Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

I have never been a fan of Real Player, in part because they stuff an update program in the registry to startup every time you start your computer. (Of course they aren’t the only ones to do this, but it still ticks me off – people then wonder why their PC either locks up or runs slow.)

Because of internet bandwidth issues that can be beyond ones control, busy servers or whatever, I tend to like to download video and audio files so there is no annoying stopping and starting or wondering if it will crash before I get to the end.

Real Media files have been difficult to download in the past, hence, one of my reasons for not being too fond of them.

Since I found a blog post offering an easy way to download Real Media streams, I thought I would pass it along.

Zune member finds out that previously purchased album is no longer available – even though he paid for it.

Read the story here.

Learn about computer backup here.

Check out Rhapsody instead with a Rhapsody Free Trial here.

There seems to be no end to the computers I have to clean of malware that picked up the infections through illegal music downloads and that internet curse known as peer to peer file sharing.

There are ways to get mp3’s free off of the internet. But you will not find everything you want, you will put your PC at risk finding the “safe” sites, and you will spend a lot of your time doing it.

No problem unless you value your time. Personally, my time is my most valuable asset.

Recently I was desk bound for a couple of weeks and decided to listen to music while I worked (helps keep one’s mind off the pain too). I have some CD’s that have been ripped to disk and some vinyl that my daughters have extracted to mp3 via our MBox 2 – available at Amazon.com (Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle) and Music123.com (Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle Standard).

My daughter has spent a great deal of time looking into safe mp3 downloads on the internet and has learned quite a lot about finding music online and converting formats. Recently she decided to give Rhapsody a try and signed up for the 14 day free trial Rhapsody subscription.

She quickly became hooked. And after she showed me the features I could see why. As a long time music lover I could tell in an instant that most any kind of music, any artist or any song is all to be found on Rhapsody. And you DON’T pay 99 cents per song.

With Rhapsody there is no malware, no hassle, just all the music you ever wanted to listen to.

It’s easy to create playlists or even to just listen to the style of music that you like. With a Rhapsody subscription, which costs less than a CD, you have access to UNLIMITED music.

If you are a music lover or want to consider a gift to one, check out Rhapsody Free Trial.

Eeek! I can’t hardly believe I’m saying this. Take a look at Napster. Since I am rather a music connoisseur a friend suggested I do just that.

I remember when Napster was the bane of the internet, Attorneys General salivating at the concept of a class action. PC’s infected by that horrid peer2peer music sharing software. So it took a while for me to get over those memories and actually visit their site (McAfee SiteAdvisor gives them a green rating!).

Well, sometimes, all things happen for the best. I’m not sure the folks at Napster were thinking that many years ago when the RIAA music industry people were threatening lawsuits etc for helping people illegally share music.

But look what happened. Napster has now become one of the premier legitimate sources of music; including not just MP3’s but commercial free online radio stations as well.

Who’d have thunk?

So do yourself a favor and take a look at the new Napster, you might be surprised. I sure was. They have a 7 day free trial (which should be 14 day IMHO) and an optional offer that gets you a free MP3 player.

Continuing our MBox 2 Pro and ProTools software discussion, my laptop configuration is a Pentium M 1.7Ghz with 1.5GB RAM and a 100GB 7200rpm hard drive.

The MBox tech support rep had me turn off several devices in order to get the software to run reliably. Naturally, it made sense to setup a hardware profile for MBox recording.

Such devices as network card, wireless adapter, and the Sigma-Tel sound card are all disabled. Then, rather than having to manually unload the Trend Micro anti virus I went into the services applet and disabled the Trend Micro services for the MBox profile under the “LogOn” tab.

That leaves me to manually shut down the BOClean anti trojan software, the Second Copy software and couple others like that, and then we’re ready to start recording.

Simplifies the boot process and helps make sure we don’t forget to shut something down and have recording crash – right near the end, of course.

Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle is what we bought.

We have been using our new MBox 2 Pro (Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle)a little bit, and for the most part we are pretty impressed. The Pro Tools Software is where the rub comes in, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Since I have a BUNCH of old albums that I would like to hear as MP3, I was thrilled to see that the MBox 2 Pro has a hookup right on the back for a turntable. Record into Pro Tools and then either export direct to MP3 if you own the addin (extra cost) or, since we don’t, it creates a .wav file that we then convert to MP3 with Adobe Audition, that we happen to own. Keep in mind, if you really value your time, you might be able to buy the CD’s (or individual MP3’s) online and maybe come out ahead. For me, I’m kinda cheap, so record away!

We also have mic’d some instruments and been pretty impressed. So far a piano, drums and guitar (acoustic, the electric plugs right into the MBox).

The Pro Tools software is not something you will just install and then get running intuitively. For us, we got it running on my laptop but after a few hours gave us problems. Well, read the directions which may great reference to the hardware compatibility guide. My laptop had 1.5GB of RAM, but you need to shut down most extraneous services – including the sound card, believe it or not, to really get it to run well and reliably.

Pro Tools has an 800 page PDF manual, but who has time to read all of that? A call to tech support (be prepared to hold) did answer a few questions and help get us up and running. I know there is a ton more we can do with it once we learn more about it.

I’ll try to keep you updated.

Neuros OSD Media Center. This is a set top box that treats you like an owner. I like that.

I found out about it in a Post on BoingBoing.net

If you like it as much as I do, buy it here

Hey! Any musicians (aspiring or otherwise) out there?

The musicians in my house just got set up with an MBox 2 Pro (Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle) for recording their music to the PC via Pro Tools software.

If you are interested in finding out how this turns out, drop me a line or leave a comment and I’ll keep you up to date.

We are also going to use it to turn my old Music LP’s (any of you remember those?) into MP3.