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When I have the time, I enjoy tinkering with things.  By “tinkering,” I broadly mean “messing around with something to see how it works,” which can include the mechanical process of opening something, or simply reading about a process.  It can also include digital tinkering, which I have been doing a great deal of lately.

I spent the better part of Friday attempting to get an ancient version of Cakewalk 3.0 (originally designed for Windows 3.1) to work on my computer, which runs Windows 10 64-bit.  As I’ve recently released three of my older albums—Electrock Music, Electrock II: Space Rock, and Electrock EP: The Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse—for digital distribution, I’ve been inspired to get back into digital composing.  I realized that I wrote a ton of great stuff between 2006 and 2012, and arranged extensively for my old band, Brass to the Future, around the 2010 and 2011.  I did all of that in this old version of Cakewalk.

Naturally, I could just get a newer, more feature-rich bit of composing software, but that would require learning its quirks.  I’ve tried at various times to learn other composing/engraving software, and I find that I lack the time or patience to figure out a new program.  I’ve been using Cakewalk since 1998—twenty-five years!—and while I haven’t used the software in years, I’d like to go with what I know.

As of the time of this writing, my efforts have failed.

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