track, on my DELL laptop whilst playing music and BIB. Local computer buffs just scratch their heads!

In my previous membership to this forum, Some kind member suggested that I review my study of music on the guitar, to include a numerical system based on scale numbers as per the Jaco Pastorius tutor, giving me a better view of scale and jazz patterns. I am well advanced (by my standards) now, and looking for already transcribed solos to advance my study. Are there any recommendations?

My final query in this thread is, what scope is there for using my laptop to drive my guitar with? I do have GARRITAN but so far, I am unable get this to work. PG sent me a document indicating the limitations of using this with the package that I have WINDOWS XP 2000 AND BIB 2012. Any help would be helpful.

In connection with this last problem, can AMPLITUBE AND GARRITAN be used in ’real time’ and not just in recording.

Cheers

Cy,

Welcome back to BIAB and to the forums! I don't have the answer to many of your questions, but someone will, so hang on.

AFAIK you should be able to use Amplitube in realtime, given that your PC is up to it. Those clicks and pops you mention bother me. There is a free benchmark you can download and run to see how much moxie your PC has. Go to http://www.primatelabs.com/geekbench/

I'm not clear on your question about using Garritan in RT, though. You make an earlier reference to "driving your guitar with the computer." Do you mean using your guitar as a controller? If so, you would need a pitch-to-MIDI converter such as a Roland GI-20 or equivalent plus a Roland GK-type pickup. As I said, though, I may just not be understanding what you're asking.

You're asking some great questions and you're obviously in a great place to take the answers and run with it. We look forward to seeing you grow with this thing.

HTH,

Richard

Hi Cy,

Can you please give us a little information about your computer - what processor speed, how much RAM?

Also, when using BIAB do you have the audio driver set to MME? Some people experience pops and crackles if the audio driver is running using ASIO.

Regards,
Noel

Yes, welcome back.

My thought about the "click and jump" was the same as Noel and Richard's. Run Geekbench and report back, along with info about your computer. Also tell us what you selected for MIDI output and whether or not DXi is checked. Do you use a wireless router?

About the other issues, I recommend starting a separate post for each. They sound unrelated to me, and will be easier to address separately.

Thanks for that Richard, it is much appreciated. I have done my leg in, with an angle grinder, so I may not be able to get back to you as soon as I would wish.
Many thanks,
Cy

Thanks Matt and Noel. Doing that as we wait.
Kind regards,
Cy

Gosh, I hope all this makes sense to you all, and it is so quick!
Many thanks,
Cy
Dell Inc. MM061
Section Description Score Geekbench Score
Geekbench 2.4.3 Tryout for Windows x86 (32-bit)
Integer Processor integer performance 2047 1730
Floating Point Processor floating point performance 1852
Memory Memory performance 1154
Stream Memory bandwidth performance 1347
Result Information
Upload Date May 04 2013 07:18 AM
Views 1
System Information
Dell Inc. MM061
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (32-bit)
Model Dell Inc. MM061
Processor Intel Pentium T2080 @ 3.76 GHz
1 processor
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 12
Processor Codename Yonah
Processor Package Socket 479 mPGA
L1 Instruction Cache 32 KB x 2
L1 Data Cache 32 KB x 2
L2 Cache 1024 KB
L3 Cache 0 KB
Motherboard Dell Inc. 0KD882
Northbridge Intel i945GM 03
Southbridge Intel 82801GHM (ICH7-M/U) A1
BIOS Dell Inc. A17
Memory 1024 MB DDR2 SDRAM 578MHz
Integer Performance
Integer 2047
Blowfish
single-core scalar 972
42.7 MB/sec

Blowfish
multi-core scalar 2008
82.3 MB/sec

Text Compress
single-core scalar 1390
4.45 MB/sec

Text Compress
multi-core scalar 2470
8.10 MB/sec

Text Decompress
single-core scalar 1455
5.98 MB/sec

Text Decompress
multi-core scalar 2909
11.6 MB/sec

Image Compress
single-core scalar 1390
11.5 Mpixels/sec

Image Compress
multi-core scalar 2657
22.4 Mpixels/sec

Image Decompress
single-core scalar 1304
21.9 Mpixels/sec

Image Decompress
multi-core scalar 2524
41.2 Mpixels/sec

Lua
single-core scalar 2173
837 Knodes/sec

Lua
multi-core scalar 3319
1.28 Mnodes/sec

Floating Point Performance
Floating Point 1852
Mandelbrot
single-core scalar 1158
770 Mflops

Mandelbrot
multi-core scalar 2311
1.51 Gflops

Dot Product
single-core scalar 889
430 Mflops

Dot Product
multi-core scalar 1794
818 Mflops

Dot Product
single-core vector 2001
2.40 Gflops

Dot Product
multi-core vector 4131
4.30 Gflops

LU Decomposition
single-core scalar 749
667 Mflops

LU Decomposition
multi-core scalar 672
590 Mflops

Primality Test
single-core scalar 1935
289 Mflops

Primality Test
multi-core scalar 2841
527 Mflops

Sharpen Image
single-core scalar 768
1.79 Mpixels/sec

Sharpen Image
multi-core scalar 1513
3.49 Mpixels/sec

Blur Image
single-core scalar 1753
1.39 Mpixels/sec

Blur Image
multi-core scalar 3424
2.69 Mpixels/sec

Memory Performance
Memory 1154
Read Sequential
single-core scalar 1808
2.21 GB/sec

Write Sequential
single-core scalar 1661
1.14 GB/sec

Stdlib Allocate
single-core scalar 874
3.26 Mallocs/sec

Stdlib Write
single-core scalar 556
1.15 GB/sec

Stdlib Copy
single-core scalar 872
921 MB/sec

Stream Performance
Stream 1347
Stream Copy
single-core scalar 1294
1.77 GB/sec

Stream Copy
single-core vector 1385
1.80 GB/sec

Stream Scale
single-core scalar 1367
1.77 GB/sec

Stream Scale
single-core vector 1337
1.81 GB/sec

Stream Add
single-core scalar 1332
2.01 GB/sec

Stream Add
single-core vector 1524
2.12 GB/sec

Stream Triad
single-core scalar 1433
1.98 GB/sec

Stream Triad
single-core vector 1111
2.08 GB/sec

Is this what you needed? Is the REPLY PAGE large enough to include all that I have pasted?
Cy

G'day Cy,
I haven't had a very close look, but I'd take it up to 4GB of RAM if you can find some that will fit...

The 1GB you have is not even in the race as far as performance is concerned.

"what you selected for MIDI output" = Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
"DXi is checked" = yes

Is this also what you need?
Cy

Good start Lawrie,

On my shopping list.

Cy

Yes, a pitch to midi converter sounds like the problem solver. Its on my shopping list, many thanks.
Cy

Hoping I have understood the question you asked.
Cy

I'm with Lawrie.
With one change.

You seem to have a fast processor and fairly low RAM. This means the processor is waiting for the drive more often which MAY be the sound glitch.

However in 32 bit XP I think you max out at 2 GIG of (usable) RAM.
Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while.
[edit]From MS - The virtual address space of processes and applications is still limited to 2 GB unless the /3GB switch is used in the Boot.ini file.
source- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487508.aspx [/edit]

Your processor/RAM combo is like having a corvette but only driving it around the block; it needs more room to really show its stuff!

That said, have you considered a newer PC or Operating System? XP stops support in 9 months I think. It's getting old.

http://arcellussykesmusic.com/index.php?/transcriptions/

This site has a lot of transcriptions. Later, Ray

I see you are already in good hands re: your questions, so all I'll add is welcome back.

Later,

The processor is an Intel Pentium, and although it's running 'fast', the processor and especially the low RAM yield a marginal Geekbench score for BIAB 2013. Adding another gig of RAM may not be enough to make this old PC work well enough.

There are a few settings in Opt., Preferences, RealTracks that would be appropriate for this slower PC. I'm not at a computer now; could someone list those for the OP please?

I believe it's called Fast Generation of Realtracks that may help if disabled.

To answer the small question rharv, Windows XP 32 bit maximum install of RAM is 4GB, however Windows actually only uses roughly 3.5GB of that.
Bearing that in mind I see no real point in installing more than 3GB in total.

I also will rub in the point that a new computer is actually the better bet as XP is rapidly approaching its end, and though even now getting hard to get I would stay with a Windows 7 64bit machine.
Windows 8 is such a major learning curve and as yet not sure if BIAB is fully supported, Peter Gannon will know more about that of course.

Whichever you finally do go for and sure as eggs is eggs you will eventually need to, I will recommend a computer with at least a quad core processor, enough space for extra RAM if it comes with anything less than 2GB and a decent sized and fast running hard drive. A hard drive that is a SSD even better.

However all of that depends on finances, I am sure the good folks here can point in the right direction depending on what you can afford.

Suggestions for running Band in a Box, Realtracks, etc. with single Pentium XP computer:

While support for XP will indeed be going away, you still should be able to get BB up and running flawlessly with the system you have without resorting to spending money on it.

I have experimented quite a lot with XP and single processors during beta testing of Band in a Box thru the years, matter of fact I intentionally used an XP laptop for the last beta testing session, BB2013.

**1 gig of ram is barely enough for these purposes, I prefer 2g with XP, but have also intentionally removed 1g and ascertained that it can work with Band in a Box. Caveat here is that the machine loses resources during longer editing sessions and even when just playing back songs that contain Realtracks in a row. So I do recommend the 2g ram here. Without it, you can simply run BB until droputs start to happen and then close down BB, REBOOT the machine to get lost resources back, open BB and continue.

**With "only" the 1g of ram available, it is important to take good care of your hard disk because there will likely be more Disk Swapping necessary as your ram fills up.

**DEFRAG the hard drive. This is best done IMO using the free downloadable "Defraggler" program rather than the included Microsoft Defragmenter.

**Set the Hard Drive's Disk Swap utility from the Control Panel -> System ->HARDWARE etc. manually. Set it to twice the installed ramsize. For 1g of physical ram, that would mean setting the Disk Swap to be able to use 2048. Don't accept the "let windows handle" automated dealie, they have no idea the kind of streaming we need to do, they are thinking "burst" rates.

Defragging the disk is likely going to be your most important thing to do in order to get BB to play properly.


--Mac

BIAB has no problems running on Windows 8, as does virtually every other program I've got that ran on Windows 7 and XP - (DOS excepted however!!).



Kevin

Re: Cornet Nev, yes, BIAB works fine in Windows 8. I have both running on my laptop.

Ditto to what Matt said. Everything works great BIAB/RB in Win 8 64 bit.

Welcome back Cy. Just thought I'd chime in here to tell you that all songs you hear posted by me so far were done on an XP machine with 2g of ram. My processor is an AMD 3800+.

Mac's advice has cleared up most issues I've had which haven't been many.

I watch running too many effect processors at once and occasionally might get bogged down with too many realtracks but nothing that stops me.

A few months ago, I bought a new powerful computer but haven't switched my music software over yet - haven't had the time plus I'm comfortable using this one and have so many plugs and programs that I know work.

So imo your XP machine should work until you're ready to invest in a more powerful computer if you'll up the ram, and follow Mac's advice.

OK, rharv gave one of the settings in Opt., Preferences, RealTracks that should be used on a slower machine with problems running BIAB version 2013. The other two are right under it:

Uncheck "High Quality ..."
Check "Use +/- RealTracks"

Be prepared for a significant hit. Last I checked you could get the GK pickup (GK-3 recommended) for around $225. Then it needs installation. You can do this yourself if you are handy and have precision tools (think micrometer that reads out in thousandths of an inch and/or tenths of a millimeter, plus l'il tiny drill bits). If you're not comfortable drilling on your guitar you'll want to have it done for you. (You can do it on a Les Paul-type bridge without having to cut on the instrument, but you still need the gauges.)

You have more options on the PTM converter. I believe the range starts with the previously mentioned Roland GI-20 for a few hundred dollars (if you can find one) to the Roland VG-99 "V-Guitar" emulator starting at around $1,000, which is kind of the ultimate guitar workstation. There are some items in between, the names of which I am unable to recall at the moment, but if you're interested I'll be happy to research for you.

I myself have a Roland GI-10, which I haven't attempted to use yet. I believe it has latency issues which the GI-20 (which also includes a microphone input) addresses. I intend to use it to drive Propellhead's Reason S/W synth software.

I'm excited for you. You stand at the beginning of a wonderful and happy journey. Once you get your computer issues sorted you're gonna be a monster!

R.

Edited to add: Apparently the modular approach has gone the way of all flesh. Looks like it's limited these days to the VG-99/GK pickup combination, or a GK-ready guitar such as those made by Godin and a handful of others. Not cheap, but very effective.

Hi, thanks for your help, it is all most appreciated.

"That said, have you considered a newer PC or Operating System? XP stops support in 9 months I think. It's getting old."

That has occurred to me, but it would have to go on my Christmas shopping list, if the Economy here ever gets off it's rear end!

Many thanks,

Cy

Thanks Richard, please put the research for me on hold.

I hate to begin with whimpering, but matters here (I guess like everywhere) are getting tight, so my delusions of grandeur might have to be delayed until I sort my box out, I hadn't factored in a new computer at this time.

Many thanks for you speedy help,

Cy

Thanks Matt,that will certainly keep me going until I get a new box sorted out.

Regards

Cy

Hi Josie, many thanks for the welcome and the advice. Yes, much to plan ahead to, and good to hear that what I currently have, can be improved enough to get me through the interim.

Kind regards,

Cy

Dear Danny C. Matt Finley. rharv. Cornet Nev. Mac. Kevin and Josie

What a wonderful resource, I am very grateful to you all. However, it does make me feel like the poor relation (only joking). Much to do, so.

Many thanks,

Cy

cy,

(first of all, welcome to the forum my friend!)

regarding analog to MIDI conversion for guitars, several low priced (or free) alternatives have been discussed here over the past year.

1) One of them is this very cool and inexpensive gizmo that started out as a game controller until musicians realized you could also use it as a MIDI guitar:

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads...7446#Post167446




2) Another option is the PITCH TO MIDI built directly into RB. Here's a link to a thread about it:

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads...true#Post127688



3) yet another option is a cool plugin that many here have tried and testified that it does a great job of turning analog guitar into MIDI

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/product-a...audio-midi.html



4) here's another plugin that promises to change guitar to MIDI
http://www.bitscrew.com/


---------------------------------------------
unique IDs for future searches:
MIDIGUITAR GUITAR2MIDI SOFTWAREMIDIINTERFACE

Comes highly endorsed - this is the real thing, and can be a game changer.

Pat,thanks for the welcome and the large Candy box.
Cy

Thanks Jazzmandan, yes, just been looking at this, it looks very exciting.
Regards,
Cy

Thanks for that Ray. I did not know about this site, it looks very useful.

Regards
Cy

For Mac.
Hi Mac, sorry to display my lack of knowledge in this area, but could you please give me the full string?
Control=Panel=System=HARDWARE=?

Cy,

All of the pitch to MIDI solutions for guitar I mentioned were polyphonic, i.e., six strings. These are expensive as noted and there doesn't seem to be a way around that, unless you are willing to research some legacy hardware, then exercise the patience to acquire it. I think there is or was a Roland guitar synth device that did PTM and was less than the VG-99 at $1300-1500 USD. I'll continue to look for that just because I'm interested in staying current. I had high hopes for the Axon 50 and 100, but apparently the manufacturer, Terratec, has called it quits.

However, there seem to be a number of quite cost-effective (read: under $100 USD) monophonic approaches in both hardware and software. This is adequate if you are just playing single-note lines such as melodies or bass. I believe you have to have hardware to do it in real time.

Signed,

Keepin' that dead horse beaten

Cy,

I just walked over to my XP machine. The path is Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance/Advanced/Virtual Memory.

HTH,

R.

Edited for confirmed correct path.

Oh, thank you very much. In respect of the hardware solution, it does sound out of my reach for the time being. However, I downloaded the free beta polyphonic software product, (mentioned previously), which sounded excellent, but several attempts to load it, which all failed, and I gave up. Do you know about this package?
Cy

Thanks R, that does seem to have solved the problem. A new feeling of well-being has come over me.

Cy

You can thank Mac for that one; I just answered the question you asked him about the path which he originally specified. Glad to see that you are more highly functional. Keep asking questions--we'll have you running like a champ in no time.

Richard

Thanks Richard and Mac, the forum (members) is quite some resource. It has given me a program to achieve results with. Oh yes, lots of questions to come.
Cy