February 2003 - Doggiebox - lists.zygoat.ca

Doggie box instrument icons, etc
by Michael Carlyle 10 Feb '03

10 Feb '03

First, Thanks to Ben and all concerned for what is a fantastic start to a potentially life-changing product (for me anyway). I've been programming a Boss DR-550 MKII for over 12 years and I have been on the lookout for a graphical-based computer alternative for just about that entire time. I've only been using Doggiebox for a couple of days. I have one thought on the instrument icons. Unless I'm missing something, when I build a new kit (something I plan to do using some Boss sounds) the default icon is the little snare drum. There is a choose button that, I suppose, is meant to allow one to browse to a custom icon that the user (me, for example) could create. The documentation seems to lack a technical description of those icon's properties (file format, size, color depth, etc.). I could see myself making icons and using them, if only I knew those properties. I'd like to propose that you explore a drag and drop window or sheet that contains all of your default icons. I would have no problem using the default versions if I could find out where they lived. More later.

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Keyboard shortcuts for hide/minimize?
by Ben Kennedy 10 Feb '03

10 Feb '03

People, I would like to solicit your opinions on something. A user has written me requesting a keyboard shortcut for the 'hide application' function that is available in the Application menu. According to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, apps should publish this as cmd-H, and similarly, the 'minimize window' function as cmd-M. Here is what I wrote back to him just now: >The one issue is this: I personally have a grudge against apple's choice >of cmd-M and cmd-H for minimize and hide; they are such plain and useful >key combos that I feel app developers should be free to use them for main >app functions. So I am inclined to assign a more obscure key combo, like >ctrl-cmd-H, to that function instead of just cmd-H. What is your take >on that? Do you feel that the Hide function should stick with the apple >guidelines and be simply cmd-H, or would it be reasonable for me to >assign something more obscure? As it happens, a similar discussion happened only last week on the mailing list for my e-mail client of choice (PowerMail), and here is what I wrote at the time: >In my opinion, Apple has really screwed up with their recommendations for >cmd-M = minimize to dock and cmd-H = hide application. I agree, they >should have chosen more obscure shortcuts, laden with modifiers, to >accomplish these tasks. Not only do I personally rarely ever have a >desire to invoke the functions, but the "vanilla" keycodes are already a >scarce resouce for app developers (there are only 26 letters of the roman >alphabet after all, many of which are in use for ubiquitous functions >like open, save, close, etc). > >Personally, in applications I'm developing (http://www.doggiebox.com) I >am deliberately ignoring the HIG in this regard. I will assign the main >menu keys as I see fit, and I will only consider rearranging them to >support Apple's weird ideals if I start to receive user feedback on the >subject. I actually posted that in response to another user, who was commenting on the latest PowerMail's implementing the cmd-M for minimize (which till then was assigned to a more useful function, in fact, "send mail"). As he so eloquently put it, >"Minimize Window" is misleading! Please rename it to "Suck to Dock" >and change its shortcut to command+shift+option+control+Suck. I had to have a hearty laugh in agreement on that one. Thoughts? -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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Re: [doggiebox] 10.1
by Ben Kennedy 10 Feb '03

10 Feb '03

Thanks to those of you who replied re the 10.1 problems, It occurred to me what the problem might be -- the default install location is /Applications/Doggiebox, and since the Applications folder is owned by an admin group, the installer might have had problems writing there without authenticating as an admin. Anyway, I've also realised that there are other implications with using the PackageMaker-built installer format; for example the system keeps a record of the installed package and its version, and will warn you with subsequent installs if the version numbers conflict -- even if you've deleted the package and its related files from your system in the interim. So the upshot is, I'm just going to Stuffit everything (like with all previous builds) in the future. The Installer package was an interesting experiment. :) Meanwhile you can safely do this from a Terminal to get rid of the installer package detritus, if you desire: rm -Rf /Library/Receipts/Doggiebox-1A7.pkg -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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10.1
by Ben Kennedy 09 Feb '03

09 Feb '03

Hey all, Has anyone here successfully installed 1A7 on OS 10.1? A user has written me saying that the installer is choking midway through with an error, "can't set file attributes". I'm wondering if this is to do with 10.1, or whether it is a problem specific to his system. -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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Re: [doggiebox] Export adds silence?
by THECREAPINKID＠aol.com 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

the silence lets the drums decay how a real drum kit would sound.. it just lets the drum samples ring out/fade out... it sounds better that way rather than cutting it short on the next beat... has anyone got any doggiebox drumkits they could send me : ) ive not yet build one myself, but i have loads of real drum samples for it... so how about some swaps?????

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Findsounds.com
by Ben Kennedy 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

Hey all, I realise that many people are hurting for drum sounds to start building custom drum kits. I figured there had to be something like images.google.com but for sounds, and indeed a google search for "sound" turned up this: http://www.findsounds.com. Check it out; I've only played with it for about 2 minutes, but for example, typing in "snare drum" turns up hundreds of matches from all over the web. Neat. -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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Export adds silence?
by lee gummerman 02 Feb '03

02 Feb '03

Thanks for the new version, a lot of nice improvements. I exported a small (two bar) pattern as AIFF and the resulting file has a couple extra seconds of silence after the pattern ends. Is this intentional? -- Lee

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