David’s Adventures Through the World of Music Creation and Sonic Exploration

One thing struck me last night while working on a new track.

GenesisCM started to behave a bit funny (didn’t trigger any notes when playing the keyboard) so I decided to reboot.

Square 1
I saved my project to a new file, and rebooted. When opening the project again after the reboot it totally hung Cubase, and clicking “Close program” in the Vista popup shutdown my computer in a fraction of a second. I tried again and this time read through the error message. Cubase4.exe has stopped responding due to some error in GenesisCM.dll. GenesisCM is a new software synth (or VSTi, if you prefer) that came along the second last issue (CM127) of Computer Music.

I had to boot my PC, rename the GenesisCM.dll to GenesisCM.dll.bak, then fire up Cubase 4. Accept that GenesisCM.dll is missing and remove it from the instrument tracks where it was loaded. Save the project, close Cubase, rename it back to GenesisCM.dll, fire up Cubase again and load the project. When done, I had to select the track where I wanted GenesisCM and load it. Now it worked fine. Until loading a second instance of the plug. Goto Square 1.

When I’ve done it all over again, I only loaded one instance of GenesisCM and tweaked a similar sound on Discovery Pro instead so I could save and bounce the track.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m really impressed by the little bugger, but it’s a waste of time trouble-shooting none working plugins when you can spend the same amount of time programming sounds and composing instead. GenesisCM sounds in fact fantastic and is a great complement to Gforce Minimonsta and FabFilter Twin.

And the thing that struck me was that this never happened when I had 11 hardware synths in the studio. Cubase never crashed just because my Clavia Nord Lead 2 (which parts of me regrets for selling - it’s a darn fine piece of hardware and I shall get one again) wasn’t powered on, or had a cable disconnected, or was totally broken. Sure there’s a lot of hassle with MIDI cords, sound cabling and syncing issues, but you could at least load your Cubase projects.

After some digging on the Interweb I found the explanation to the GenesisCM problem all the way down on this site.

It would be a nightmare turning up at a gig and having your projects crashing because some software plugin decides to break. But then again, it’s a nightmare turning up a gig with at a broken hardware synth too…

As I wrote in this post, I now have gotten a third UAD-1 card. I’ll install it tonight, and I’ll probably get a the VCA VU since I got a bunch of vouchers laying around, which will expire on the 30th of June, and it’s on sale too. Yey!

This is why you shouldn’t trust the pro’s and con’s boxes in magazines when they’re reviewing products. When CM reviewed the VCA VU from Universal Audio they wrote that the pro was that it had a great sound. The con was that it sounded different and might not appeal to all. Okay, so the compressor isn’t for everyone, but as they’re stating on the review it’s great on vocals and drums (if I recall it correctly). So that means that the VCA VU is for people who’s not recording vocals, drums, guitars (it does work great on guitars - I’ve tried it - and I shall try it on my synthesizer collection as well). In the text it also says that it’s a compressor good for people who doesn’t want the good ol’ attack and release knobs, and in the con box it says that it’s lacking those two knobs.

The lesson is: Try things out yourself, and take the pro’s and con’s boxes with a pinch of salt.

I’m alive.

I got my third UAD-1 card the other day. Wrote a brand new pop song the other day which Fred kindly scribbled down the lyrics for in a jiffy. Now we’re looking for a female singer who can record it. Interested? Drop me a line.

Still working on a new mindXpander album, a new Ypsilon 5 album, a new Pretorium album and a few other things.

Sorry for been offline for so long, but I’ve got my reasons and please don’t ask. I’ll try to go through the big pile of e-mails soon and I will reply to them.

Thanks for tuning in!

Two Pretorium tracks, “Digital Soundscape” and “Panoramic Horizon”, was featured in a photo presentation by photographers from the Natura Magica forum.

Last night I dreamt that Gforce Software did a software version of the Oberheim Matrix 12. Sadly enough, when waking up they hadn’t post anything regarding that on their website.

One thing for sure though. I’d buy it without hesitating. Seriously.