Parallels is a software which allows Windows XP (or other operating systems?) to be installed onto the Mac. This is quite handy in my case considering I ran into the problem of not being able to link up to my Fostex MR-8HD recording equipment with my Mac OS.
Parallels itself was a breeze to install and I must say I’m impressed with the options of how you want it to run Windows XP on your computer. You can choose to run it in a window environment, or a Crystal environment which integrates Windows features with your Mac. So now I have a folder in the Dock which says Windows XP Applications and I click on it, choose the program I need for the Fostex, and voila! It opens up in a new window and I have the ability to choose files from my Mac or the Windows virtual environment.
Well done Parallels!
But now that I have Windows on the Mac, I can play some vintage adventure games (Hello King’s Quest!) without any problems! Eric got me interested in delving into the classic games as he had downloaded a few himself.
Back to the Fostex, I managed to lay the guitar track on the recording unit and then I spent an hour before dinner laying down some vocals. It was going to be my first attempt at putting layered vocals onto a track. I ended up with one main vocal track, along with a track where I whisper the lyrics. Vero really enjoyed the whisper track while she thought the main vocals weren’t heavy-metal enough and thought it was too ‘pop’! I also had another track where I come in with another voice so it overlaps with the main vocal.
All in all, it came off pretty good in terms of it being a sketch of what I was thinking of doing with Troy’s heavy metal tune. I didn’t bother doing too much mixing at all as I just wanted to show him what I had in my brain and we can work from that. A demo is meant to capture an idea…no need to work too much on it!
I’m pretty glad with how it turned out and Troy mentioned that it got some ideas sparking in his head to continue the tune which I’m happy about. I had a bout of writer’s block after the first verse so I didn’t really know where to take the song. Here’s to hoping something comes of it.