What Next? -- New Ideas for future freeware from Sweetwater

[Joe Lester]

Since SetMaker has provided value for so many musicians out there, we are playing around with the notion of writing another freeware utility for musicians. We're not sure whether it will be a "Track Sheet" program or an "Equipment Maintenance" program or some other utility. What would you like to see? You can vote on the two ideas I mentioned or submit your own idea.

[AGAPEStudio]

How about some form of Equipment Tracking database that is customizable and printable?

Create a printed sheet of all the equipment required for a gig. This can be used as a checklist to ensure 1) that all equipment is packed before the gig, 2) all equipment is packed after the gig, and 3) all equipment is returned to the practice space.

When bands with a large number of members pack up from practice space to a live gig, it gets rather confusing quickly. Not all equipment may be required to go, and you certainly want to ensure that you return with everything you took along.

Possibly with a way to link certain pieces, like: a specific mic with a certain cord using a particular stand - so all three pieces are treated as one, but counted as three. A guitar, cord and amp, same thing...

It's also very useful for insurances purposes!

Just a thought.

[bmattson]

How about something for the home studio operator.

This might include:

Session Preparation/Organizer Tool (which mics on which sources; signal chain including compression, eq, etc. for each track; multi-tracking strategy and best use of limited tracks.)

Electronic Tracking Sheets (meaning savable - not merely a blank template that must be printed out and scribbled on and erased as the session evolves until it's finally unreadable.)

Equipment Inventory (I've been working on a spreadsheet myself for this, primarily for insurance records, but a GUI interface and the capability to pull gear from this DB into the tracking sheets and prep tool would be fabulous.)

Lots more possibilities, I think.

Bruce

[911Turbo]

Hey,

Thanks for the idea of an equipment tracking system.

How would this differ from what you could easily do in a Database or Spreadsheet program? I understand your need for the product, but it seems to me that this is EXACTLY what a database does...and we could never do a database better than Filemaker or Access. Please tell me more..

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Sincerely
Chuck Surack

[AGAPEStudio]

Hello Chuck,

The idea of having a stand alone Equipment Tracking program is convienience. And a cool interface... :-)

Mostly because it takes time to build a database from scratch and some people don't have the time or patience... so we get you guys to do it! It's that simple.

I'm sure Sweetwater can come up with something much more useable than most of us can come up with on our own. More detailed and including many things we might overlook. The possibilities are endless and the detail can be amazing.

I do mostly remote recordings. It gets to be a real mess sometimes. Easy to lose track of what was used. This program could really help - check off what I use so I know I get it back. A quick inventory as I load up, and I know I leave with everything I brought.

Still... just a thought.

Troy L. Walters
AGAPE Studio
Indiana, USA

[Kerzhan]

I'm going to give this a spin and see if it can help me "program" my show. I'll definitely send you all the feedback you could want. ;)

[Foreverain4]

ok, i am currently using auto cad to do this, but, i think it would be cool to have some sort of drawing program to help you think through a stage setup or layout. would include things such as what instruments go where, could place monitors, etc. i am always in communiction with the venue and have them give me stage dimensions as my band has ALOT of stuff. i have to figure out how to arrange equip. with the greatest efficiency. i am thinking that you would have some predrawn objects (which i could possibly help with) such as drums and you could just drag and drop them into place and move them around to best suit the stage. then you would be able to color code things such as monitors to show which monitors are tied into which mix and such. then, after you have dreamed through your setup, you would be able to print out the floor plan to take with you or send to the venue, and even purhaps and equip list as mentioned above.


my 5 cents

lynn graber

[Foreverain4]

here is a 2D example of what i am talking about. it would be cool to do 3D even. but i just dont want to take the time for what i am using this for. everything is to scale. i took the time to measure all the equipment that we use. anyway, later all!



lynn graber


http://www.therecordinghouse.com/band_layout

[Foreverain4]

you could call it "stage maker" hahah! :D

[Justin]

Perhaps something for the Palm platform?

[bigfastsnails]

I hav a PAN. toughbook I want to record a band on to, what should I do?

[guitarjoe]

Why don't you guys do what tascam does- put up a PDF on how to tweek PC 's etc -

[monkeypants?]

How about some links to demo/free/shareware plug-ins?

[b s t a r r]

Or make a basic Audi/Midi program....
kinda Like Acid Xpress but the Sweetwater way.

Have like
- 16 tracks
- But limited plugins
- Looping
etc

[Justin]

Check out:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

:)

[FBM ASCAP]

Yeah, I have an idea,

How about making an online resource for local mom n' pop shops to check if the used gear they're recieveing is hot, by allowing musicians/engineers to list equiptment they own online then if stolen they can flag items in thier "profile" with S.N.'s and post them to a public directory.

THAT would be a little more usefull to us that have had $13,000 in mics and software stolen out of thier cars like myself.

Don't get me wrong another app would be nice but this is something that EVERYONE NEEDS.

And to make it a little more probable to make it happen charge a one time fee of $5.00 per person and make it regional, north east, central west coast, mid west... you get the idea.

Just think about it, you guys (and ladies) one-up'd the competition with Sweetcare, why not do it again with a resource like this?... and DONT limit it to what you have sold the customer, but all customers aand any gear... like I said charge a little for this.

[Justin]

I'm not part of the team that writes our software, so I'm not sure if something like this in our future.

In the meantime you could try listing the serial numbers with www.stealitback.com. They're part of a site that handles auctioning items from police property rooms. If your gear goes through them to auction and they find the serial number in their database they'll send it to the local police dept for you to pick it up.

I'm sure there are some more sites like this where you can report stolen goods...but this was the first one that came to mind.

[5454stevef]

I like the track sheet program idea.

Coincidentally, I've been kicking around the idea of doing something in Filemaker for such a purpose, but what it boils down to is I'm too lazy.

but.... not too lazy to put down a couple of thoughts for things that
I'd like to see other people do. : )

Ideally it would be an efficient, stand-alone app, but could also be a
template for any of a number of database programs.

Even something like a flat file database could be really useful.
This would include all the usual information found on paper track
sheets, along with pop-up text boxes or sub-menus where you can enter
comments on things like mic placement, inserts, amp settings, anything
that people tend to not remember after a while. It would also be
handy to create templates for various bands or ensembles who tend
to have the same basic setup each time.

If it's built to be a relational database, it could become quite
powerful. How cool would it be, after using something like this for a
few years, to search the database, for example, for all the kick or
snare drum setups you have used in the past, with comments on the
result? Or all the setups for a particular musician, or style of song?
If you really went nuts you could link certain fields to sound samples.

Planning a session could include lookups of records from the entire history of the studio. "ok, we got Billy Bob Fuzzface in here tomorrow, here's how we did him last time, sounded great", click a box, and there it is on the track sheet as many times as you need it. These records would evolve over the course of a session but you'd have a good starting place.

A relational database would also allow you to create other useful tools
that could be incorporated into the tracking program - a studio would
have a database of all available mics, for example, that you'd pick from a pop-up list in the track sheet interface. Outboard gear or plug-ins would be handled the same way, and if you need to bring something in that's not part of the inventory, you just enter it there.

It could include user settable defaults for things like mics, etc for certain types of instruments.

Getting carried away... sorry to be such a windbag. Anyway, I think a tracking sheet program is a pretty good idea.

[mesasand]

Hey guys:

Here's one I'd like to see. A database that allows songwriters to keep track of their songs. I've built a crude one in Filemaker, but I'm no expert. It would allow you to print lyric sheets, keep track of correspondence, contacts, publishing info, etc. I don't think it would be too difficult, just don't have the chops myself.

[Morsoccer92]

How about something for the home studio operator.

This might include:

Session Preparation/Organizer Tool (which mics on which sources; signal chain including compression, eq, etc. for each track; multi-tracking strategy and best use of limited tracks.)

Electronic Tracking Sheets (meaning savable - not merely a blank template that must be printed out and scribbled on and erased as the session evolves until it's finally unreadable.)

Equipment Inventory (I've been working on a spreadsheet myself for this, primarily for insurance records, but a GUI interface and the capability to pull gear from this DB into the tracking sheets and prep tool would be fabulous.)

Lots more possibilities, I think.

Bruce
I really like the idea of something for the home studio, as I am really trying to get into this business doing things the right way!!!! Something like he said would be amazing

[leenco12]

How about something for the home studio operator.

This might include:

Session Preparation/Organizer Tool (which mics on which sources; signal chain including compression, eq, etc. for each track; multi-tracking strategy and best use of limited tracks.)

Electronic Tracking Sheets (meaning savable - not merely a blank template that must be printed out and scribbled on and erased as the session evolves until it's finally unreadable.)

Equipment Inventory (I've been working on a spreadsheet myself for this, primarily for insurance records, but a GUI interface and the capability to pull gear from this DB into the tracking sheets and prep tool would be fabulous.)

Lots more possibilities, I think.

Bruce

Thanks for the idea of an equipment tracking system.

How would this differ from what you could easily do in a Database or Spreadsheet program? I understand your need for the product, but it seems to me that this is EXACTLY what a database does...and we could never do a database better than Filemaker or Access. Please tell me more..

Thanks again for the suggestion.

[tarkus00]

How about some form of Equipment Tracking database that is customizable and printable?

Create a printed sheet of all the equipment required for a gig. This can be used as a checklist to ensure 1) that all equipment is packed before the gig, 2) all equipment is packed after the gig, and 3) all equipment is returned to the practice space.

When bands with a large number of members pack up from practice space to a live gig, it gets rather confusing quickly. Not all equipment may be required to go, and you certainly want to ensure that you return with everything you took along.

Possibly with a way to link certain pieces, like: a specific mic with a certain cord using a particular stand - so all three pieces are treated as one, but counted as three. A guitar, cord and amp, same thing...

It's also very useful for insurances purposes!

Just a thought.

From a person who has lost so much over the years I like this. I would put one more space for the guy who is in charge to sign off.. I've been using excell for years for my inventory. My wife is an accountant and hands me these sheets one day LOL I understand everyone has a Mac so ya file maker will work also. what ever you are typing from just do a search for free spreadsheet.

[Justin]

You could check out Bento or Filemaker if you want to build your own gear database, or use LibreOffice to do it as a spreadsheet.
You might want to look at Delicious Library as well, it's mostly for media tracking, but you can use it for tool/gear tracking too.