Tag Archives: Computer

Q. How do I remove the singing from a song so I have just the instruments?

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quill

Removing vocals from a stereo track (or conversely removing instruments from a track, leaving the vocals) is difficult to impossible. To do it properly really means having access to the original multi-track recording studio tapes or files. When performers have … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, Music recording, instruments, hard & software, Software, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. My external hard drive won’t mount

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quill

Try replugging the cables and connections first before concluding that it has failed – half of all ‘failures’ are problems with connections.  Or shut down the machine, turn off the hard drive. Now turn on the hard drive first, let … Continue reading →

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Q. How can I talk to my computer and have it type in the words?

Posted on May 11, 2011 by quill

You are asking for speech recognition or speech-to-text To support speech recognition requires installing some additional software Windows: Dragon Naturally Speaking http://www.nuance.com/products/ ViaVoice http://www.nuance.com/viavoice/ Microsoft has some speech recognition tools in Windows Windows 7 Accessibility http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windows7/default.aspx Windows Vista (Narrator)  http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsvista/narrator.aspx … Continue reading →

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Q. I want to make and edit a video but i don’t have a program to do it.

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

If you have a Macintosh, it came with iMovie which is a basic and easy to use movie editor. How to use: http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/ Recent Windows machines came with Windows Movie Maker Win 7:  http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other Vista: http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Movie-Maker-Windows-Vista/3000-13631_4-10729231.html?tag=mncol;3 Win XP: http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Movie-Maker-Windows-XP/3000-13631_4-10165075.html Open … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I change my IP address? What are the risks?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

It depends what you mean by changing your address, and what your network configuration is. When you are browsing, the IP address that the outside Web sees you as coming from is the WAN IP address assigned to your broadband … Continue reading →

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Q. I am getting a screen on my Mac which tells me it is infected with viruses. I had visited a movie download site – do I have a virus?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

That is a phony virus alert from a web page (or banner ad) which pops it up.  Your Mac does not have a virus. But it MAY have some trojan horse malware that you installed — did the video site … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, Viruses and malware | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Q. How do I format an external hard drive on a Mac?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

Before you can use a hard drive, it needs to be formatted, which organizes the data structure on the drive ready to accept data. In addition, a drive can be partitioned into two or more logical volumes, or it can … Continue reading →

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Q. What will adding more RAM to my computer do?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by quill

The key to computer performance is having enough RAM memory. RAM doesn’t speed a machine up, however. Rather, adding RAM removes a barrier to speed.  It’s like your car – taking your foot off the brake doesn’t speed it up, … Continue reading →

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Q. I have an antivirus message popping up on my machine and it is not letting me use programs or download antivirus tools.

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Antivirus 2012, Win 7 Antivirus 2011, Win 7 Total Security 2011, XP Security 2011, BitDefender 2011 Antivirus (some of these viruses use the same names as legitimate programs) and many other variants of these names are fake antivirus scanners that … Continue reading →

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Q. I have some RAR files that were sent to me, What do I do with them?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

RAR is a compression format, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR, and the files you have are compressed archives of one or more original files.  First, you have to decompress the RAR archives. Here are some utilities that can do that 7-Zip (Free, Windows) http://download.cnet.com/7-Zip/3000-2250_4-10045185.html?tag=mncol;1 … Continue reading →

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Q. I downloaded Audacity to edit MP3s, now how do I use it?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Audacity is a great open source audio editor program, available for Windows and Macintosh http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Here are some learning resources for it Audacity Tutorials http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial Tutorial Videos on YouTube Removing vocals with Audacity http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal Mixing two songs together … Continue reading →

Posted in Music recording, instruments, hard & software, Software | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Q. What is the fastest disk setup for Photoshop

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Photoshop (as well as other high-end graphic and video production software) is a heavy user of hard drive access.  The speed of the hard drive in a machine and the way that hard drive use is organized can have a … Continue reading →

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Q. How can I connect two computers that are 1 km away, without a cable?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Connecting two networks through the air at long distances (100’s of meters to several km) is possible with low power WiFi equipment as long as you have line of sight between the two locations. It requires choosing the correct antennas … Continue reading →

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Q. I’ve just done a restore on my machine, and the (DVD, printer, video) doesn’t work

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

Go to your manufacturer’s website, support, drivers and downloads section, and download all the latest drivers for your specific model and install them. Run all the Windows (or other OS) updates. When you do a restore, you are resetting the … Continue reading →

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Q. Will this new video card work in my machine?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Trevor

The questions you always have to ask when installing a new video card in a desktop or tower machine are: Is there an available PCI-e x16 slot with space beside it for the video card’s fans? Is there physical room … Continue reading →

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