Jerry Kahn
12-26-2000, 11:08 PM
OK -- What we really need on this site (in my oh so humble opinion) is an highly organized, hardware/software survey and a rating system. Something easily accessible, that quickly summarizes the collective positive and negative experiences of everyone on this message board and that is always current.
Someday, if seen fit, this survey could be built right into the site-- fairly easily at that (IMO)-- into the user profile. Just add the categories-- processor, soundcard, etc. And the ratings (i.e. a scale of 1-10 should be good enuf, with different meanings based on the question at hand). Summary statistics could be calculated at some point, or not. Having a separate category in the BBS for the survey(s) could also work.
But for now, I will just list the categories I feel would be useful, and then post this survey as my own thread, and see what happens. But before I do that I could use some feedback on this whole survey idea.
Now, it seems to me that we all want sort of the same thing-- maximum polyphony, no \'pops\', good sound. It\'s a great product; we just want to be able to use it!!?! We differ slightly of course-- some of us want to run the sequencer on the same machine, some of us want to record audio on the same machine, and some of us want to run standalone. For some of us cost is a factor, for some less so. For some software synths & effects are primo, and others don\'t give a rat\'s yingyang about that cause they prefer external effects and synths. So our goals differ slightly-- and that should be built into the survey-- i.e. what is your goal (with some examples) and how well do you feel that has been achieved?
Personally, I have not yet bought anything, yet I am sure that this product is what I want, based on what I have heard about it on another BBS (www.homerecording.com). I will definitely be buying a stand alone platform/Gigastudio in the next few weeks. However this message board has not yet accomplished in my mind what I was hoping it would, which was to easily steer me in the right hardware/software directions for my needs. After reading many of the threads, I find myself still wondering if anything in particular will work properly and do what I want it to do. And what I want is pretty simple-- I just want the thing to work right.
An organized hardware survey would be also be of great use to those of us who have bought everything already, even those that are greatly satisfied with their purchases. Think of how quickly the hardware/software playing field is changing-- sooner or later you will be in the same boat as I-- looking to buy the next great system, and wondering how much money and time you will waste in the process. Some of us have gained knowledge in setting up their own Gigasamplers/studios because of their own hard labors, or via professional assistance, they now become of the highest value to this community of users-- and this provides an easy way for us to identify who those folks are, and allow them to provide that awesome service to us all-- and who knows, maybe today\'s guru will tomorrow be on the receiving end of that same service.
For those of us interested in upgrading or locating the weak link in their hardware/software chain (i.e. trouble shooting), I believe the survey will greatly assist as well-- they will be able to quickly identify a population of users who share their configurations and who might have solved \"the problem\".
Think about it-- wouldn\'t it be great to have easy access to an ongoing consensus on what really works great, what is so-so and what doesn\'t at all? I am sure that the NemeSys people know all this (from all the feedback they receive from users, as well as their own testing), but cannot disclose this information directly to us, or they will piss off too many vendors.
Anyway, now that I have you all convinced that I am completely bonkers, the categories I have thought of thus far for this proposed survey are:
processor
chipset
motherboard
ram
other processors
midi hardware
hard drive(s)
sound card(s)
standalone use?
recording system - hardware/software
sequencing system - hardware/software
overall results (1-10)
polyphony (# voices achieved)
click/pops? sometimes?
sound quality (1-10)
other problems/comments
Any feedback on any/all of this would be most appreciated. Am I way off base, or would this be something that\'s really useful here?
Regards,
Jerry
Someday, if seen fit, this survey could be built right into the site-- fairly easily at that (IMO)-- into the user profile. Just add the categories-- processor, soundcard, etc. And the ratings (i.e. a scale of 1-10 should be good enuf, with different meanings based on the question at hand). Summary statistics could be calculated at some point, or not. Having a separate category in the BBS for the survey(s) could also work.
But for now, I will just list the categories I feel would be useful, and then post this survey as my own thread, and see what happens. But before I do that I could use some feedback on this whole survey idea.
Now, it seems to me that we all want sort of the same thing-- maximum polyphony, no \'pops\', good sound. It\'s a great product; we just want to be able to use it!!?! We differ slightly of course-- some of us want to run the sequencer on the same machine, some of us want to record audio on the same machine, and some of us want to run standalone. For some of us cost is a factor, for some less so. For some software synths & effects are primo, and others don\'t give a rat\'s yingyang about that cause they prefer external effects and synths. So our goals differ slightly-- and that should be built into the survey-- i.e. what is your goal (with some examples) and how well do you feel that has been achieved?
Personally, I have not yet bought anything, yet I am sure that this product is what I want, based on what I have heard about it on another BBS (www.homerecording.com). I will definitely be buying a stand alone platform/Gigastudio in the next few weeks. However this message board has not yet accomplished in my mind what I was hoping it would, which was to easily steer me in the right hardware/software directions for my needs. After reading many of the threads, I find myself still wondering if anything in particular will work properly and do what I want it to do. And what I want is pretty simple-- I just want the thing to work right.
An organized hardware survey would be also be of great use to those of us who have bought everything already, even those that are greatly satisfied with their purchases. Think of how quickly the hardware/software playing field is changing-- sooner or later you will be in the same boat as I-- looking to buy the next great system, and wondering how much money and time you will waste in the process. Some of us have gained knowledge in setting up their own Gigasamplers/studios because of their own hard labors, or via professional assistance, they now become of the highest value to this community of users-- and this provides an easy way for us to identify who those folks are, and allow them to provide that awesome service to us all-- and who knows, maybe today\'s guru will tomorrow be on the receiving end of that same service.
For those of us interested in upgrading or locating the weak link in their hardware/software chain (i.e. trouble shooting), I believe the survey will greatly assist as well-- they will be able to quickly identify a population of users who share their configurations and who might have solved \"the problem\".
Think about it-- wouldn\'t it be great to have easy access to an ongoing consensus on what really works great, what is so-so and what doesn\'t at all? I am sure that the NemeSys people know all this (from all the feedback they receive from users, as well as their own testing), but cannot disclose this information directly to us, or they will piss off too many vendors.
Anyway, now that I have you all convinced that I am completely bonkers, the categories I have thought of thus far for this proposed survey are:
processor
chipset
motherboard
ram
other processors
midi hardware
hard drive(s)
sound card(s)
standalone use?
recording system - hardware/software
sequencing system - hardware/software
overall results (1-10)
polyphony (# voices achieved)
click/pops? sometimes?
sound quality (1-10)
other problems/comments
Any feedback on any/all of this would be most appreciated. Am I way off base, or would this be something that\'s really useful here?
Regards,
Jerry