How to Get Rid of MicroSoft OneDrive

If you're like me, the MS OneDrive app drives you crazy.  To be clear, I'm not trying to bash MicroSoft here.  I enjoy a lot of their products.  But I often work in remote bush camps and areas without internet, which makes OneDrive (and similar apps from competing companies) really annoying for me.

When I first decided to uninstall OneDrive, I found out that it has been embedded more deeply in the Windows 10 OS than I had expected.  Here's a link to the Office Support web page that describes disabling, hiding, or uninstalling it:

https://support.office.com/en-US/article/Turn-off-or-uninstall-OneDrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

The problem with the information on that page is that if you're using the Home version of Windows 8.0 or 8.1, the Group Policy editor is not available.  And almost nobody tells you that!  So tons of pages telling people how to go into gpedit and disable OneDrive will not work unless you're on the Pro version.


Moving on, I tried some suggestions from Life Hacker, at the following page:

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-completely-uninstall-onedrive-in-windows-10-1725363532

However, my attempts at killing it through the Command Line Interface (CLI) were also a failure.  The only consolation in this case was to see the frustrated comments from other people who were also pointing out the lack of gpedit access through MMC to anyone who doesn't have the Pro version.


However, TechJourney.net finally came to the rescue.  I found an article there which allows someone who is comfortable with editing the Registry to get rid of OneDrive.  Here's the link:

https://techjourney.net/disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-completely-in-windows-10/

This should only be attempted if you're comfortable with computers.  It's a pretty easy fix, although you want to be careful that you don't change anything else in your Registry, as that can really mess things up and make your computer very dysfunctional.  But at long as you follow their instructions carefully, you should be fine.

Good luck!

- Jonathan Clark
www.djbolivia.ca

---------------------------------------

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Windows Shortcut Keys

This post is about some useful computer tricks for PC’s.  Apologies to Mac users.

A few weeks ago, I was doing some computer work with someone.  I've done a lot of computer programming in my life, and I initially came to university to study computer science (switching away from the music program at the last second).  However, despite that background, the guy that I was working with is a whole lot smarter than I am when it comes to computers.

  

However, as I was watching him do something, he had to minimize about eight windows at one point so he could see the desktop of the laptop that he was working on.  I was surprised by this, because he usually does things very quickly and efficiently.  I said, “Did you know that you can hold down the ‘flying window’ key in the left corner, and press the letter D, and the desktop will appear automatically?”  He didn’t.  At that point, I figured that I should make a list of useful keyboard shortcuts that people would find useful.  Of course, there are already lists on the internet, because Windows comes with almost one hundred built in short-cuts.   However, I’m just going to make a “short list” of about a dozen of the most useful short-cuts here:


CTRL-S:  “Save” a file.  I do this automatically about every two minutes when I'm working on something, although to be honest computers are about a hundred times more reliable than they were twenty years ago (before modern-day internet and email, if you can imagine that kind of a horrible, archaic society).

CTRL-P:  “Print” a file.  Yes, most of these commands can also be found in the menu bar at the top of the screen with just two mouse clicks, but if your hands are already on the keyboard and you know how to type properly, it is far faster to use the shortcuts than to move your hand over to the mouse.

CTRL-Z:  “Undo” last command.  This doesn’t always work, and some programs have stranger combinations, like SHIFT-CTRL-Z to do an Undo.  But it does work in a ton of programs.  And CTRL-Y often is a "re-do" last command, if you change your mind after an undo.  I use these all the time in programs from people like Abobe, or in Word or Excel docs.

CTRL-C:  “Copy” whatever is highlighted on the screen.

CTRL-V:  “Paste” whatever is highlighted on the screen. And by the way, can someone tell me why the letter “V” stands for “paste”??

Of course, the three most common formatting commands (Bold, Italic, and Underline) can all be done with a short-cut.  Just highlight your selection and hit either CTRL-B, CTRL-I, or CTRL-U respectively.  And these same commands, of course, also work as a toggle, so you can turn them on then type a little bit, then turn them back off.

FlyingWindow-E:  Brings up Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer).  I love this short-cut; perhaps my favorite.

FlyingWindow-D:  Brings up the Desktop, as mentioned above.  Also useful.  Strangely, FlyingWindow-M does the same thing, I think, because it means “Minimize” all open windows.  Maybe there's a distinction, but I can’t think of it.

FlyingWindow-R:  Brings up the “Run” dialog, which normally is accessed by going to “start” then to “run.”  This is mostly only useful for the real nerds.  I don’t even use it (well, not much).

FlyingWindow-C:  If you have “IntelliType” turned on, this brings up the Control Panel.  Useful, except that I don’t have IntelliType turned on.

Of course, there are several dozen more, but they start to get pretty esoteric. For a decent list, check this out: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449  (scroll down the page a bit, past the notice about support for winXP having ended).

And before I stop, I’ll mention one last shortcut that makes me laugh.  Windows just wouldn’t be itself without lots of features that are completely nonsensical and redundant.  If you have IntelliType turned on, and do a “FlyingWindow-S” it will toggle the caps lock on and off.  Why you would want to do that instead of just hitting the caps lock key itself (which is already under your left pinky) is beyond me.  Maybe it’s just a way of giving your fingers some extra exercise, although I can think of better ways to do that.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Understanding Decibel Measurement Systems

Decibel-based logarithmic measurement systems are confusing.  This post is directly related to video #08 in my Audio Recording tutorial series, which is embedded below.




Although watching the video is the best way to learn about this topic, because of my illustrations on the whiteboard, I've also put a copy of the audio portion of that tutorial video on SoundCloud, for people who would like to download it to listen to in vehicles, while travelling, etc. Here's the audio-only version:




What Are Decibels?

The decibel is the unit used to measure the intensity of a sound. The human ear is incredibly sensitive. Your ears can hear everything from a light wind rustling through distant trees, to a loud jet engine, and they need to be able to process sounds appropriately. The decibel system is a logarithmic system that is appropriate for exponentially variable sound levels. Incidentally, decibels are also used to measure a large number of other logarithmic-based scales, such as power and voltage levels.

The first need for a decibel system came about many years ago, when telephone companies were trying to measure losses and gains across power grids. They decided to come up with a type of measurement that they named the Bel, in recognition of Alexander Graham Bell's work with early telephones. The decibel is one tenth of a Bel, and is abbreviated dB.

Decibels measure a change in power. Power is the change in energy in a system over time, and is best measured on a logarithmic scale. The range of difference in power levels between the quietest sound that a human can hear and the loudest sound before passing the threshold of hearing and reaching the threshold of pain is about one trillion times, or 10 to the twelfth power! That's a huge difference in scale.

Logarithmic scales are very interesting. Decibel systems are designed so that linear changes in the measurement units (ie. decibels) reflect exponential changes in power levels. Adding to the complexity is the fact that since the ear perceives different power levels on a different logarithmic scale than decibels (perhaps around Log 2, rather than Log 10), we get some very strange mathematical relationships. For example, consider these:

2x power = +3 dB = "slightly louder"
10x power = +10 dB = "about twice as loud"
100x power= +20 dB = "about four times as loud"
1000x power = +30dB = "about eight times as loud"

There are both similarities and differences in the ways that we perceive sound and light. Both are measured by our senses. However, light is a type of radio wave, and sound propagates through a medium in a wave-like pattern due to the oscillation of adjoining molecules. Therefore, light travels at an almost constant speed, whereas sound propagates more quickly when the medium that it is passing through becomes more dense.

Another interesting tidbit is that the difference in power levels between light and sound, as we perceive them, is not similar. With sounds, we can hear a difference between power levels of twelve orders of magnitude, as mentioned above. With light, the difference is only about three orders of magnitude. If you were to take the dimmest possible light that our eyes can see, and increase the power by only one thousand times, it would be at a level approaching the threshold of pain, causing retina damage.

It is also interesting that the power levels in light are much higher than in sounds. The very dimmest light that we can perceive produces about one watt of power. The very loudest sound that we can hear before approaching the threshold of pain produces about one watt of power. If you were able to instantly turn the power output from a 100-watt light bulb into purely sound energy, it would almost certainly deafen you, and possible cause serious injuries to some parts of your body.

In the embedded video (above), I cover the basics of a number of different decibel-based systems. For example, the following are all somewhat related to sound:

dB PWL - decibels power level
dB SIL - decibels sound intensity level
dB SPL - decibels sound pressure level
dBFS - decibels full scale
dBv or dBV - two types of decibels voltage, which use different reference levels
dBu - another type of voltage system
dBw - a type of power measurement




Tweet

The Digital System for Decibels at Full Scale (dBFS)

Many decibel systems appear to have levels from 0 dB and upwards. However, this can be misleading, since decibels are a ratio, not an absolute quantity. So 0 dB in any system doesn't mean "nothing," it means that you're at the reference level, whatever that happens to be in that particular system. And it is possible to have negative decibel measurements in all systems. You just need to have a quantity or level that is lower than the reference level. Decibels are essentially a ratio.

In digital audio, in an audio editor system, the decibel levels are especially confusing. The dBFS scale starts with the reference level at the top, ie. the highest value. Any signal which is stronger than the reference level is a type of digital distortion. All other signals are measured in negative decibels, going down towards the noise floor.

Because of the special relationship between voltage and power, whereby voltage changes squared are in a direct relationship to power, the effect is that in a voltage system, a 6 dB increase means a doubling of the level, and a 6 dB decrease means the level is cut in half. In a 16-bit system, it is only possible to cut a signal in half sixteen times, going down 6 dB with each reduction to 50%. Therefore, a 16-bit system has a noise floor of -96 dB. In contrast, a 24-bit system has eight extra bits, and the noise floor is eight "levels" (of 6 dB each) lower, or around -144 dB. With a lower noise floor in a 24-bit system, there is a better potential dynamic range, and a more desirable signal-to-noise ratio. Of course, even that gets complicated, because you must differentiate between instrumentation noise and physical/external noise.

Does louder translate to "better" or "worse," and why? Well, humans usually perceive louder sounds to be better sounding. I don't know why. Maybe it's an evolutionary thing or an inherent biological preference - our brains just naturally prefer sounds that are easier to hear? Some audio engineers use this characteristic to their advantage, for better or for worse. In terms of producing music, an audio engineer will often try to increase the average volume level of a song through the use of compression, to make it sound "better" than other songs played around it. Unfortunately, the race to over-compress music has resulted in a loss of dynamic range in a lot of modern music.


Parting Words

Obviously, I’ve covered these subjects in a fairly superficial manner. If you watch the embedded video, I've covered all of these things in much more detail, so hopefully that will give you a lot of additional insight. Now you know the general theory behind these subjects, and why they're important to audio engineers. If you want to do further research on your own, I’ll put some links here now. Be forewarned! The physics and mathematics behind logarithmic systems can be pretty intense!

Links to other articles about Decibel systems:

http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/dB.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/feb94/decibels.html

To see the rest of the tutorials in this Audio Recording series, visit:

djbolivia.ca/audiorecording

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Upgrading to Windows 8

For anyone who is used to older versions of Windows, you’re probably thinking about the eventual pain of having to upgrade to a new O/S.  Well get this:  Windows 8 is actually quite painless.  I detested Vista, and it took me months for my frustration to subside.  I bought computers over a year after I had started using Vista and  intentionally still went with XP instead.  When I switched from Vista to Windows 7, I was a bit confused, but it only took four or five days to feel comfortable.  I started playing with Windows 8 today, and it’s only taken about six hours and I feel right at home.

Geek alert:  Any good DJ should be familiar with the basic process of producing their own music too, even if he/she doesn't release music professionally.  And any good producer of dance music should be very familiar with working with computers.  So this post is specifically for the technically-minded people who read my blog AND who use PC's instead of Mac's.

 

Back to Windows 8.  For those of you who are used to win7, I’m just going to list a few quick tips to help you acclimatize when you decide to move up.

Where’s the Desktop?

Win8 starts with the unfamiliar Metro interface.  Probably great if you’re using Surface or a touchscreen, but I’m not.  My first suggestion is to go with what’s comfortable until you’re used to win8.  To get to a desktop, either hit Windows-D, or click on the desktop tile in the lower left of the Metro screen.

Where’s My Start Menu?

Start getting used to not having one available in the lower left.  To find things like the Control Panel and other Start Menu items, either move your mouse pointer up to the top right corner of the screen then back out just a tiny touch to the left.  You’ll give five choices.  The Start Menu and Settings are important.  I don’t use Search, Share, or Devices that much, but they’re there.

Where’s the Control Panel?

See the above, then click on settings.  Just like being home, no different than win7.

How do I get into Windows Explorer?

Same as with win7 – the fastest way is the keyboard shortcut, Windows-E.

What about Customizing Windows Explorer?

Faster than win7.  Just go up to the top of the screen and hit View.  One of the first things that I do on any machine is then right there in plain sight, “show file extensions.”  In win7, you had to go through several menus to turn this on.

What about the Run Dialog?

Same as win7, hit Windows-R.  You should already know the names of a lot of windows utilities if you’re a power user.  For example, if you go into this and type services.msc you can start editing your services options.  If you don’t know much about windows machines, don’t play with these.  If you want to learn more, look it up and then go to the Black Viper page to start learning which services you can probably play with.  He’s already got a table for “safe” mode in win8 on laptops.

Where are applications installed?

Same as win7.  64-bit software is installed in the C:/Program Files (x64) directory.  32-bit software is installed in the C:/Program Files (x86) directory.  By the way, if you’ve always wondered why 32-bit software is tagged as x86, it’s because when computers began to become powerful enough to jump from 16-bit addressing to 32-bit in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the first major CPU was Intel’s 8086 chip.  After that, the next couple major Intel chips also ended in 86.  Major IBM computers in the mid-80’s were labelled as 286, 386, and 486 systems as they got more powerful.  Remember that this is back in the days of DOS, before Windows was even invented.

Want to do a Restart?

This is one of the few annoying things that took me a second to figure out.  With no Start menu, there’s no quick restart option.  Your best bet is to either bring the right-side menus out by mousing to the top right, then go into Settings and then click on the Power icon at the bottom center.  Yes, that’s one more movement than you would have needed in win7.  Or the other option is a ctrl-alt-delete and then into the Power button the same way.

Looking for the Metro screen from the Desktop?

Mouse down to the lower left corner.  Unlike the getting at Start menu items in the upper right, you do NOT move back out of the corner.  Go entirely into the corner and left-click.  If you try to back out, you're likely to start whichever app is on the left side of your task bar.  Incidentally, did you know that if you've got a bunch of apps on the task bar and you want to start any of them without the mouse, you can hot-key the first ten items starting at the left side?  Just go Windows+Digit to open anything, ie. Windows+1 opens the program on the far left, Windows+2 opens the next one to the right, and so on right up to Windows+0.

Looking for Installed Programs in your Start Menu?

I’ve found that I prefer pinning most of my common app shortcuts to the quick-launch (task) bar on the

Desktop.  But of course, I only pin the most common apps there.  I used to access the other few dozens rarely used apps through the Start menu.  Now I just go into the Metro screen (mouse to bottom left of desktop) and then drag over to the far right of your Metro clusters.

How do I Find stuff?

This is simple.  From the Desktop, hit Windows-F.  Lots of search options there.  Play with this.  Hit Windows-F then try hitting a random letter.  You'll be surprised what this option "finds."

What’s new and cool for people who tinker with their computers?

Well, from the desktop, try hitting Windows-X.  Look at your options.  Very handy.  Regular users won’t play with any of this stuff, but power users will.  For example, in win7, if I wanted to get to the Disk Management utility, I’d hit Windows-R and then type in mmc to get the Microsoft Management Console, and then go through the process of adding the Disk Management module as a snap-in.  Now, it’s just sitting right there.  Cool.

Does the Task Manager still work?

It sure does.  Get to it the same way, with a ctrl-alt-delete, but check it out.  Major,  major improvements.  Performance broken down by CPU, disk, all kinds of stuff.  So much better.

What about Copying Files?

You’ll like the new copy dialog.  Extremely detailed.  Say you’re copying something minor like a 300gig handful of directories with about 100,000 files.  The copy dialog will be giving constant speeds updates, time remaining, file progress, and more.

What about Anti-Virus software?
I used AVG for years, and recently switched over to MicroSoft Security Essentials on most of my machines.  Turns out that MSE has been incorporated into Windows Defender in win8, so you don't need to actually load a specific anti-virus program.  McAfee is probably fairly perturbed about that.

Ableton Live Comment:

If you happen to be installing the Suite free trial (which I’m doing right now since I’m on the road with a new laptop and just experimenting), be careful when it gets to the default installation location.  It defaults to the C:/Program Data directory.  That might be a problem if you are looking for it, because this defaults in win8 as a hidden system folder.  I’d recommend that you just change the installation directory to C:/Program Files (x86).  Alternatively, go in and turn on “Show Hidden Folders” in the View options of Windows Explorer.

Ok, that’s enough for now.  Anyone who is comfortable with computers should just start experimenting for an hour or so.  Afterwards, skim though these notes and you’ll find a few “Ah Ha” answers to solve some problems that you hadn’t figured out already on your own.

Final thoughts?

So far, I really like it.  I’ve only played with the legacy side of the O/S in any detail.  In that respect, I like Windows 8 because it isn’t entirely a new operating system.  It’s basically a slightly improved version of Windows 7.  Easy to learn, but addressing a few of the minor drawbacks of win7.  On the Metro side, there may be headaches, but I’ll ease into those over time.

I think Microsoft has the beginnings of a good thing here.  You see, one of the strengths that Apple has always enjoyed has been the integration between hardware groups, ie. between their computers and iPods and iPhones and iPads.  Microsoft is moving in the same directions.  People who are comfortable with Windows 8 on any one type of hardware will be more comfortable using it on a different device, AND all of the devices will be easier to integrate.  I’m not just talking about computers and tablets here ... think mobile.  I’ve been a Blackberry fan for several years.  I feel that Blackberry 10 couldn’t possibly be enough of a game-changer to save their eroding market share.  On the other hand, even though everyone thinks iPhone and Android when discussing mobile, I feel that Windows phones will start seeing a lot more popularity in the next few years thanks to the introduction of Windows 8.  I've been waiting for months for the new Blackberry to come out.  I might just have to start looking at Windows 8 phone options, once some decent hardware comes out and the user base matures.  I'm not suggesting that win8 phones are going to be a runaway hit.  They won't be. But I think that starting in about two years, they'll be some serious competition for Android phones and the iPhone.

Oh, and one more thing not directly related to Windows 8, but VERY useful: Have you ever shut a tab in your browser by mistake and wanted to get back to that web page, but were cursing because it takes a while to find it again? All you have to do is hold down the control key and shift key at the same time and hit the letter T. A new tab opens to that page you just closed. Magic. This works in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and presumably several other browsers too. There are a ton of people I know who don't know this trick, but it's one of the best keyboard short-cuts out there.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Ableton Live 9.0 released

Literally hundreds of thousands of music producers have been eagerly or impatiently awaiting the release of version 9.0 of Ableton Live for about two years now. It is finally available to the public.

Ableton has produced a fifty-minute YouTube video, which you should check out here if you’re an existing Live user.




If you want a quick preview of what the video talks about, and some of the interesting new features, here’s a spoiler list:

- Over 1.8 million people world-wide are now using Ableton to produce music.
- AL9 will analyze an audio clip (say some humming, or a saxophone solo) and extract a MIDI version of the melody.
- Same concept with audio clips as a “convert to drums” option.
- Instrument rack presets now preview in the enhanced Live browser (actual instruments, if you’re confused by thinking this was possible before).
- Three thousand new instrument racks in Live Suite (did I hear that correctly? Three thousand?)
- Lots of new Max for Live effects modules.
- Max for Live is now integrated into Live Suite, not a separate entity.
- Recording of automation in Session view.
- Automation curves. Finally. Both in session clips and arrangement view.
- Real-time gain reduction graph output in the compressor, which can be useful, for example, for playing with sidechain parameters.
- Consolidate a time range in the arrangement view and print all of the data within that range back into a scene in session view. So cool! Essentially, you can create your final song in arrangement view and then quickly re-create it as a number of scenes in session view.
- Single-click to create break-points in envelope editing, a minor detail that I like.

The video also demonstrates Ableton’s “Push,” a hardware controller that might potentially become as ubiquitous to Live as the APC40 did for many producers and performers.

You really need to see that part yourself, rather than have me try to fully describe it. If you didn’t want to watch the entire video above, go directly to the 32:40 mark, where there is ten minutes devoted to describing Push. For the gear junkies out there, it’s pretty slick. And quite intuitive, from the looks of things.


That should be enough to whet your appetite. I did a couple of DJ-related tutorial videos this past spring about Ableton Live 8, which have received over a hundred thousand views already. You can see those by checking out this post. I'll be spending some time in the studio this winter to cover a number of other topics, including:
- Live performance DJ'ing using Ableton Live.
- Creating and programming kick drums.
- Creating and programming bass and pads.
- Producing house/trance/techno tracks from scratch.
- and a whole bunch of other ideas.


For now, check out more at the Ableton website:

www.ableton.com

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca