alrobin

Hi, Mark, I, too, use Cubase SX 2.0. I've been using the MIDI features of versions 1 through 3 for years and just upgraded. Now I'm in the process of learning to use all the new VST sound recording and editing features. I'm taking a course in sound production and a workshop in "mastering" at the local college this spring - both use Cubase SX as the basis for the course, so they should be helpful. I also use Audition, which I find a little more user-friendly when it comes to sound editing. I have not done much original composition, although I plan to give it a whirl some day. I use a Roland U20 (mainly as a keyboard for input to Cubase) and an old Technics sound module & synthesizer (something like "SRL1" - can't remember the exact model name at the moment) which I still find very confusing and complicated, but it does a lot of nice things when it comes to putting sounds together. Most of my sound editing has been associated with slide shows (both analogue, and now PTE digital shows), but I have used Audition to clean up some choir music from some old tape recordings that someone had lying around. It's a great hobby, and maybe someday I'll be able to incorporate more special sound effects into my slide shows.

Hi, Walter, Welcome to the Forum! You will find all sorts of useful tips here. One way to arrange your photos to leave room for comments is to use the Object Editor. You can import your photos here as objects and position them where you want, leaving room for text or other photos. It's not as handy as your suggestion, but a work-around until Igor adds further capabilities. Re the customized text comments, choose the formats and options you want for your comments in "Project Options / Comments", then exit Project Options. Then, enter Project Options again and uncheck "Set comments for all slides as" in Project Options / Comments. Then exit Project Options again, and customize your comments using the "Comments" line at the bottom right quadrant of the main window. Your customized comments should remain whenever you enter Project Options again. Please let us know if you need further info. All the best!

Mark, This thread is a follow-up from This One. Isabel has a little more info here about her configuration and keyboard. I am sure she would appreciate any further info you have to offer. What keyboard/sequencer system do you use?

Sam, This time it worked OK. Effective poetic treatment of the "seasons" theme with simple, everyday natural subject matter. I like it!

Hi, Isabel, I'm not familiar with the Santa Cruz card, so don't know if the sounds will be better than from the Sound Blaster. You will probably find than no sound card produces sounds as good as those directly from your keyboard. Re Cakewalk, I haven't used it for some time. Cubase is one of the most recommended sequencers at the moment, but it's expensive. I used to use a freeware version of Cakewalk, but I don't think it's offered any more. The most basic one you can find will probably play back most MIDI files. Voyetra Turtle Beach have an inexpensive MIDI sequencer called "MIDI Orchestra Plus" which will play MIDI files, but isn't too user-friendly when it comes to composing and editing. Last time I looked it was available at Costco for around $20.

Sam, I had trouble downloading your show from both URL's.

Being in the middle, between both countries, it gives me great pleasure to find that Russians and Americans are cooperating so well these days!! Carol, I have always envied underwater photographers, and I enjoyed very much your beautiful photos.

Guido, Good to hear from you again and to hear you are well and enjoying your other pursuits. All the best!

Hi, Isabel, Sorry for the delay in responding to you. I'm visiting the West Coast right now enjoying some warmer temperatures. I think, like me, you need more room in your computer corner. Sooner or later, you are going to want to have your keyboard closer to your pc. Maybe you could move the fridge out and make room for it there?? Unfortunately, if you want to use the good-quality sounds from your keyboard, you will have to somehow record them, and the easiest way is to do it digitally through your pc sound card. There is one other way, but not as good, fidelity-wise. You could record them onto a cassette (or other recorder device) and then digitize the music on the cassette by playing it back through the sound card. Which sound card do you have? Some cards (e.g. Creative's "Audigy" series) have MIDI voices which do not sound too bad. You can change the instrument in a sequencer program by changing the "program" number (e.g. #1 for piano). The only way to improve the quality through software is to buy an additional sound module or synthesizer (e.g. Sound Canvas), connect it to your pc through a MIDI port (your sound card might have one already), and play the MIDI files through it with the aid of MIDI software such as Cakewalk or Cubase, etc. The output from the sound module could then be routed back through the sound card for digital recording. Hope this helps some.

Hi, Ron, Seven?? Actually, I'm an additional 3 hours behind you right now as I'm visiting my son in Seattle, WA for a couple weeks. Sure a lot warmer here than back home! Tomsphotos: Ron is right - I don't have PTE here on this pc so I couldn't check for the exact path for the "run application" feature. Just do as Ron says for each slide show (except the last one), making each one start up the next in the sequence. Isabel: Maybe you have to make sure you are not repeating the show at the end. If I had my laptop handy, I would check it out for you.

Tomsphotos, Welcome to the Forum! Another way is to have autorun start the first show, and then for each show, set "run external application" and enter the file name of the next show to have each show start the next one when it is finished.

Maureen, Glad to have you back with us, and happy to hear you are feeling better again. I, too have many old slides which I am trying to scan (before the bacteria and mould on them makes them totally unusable :-((( ) I use an older professional Agfa Duoscan transparency/flatbed scanner, which lets me scan 20 slides at a time at up to 4000 x 4000 dpi (interpolated). Makes things go much quicker as I can also set a batch control so I don't have to preview them all each time. All the best!

Hi, The Image Suite, I presume your AV presentations are free, or else you would not be promoting them here on this Forum. Do you have a web site where we can obtain more detailed information about them? Are they centred around PicturesToExe?

Hi, Isabel, I'm not sure that you should use the same connection arrangement for your sound card as you do for the speakers. Look for a separate "line" output from the amplifier, the same as you would use if you were connecting it to the "auxiliary" input of a stereo amplifier. If you don't have such a connection, then I would suggest connecting the cable, which connects the keyboard to the portable amp, to the line input of the sound card rather than using the cables which connect to the speakers. What make and model is your keyboard? You'll probably have to experiment with different arrangements, but make sure your volume is turned way down before making any new connections.

Harry, Igor answered your third question HERE.

Isabel, No, there's no reason why you can't leave them dangling. I have so many wires connected to mine that I'm sure some of them are not in use. I leave my pc beside my desk, all exposed, just so I can get at it to make wiring adjustments. Why they insist on putting all the connections at the back is a mystery to me. Also, I should have mentioned that the connection from the keyboard to the sound card must be a line-type input. You can't connect the MIDI output from the keyboard to transmit the "good-quality" sounds to the sound card. It has to be the same type of connection that you would use if you were connecting your keyboard to an audio amplifier. The actual cable used will likely be different, however, as you will need one with a miniature "stereo" plug on one end (for the sound card) instead of the normal "RCA" plugs you would use for the amp. You can also get adapters to convert from one type of connection to another. They have all this stuff at Radio Shack.

Hi, Isabel, Just a few corrections to what I gave you - I was getting a bit confused with my own setup, which has a mixer in the lineup. In all cases, you should input directly to the sound card, not through the amplifier. You should be able to monitor the recording either via speakers or headphones from the output of the sound card. I should have said in para. 2: "... connect the line out from the keyboard to the line in of your sound card, ..." Also, in para. 3: I should have said: "... play it back from your computer through the keyboard and then directly into the sound card line input ...." And, in para. 5: This should read: "You should be able to run the sequencer program in your pc, and record via a sound editor such as "Audacity" or "Cool Edit" or "Audition" at the same time, thus capturing the sound from the sequencer directly, via the sound card." Hope I haven't confused you too much!

Roger, If I understand your question (please let me know if you are thinking of a different application), yes, you could add some thumbnails (through the Object Editor), each of which has a link to the larger image on a different slide. There you could put a return link back to the initial page.

Hi, Isabel, Glad to see you are back at it - you said you never give up! (see HERE). Does your keyboard have a line output so you can play the sounds from it through your stereo system? If so, then you can also connect the line out from the stereo's amplifier to the line in of your sound card, and record the sounds directly as .wav files which can then be converted to .mp3 for slide show use. If your keyboard playing is not up to scratch (my problem), you can "record" your playing in MIDI form, touch it up in a sequencer such as Cakewalk, and then play it back from your computer through the keyboard and stereo combination, and from there into the sound card line input as in the previous paragraph. In this way you will be able to use the computer for your editing, and still have the benefit of the better-sounding music from the keyboard. If you can't output to a stereo amplifier, you could buy an external sound module which has better-quality MIDI sounds than the sound card, and record the output from it through your sound card. However, some of the new sound cards have pretty good MIDI sounds, especially if played through the above-mentioned stereo amp. These better-quality sounds can also be fed back from the stereo amp into the sound card line input for recording as .wav files. Please let me know if you need any more details. Corrections: see revised post below. Good luck!

Jim, That's a good point. My first reaction was to say that it's because you are not synching to the custom sounds added on the sound line. But on second thought I realized that it would be very useful to be able to hear how long these customized selections are to enable setting the proper "distance" between slides.

Keith, Welcome to the PTE forum! If you use the navigation bar feature, you will have a "hot link" on each page. You can also add a button to each page through the "Object Editor" which can be "programmed" to take you back to the first page. Either of these methods would be simpler than adding a set of buttons to each page to take you to other programs such as a new slide show. However, if you want, you can create a set of buttons on the first page to take you to separate shows, and then just copy them over to the Object Editor for each other slide.

While I sympathize with Roger, I, too, like the present system in PTE (even though it may be different from what someone new to the program might expect at first). What Igor has done is facilitate the work on an existing "project" by having the latest one pop up in the slide list each time one opens PTE. This is a very handy feature, as it means one doesn't have to go "hunting" for the last project and then open it each time one wants to continue work on a slide show. As everyone knows, a slide show can sometimes take months of work before it is finished, so it is very handy to have it right there to work on each time one opens PTE again. And, as Stu has said, it is very easy to clear the slide list and start a new one.

Alan, Can you then use this script to update the slide order in PTE? If not, it probably wouldn't be hard to write a small utility to do this.

Hi, dpd, Welcome! I use the "Dark-Table" in my "Adjustor" spreadsheet model when I need to rearrange a lot of images for PTE. To speed up the process, it also works with thumbnail representations of the images, which can be readily created from right within the model, provided you also have the "Easy Thumbnails" program installed. In the model, you simply pull the images into PTE as they are, transfer to the image list, save the PTE file, open "Adjustor" and import the PTE file. Then after you rearrange the images on the "Dark-Table" portion of the model you can export the PTE file back into the PTE program, and presto! - all the images will be set up in the proper order in the slide list without having to rename them. It's a little bit of work, but probably not any more than using another light-table program, renaming the slides, loading them into the file list of PTE, and adding them to the slide list. You can find the "Adjustor" model on Beechbrook (around page 2 or 3).

If I may add one more suggestion to the ones Carol has made, it would also help if those with web sites could post their shows on their own sites and send Bill the URL, along with a 120 x 80 - pixel jpeg. Then he can still post the show, without the drain on "bandwidth", and you will still see the statistics about the number of downloads.