Good non-DAW software for your Audio Computer

rwc · Post by **rwc** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:13 pm

I stand by my vote for common sense.

I go online all the time with my mix machine. Think before you click.

ledogboy · Post by **ledogboy** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:45 pm

NEVER connect your recording machine to the Internet.

rwc
PostPosted: Sat 16.08.08, 1:13 am Post subject: Re: Good non-DAW software for your Audio Computer
I stand by my vote for common sense.

I go online all the time with my mix machine. Think before you click.

I concur with RWC. Once upon a time, when I counted on any computer crashing at least once daily, and the internet was a new thing, I avoided connecting the audio 'puter to the outside world. These days, I can't imagine not having the computer hooked up to the internet. I get upgrades, deal with ilok stuff, download new software, etc. And yes, we surf over here to the TOMB and so forth, answer client emails, and such. The computer is rock solid- it just doesn't seem like an issue to me any more.

Winstontaneous · Post by **Winstontaneous** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:19 pm

Two utilities I find essential in Window$ (after using Linux for a few years) are:
--multiple desktops (I use VirtuaWin) http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/
--dual pane file manager (I like Free Commander http://www.freecommander.com/)

EasyGo · Post by **EasyGo** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:53 pm

At the risk of overturning this thread, I'd love to know what antivirus software folks are running on their NON-AUDIO machines that get used online. Send me a PM, please.

Now back to this regularly scheduled thread.

Electricide · Post by **Electricide** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:53 am

i still use AVG, but be warned that AVG 8 has a resident shield application that runs in the background and constantly checks everything for potential problems, uses 50,000k memory. you have to rename the .exe file so that it doesn't load upon startup.

I use:
-irfanview picture viewer
-avg 8, with res shield off and nothing 'scheduled'
-adaware, tho avg 8 also has adware scanning so maybe this is now redundant.
-firefox
-PCI latency tool for adjusting PCI priority and latency.
-itunes (no auto updating or fetching info from the net)

haven't found a decent free video editor.

basically turn off any auto updaters or background processes.

the finger genius · Post by **the finger genius** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:01 am

percussion boy wrote: No one expected to look at nekkid pictures or send e-mail with a 4 track . . .

Actually, that's why I no longer have a 4-track.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:42 am

RedCrownStudios wrote:Never buy anything that optimizes your registry or anything like the sort.

For the most part I agree, with the exception of erunt and ntregopt, here. Note that the first is an awesome backup/restore utility, and the optimizer simply compresses the hives.

Also, the PageDefrag program from SysInternals (bought by Microsoft) literally defrags the registry on disk.

Neither prog edits the registry in any regard; note that ccleaner does, altho' it's not made any problems for me in a couple years.

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:10 am

kuene wrote:don't open attachments from weird emails, and don't surf porn or pirate software sites, and you aren't going to get viruses.

to my understanding, there are viruses that are capable of entering your computer through unprotected/blocked ports, only requirement being that you're actively connected to the internet.

get some free virus software. believe me, that's not what's slowing down your Windows XP environment.

jordaniusrex · Post by **jordaniusrex** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:34 pm

Other audio stuff:

[I'm on OS X, but there are PC versions/equivalents to most of these.]

I'd recommend a good audio file compressor (LAME MP3, FLAC) and metadata software (Tag)
MIDI Monitor diagnoses MIDI information
Audio Hijack allows you to record audio from a specific application
Toast burns CDs and creates disk images
Text-to-speech
TAB editor/player

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:44 pm

I don't have my studio computer hooked to the internet. With that said, I don't use an antivirus software and haven't for years on my home computers. I don't really think they are necessary, but I do use Forefox as a browser which is great.

With that said here are a few suggestions:
Open Office - Basically sun systems version of microsoft office. Fully compatible with office and free. If you want to do spreadsheets or whatever for the studio, you can use this. It's like microsoft minus the suck.

Foxit Reader. Also free, this is Adobe minus the suck. It is a super clean and small install and opens PDF files instantly. As opposed to the lenghty and completely pointless splass screen where adobe loads a million different resources to look at a two page file. Highly recommedn both!

tateeskew · Post by **tateeskew** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:55 pm

buy this:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid ... 0B&cat=SYS

and put this on it:
http://www.untangle.com/

put it in front of your network. it's super simple to setup, based on debian and you won't have anything to worry about.

untangle has a gui to interface with some great linux-based tools, so even a monkey should be able to set it up.

Jeremy Garber · Post by **Jeremy Garber** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:59 am

I've used AVG for many years. Love it. When friends come to me with PC probs, that's usually the first thing I install on their machine and it fixes most of the problems. Common sense is still important.

I like Open Office as a replacement for MS Office suite. I have the real Office software on my work laptop, but can't afford it for my personal laptop nor my desktop. OO does the same thing, and is free.

Firefox and Thunderbird to replace IE and Outlook. However, since being forced to use MS products on my work laptop, it seems things have gotten better in recent times.

Other than that it just depends on what you want to do. I haven't bothered looking, but I'd love to have a better media player than Winamp.

If you want to get into DiY check out Circuit Maker and Graph. They could both help out, and are free.

casey campbell · Post by **casey campbell** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:17 am

never use audio computer for internet...but if you must:

i used to work for a computer repair shop, we used these guys all the time -

1. ccleaner
2. malwarebytes anti-malware: this is killer - gets rid of smitfraud easily
3. dial a fix: for those strange xp problems (not for vista, it'll mess up a vista machine)
4. siw or belarc advisor is great
5. nlite for uninstalling silly windows apps.
6. avg 8.0 free is a good antivirus, but it does run in the background.
7. winsock xp fix if your computer can't connect to the internet because of a virus.
8. windirstat: this is a GREAT program!
9. burn in test by passmark software is good too.
10. acronis is indispensable
11. mwsnap is a great tool for capturing any picture anywhere.
12. irfanview is killer
13. cute pdf for creating pdf files for free
14. 7 zip
15. produkey - this guy has a ton of password hacking tools that are great too.
16. magic jelly bean - the older versions will allow you to change product keys
17. hirens - this is hard to find, but not impossible. usually through torrent - truly a staple for computer repair guys
18, mozilla thunderbird and sunbird
19. super antispyware
20. e-sword is good if you are into the bible
21. vundo fix - gets rid of vundo virus
22. undelete plus
23. recuva
24. defraggler
25. acelogix makes some good stuff too
26. js keyfinder
27. audacity - good free audio editor
28. reaper
29. lame mp3 decoder
30. de la mancha vst fx. - good wierd experimental stuff you cant find anywhere else.
31. jk defrag
32. quick access by processlibrary.com
33. winrar
34. clip o matic is pretty cool....
35. hijackthis - only run this if you know what your are doing! copy notepad contents and paste them at www.hijackthis.de
36. combofix (removes stubborn viruses easily) - only use this if you know what you are doing... dont run it on a machine that runs norton as it'll mess norton up where it wont work and you cant uninstall it (norton). uninstall norton first and then run it. then reinstall norton. norton sucks by the way.... so does mcafee.
37. atf cleaner

the top antivirus and anti malwares are free. you put these 4 on a machine and you are ok.
1. avg 8.0 free
2. malwarebytes
3. super antispyware
4. hijack this (see above)

it's ok to have multi anti spy and malware programs, but it's not ok to have more than one anti-virus.

a. spybot used to be good, but now it usually will lock up on a heavily infected machine
b. ad aware used to be ok too, but it aint all that any more either.
c. ive had ok luck with avast

Circuit Scream · Post by **Circuit Scream** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:41 pm

I use a hardware firewall and a few swappable system drives in my tower system. It changes about every year, but it's usually one system for audio, one as the household/office system, and one for gaming & goofing off online.

Most of my surfing here and elsewhere though is on my laptop. Not super-worried about my audio machine going online, and do for updates, but would just prefer to run a faster slimmer system and once you install a ton of stuff it will be slower.

The one thing I don't like about a lot of software these days is a near-constant need to "phone home" for updates...that's the main reason I don't keep my audio machine connected, it just ties up resources.

For fragging, it's Unreal Tournament...for defragging, JK Defrag...

0-it-hz · Post by **0-it-hz** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:11 am

Hmmm.... looking around my desk here I could put together a SWEET internet computer for about the retail cost of a 57 & an XLR cable... Or I could watch Zone Alarm suck down 30% of my available memory.

Hmm.... what to do? I could really use another 57....

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