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Friday, November 24, 2000

Today's Top Stories:

Digidesign ReverbOne
Plug-ins galore. Digidesign's new ReverbOne has arrived. ReverbOne is their new flagship reverb plug-in and is reported to have quality that truly rivals that of the most expensive hardware reverbs. Meanwhile Waves is shipping version 3.0 of their plug-ins, including the new C4 multiband processor. The big bundles have all undergone facelifts that include more plug-ins as well as many updates of old friends like L1 and Q10.

Steinberg's Wavelab software has been updated to version 3.03a. You can download the upgrade at their ftp site free of charge. Added features include a comprehensive autosplit function for creating multiple regions out of one sound file, pitch bend, 192 kHz support, WMA encoding, 29.97 drop frame time code support, CDDB support, and updated CDR drivers.

TC Electronic has released a new OS for their monster M6000 processor. Version 1.20 adds more robust SMPTE automation (including cue lists), enhanced networking capabilities for remotes and mainframes, and an improved version of the popular VSS-5.1 Surround Reverb algorithm. The free update is available for registered owners direct through TC Electronic or at their website.

Waves ships v3.0 plug-ins
Plug-ins galore. Digidesign's new ReverbOne has arrived. ReverbOne is their new flagship reverb plug-in and is reported to have quality that truly rivals that of the most expensive hardware reverbs. Meanwhile Waves is shipping version 3.0 of their plug-ins, including the new C4 multiband processor. The big bundles have all undergone facelifts that include more plug-ins as well as many updates of old friends like L1 and Q10.

Steinberg Wavelab v3.03a upgrade
Plug-ins galore. Digidesign's new ReverbOne has arrived. ReverbOne is their new flagship reverb plug-in and is reported to have quality that truly rivals that of the most expensive hardware reverbs. Meanwhile Waves is shipping version 3.0 of their plug-ins, including the new C4 multiband processor. The big bundles have all undergone facelifts that include more plug-ins as well as many updates of old friends like L1 and Q10.

TC Electronic releases new OS for M6000
Plug-ins galore. Digidesign's new ReverbOne has arrived. ReverbOne is their new flagship reverb plug-in and is reported to have quality that truly rivals that of the most expensive hardware reverbs. Meanwhile Waves is shipping version 3.0 of their plug-ins, including the new C4 multiband processor. The big bundles have all undergone facelifts that include more plug-ins as well as many updates of old friends like L1 and Q10.

Recent inSync News:
·	Wednesday, November 22, 2000
·	Tuesday, November 21, 2000
·	Monday, November 20, 2000
·	Friday, November 17, 2000
·	Thursday, November 16, 2000
·	View Entire inSync Archive

Burn-In

The process of running a part or piece of equipment for a period of time to make sure it is functioning correctly. This is normally done just after manufacturing or after some major repair work has been done. The specific purpose of burning in new items is to address infantile failure problems, which is the known statistical fact that electronic equipment is most prone to fail within the first 24 to 48 hours of use. Quite often the failures are triggered by heat when the unit comes up to operating temperature. For this reason many devices are subjected to extremes of heat and/or cold during the burn-in phase.

Burn in also describes what can happen to older CRT screens when the same image is shown on them for long periods of time. An impression of the image is burnt into the screen, permanently damaging it. Thus, screensavers were created.

View the Complete Glossary

What to do about slow start ups on your Mac, and monitor burn-in

Yes, we live in an impatient world.

"My G3 Mac seems to be taking longer and longer to start up. I haven't timed it, but I'm sure it's taking significantly longer than when I first bought it. What is going on? Also, my friends tell me that, since I leave it on a lot, I should be using a screen saver to protect the monitor. Is this true?"

Assuming your Mac isn't malfunctioning (which I doubt) there are a few things that will slow down boot up time. The Mac startup can be broken into two major components. The first part is the RAM check and loading information from ROM, the second part is loading the system and extensions from the hard drive in RAM. If you have added a lot of RAM to your Mac the first part (the RAM check) will take longer. This is the period of inactivity you see before you hear things beginning to load from the hard drive. The only thing you can do to speed this part up is to disable the RAM check. To do so, hold down the Command and Option keys while launching the Memory control panel. When you do, a new Memory Test option appears. Disabling this option tells the Mac to skip RAM tests as the Mac starts up.

The second component is the loading of the system and extensions and the only real way to speed this up is a faster computer or disabling extensions you don't need. Most people have quite a few extensions loading into their system they don't really need, especially if a number of applications and utilities have been installed in the system over time. Covering the purpose of each extension is beyond the scope of inSync, but it's a good idea to learn which ones you can turn off. This will solve a multitude of potential problems that are way more frustrating than slow start-ups. You can also disable the Multiple Users option and File Sharing, as these cause additional delays.

As for screen savers, they really aren't necessary on modern monitors, as they do not suffer from the burn-in problems of the monitors made ten years ago. Some say screen savers don't do any harm and choose to use them anyway, but if you are operating a DAW or MIDI system on your computer they can sometimes cause timing inconsistencies or glitches to occur. The preferred method these days is to use the Energy Saver Control Panel to allow the computer to put the monitor to sleep after periods of inactivity. This not only protects the monitor, but saves a lot of power as well. You can also use this Control Panel to set a specific time for your computer to start up every day, which means you can avoid the start up time altogether.

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