Originally Posted By: MarioD
OK here is my 2 cents and I'll probably get called on some of it.

1- A lot of manuals are written from the coders' perspective and not from a user's perspective. When I was writing Standard Operating Procedures I had to gorilla proof them; that is take them to someone not from that area and have them try them out. You can learn a lot about writing that way.



Fair point about the documentation. Sometimes it is poorly written or otherwise inadequate.

I'm looking at YOU, Ford, and your service literature with BS colored drawings and NO explanatory text!

Sometimes, there are things in the documentation that are just plain wrong. Still, this should be the first place you look. One can always seek clarification.

More often than not, the documentation is correct.


Originally Posted By: MarioD
2-Google/Bing is your friend. Many do not want to or do not know how to look up information on the web. Just keep typing using different words/terminology until you find what you need.


The problem with internet searches is that you often find information that is outdated, misleading or outright wrong. At least by going to the documentation first you have a fighting chance.

Originally Posted By: MarioD
3-Some people want to be spoon fed in lieu of doing a little research.

Yep. And that's the problem. 99.9% of basic questions could be answered by spending 15 minutes with the documentation. Instead of signing up for the forum, asking the same question that has been asked 1000 times before and waiting perhaps days for a response that may or may not be correct.

Originally Posted By: MarioD
4-Some want to do things that BiaB was not intended to do. Its an accompaniment generating software. Its not a DAW or notation program. PGM tries hard to accommodate all but their last few new features were not ready for prime time and that confuses everyone.


Originally Posted By: MarioD
5-The PGM manual is very confusing, see #1.


Originally Posted By: MarioD
6-MIDI is not audio and going away from general MIDI is a learning curve. Do some research first.


You are absolutely correct. And this brings us back to the spoon-feeding part.

Originally Posted By: MarioD
We are very fortunate to have a lot of friendly people willing to help here but sometimes I think they get taken advantage of.


I have a general rule of not helping those who won't help themselves.

Originally Posted By: MarioD
If you are going into computer based music you must first know about your computer, then your software,and then your sound card in order to produce music. PGM makes it very simple to get great sounding backing tracks via RTs but that is the only simple thing to learn for someone new.

YMMV


Yep. One wonders how someone could expect to learn how to play guitar without learning how to tune it or learning some scales & chords.

Last edited by Byron Dickens; 03/22/22 08:13 AM.
Byron Dickens

BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency.

https://soundcloud.com/athanorsoundlabs