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Filed under: music_equipment

Great Software, Part 2

This is actually part 3 since I already mentioned Inkscape and WinSplit Revolution, but I guess that’s even wrong since I talk about great software in almost all of my posts. No matter.  This is number 2 with that title.
I’ll mention three this time: Acoustica Mixcraft, Super Flexible File Synchronizer soon to be known as ExtremeSync and Launchy.
First, Mixcraft.  If you are a PC-wielding musician, or fancy yourself to be one, such as myself, then you turn green with envy at your Mac brethren who not only have fantastic and simple multi-track recording application in GarageBand.  To add insult to injury, they get it free with their Mac!  I guess that’s why they pay through the nose just to get the entry-level model (thumb at nose).  Disclaimer: I think Macs are great.  I don’t own one and probably won’t again any time soon, but I recommend them to some of my friends, especially musicians.
Mixcraft is a GarageBand clone, which means that it is beginner-oriented but sophisticated enough to do some great recording.  I couple mine with a PreSonus AudioBox USB to do home recording.  I’m extremely happy with the combo.
Mixcraft is an eye-pleasing multi-track recording application with loops, effects, instruments, just tons of stuff to play with.  After having used it for several months, I can say it is quality all the way.  And the kicker is that it’s ultra-cheap for an app in this segment…just $65.  If you’re looking to get into recording on the PC, just get it.  Now.
While messing around with this post, I (finally) started synchronizing my 33GB of music from my laptop to my desktop.  This is no small undertaking for my hard drives.
This leads me to SFFS.  Super Flexible File Synchronizer (forgive the name, it’s worth it and it’s going to be renamed to the more svelte ExtremeSync anyway) is a file synchronizer deluxe.  While a task like this could be accomplished by free software such as the worthy SyncToy or Unison, some of the features in SFFS make it the heavyweight champion of file synchronization.  I’ll modify that statement a bit: I did see other solutions that claimed to have the same features for the most part.  I did not evaluate all of them.
SFFS has a number of different advanced features I’ve found useful.  It can be run as a Windows service, which means it can be an automated file mirroring service.  Appropriately, it emails you the results of its job.
It also is as smart as you need it to be.  Two features useful for keeping repositories of large file in sync are move detection and delta syncing.  It can detect moves of files from one directory to another, saving a network copy, and it can also scan files and only transfer the differences between the files.  Also useful to keep network traffic down.  Since I sometimes keep multi-gigabyte files in sync (virtual machines), both are features that appeal to me.
Finally, Launchy.  I’ve written about Launchy before, but I just need to plug it again since I use it so much.  It’s a keystroke launcher that pops up with the Alt-Spacebar combination and indexes your entire Start menu and Favorites.  It’s the modern day equivalent of tab-completion at the command line.  Note that it is a menu-indexer, not a command-line prompt, however.  If you have a lot of programs or are just into accelerating your computer usage, it’s awesome.