A few years back, I had come across the website of Alan Russell. I'm not into song arranging, but found many of his song arrangements (in MP3) very enjoyable listening.

He uses the Motif8 and has a variety of tips and some very good links. One link was for helping you to optimize your PC computer running Windows XP as a Digital Audio workstation.

If your into that stuff, or just want to hear some good MP3s, take a visit.

Alan Russell

Hi MrEd,
I'm in trouble again - I've downloaded some mp3s from Alan Russell's site ( at least the pc screen tells me they're downloaded) but can't play them. Normally,mp3 files and most other stuff goes straight into My Documents but I can;t find this new stuff anywhere. Any ideas please?

Peter

Peter,
Try to download 1 of the songs again.
Right-click once on the song, then select+click on the 'save target as' option

--At That Point--
Read that folder/file name it is defaulting to.
You will probably see a folder name other than the MY DOCUMENTS.
That would be where those MP3s are being stored.

Let me know how it goes.

Many thanks Mr Ed,

It worked for me and it's my kind of music. Great stuff. Can't wait to get back and listen to more.

Contentedly yours,

Peter

Alan has done a very nice job and spent lots of time recording each part/groove/sound to get his result use Motif and Giga. The big questions.

1. Does it sound that much better than what can be done with a top-end arranger?

2. Is all of that time worth it versus sitting down at an arranger and playing?

IMHO, I'd rather focus on the playing music, not programming it. The top-end arrangers sound pretty good. Although I long for the day when a midi controller of my choice and a pc-based arranger hosting 3rd-party products like the ethnic libraries of sounds and grooves featured in the recent issue of Electronic Musician can give me the same sound quality as Alan's efforts with the ease of today’s hardware proprietary arrangers. BIAB, OMB, Jammer, etc fans please don't chime in hear. None of the current arranger products are there yet.