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Tips, tricks, treats, and secrets revealed on Windows 8
Microsoft is introducing a major new release of its Windows operating system, Windows 8, and what better way for you to learn all the ins and outs than from two internationally recognized Windows experts and Microsoft insiders, authors Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera? They cut through the hype to get at useful information you'll not find anywhere else, including what role this new OS plays in a mobile and tablet world.
Regardless of your level of knowledge, you'll discover little-known facts about how things work, what's new and different, and how you can modify Windows 8 to meet what you need.
Windows 8 Secrets is your insider's guide to:
Choosing Windows 8 Versions, PCs and Devices, and Hardware
Installing and Upgrading to Windows
The New User Experience
The Windows Desktop
Personalizing Windows
Windows Store: Finding, Acquiring, and Managing Your Apps
Browsing the Web with Internet Explore
Windows 8's Productivity Apps
Windows 8's Photo and Entertainment Apps
Xbox Games with Windows 8
Windows 8 Storage, Backup, and Recovery
Accounts and Security
Networking and Connectivity
Windows 8 for Your Business
Windows Key Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows 8 Secrets is the ultimate insider's guide to Microsoft's most exciting Windows version in years.
Discover how to achieve release-quality mixes even in the smallest studios by applying power-user techniques from the world's most successful producers.
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is a down-to-earth primer for small-studio enthusiasts who want chart-ready sonics in a hurry. Drawing on the back-room strategies of more than 100 famous names, this entertaining guide leads you step-by-step through the entire mixing process. On the way, you'll unravel the mysteries of every type of mix processing, from simple EQ and compression through to advanced spectral dynamics and "fairy dust" effects. User-friendly explanations introduce technical concepts on a strictly need-to-know basis, while chapter summaries and assignments are perfect for school and college use.
Learn the subtle editing, arrangement, and monitoring tactics which give industry insiders their competitive edge, and master the psychological tricks which protect you from all the biggest rookie mistakes.
Find out where you don't need to spend money, as well as how to make a limited budget really count.
Pick up tricks and tips from leading-edge engineers working on today's multi-platinum hits, including Michael Brauer, Serban Ghenea, the Lord-Alge brothers, Tony Maserati, Manny Marroquin, Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado, Jack Joseph Puig, Mark "Spike" Stent, Phil Tan, Andy Wallace, and many, many more . . .
Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Mike Senior on Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, "The 'Why The Hell' Challenge"
Whenever I read anything about mixing, my first question is this: why the hell should I believe what this person's saying?
It would therefore be daft of me to expect any better treatment. So why should you believe me when I say that you can create commercial-grade mixes in a typical small home/college studio?
My first answer to this question is that you can judge for yourself, with your own ears, because dozens of my mixes for Sound On Sound magazine's popular "Mix Rescue" column are available free online--there's a taster of some of them on this very page, and lots more available on my own webpage. In all these cases I've started with real-world small-studio recordings and used widely available mass-market technology to remix it to a commercial level, all without ever setting foot inside a "real" studio. Go on, take a listen. If you want that kind of transformation for your music, then you can find a detailed explanation of my method in Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio.
The second reason you might want to take notice of these mixing techniques, though, is that they've been drawn not only from my own professional experience, but also from more than four million words of first-hand interviews with the highest-profile engineers and producers on the planet. Whatever you think of my personal advice, it's a bit trickier to dismiss the opinions of 100 of the studio industry's biggest names.
But at the end of the day it's your call: does Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio pass your own "why the hell" test? You might just find that it's the only mixing book on the market that actually does . . .
--Mike Senior
Amazon Exclusive: Top Ten Small-Studio Myths--Busted
Amongst many other things in Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, I try to deliver a stout kicking to the following questionable (but surprisingly pervasive) pieces of received wisdom:
You need high-end gear to create commercial-grade mixes.
While great gear makes mixing quicker and easier, it's not a deal-breaker. To demonstrate this, I deliberately do all my "Mix Rescue" remixes for Sound On Sound magazine on budget gear in small home/college studios. In some cases, I've even restricted myself to the DAW's built-in plug-ins too--as Greg Kurstin did when mixing Lily Allen's hit record The Fear. If you won’t take my word for it, though, here's top producer Frank Filipetti: "Your ears, your mind, your musical abilities are what it’s all about. Put a George Massenburg, a Hugh Padgham, a Kevin Killen together with any kind of gear, and you’ll get a great-sounding record.” Tony Visconti is one of many others who back him up: “I’ve heard people make very bad records on expensive gear. The gear does not dictate the quality. It’s how you use it.” So I’m afraid that if your mix sucks, your mixing technique sucks. No two ways about it.
Use the speakers with the flattest frequency response.
This isn't actually the most important thing when working under budget constraints, because your ear can adapt to a speaker's frequency balance quite readily. When you've not got much money to buy monitors for mixing, a flat frequency response is much less critical than good time-domain response. Indeed, the two most celebrated mixing speakers of all time, the Yamaha NS10 and the Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube, both have extremely uneven frequency-response plots, but excellent time-domain performance.
Trust your ears.
They may be all you've got to hear with, but if you're going to achieve pro-standard mixes then you should trust your ears about as far as you can stretch them! They will lie to you at every opportunity if you give them half a chance, and you need to stay vigilant to avoid being caught out. Ever had that "morning after" horror of realizing that last night’s great-sounding mix actually sounds like a wasp in a tin? Or have you ever carefully adjusted a mix effect for five minutes before realizing the stupid thing isn't actually plugged in? Those common experiences are just the tip of the iceberg, and it's only by learning to work around the fickleness of your own hearing that you can begin to get decent mix results reliably.
Timing/tuning-correction kills the music!
Corrective processing can certainly produce unmusical results, but it's important to realize that it doesn't have to, even if you're just using the editing facilities built into your software DAW. Furthermore, almost every small-studio production I've worked on sounded more musical (and became a lot easier to mix) once careful timing and tuning correction had been applied. And I've yet to have a single client complain about it either!
Start your mix with the drums.
That might work with some mixes, but it's often not the best decision. For example, in a lot of styles you actually want to give the lead vocals the biggest "wow" factor, sonically speaking. In that case, it's much better to start with those while your ears are fresh, and while you've still got lots of mix real estate and computer CPU power to play with.
Try to make every instrument sound its best.
This can be a recipe for disaster at mixdown. The moment you put two instruments together, each will inevitably compromise the quality of the other, and mixing is not just about deciding which instruments need to sound best--it's also about deciding which can afford to sound less good. You may need to make some parts of your mix sound worse in order to make your all-important lead vocal sound better, for instance. As producer John Leckie puts it: "You can’t have spectacular everything--then you wonder why the mix doesn’t sound any good, because everything’s crowding everything else. When you solo the instruments, everything sounds good, but when it’s all put together it’s a jumbled-up mess, so something’s got to give way.”
Reverb has to sound natural.
Wrong. Although realistic-sounding room simulation has its place in many mixes, there's a whole lot more to using reverb effects than that. Even the dodgiest-sounding reverb unit can prove extremely handy when enhancing an instrument's tone/decay characteristics, or stereo image. In fact, a lot of the established classic reverb units sound pretty unnatural (the AMS RMX16, say, or the EMT 140 plate), but that doesn't stop them from appearing all over the current charts.
Perhaps it just needs professional mastering? (If only I had the Celestial Systems Mix Perfectizer plug-in!)
I call this the "silver bullet" myth--that comforting delusion that the only thing separating your mix from the ones you hear on the radio is some single esoteric process. Well, here's some news: I've heard thousands of real small-studio mixes, as well as remixing dozens of them for "Mix Rescue," and whenever I hear someone utter the silver bullet myth, it’s never, ever a single "magic ingredient" that their mix actually needs! The malaise can almost always be traced to a whole selection of minor misjudgments that have been made at various points in the arrangement, editing, and mixing process. In other words, if you improve your basic mixing technique, the "fairy dust" will look after itself.
But you just can't do that!
In mixing the end justifies the means. Whatever you're given to work from, the bottom line is that you're expected to turn it into something that sounds like a finished record. It doesn't matter if you have to replace the drums with samples, stuff synth pads between the guitar layers, add new backing vocals, or remove certain instruments entirely--just as long as your final product sounds great enough to make the client a happy bunny.
Professionals don't make mistakes.
Rubbish. Professionals make mistakes like everyone else, but they turn them to their advantage. “You’re going to make mistakes,” says Humberto Gatica. “The important thing is to learn from them.” Mixing in particular is one long experiment, in which mistakes play a vital role by identifying any mixing tactics that are unsuitable for the job at hand. For this reason professional engineers at the highest level will cheerfully scrap a mix completely and redo it. “I will often restart mixes three or four times,” reveals Fabian Marasciullo. “Put everything back to zero and try again, re-blend and EQ everything.” Justin Niebank doesn't think twice about heading back to the drawing board either: "I’m not afraid to pull all the faders back down again if it doesn’t work. That’s too great a hurdle for many engineers: but if necessary, don’t get precious, and start over."
Alfred's Teach Yourself to Play Piano (Book & DVD) (Teach Yourself Series)
Book & DVD
By Morton Manus, Willard A. Palmer, and Thomas Palmer
Format Book & DVD
Everything you need to know to start playing now! Whether you're a beginner with no prior musical training, or you ""used to play"" and are need of a refresher course, Alfred's Teach Yourself to Play Piano is the perfect resource to teach yourself piano, even though you have never taken a lesson. Complete with on-screen scrolling music, MP3 play-along tracks for every example, and iPod *-compatible video files, you will master how to make rhythms made simple, how to form the most important chords, techniques for playing with feeling and expression, and so much more. Upon completing Teach Yourself to Play Piano, you will be able to play in pop, blues, classical, folk, hymns, spirituals, and ragtime styles. The DVD includes exciting arrangements of The Entertainer and Amazing Grace, and sets the stage for a life-long relationship with music and playing the piano.
Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous (Voices That Matter)
In this sexy, bold, beautiful book, photographer Brian Smith tells the stories behind the photos and lessons learned in 30 years of photographing celebrities and people in all walks of life. A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Smith is the luckiest guy on the planet. He's told Bill Gates exactly what to do for an entire hour, exhibited at the Library of Congress, appeared on The X Factor, dined with the President and 3,000 of his closest friends, shared cupcakes with Anne Hathaway, and gotten drunk with George Clooney . . . all in the service of getting the perfect portrait.
In this juicy guide to shooting professional portraits, Smith shares his insider tips on connecting with people, finding the perfect location, telling a great story through portraiture, getting just the right pose, capturing emotion and gestures, arranging unique group shots, and getting just the right light. Throughout, you'll stay inspired by the breathtaking images included of the famous and infamous-Venus and Serena Williams, Gene Hackman, Cindy Crawford, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, The Bee Gees, Antonio Banderas, Shaquille O'Neal, Anne Hathaway, Ben Stiller, Sylvester Stallone, and others.
You might not be shooting the rich and famous yourself, but after reading Smith's tell-all guide, you'll know how to make every person who makes their way in front of your camera look and feel like a celebrity.
Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.
In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, including how to achieve successful exposures in seemingly difficult situations. You’ll learn:
• Which aperture gives you the greatest contrast and sharpness, and when to use it • Which apertures guarantee the background remains an out-of-focus tone • Which one aperture—when combined with the right lens—creates an area of sharpness from three feet to infinity • How to creatively use shutter speed to either freeze an action or imply motion • Where to take a meter reading when shooting a sunset, snow, or a city at dusk
With new information on white balance, flash, HDR, and more, this updated classic will inspire you to stop guessing and take control of your settings for better photos anytime, anywhere, and with any camera.
Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Secrets To Acing The Exam and Successful Finding And Landing Your Next Cisco Certified ... Service Provider (CCNP SP) Certified Job
Good solid advice and great strategies in preparing for and passing the Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) exam, getting interviews and landing the Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) job. Free download Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Secrets To Acing The Exam and Successful Finding And Landing Your Next Cisco Certified ... Service Provider books collection in PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, and TXT formats. If you have prepared for the Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) exam - now is the moment to get this book and prepare for passing the exam and how to find and land a Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) job, There is absolutely nothing that isn't thoroughly covered in the book. It is straightforward, and does an excellent job of explaining some complex topics. There is no reason to invest in any other materials to find and land a Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) certified job. The plan is pretty simple, buy this book, read it, do the practice questions, get the job. Best deals ebooks download Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Secrets To Acing The Exam and Successful Finding And Landing Your Next Cisco Certified ... Service Provider on amazon. This book figures out ways to boil down critical exam and job landing concepts into real world applications and scenarios. Which makes this book user-friendly, interactive, and valuable as a resource long after students pass the exam. People who teach Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) classes for a living or for their companies understand the true value of this book. You certainly will too. To Prepare for the exam this book tells you: - What you need to know about the Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Certification and exam - Preparation Tips for passing the Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Certification Exam - Taking tests The book contains several suggestions on how preparing yourself for an interview. Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Secrets To Acing The Exam and Successful Finding And Landing Your Next Cisco Certified ... Service Provider (CCNP SP) Certified Job with free ebook downloads available via rapidshare, mediafire, 4shared, and hotfile.
Download Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP SP) Secrets To Acing The Exam and Successful Finding And Landing Your Next Cisco Certified ... Service Provider
Secrets of Corel Painter Experts: Tips, Techniques, and Insights for Users of All Abilities
Step inside the studios of some of today's top artists, illustrators, designers, and photographers working with digital art tools. Free download Secrets of Corel Painter Experts books collection in PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, and TXT formats. Secrets of Corel Painter Experts: Tips, Techniques, and Insights for Users of All Abilities allows you one-on-one access to the creative and technical process of professional artists who use Painter in their work. Organized into chapters according to the artist's area of expertise, each chapter details the professional background of an individual expert and includes techniques, insights, and resources followed by an image gallery highlighting some of their work, both personal and professional. Written as a conversation with the artist about an individual creative process, you'll find detailed, step-by-step techniques demonstrated that cover genres including illustration, fine art photography, concept art, comic book illustration, manga illustration, concept design, and fine art. This incredible resource provides inspiration and practical advice for artists and aspiring artists alike. Best deals ebooks download Secrets of Corel Painter Experts on amazon.
Inside the Book: Sample Images from Featured Artists (Click for larger image)
Secrets of Corel Painter Experts: Tips, Techniques, and Insights for Users of All Abilities with free ebook downloads available via rapidshare, mediafire, 4shared, and hotfile.
Salesforce.com Secrets of Success: Best Practices for Growth and Profitability
Drive Better Productivity and Increase Saleswith Salesforce. Free download Salesforce.com Secrets of Success books collection in PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, and TXT formats. om–Starting Now Discover Real-World Best Practices—Without Paying Expensive Consultants You’re investing in Salesforce.com for one reason: to drive major performance improvements across your entire organization. Salesforce.com® Secrets of Success will help you do just that. Best deals ebooks download Salesforce.com Secrets of Success on amazon.Drawing on his experience with dozens of deployments, author David Taber offers expert guidance on every aspect of Salesforce.com deployment, with results-focused best practices for every area of the organization touched by Salesforce.com, including sales, marketing, customer service, finance, legal, and IT. This is information you’d otherwise have to pay a consultant 0/hour to get...information you won’t find in any other book! Taber walks you through developing a comprehensive and effective implementation strategy, followed by tactics and specifics to overcome every challenge you face, including internal politics. Through this book and its companion Web site, www.SFDC-secrets.com, Taber provides questionnaires, step-by-step guides, and extensive resources–all part of the Revenue Overdrive™ system that gives your organization maximum results from Salesforce.com. Achieve higher end-customer satisfaction and dramatic sales productivity gains Use the SFA Maturity Model™ to assess readiness, fill gaps, and gain early, deep user adoption Overcome “people, product, and process” pitfalls that can limit the value of Salesforce.com Learn which tools, add-ons, features, and extensions are right for your implementation This book’s start-to-finish roadmap for success can be used by companies of all sizes in all industries–with specific chapters for executives, team leaders, implementation team members, developers, and users throughout the business. Salesforce.com Secrets of Success: Best Practices for Growth and Profitability with free ebook downloads available via rapidshare, mediafire, 4shared, and hotfile.
Tips, tricks, treats, and secrets revealed on Windows 8Microsoft is introducing a major new release of its Windows operating system, Windows 8, and what better way for you to learn all the ins and outs than from two internationally recognized Windows experts and Microsoft insiders, authors Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera? They cut through the hype to get at useful information you'll not find anywhere else, including what role this new OS plays in a mobile and tablet world. Free download Windows 8 Secrets books collection in PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, and TXT formats. egardless of your level of knowledge, you'll discover little-known facts about how things work, what's new and different, and how you can modify Windows 8 to meet what you need.Windows 8 Secrets is your insider's guide to:Choosing Windows 8 Versions, PCs and Devices, and HardwareInstalling and Upgrading to WindowsThe New User ExperienceThe Windows DesktopPersonalizing WindowsWindows Store: Finding, Acquiring, and Managing Your AppsBrowsing the Web with Internet ExploreWindows 8's Productivity AppsWindows 8's Photo and Entertainment AppsXbox Games with Windows 8Windows 8 Storage, Backup, and RecoveryAccounts and SecurityNetworking and ConnectivityWindows 8 for Your BusinessWindows Key Keyboard ShortcutsWindows 8 Secrets is the ultimate insider's guide to Microsoft's most exciting Windows version in years.Q & A with the authors of Windows 8 Secrets Should consumers adopt Windows 8 or Windows RT? Windows RT offers both advantages and disadvantages compared to Windows 8, and which you choose will depend on your needs. The biggest issue with Windows RT, of course, is the lack of desktop application compatibility: Though it comes with most Windows 8 desktop utilities and a version of Microsoft Office, Windows RT is not compatible with any third party or Microsoft desktop Windows applications that are already included. Best deals ebooks download Windows 8 Secrets on amazon.That said, Windows RT should offer much better battery life and amazingly thin and light form factors when compared to similar PCs and devices designed around a traditional PC microprocessor. What's best way to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8? Upgrade or clean install? Is an upgrade safe? Generally speaking, you will actually see better results with an upgrade with this version of Windows, which is different than our experience with previous versions. To be safe, backup everything first, perform the upgrade, and if it doesn't go well, you can always do a clean install afterwards. One thing to watch during an upgrade, however, is Internet Explorer: If you have configured a different browser as your default browser in Windows 7 and then upgrade to Windows 8, you will actually lose the ability to run the Metro-style version of Internet Explorer 10. You can fix this by configuring IE as your default browser after the fact. Does Windows 8 really run faster and better than Windows 7 on the same hardware? Yes. But in real world usage, you won't notice much of a difference in usage. That said, Windows 8 boots, resumes from sleep, and performs other power management functions much, much faster than does Windows 7. You can also use Push Button Reset to refresh or reset a Windows 8 PC in just minutes. Will all of my Windows 7 apps and drivers work with Windows 8? For the most part, yes. Microsoft claims that if it works with Windows 7, it should work with Windows 8. And in our experience, that has definitely been the case. Even the now-ancient game "Halo: Combat Evolved," from 2003 installs and runs just fine. That said, you may need to uninstall some applications if you're upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8, and then reinstall them after the fact. And of course there will always be some exceptions. What are the most important keyboard combinations we should memorize? If you remember just one keyboard shortcut, it should be WINKEY + C, which enables the Charms and access to several key system functions, including Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings. Some other useful keyboard shortcuts include WINKEY + D (to navigate directly to the desktop), WINKEY + I (for Settings), and WINKEY + L for lock. And let's not forget our favorite keyboard combination: WINKEY + X, which displays a power user menu of sorts containing lots of useful shortcuts. Windows 8 Secrets with free ebook downloads available via rapidshare, mediafire, 4shared, and hotfile.
Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology
In today's extensively wired world, cryptology is vital for guarding communication channels, databases, and software from intruders. Free download Decrypted Secrets books collection in PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, and TXT formats. Increased processing and communications speed, rapidly broadening access and multiplying storage capacity tend to make systems less secure over time, and security becomes a race against the relentless creativity of the unscrupulous. The revised and extended third edition of this classic reference work on cryptology offers a wealth of new technical and biographical details. The book presupposes only elementary mathematical knowledge. Spiced with exciting, amusing, and sometimes personal accounts from the history of cryptology, it will interest general a broad readership. Best deals ebooks download Decrypted Secrets on amazon. Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology with free ebook downloads available via rapidshare, mediafire, 4shared, and hotfile.
