Quote:

Quote:

The "Other" Bob



Hey!! I'm the other Bob around here. Jeesh, I get busy for two days and somebody's jackin my name...

I know, lets draw numbers, Bob1, Bob2, Bob3 etc. I'll bet there's at least 10 of us.<...>



(thanks for the kind words, Bob and Bob).

That's how I started using the nickname "Notes".

Long before we had these forums on the web, we conversed via usenet/newsgroups - completely text based part of the Internet. Modems were dial up and slooooow back then, so typing as few characters as possible was helpful. I was on an alt.saxophone forum and there were a number of Bobs -- and more than one Bob Norton (Imagine that!)

My sister is a CPA and used to be in business with another accountant who had nicknames for everybody. He called me "Notes".

So in order not to type, "Bob Norton from Florida" to distinguish me from the other Bob Norton, I just adopted "Notes" for on-line purposes. And it stuck.

And Kevin, I remember BiaB for DOS - I hated DOS and made most of my styles on the Atari/ST at the time. Peter Gannon offered to help me transfer them to the PC so I bought the DOS 5/Win 3.1 computer and would transfer them to the PC. Then when BiaB came out for Windows, I started doing everything on the PC and transferring them to the Atari and Mac.

BiaB has come a long way from those early days. Feature after feature have been added, making it quite a complex program. I don't use every feature, I don't use the Real Tracks, I don't use the Soloist, I don't use the Melodist, I don't use the Drum Window, I don't use the Notation (I have Encore) but I do work on the Notation screen a bit, and there are many others I don't use. But that's no problem, they are there for others to enjoy.

I do talk about the features I use and love.

BiaB rules because of the hard work, dedication, insight, and sheer genius of Peter Gannon and crew. Whether you use the features I use or not, I hope you enjoy the product.

And I always welcome opposing viewpoints, that's what debates are all about. I'll put up arguments to support my viewpoint, you put arguments to support your viewpoint, and we may not convert each other, on the other hand, we might also learn something.

But let's leave personal attacks and cheap shots out of debates. They take the fun out of a debate.

Everything is 'engineering'. There are trade-offs to be made. RTs give you more realistic tone, MIDI tracks give you more editing power for personal expression. Karaoke tracks give you a 'like the record' backing track but they often have singers who aren't in your duo in the background and those fade out endings (something I never do live). Compressors can make your tracks sound louder, but they minimize the dynamic expression of the music. And it's not only in music. If you want great gas mileage, you have to sacrifice size, performance or both. Solar electricity is free but it doesn't work well at night. Cell phones are convenient but tend to work not as well inside most houses.

All the trade-offs give us a chance to debate things and help each other out with the benefit of our experience.

The negative posts here really weren't all that bad, I've had worse and I intend to remain a member of this community for a long time. I will debate the benefits of MIDI until something better comes along, but that doesn't mean I'm telling you that your way is wrong. There is more than one right way to make music. I also tout the benefits of MIDI on sites that have nothing to do with BiaB so just because I sell BiaB products, I don't think I'm being out of line to promote the kind of music I'm passionate about making. Perhaps it will help someone who has less experience than I do.

I remember a long time ago, I was playing sax in a band and I asked a sax player in another band what a sequence was. He explained it to me and turned me on to a magazine called Electronics Musician. Way before that, I was 18 years old playing in a band in a club that had two bands - the white band and the black band. When we played our break song the other band would come up and as one person picked up his instrument, the guy in the other band would stop. Me? I walked across the stage and sat in with the black band. The sax player (I wish I could remember his name) was old and grey haired (I'm getting there now) and he showed me a number of sax tips, including how to growl into the saxophone. I asked him "How to you get that sound?" and he was kind enough to show me.

That's the kind of musician I want to be. The kind who helps another with the benefit of my experience. The guys who showed me stuff are further along the road than I am so there isn't much I can show them to return their kindness, so the way to honor their generosity is to share my experience with others who haven't walked the same path as I for as long as I have.

But if you think karaoke tracks and stringing loops together in a DAW are the best way for you to make music, go for it. There is more than one way to make music. If we compete for a gig, I hope my way wins.

I worked 6 gigs this week and got rained out on the 7th (it was outdoors with a rain date in a couple of weeks). Life is good. I do what I love and get paid for it.

If it was easy, anyone could do it, and people wouldn't pay me to have so much fun!!!

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks