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Welcome to Robert Ian Axford's Desktop Music Mailing List.

IMPORTANT: SAVE THIS TEXT FILE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

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This Welcome message contains the following information:

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Section 1: How did I join and how do I leave the list?
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You have joined an e-mail based discussion group.
This will have happened in one of three ways:

In all cases above, or when you have decided you no longer want to receive messages posted
to this group, you may remove yourself from the list by sending an e-mail message as follows.

Subscription and removal is done automatically and is not supervised.
The listserver does not send confirmation of a successful removal though it will be obvious
if you have carried out the instructions correctly as you will no longer receive list messages.


If at any time you would like to re-join the list simply send a blank e-mail to:

             [email protected]

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Section 2: What is the purpose of the list?
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Robert Axford's Desktop Music Mailing List is an e-mail based discussion group.
The general subject of this list is "computer based music creation and composition".
To narrow the topic down I ask users to focus more specifically on pc-compatible
computers and the Windows (95/98/NT/Win2000) operating environment.

As a guide, list users are usually working with a Windows audio/midi sequencer as their
main composition tool and using a variety of soundcard and software based synthesizers
for audio reproduction.

Further, many users also own outboard sound modules, synths, samplers and of course
conventional musical instruments. In most cases, these will be recorded or at least con-
trolled by the computer thus adhereing to the Desktop Music theme of the list

At this point a typical basic PC Desktop Music setup will consist of:

• Sequencer or combined sequencer and audio recording application
• Soundcard outputting to an external amp/speaker
• various external instruments
• 486 or Pentium pc

Here are some topics you may like to discuss with list members:

• Interesting tools or techniques that may be tried out by others.
• Useful information for new purchasers of a certain piece of equipment you have.
• Share some of your own sequencer programming techniques.
• Tell us how you start your compositions.
• Tell us how you mix down your midi and your audio tracks.
• Share your experience with professional notation software packages - little is heard of these.
• Spread the news - have you seen breaking information of any new apps and gadgets?
• Share your related browser favourites/bookmarks with the list.
• Talk about your favourite album - how did they do it?
• Have you made a cd? How did you go about making your master?
• What is wrong with your setup and what would you like to improve?
• What are your ideas on the value of preserving/destroying musical styles?
• Where do you want your music to end up? MTV, money in the bank, or just something to be
  proud of?

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Section 2a: And what is expected of me?
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NOTE: Whilst some of the following guidelines may seem a bit overly strict to some, remember
that they are only guidelines and no-one will be frowned upon for asking something that does not
fit the format. Most of us are amateur music makers after all.

The original intent behind creating the Desktop Music List is to try and move the level of discussion
that exists in other lists beyond basic hardware setup problems and towards an exchange of infor-
mation and ideas regarding the actual in-depth use of the hardware and software the users have.

List users should therefore have a functional desktop music environment and have general know-
ledge of its use. Further, user manuals and help files should be well thumbed and clicked through
before asking the list for help with something that appears basic.

When posting to the list:

Do:

• Be helpful and courteous to the other subscribers.
• Remove extraneous quoted material from any replies before sending.

Do not:

• Quote a long message in its entirety only to add a single line to the end.
• Blame someone's choice of equipment as the problem without stating why.
  ("your soundcard is crap" is not a very helpful answer)
• And above all: please don't start "Linux vs Windows / PC vs Mac" arguments. 

Do:

• Ignore all of the above and say whatever you like at any time..... I'm not really
  interested in stifling conversation, 
  Nothing is too silly to ask!  I would have done better at school if I had known that.

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Section 3: How or where do I begin?
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New users should simply check their e-mail once a day and try following some of the current dis-
cussions. After a few days, it would be appropriate to send a message to the list with a few details:

• Your name or preferred nickname.
• Your general location on the planet.
• What styles of music you like to listen to and what styles you like to create.
• A  rundown of your pc and musical equipment.
• Your main composition/recording/sequencing software.
• Other things you find useful or important to making your music.

Replying to the list:

If you are sending a new message to the list simply insert [email protected] in the "to:" field
of your message. The next time you check for mail that message will appear in your inbox.

If you are replying to an existing message, click on your e-mail client's "Reply to All" button.
This will usually bring up a quoted copy of the message you are replying to. However there will be two
addresses in the "to:" field; [email protected], as well as that of the original sender.
It is good practise to delete all but the mailing list's address.

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Section 4: What other sources of information are there?
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As the owner and creator of the Desktop Music Mailing List, I have a small related website at
http://www.photographic.co.nz/music/   there you will find a page with links to other related information
sources and faq's.

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Section 5: Technical information and privacy issues
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• The Desktop Music Mailing List has a maximum user limit of 1000 subscribers.
• It was created in July 1998 in Wellington New Zealand.
• The maximum size of any individual message posted to the list can not exceed 75kb
• At this point the list is not available in a digest version. (the listserver is a very simple one)
• Robert Axford is the sole owner/operator of this list. The database of e-mail addresses will
  not be passed on by me to any other person. I will not use it for any purpose other than the
  upkeep of the mailling list for which it was created. Personally I despise any form of junk-mail
  and spamming and will do whatever it takes to stop it.
• As owner of the list I reserve the right to remove any user from the list at any time.
• I further reserve the right to disolve the list altogether at any time.
  (If at some point in future I am no longer able to take care of the list, I will make every effort
  to pass it on to another suitable operator.)

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Section 6: Troubleshooting
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Q: How do I know if I my subscription was successful?
A: You will be reading this in your e-mail application.

Q: I haven't had any messages for a while. Can I test my subscription?
A: It is ok to send a test message to the list. A test message should have "Testing - ignore"
     inserted in the subject field and nothing in the body of the message. If you receive the message
     back within an hour or so then you are still on the list. If not, then you may resubscribe as de-
     scribed in Section 1 above. Please remember that your message may be going out to 1000 other
     users so the less said the better.

Q: I can't sort my DTM messages automaitcally the same way I can with other mailing lists.
A: DTM is not run on a full blown Majordomo list server, rather, it is a simple auto-responder.
     This means that some header-fields are not present or not the same as with other lists.
     It is also free as part of my web-space subscription so I can't change it for now.
     The only way to deal with this for now is to let your Email client deal with and sort the mail as it
     arrives by using subject or address filters.
     Outlook Express is freefor Windows, has very extensive filtering and can easily be set up to sort
     any messages from "@photographic.co.nz" into a seperate folder.
     I'm afraid I have no solution for Pine or other DOS/Unix clients.

Q: I'm getting more than one copy of some posts to the list.
A: This is a strange one.  Contact me if you think you may have subscribed twice, but otherwise
     this issue remains a bug with the system and possibly a reason for me to get a Majordomo List-
     service.

(This section will be extended as problems arise.)

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Section 7: Information for webmasters
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If you are maintaining a website relating to desktop Music and would like to point your readers to this
list, please visit the DTM Mailing list site at http://www.photographic.co.nz/music/dtm/ and follow the
link for webmasters and download the zip containing a gif and link information. This file is small and
will transfer in seconds.

It contains a small button and some html for your site which, when activated, will take users to a page
on my site via a separate small browser window so as not to interfere with their visit at your site. The
window will display a short dialogue about the list and give them the opportunity to send a subscription
request. I would prefer you use this method of letting people join the list as it will keep false subscrip-
tions to a minimum as everyone who suscribes will join through the same window - which will contain
important information. Other lists suffer from users who have subscribed by mistake by simply clicking
on a link that a webmaster has created to ease the joining process.

I would be grateful if you can leave me a note on the download page stating where the link is going
as well as a contact address for you. This will make updating links easier if I ever have to shift the list
to another domain.


Thanks for cooperating.

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