Cyberloops

Digital soundscapes and other cyberpunk inspiration

[nixcraft]

A boy can dream, can't he?

[cyberloops]

Well then do I have some good news for anyone looking at this post who is equally annoyed by this bowel evacuation that's exploded all over their start menu. You can get rid of that poostorm of junk in your start menu by creating a single registry key, then putting a single data point in that key and setting its value to 1.

For those who want a full walkthrough, the most succinct one I've found with the best screenshots is at Tom's Hardware. But I'll post the steps right here.

Step 1 - The scariest step for people who've never done this sort of thing before. Open regedit. To do that, click on the Windows search and type regedit. Even with all the other crap that may be trying to distract you, it'll be the one thing that pops up to the top. If it asks for permission to do it's thing, say yes.

Step 2 - Once regedit opens you should see something that looks kinda like a file explorer. Go through and expand folders until you find your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows.

Step 3 - Right click on that last folder called Windows and when the little menu comes up, click on 'New' and then 'Key'. Name that key Explorer

Step 4 - Right click on that new folder and hit 'New' and then 'Dword (32 bit value)'. Name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions

Step 5 - Double click on DisableSearchBoxSuggestions. It should pop up a window showing what data it has. The default data value is 0. Change it to 1.

That's it. The next time your computer boots up, it will no longer show all that steaming manure when you hit the start button.

You shouldn't have to go through all that crap. There should just be an option to turn that shit off. I hate that I had to look this up when I got my last computer. But I'm glad the information is out there. Septic tanks belong out of view and out of your line of smell. Not spraying across your monitor every time you try to do something basic.

[never-obsolete]

DOSBox running Windows 3.11 ... inside PCem running Windows 2000 ... inside VirtualBox running Windows 7 ... on Linux Mint (host)

[cyberloops]

And inside the ninth layer of emulation is a frozen processor.

[elkian]

One small but extremely annoying effect of Tech Modernization or w/e is how UI contrast is garbage anymore, especially just, like, application windows in general.

"Ooh our scrollbar expands when you mouse over it! Or does it? Only you can know by sitting there like an idiot for 3 seconds waiting for it to expand, only to move your cursor away just as it does so!" or Discord's even more excellent "scrollbar is 2 shades off of the background color and is one (1) pixel wide" fuck OFF

I tried to move a system window around yesterday and had to click 3 times before I got the half of the upper bar that let me drag it. Why are there two separate bars with absolutely nothing to visually differentiate them on that.

"Well if you look closely-" I should not!! have to squint!!! at the screen for a minute straight to detect basic UI elements!! Not mention how ableist this shit is, and for what? ~✨Aesthetic✨~?

and then every website and app imitates this but in different ways so everything is consistently dogshit to try to use but not always in ways you can immediately grok it's!!!! terrible!!!! just put lines on things again I'm begging you!!!!

[commodorez]

I know I sound like a broken record when I praise Windows 95 UI, but holy fuck Microsoft figured this shit out already about 30 years ago. It's all there, black and white, clear as christmas:

So much of modern UX woes stem from not knowing, or intentionally ignoring the genuine design study put forth into GUIs in the 90s.

3D elements are 3D in a specific way with lighting from a specific side to make it obvious where a window element begins and ends.

The gradient always should from from one side, and keep it consistent.

Make your color shading and shape of scroll bars consistently side and easy to press. I have a 4K display, don't make me hunt for the magic activation pixel that makes your 3-pixel wide scroll bar appear.

It's a desktop application, I've got the screen real estate to spare to have the actual GUI elements present on screen at all times (I know, heresy).

The moment aesthetic takes precedence over form and function, you've failed as a UI designer.

[weaselsblaugh]

And any argument about "we don't have the resolution" can go right out the window, we were having nice, clear and legible interface widgets on nine inch screens in 1984. We continued to have nice, clear and legible interfaces on machines vastly less powerful than today's and on screens vastly less pixel-dense than today's. We used to know what the hell we were doing. At least one of these examples even has on-screen instructions in case the widgets functionality isn't immediately apparent.

(images sourced from The GUI Gallery)

[weaselsblaugh]

since this has come back to my dashboard again i want to call attention to one more thing that these GUIs have that modern ones don't even try to do.

RESIZE WIDGETS.

Do you tire of trying to grab and resize a window whose border is literally only 1 pixel wide?

Do you see how large the corner widgets are in those clips above? Those are at least 16x16 pixels. They're almost as large as the Close buttons on a modern GUI. If you can see the bottom right corner of your window, resizing it is a snap. You can aim much more easily at a 16x16 widget than you can at a one-pixel-wide vertical line.

OK, maybe technically Windows' borders are wider than 1 pixel. They're technically 3 pixels. That is still just really goddamn tiny compared to 16 of them.

We used to be a society. Look at this. Look at this.

WINDOWS FUGGIN' 95 HAD THE CORNER WIDGET. Why the hell can't Windows 11?

[cyberloops]

With every Windows XP through Windows 7 computer I owned the first two things I did was to A) set the file explorer to show extensions and hidden files and B) set the visual display style to Windows 95 style. OS obfuscation and aesthetics over functionality is one of the worst things to happen to computers in a long time.

And sometimes that caused problems, because there was a period of time in the Windows 7-8 era where some programs REFUSED to function in that mode because the designers made them only function with the fancier transparencies and gradients and other stuff that they added to later versions of Windows. So in order to use them I either had to turn the Windows 95 visual style off (because the program literally wouldn't run with it on) or suffer through weird constant flickering as it went back and forth between showing a basic Windows bar at the top of the window and whatever the program was trying to render instead of the normal bar.

[eschatonin]

What if we had something like cassette futurism, but it was based more on early 90s with SVGA, MIDI, scifi floppy disks, DOS, modems, etc?

[foone]

Then it would be awesome.

[small-witch-big-hat]

Can we keep the faux woodgrain though

[foone]

OBVIOUSLY

[cyberloops]

Well then it wouldn't be cassette futurism. It would be floppy futurism. If it hadn't been for the click of death debacle, Iomega might have been able to hang on a little longer to bring us closer to that future, but alas, they crashed while CDs burned.

[legacydevice]

Amstrad Notebook NC200

[yodaprod]

Panasonic Senior Partner (1983)

[catsonsynthesizersinspace]

[catsonsynthesizersinspace]

[opendirectories]

[comominimo]

[cyberloops]

Visit Original Link

Here's just the audio from my last jam session.

A lot of layered instrument sounds, almost everything except for the pure solo lines from the MS-1 and Model D, and some of the discordant sync chords from the CS Reface are done with at least two instruments at once. I had one layered in a weird way where one instrument could be retriggered while the other couldn't, so I could hold down one note and keep playing to make the lighter, softer sound keep doing melodic notes while the powerful single solo FM sound was just being held.

And as always, I found myself learning new things just by seeing what can be done.

[cyberloops]

[cyberloops]

Visit Original Link

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Work. Stress. Life. I got a few new toys, and I haven't really had a chance to play with them lately. That changed. I recorded this a few weeks ago, as you can see from the date on the jam. I was feeling like absolute crap at the time, and I didn't want to be seen on screen. (I also didn't want to bother putting pants on, so I'm sure the feeling will be mutual to anyone reading this) But I had managed to hook up my three new effects pedals to various synth outputs, and I linked my new Sonicware Liven XFM and Model D up to my setup in a way that worked for me.

Then I worked out a simple baseline and a couple drum beats on the Circuit. I have two analog synths doubling the bassline, and I don't remember if I also used one of the XFMs four voices to triple it or not. I think I did use the XFM at one point to double the Model D, where the XFM was doing some quiet arpeggios and the Model D was holding the first note of the chord. I know I had the Model D controlled by the Circuit, but the sound from it was running into the XFM because at a couple points I used the XFMs built in bitcrusher effect.

I've got another shorter jam that I did yesterday that I actually filmed, so I'll probably try to get that one up soon too. I hadn't actually listened to this one since I recorded it, so just for fun I decided to keep that same bassline and drums and hit play on the Circuit to see what I would produce from the same starting point when I was feeling completely different. When I post that one, I guess we'll all see what else I could do there.

This is one of the first jams I've done in a while that makes me feel like some of the ones I did when I first started trying to make cybergrunge soundtrack music in Nanostudio.

[getamovieon]

[dirtyriver]

“Retiring Zhora” by Adam Cockerton

[ssleepline]

welcome to the virtual plaza.

[cyberloops]

This was the second jam I did for Jamuary. I did it right after the first one, took a few minutes to play with some instrument sounds and make a few loops before I just hit record and went for it. And honestly, I think it came out better than the first.

I’ve still got my new Liven XFM, and my new bass and a pickup for my violin that I haven’t used in any jams yet. Maybe that should be my next goal, find a way to incorporate at least one of those. I’ve only used my guitar in one of these dawless jams too, so maybe I should do that as well.

[cyberloops]

I recorded two jam sessions today. This was the first one. I was trying a few new things, mostly playing with probability and some loops of different lengths in the Circuit and experimenting with some more complex routing with the Crave.

I tried to put a little more time and effort into the planning phase before starting the recording than I had in the last few jam sessions. Most of it is based around the quick run on the MS-1 that I had to practice a few times before hitting record because I am not a pianist and I knew if I just hit record without warming up a little, i would totally screw it up several times. And I did screw it up several times, but mostly off camera.