Music, YouTube and Small Successes with the Computer

I've been thinking about my blog and how best to utilize the space here and be of some help to other composers. Mainly, I can write about what has helped me and how I get passed difficult situations.

 I used to call a knowledgeable composer/ teacher who would graciously help me through sequencing or computer issues, he was awesome to say the least. This worked great for a few years, just call " Tim" and he would bail me out of just about any predicament on the computer. He really got too busy and I got annoyed with my lack of staying power to figure things out for myself. I would have to say over the past 2-3 years I have found a lot of solutions by myself. Either sitting there at the desktop for hours sometimes days, until I found the answer. Lately I have turned to the all knowing source of everything.. Google and the fabulous YouTube.
Yesterday I started to work on Symphobia 2 which I purchased several months ago. I had worked with Symphobia 2 for a short time back in January,  then lots of stuff came up and I didn't get back to it until now. I spent hours just trying to update the software and found it really wasn't necessary. I stayed with the original version and found an excellent tutorial on YouTube for Logic 9 and Kontakt 5. Setting this up was slightly complicated but the video is excellent. I also keep notes on my desktop, in Word, titled: : How To Do Stuff, dated for each time I add something new. Usually this is " how to's"  on music and sequencing or quicktime problems. This really helps to be able to quickly go to the How To doc and find what I need.  For instance, I haven't been using Digital Performer very much the past couple of years because I switched to Logic so if I can refer to my " How To" and find what I need on DP, this helps get me back on track with that sequencing program. Logic and DP are so different. Later, I will write about some tricks I found in Reason and how I was able to create Laurels for a postcard in Photo and Preview, it was magic, believe me and it took hours, if not a couple of days.

This is the tutorial from Efficient Musician, Andrew discussing Kontakt 5 and Logic Pro 9 Automation. He did an excellent job describing how to set up separate tracks for each instrument and how to control automation in Kontakt 5.  I have used Kontakt for years with GPO but that version was 2.0 This all works great with Symphobia and I can't wait to get going with composing in Symphobia!