MOTUnation.com

Tobor wrote:

mikehalloran wrote:Yes, I'm up for an export tool but I back up my lyrics (copy/paste to Word) and have never used the audio functions.

I don't want to be one of those ranters who declares that, since it wasn't done my way, I am done with Master Writer. I hope that a future update is better and, if it is, I am back in.

I just don't want to wake up one day and find all my files inaccessible because of a system update or something and have the license support gone.

Considering what Adobe had to endure when they introduced their cloud subscription model I think this discussion was rather civil. Does anyone remember the petition at change.org to ‘eliminate the mandatory “creative cloud” subscription model’? It grew to over 47,000 signatures.

I’ll continue to use Adobe CS6 and I am confident that Apple will check for incompatibilities in future OS updates. I am equally confident that I can open my Adobe CS6 files in TIFF, PNG, PDF or EPS 20 years from now.

With MasterWriter, however, I would not be as confident. It just isn’t popular enough for Apple to check for incompatibilities. Adobe has over 215,000 likes on Facebook while MasterWriter has only over 1,400. If you plan to continue to use it then Mike’s suggestion to backup up your work in Word with copy and paste makes a lot of sense. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Good luck!

Well yes, backing up is a necessary task. But once I start copying and pasting (without the simplicity of a simple bulk backup), I've got one foot out the door and it will be tempting to just let the other foot out as well. A new method of working with different tools is inevitable.

Although I guess you could sort by date and Copy/Paste, it would be tricky to remember what was backed up and what was not, especially when adding to or editing existing songs and files. I want to write something down once, not twice or three times. I already seem to spend more time moving data around then actually being creative with my chosen software.

Tobor wrote:Well yes, backing up is a necessary task. But once I start copying and pasting (without the simplicity of a simple bulk backup), I've got one foot out the door and it will be tempting to just let the other foot out as well. A new method of working with different tools is inevitable.

Although I guess you could sort by date and Copy/Paste, it would be tricky to remember what was backed up and what was not, especially when adding to or editing existing songs and files. I want to write something down once, not twice or three times. I already seem to spend more time moving data around then actually being creative with my chosen software.

Good point. I don't work the way you do. When I have finished a song, it's done - but I don't expect others to follow suit. I am coming around to the idea that a simple, non-encrypted backup system is not a luxury.

I just don't want to wake up one day and find all my files inaccessible because of a system update or something and have the license support gone.

Bingo!

mikehalloran wrote: Good point. I don't work the way you do. When I have finished a song, it's done - but I don't expect others to follow suit. I am coming around to the idea that a simple, non-encrypted backup system is not a luxury.

When I have a deadline and finish a song or jingle for a project, it is indeed done. But at that point I really don't need to access it any more.

For some reason in the last couple years, when I get in a particularly creative zone, I've been spitting out song titles, stanzas, and lyrics as often as little musical fragments. I've got a stack of yellow legal pads full of such musings. The advantage of switching over to MasterWriter for these ideas is that they are immediately accessible for further development, whether they are little more than titles or fleshed out choruses and verses. I might have 20 different ideas on a legal pad sheet, and picking out one to work on would necessitate copying it to a fresh sheet or file and starting over. With MasterWriter I can connect with my original idea and add to it in about two seconds.

I also have come to appreciate the Notes feature for making lists or storing chord progressions or random inspirational concepts I don't want to forget.

I enjoy writing things out by hand, but there's something about seeing it typed out that makes it seem more 'official' or real. I've got tons of napkin scrap and handwritten notes from the last 30 years that never again seem to see the light of day, so having MasterWriter to help organize these lyric ideas has been really useful. I hate to stop using it just when I've really started to appreciate what it does, but....

Good point Tabor. As an inventory! That's how I use Word and the OS - then keep all such notes in an "IDEAS" folder. Word pretty much has all the help features I need.

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Good point Tabor. As an inventory! That's how I use Word and the OS - then keep all such notes in an "IDEAS" folder. Word pretty much has all the help features I need.

Yes, as inventory it really is pretty special. But paying an annual fee for inventory is not cost-effective for me.

Well I did send the developer a link to this discussion. I guess there's no comment.

Thomas.B. wrote:

SixStringGeek wrote: I'm working on a MW backup importer so I can at least browse my lyrics and recover my demo tracks. If I get ambitious, I'll probably release something free just to screw em back.

That would be very impressive. How did you figure out the encoding? Is it even possible to export your lyrics from the cloud in MasterWriter 3? Someone on their Facebook page asked how to send an audio file to collaborators and was told that audio files are currently not exportable. I assume the same holds true for lyrics especially since they are already encrypted in MasterWriter 2.

The backups are zip files. If you unzip the zip file you get a file called something like Backup.xml and a directory of audio files (if you used the "record a sketch feature) in (of all things) aiff format (but no extensions on them so I had to do a bit of experimentation to see what might play them). The xml file is pretty simple. It is quite flat and maps to a database of about 8 tables. Every place where there is a tag called "content" the value is base64. When you decode the base64 you found out it is rtf styled text encoding.

There isn't much more to getting your own data out than that.

In another thread, it was announced that El Capitán will be the last OS that supports Java Runtime 6.

If that turns out to be true, this will not be good for those of us using MasterWriter 2 and/or Adobe CS 6 who do not wish to take up on the parent companies' offer to "upgrade" to a subscription model.

I don't have CS 6 but do use Photoshop Elements 6 or 10 and Acrobat Pro X – no idea if either uses JRE 6. Oh well, I could test that over the weekend if I am curious enough.

On my Mac, this will affect the Chrome browser and Finale. I am not worried about those as development for both is ongoing (will Finale 2017 finally be 64bit?).

Meanwhile, a lot can happen in a year.

I still haven't checked out MasterWriter in detail.

This was the closest thread I could find, to discussions of rhyming and rhyming dictionaries, but I could swear that this was the forum where someone recommended to me the original unabridged version of Clement Wood's dictionary.

As that didn't come up in searches, I'm posting here instead, because it is relevant to this discussion, as I lucked out and found a used copy of the 1977 reprint in hardback and readable type, of the original book.

This rhyming dictionary is unlike the rest, and requires some knowledge of standardized pronunciations as it has phones as lookup keys rather than words, and produces matches that would be characterized as phonemes.

I haven't checked yet to see how this rhyming dictionary handles phonyms.

Of pertinence to the discussion about tossing out all the old books in favour of software, one of the things that drew me to this book is that it includes a lot of words that have fallen out of favour, or whose meanings have changed (or even pronunciations).

I occasionally write songs that are intended to evoke a specific era, so I find this sort of reference to be quite useful, just as I do "Straight From the Fridge, Dad", which is a collection of beat slang (aka "hipster dialect") from the 50's and 60's.

Yes, the Wood is the one to get. Can't say I've touched mine in years.



Lots of rhyming dictionaries online.

Turns out I was able to get MW 2 working again—the issue was the .zip bug that affected many of us in OS 10.10.1–.4. Unzipping the file in the Keka freeware allowed the installer to work again. I figured this out after I bought 2 years of MW 3.

MW 2, being 32 bit, is not likely to still work in the next Mac OS. Oh well. I'll hardly miss it.

MasterWriter 3 is cloud based and works over iOS as well as my iMac. Never tried it on my iPhone.

My problem is that I rarely write songs anymore so I hardly use either version.