#130

Since we are chatting about useful utilities…

I concur with Greenshot, which is so handy for doing screenshots of my videos or other work. Instant PNGs that I can tuck into presentations or spam online. :laughing:

Both the Windows File Manager and Mac Finder are terrible. I cannot live without MultiCommander for organising multiple file views.

TeraCopy adds several essential tools to file copying, another thing no OS gets right.

Color Cop is a simple colour picker that is handy for UI and other graphic design work.

PDFlite means I don’t have to install Adobe cruft.

By now everyone knows about OBS Studio for screencasting and recording, Handbrake for file conversion, and VLC for video playback.

I still use CDex to rip the occasional CD, and Foobar to play back audio. I don’t use other audio utilities since I own Reaktor, Max, Samplitude, etc. which do simply everything.

#131

Yo, Windowz folkz. Any favorite Twitter clients? I find that twitter.com in my Firefox browser sometimes burps if I’m working on a thread, and I lose everything. Thanks.

#132

Is there anything better than tweetdeck? Anyone I know use this.

1 Like
#133

I was really missing the clean functionality of my Apple keyboard and trackpad (both Bluetooth), and @naxuu hipped me to magicutilities.net, which works great with facilitating both. Fortunately, my Huawei laptop and the Apple keyboard both have four extra keys to the left of the spacebar and two to the right, so the alignment works especially well.

1 Like
#134

I’m looking to build a new Windows workstation in the near future. I haven’t done a custom build in many many years.

I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions specifically for attractive-looking cases. Maybe one that has front mounted USB-C ports?

#135

I’ve been pondering such a thing for VCV Rack. Let us know what you select.

#136

Unfortunately there aren’t that many cases with USB C on the front for some reason

Heres a few

Most of them look pretty “gamer-y” but a few like the meshify line from Fractal Design look pretty good.

Now is a good time to build a workstation though, the ryzen 3000 lineup just came out and its got crazy good price/performance.

I have been thinking of building a new workstation too, since my 4690k is starting to chug a little bit.

#137

Some of those cases look attractive, depending on your definition of attractive, of course. But just a reminder, if you’re selecting a new case and you have cats in the house, make sure the power button is not on the top of the case!

2 Likes
#138

This Intel NUC has front panel USB-C. Also extremely small: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/mini-pcs/nuc8i7hvkva.html

#139

For my work, I need something that will fit a huge GPU. Since it seems so rare, I think I can live without front-mounted USB-C and this case seems reasonably priced and good-looking: https://www.nzxt.com/products/h500i-matte-white

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#140

One option would be an external GPU. There are a bunch of options now that support Thunderbolt 3.

Semi-related: I ended up buying an Alienware m15 a month ago, as they were clearing out the previous model to make room for the newest m15 (and I’m dealing with the realities of new parenthood with the inability to cloister myself in one room for work, so desktops are not too doable at the moment). This worked out well for me, as the newest m15 doesn’t have a 1TB storage option. I was able to score an m15 with a 6-core i7, an NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB SSD for $1800 shipped. So far, this laptop completely annihilates my 3-year-old desktop in compilation times and video game performance. There will probably be more closeout deals on this model soon.

1 Like
#141

Hi, folks. Anyone have a recommendation for a dependable Windows 10 application that can manage multiple Google calendars? I’ve been using One Calendar, but lately it hasn’t been working very well. Thanks.

Update: At @jasonw22’s suggestion, I have Windows Calendar another try, and it worked well. Key thing for me was turning off email sync. It defaults to downloading email, and for now I’m fine with webmail.

#142

Hey gang - apologies if this has been well covered before/is common knowledge, but was wondering if anyone could share some wisdom or advice w/r/t inter-application routing on Windows?

I know JACK seems like the obvious go-to, but I’ve been having migraines trying to do ‘simple’ things like sending out several tracks from Ableton ->> Max/MSP spatializer/Spat~ ->> MOTU hardware multichannel out.

Seems like having audio engaged with multiple programs, combined with using ASIO drivers for the interface is a high-stakes operation on W10 - I miss the days of rigging things up with a click in Soundflower on my old Mac!

Would be super grateful to hear success stories, sanity checks or any other pointers - thanks a bundle!

mg

#143

(Wasn’t sure what the best category for this was, please move if appropriate).

I currently have my digital music collection in nested folder structure as a legacy of using iTunes. This seems to be causing some issues with 3rd party apps & back-up services I’m using. I therefore want to ‘flatten’ this. So go from:

old%20structure
old%20structure757×288 24.8 KB

to

new%20structure

It’s ~400 albums, so I’d rather find an automated method if possible. My search didn’t come up with anything, but I was likely using the wrong terms. Any help appreciated (even if it’s what I should be Googling…)

#144

You can use foobar2000 for this

3 Likes
#145

Long time mac user here (~15 years). It’s time for a new desktop for me and I just couldn’t justify shelling out the huge amount of €€€ for what seems to be a desktop computer, that isn’t all that capable as it should be. I mean, I just ordered the parts for my PC, and will have a machine more powerful than a maxed out MB Pro, for less than the lowest tier MB Pro costs. It won’t be a laptop, sure, but there’s just no comparison, even if you compare it with the iMacs. They’re either overpriced or outdated. They’re pretty, alright, but I was over that as soon as I saw the prices. My 2009 MB Pro still works, and will serve as my traveling companion for light work, but for heavy lifting, I’ll have a desktop. I don’t do live gigs with a laptop (all hardware), so there’s no need for a laptop. I work with Ableton, Sibelius, MaxMSP, VCV Rack and Illustrator, which are all also on windows.

So my questions for the people who switched are:

How was the switch? Do the apps that are cross-platform work similarly or are there many differences between mac and win versions?
Did anyone make a hackintosh from their PC that is stable enough for music making?
Anything else I should know, making the switch?

I intend to try out windows for a few months, and if I can’t possibly work on a PC, try to hackintosh it.

Disclamer: I’m not looking for advice on how to make a hackintosh, there’s enough info on that elswhere, just curious about the experience of fellow musicians that made it work.

Thanks!

1 Like
#146

I switched a year or so ago. Biggest issue for me was midi and audio support. Mac has soundflower for inter-app audio routing, aggregate sound devices and really great native midi support. I have everything I need set up on windows today, but I struggled a bit with audio routing especially.

Things that helped:

  • Virtual Cable
  • Voice Meter (though I’ve stopped using it, but it was good early on before I knew what I needed)
  • ASIO 4 All if you have sound devices that only support WDM, this will wrap it in ASIO. It also allows for aggregate devices in ASIO. It’s not the greatest, I’ve had issues on and off, but it’s ok.
  • :arrow_double_up: reminds me, spend a bit of time reading about ASIO…it’s worth it.
  • Virtual Midi (link is currently down, not sure why)
  • This article on video codecs in windows from Ableton
3 Likes
#147

Thanks for the info! I don’t think I have that kind of hardware, usually just need a USB interface and that’s it, so hopefully everything will work fine.

1 Like
#148

i think one thing to make note of is that aside from ASIO 4 All, you’re now dependent on your interface manufacturer’s drivers for audio. this can be a blessing or a curse - I’d recommend doing some research on your hardware and what its windows drivers are like.

#149

A simple program that helps a lot with legibility is MacType:
https://www.mactype.net/

Windows uses an old and out of date way to display text on a computer screen, whereas macOS and most Linux builds use a cleaner way that looks “modern.” MacType lets Windows display text like a Mac. The easiest way is to have it modify the registry (its undoable with a reboot), so it is seamlessly integrated and won’t affect stability or performance. AFAIK originally developed because Windows is terrible at displaying Chinese characters, but it is beneficial for everyone :slight_smile: