*****************T-STAR CD MULTITRACK V4.3 TROUBLESHOOTING**************************
*** NOTE: TS needs 800 by 600 small fonts 96 dpi to display controls***
*** ALSO WINDOWS DIRECTX MEDIA RUN TIME V6.1 & A DIRECTX SOUND CARD ***
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 A TIP : if you are re-installing Tstar, after having de-installed 
 previously - and you get a run time error on booting the exe -
 - it means that the Tstar dir and some of its components is still on 
 your hard drive. Windows will not remove the Tstar dir if you have
 audio in it. SOLUTION : - before re-installing Tstar :
 make sure you previously not only used windows remove function,
 but also deleted the Tstar dir and its contents to the recycle bin.
 If there is audio you want to keep prior to removal - move it to 
 another dir of your choosing.
 A TIP : If you ever get an error - displaying waveforms
 Go to your display properties - and re-set for small fonts 96 dpi.
 In our development environment all color depths work.
 Make sure you are set to small fonts 96 dpi not large fonts. 
 (PLEASE READ SECTION 10 - ON HOW TO EASILY SYNCH TRACKS IF PROBS.)
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1. CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESSFULL DIGITAL AUDIO RECORDING WITH T-STAR.       
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            (YOU CAN PRINT THIS OUT IF YOU WISH)                      
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      ITEM                                            CHECK MARK.
      ----                                            -----------

   * - Win 95, 32MB RAM , UDMA HARD DRIVE, Celeron466 cpu (MIN).
   * - IS THERE AT LEAST 300 MB of disc space free ?
       (click on the My computer icon in 95 to check).
   * - DISK DRIVE UNCOMPRESSED ?
   * - 16 bit FULL DUPLEX SOUND CARD INSTALLED ?.
   * - IS SOUND CARD PLUG AND PLAY ? PCI Full Duplex preferred.
   * - IS DIRECTX MEDIA RUN TIME 6.1 installed ??
       ( From Microsoft.com directx site )   
   * - do you have Microsofts Dsound.dll installed ??
       (you can check by START-->Find-->Files or Folders).   
   * - IS SOUND CARD DIRECTX AND DIRECTSOUND COMPATIBLE ??
   * - IS SOUND CARD LINE IN LEFT & RIGHT CONNECTED TO YOUR
       MIXER or PREAMP ? AND LINE OUT TO YOUR MONITORING ?
   * - your not running T-star thru' compression codecs ??
       WINDOWS PCM convertor is required in multimedia.
       ie : normal wav format audio.
   *   Win 95 CONTROL PANEL Multimedia Properties 
       DO DISPLAY AUDIO DRIVERS ENABLED - IN & OUT.
   * - Sound & Video in CONTROL PANEL SYSTEM 
       DO SHOW DRIVERS PROPERTIES & FULL DUPLEX
       IS ENABLED AND NOT TURNED OFF.
       (AND WIN 95 SHOWS NO CONFLICTS)
   * - Win 95 Volume Control Mixer does not show
       any wave recording, playback,line in or
       out muted or disabled ? And volumes on the 
       channels are up ? Some sound cards have
       their own mixer that you should check.
       You can reach the windows mixer by clicking 
       on the "O"(other programs) button and selecting it.
       Click on options(properties) and make sure line in
       and out are selected. Scroll down to see.
   * - You are not trying to record through the 
       mic in Sound Card input ? 
   * - YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY IRQ/DMA conflicts.
       Windows will tell you if you do - in 
       SYSTEM within CONTROL PANEL.
   (NOTE : a qualified technician should check this !)
   * - PC IS NOT RUNNING CLOSE TO ITS RESOURCE LIMIT ?
       ( you can use the system monitor provided 
         by windows to give you a rough idea)
   * - YOU HAVE PLENTY OF RAM AVAILABLE ?(SDRAM pref.)
   * - V. IMP - you dont have any other programs 
       running in the "background". Please note - 
       if other pgms are running while recording - 
       its possibly you might get interruptions.
       Please make sure you run no other pgm at the 
       same time as digital audio. Whether you run 
       mine or other digital audio programs - this 
       is recommended. 
   * - Your hard drive - if highly used is regularly
       defragmented ? ( accessible via system tools).
   * - You do not have other hardware that "steals 
       cycles" and thus possibly interrupt audio ?
   * - Note : On some systems it is sometimes a good
       idea to minimise graphics acceleration - as 
       this can consume significant processing cycles.
   * - Display set to for TS - 800 by 600 - small fonts
       96 dpi ??
 NOTE : if you get a blank track waveform after recording 
 and clcking the tracks Fnn button to display, probably 
 one of your sound card left or right line inputs is not 
 connected from your mixer or preamp.
  
 If the foregoing criteria are met - you should have 
 few problems. NOTE : for digital audio the new fast 7200
 rpm drives should be looked at as well as fast ram.
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2. POSSIBLE PROBLEMS    
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 1. PROGRAM WONT INITIATE.
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This would be very unusual.
If you get a message on clicking the T-star icon ie :
" no dsound.dll" this means you dont have directsound installed.
T-star needs this windows function to work.
To check if you have it installed go to START - up to Find - 
click on files or folders - and enter dsound.dll in the box -
and search. If you dont have it then :
Please visit Microsoft.com and download the Microsoft Directx media
run time 6.1 and install it. You also need a directsound enabled 
sound card that is full duplex - preferably PCI.
They start at 40 dollars. I use one - and it works grrrreat !!
Assuming you have downloaded from the internet, and unzipped/
installed. Using Windows explorer - which you get to using 
your start menu. Look for the Trackstar directory(Tstarcd). 
ie : "Tstarcd". Open Tstarcd and click on Tstar. EXE - this will 
initiate it. You should get a great colorfull screen come to
life that looks just like a mixing console. 
You should see in this Tstar dir the following : 
Tstar.EXE, TS01.EXE, Parms file, two Def files - Intro, Help, Tips, 
why register , Purchase form, Editor, Example track sheet and 
this troubleshooting document. 
All these should be in the same Tstar dir and on the same drive.
Please note that TS will not be able to display the windows mixer,
explorer or notepad if they are not on the C drive in the standard 
directory.
As you can see - i've included tons of HELP details to help
those who are possibly new to digital recording on the PC.
The documents can be read using notepad.
 ( accessible from the START menu in Windows).
Also a Folder called Mysong for storing recorded audio of the 
current song you are working on. 
None of the files should be deleted.
Should the Mysong folder ever get deleted inadvertantly 
simply create a Mysong folder in Windows explorer and make sure
it is placed within the Tstar directory. ie : C:\Tstarcd\Mysong.
Once you create it - you will see it on the left side of 
explorer that displays all directories and folders.
In summary - when you click on the left side of explorer on 
the yellow Tstar directory - to the right should appear a 
yellow Mysong folder as well as the 10 TS program 
and resource files.
If all the files are there - 
and it does not boot - then i would suggest the download might 
have corrupted in transmission. I would suggest re-downloading 
from the shareware site. 
If you ever re-install TS - and you get a run time error - 
it means you did not delete the TS dir from previous install. 
PLEASE MAKE SURE IF RE-INSTALLING TS you have de-installed first.
ie : Windows add/remove in control panel THEN MOST IMP - delete the 
Tstar dir to the recycle bin. As Windows wont delete this if you have
audio in it. If you want to keep certain audio just move or copy to
a different "back-up" dir of your choosing.
PLEASE NOTE : On certain video cards you might get an error when you 
display waveform of the track. This does not
happen on our development machines in 24 bit color - but it might on
yours. If this happens - try - in display properties(settings) -
16 bit hi-color or 256 color. Make sure you are small fonts 96dpi.
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 2. I DONT HEAR BACK THE AUDIO PLAYED BY TS.
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SOLUTION : Look in your Windows Mixer Panel - and make sure that the 
           sound card recording and/or playback channel is not muted. 
           Make sure you have your spkrs turned on !
           Is your monitoring volume up and turned on ??
           Open Windows recorder - that came with Win 95 - accessible 
           from the 95 start menu. And load in a windows sound 
           (windows media folder). If it plays back OK - 
           then TS should work fine.
           Possibly you might have what is known as an IRQ or 
           DMA conflict. This can be checked by clicking on 
           SYSTEM in CONTROL PANEL - and should only be done by folks
           already experienced with Win 95. In summary - 
           what it means is you have device conflicts possibly on your
           system - say between the sound card and another device.
           If you feel unsure about checking - a knowledgeable dealer 
           will be able to help or tech. 
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 3. I DONT HEAR BACK A TRACK I RECORDED WHEN I HIT SOLO OR PLAY.
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SOLUTION : In Windows mixer - is the line input recording 
           channel muted ? If so - as above - unmute it.
           Also unmute any Wave channels. Is the sound card
           input volume fader in the Win 95 mixer up ??
           If the REC button on a track turned from blue to red - 
           it WAS recorded. Look in Mysong and you will see 
           a large file of many hundreds of K or even megabytes 
           for a looong recording.
           Once again one cause might be device conflicts between 
           your sound card and another device. This is not T-stars
           fault. If you are knowledgeable about Windows and delve 
           into control panel -->system --> then devices - windows 
           will tell you in various sub displays if conflicts exist.
           Of course - if you just recorded silence - you wont
           hear the track ! To check further - if the audio 
           editor that came with your sound card plays back OK - 
           then you should be fine. A TIP : Try recording and 
           playing back a sound in the editor that came with your 
           sound card. If this does NOT work - it probably means 
           a line in or out is muted in your sound card mixer panel.
           If you get a message - saying wave device in use - 
           then you probably have multiple audio programs loaded.
           Its recommended you use one at one time - then close it,
           before using another.
           PLEASE NOTE : REAL TIME MIXING WILL NOT WORK UNLESS YOU
           HAVE DIRECTX MEDIA RUN TIME INSTALLED.
           IF YOU HAVE DIRECTX INSTALLED - LOOK ON YOUR MACHINE FOR
           A DIRECTX TESTER APPLET. eg : DXdialogue in the directX
           folder in program files dir.
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 4. I DONT SEEM TO BE FULL DUPLEX ie : RECORD AND PLAY AT THE SAME TIME.
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SOLUTION : In this event you will need to get a FD sound card.
           Good ones can typically be had starting at 70 dollars.
           I'm leery to recommend particular models as the sound 
           card technology is moving very fast. So - anything 
           i recommend today - might be different tomorrow.
           I DO HIGHLY RECOMMEND you buy a PCI audio card. 
           There are many good vendors. Make sure it has DIRECTSOUND 
           SUPPORT AND IS FULL DUPLEX.
           Talk to lots of fellow musicians - and go on the 
           internet - where you will find sites that test 
           thoroughly new sound cards with high precision testers.
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 5. SOUND IS STUTTERING ON PLAYBACK. IE ; BREAKS IN THE SOUND PLAYBACK.
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With respect - probably you tried installing TS on a older machine 
with a slow processor and/or hard drive. A good inexpensive upgrade to 
consider would be to a newer Pentium processor and a new motherboard -
with 64K of SDRAM and a fast UDMA hard drive, and full duplex sound.
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 6. I DONT SEEM TO RECORD MANY TRACKS BEFORE MY DRIVE IS FULL.
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SOLUTION : Please make sure your hard drive has plenty of space 
           for recording. At least a few hundred megabytes. 
           While recording check regularly in the My computer window 
           that you have plenty of disc space left.
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 7. I GET A NOISY SOUND OVER MY MONITORING WHEN I RECORD.
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SOLUTION : Your sound card is probably not properly Full Duplex.
           Possibly you are using an older sound card not specially
           designed for recording.
           You will need to buy a proper FD sound Card suited to 
           digital recording. You should note that PCI cards - 
           as they are on a faster bus than the ISA bus, can handle 
           the recording and playback of much larger volumes of audio.
           PCI sound cards start at 40 dollars .
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 8. SOMETIMES I DELETE FILES - BUT THEY ARE NOT DELETED.
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SOLUTION : Simply leave TS - and firstly in explorer try deleting.
           If this does not work - then when you shutdown your 
           machine and then restart. The files will be unlocked. 
           And you will be able to delete them. Believe me - 
           i AM deleting them in my program as requested by the user !!
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 9. STOP or OTHER CONTROLS DONT WORK.
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SOLUTION : This has occurred because somehow a multimedia properties
           setting has been changed on your PC to use a audio format
           other than the normal PCM wave format.
           Please change your Multimedia dialogues to the standard PCM
           format. Go to Setttings -->>Multimedia-->>Customise and in 
           this dialogue if you click on the down arrow select PCM.
           Please note for HELP to display - TS assumes notepad is 
           on the "C" drive. If notepad is on another drive - load 
           notepad from the windows START menu and once Notepad loads -
           point it at any of the Tstar help docs or just click on the 
           doc - and notepad will load it.
           If you ever get a message on booting up TS when you try
           and record or play audio such as - 
           "device in use" or "wait". This means that probably you 
           were using another audio software that should have closed
           drivers on exit, or you did not exit. This is not Ts's fault.
           The only solution is to re-boot your machine - so it goes 
           to start up defaults. Then TS will operate.
           In summary TS cannot operate if other software that it has
           no control over - locks it out of using the sound card.
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10. TRACK SYNCH PROBLEMS - TIPS.
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In the early days of developing TS i had synch problems with my first
sound card. 
This occurred where i recorded a new track - then on mix playback
the track would be behind or in front of the previous track recorded.
So i built in  auto detect/auto correction for older sound cards.
Then i bought a different sound card and  different problems emerged.
S0 over time i gradually built in more sophisticated correction 
which is now in this new release.
( eg : you might just have a bad chip or oscillator somewhere, or
  interference from another device).
In the interim sound card technology has advanced - and after much 
testing of sound cards - my new PCI one works well. 
As there is only so much i can do in software to correct for probs' -
i have implemented a number of features in this new T-star version -
to ensure you get "purrrfect" synch between tracks - even if you 
have a sound system config' that is less than "purrrfect".
The follwing TUTORIAL will show you how to get "purrrfect" synch :
(PLEASE ACTUALLY TRY THIS SO YOU GET A GOOD FEEL FOR IT.)
1. Lets say - you recorded a drum machine on T01 - standard 1,2,3,4.
   After STOPping recording click on F01 to 
   display T01's waveform panel on the right hand side.
2. Now record T02 - and start playing your instrument on 
   beat 5.( after 4 beat count in.)
   After you click on STOP - to end recording of the instrument
   track T02 - click on F02 to display waveform.
   Up will come the instrument tracks waveform.
3. Now we will see if T02 is synched to T01.
   Click with the mouse on T01's fifth wavelet. ie : where T02 
   should have started and Note the sample number.
   Now click on the guitar tracks waveform where the first 
   wavelet begins. Note the sample number.
   If its the same - all is in synch.
   You will actually see 'visually" on the waveform display panels how 
   well synched the two tracks are. 
   NOTE : sometimes for FEEL you might want one track purposely off
   from another.  
   If its different - note the difference between the two numbers.
   and click on T02's "Fun" - "F02" button - select shift track in the
   pop up menu and a dialog will display.
   (dont worry if its off a few samples - as its doubtfull youll hear
    it !!)
   For example if the offset difference was 3000 - and T02 in front of
   the beat - in the top box enter 03000 and click the label by the 
   side of the box that says "click me ". Now the PC is aligning track 
   two - T02. Wait for the hourglass to end - and the dialogue to
   disappear. Now click PLAY - and T02 will be in synch with T01.
   Ah - the magic of computers !!
   Conversely - if T02 was ahead of the beat 5,
   then as before - note the sample number difference - but this
   time in shift dialogue  - enter say the 03000 or whtever the 
   number is in the second (delete) box - and click on its "Click me"
   label. Once again - wait for the hourglass and dialogue to
   disappear. This might take a little time - say with 4 minute tracks.
   It purely depends on your PC's speed of processing.
   Now hit PLAY - and once again T02 will now be in synch.
   Assuming you entered the correct sample offset number in the dialogue.
   In version 4.2 while recording - a sample latency will be shown
   in the time line. less than 4 ms is minor.
   If you get over 4 then you might have a slower system or you might
   want to check your drivers or update them.
   
   In summary - these T-star features should overcome any problems 
   you encounter. eg : system "latency" or sound config problems.
   
4. You can also use these features to quite 
   deliberately sit a track just before or just after the beat.
   If you are using a REAL DRUMMER - then - obviously you want 
   to use his track as the reference to synch to. Note : 
   the waveform panels can be used to compare any track to any other.
   It does not HAVE TO be the synch track. eg : two guitars.
   For example - after having laid that drum track on 01, then 
   the guitar track on 02 that started at beat 5 - which you now 
   got synched perfectly - you might lay down the same guitar track
   on T03 - but with a different amp setting.  
   Then - this second track you might purposely set using the
   "shift" feature to be just behind beat 5 - so you get a bit of
   "thickening" when the two guitar tracks play back. EXPERIMENT !! 
   Sometimes - if a tracks out of synch - cos' my playing is sloppy 
   - i mute the faders to zero of all other tracks - and just 
   play back the out of synch track with the click track, 
   and use the insert and delete functions in "shift" to get the track
   spot on. Then i bring up the other tracks. 
   I can get perfect synch this way.
   Just by clicking on wavelets and noting sample numbers displayed
   in the user msg line above play and stop. Then i just enter
   the difference using the Fnn/shift dialogue. 
 
   Most new sound cards also come with a basic editor which will 
   let you insert and delete samples.  
   On Yamahas' site is a free editor called TWE - which - for the 
   price - ie : free - will let you do all sorts of nifty things.   
   PLEASE NOTE - if you dont have synch problems - dont touch these 
   features unless you want to experiment with effects.
   Like doubling and delay. 

11. OTHER.
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Folks - i've labored extensively to make TStar CD operate easily.
I hope i've also demonstrated my knowledge relating to digital audio 
and my credentials. There are just so many different flavors of PC
configuration out there - i cant test them all. Its humanly not 
possible. Maybe you thought you would try TS - because a friend likes 
it - but it does not want to work on your machine. In this case -
just try and find out the differences between the two PC's. 
I WOULD appreciate hearing from folks who have had successfull installs,
and their configurations as well as the PC configurations of folks 
where TS just would not work. I would also like to hear from folks 
who have any of the new high speed high throughput drives installed -
as to any improvements in mix time - as i believe they are capable of 
60MB/sec or more from what i've heard.
I DO PROMISE to read EVERYTHING !!
I dont want you to take offence if i cant reply. I intend none.
I have to simply focus all my energies on constant improvement of TS.
Its a pure LABOR of LOVE. Friends think i'm mad to dedicate myself
to this pursuit - but i'm doing it because i love digital audio !!
I hope you get as much FUN out of it as i have. 

If you want to - you can write to me care of the P.O. Box in the 
registration section. Whether good or problems - all will 
be read. You might ask - when will TS support sound cards with 
multiple inputs and outputs, and also very high sampling rates and
bit depths - 96Khz/24 bit !! I AM fully aware of these needs by 
certain members of the community, and AM working on them.
Particularly multi I/O.
I wont get into this debate in detail - but as i'm a physicist - 
- and have looked at the bit patterns of samples at the lowest
level, and various amplitudes , sampling rates, and frequencies,
with custom programs i've written - my professional opinion 
(having also ran 3 recording studios in my life) is that 44.1
is fine.
The key is 16 bits. You can always upsample the master.
In fact a lot of folks dont know this - but sometimes
only 12 bits of the full 16 bits of the bit patterns to represent wav 
amplitude is needed as the amplitude is not high enough.
However i remain very open on this issue.
But i need to gauge the level of demand by musicians.
So - please write care of the P O box if 96Khz/24 bit is a 
MUST HAVE. If i get a ton of responses then that will tell me to put
it higher on the priority than other new features being worked on.
Funnily enough I've found in the "real life" recording of musicians
for certain types of "rock" - a bit of "grunge" seems to add a texture
that is sometimes desirable. 
I'll leave others to carry this debate further !!
Also i wanted to keep TS simple at this point.
To qoute my first Physics prof "sometimes you solve an engineering
problem in one area - and another one pops up that was'nt there 
before". Dont you find it interesting - that STILL - radio plays
a lot of songs recorded years ago, often on less than
adequate equipment. Why do they sound so good ??
Could it be that inexplicable "grunge factor" ??
I remember on one session replacing a 2000 dollar guitar amp -
with one bought as "junk" for 5 bucks and a used pedal that did a 
superb job.
The lesson here for young musicians is that - like Tstar itself -
ya dont often have to spend huge money to get what ya want.
" Use your ears !!" 

Heres an experimental challenge for a young band starting out
with only 1500 dollars and its a ton of fun.
Instead of going into hock - buy a used celeron  or above computer.
Put a fast 7200 rpm drive in it. And a new PCI full duplex
directsound capable sound card. Buy a cheap little CLEAN mixer with 
a few channels - and about 4 cheap 50 buck mics. Purposely buy
in junk stores a couple of old guitar amps for 50 bucks each. 
Guitars - 100 bucks. Drums 100 bucks. Used synth 200 bucks.
And maybe a Fx unit fed from sound card output.
Put Tstar on the PC - and see what you can come up with songwise.
Surprise yourself !!

I believe the older songs were successfull - because the focus was
the SONG rather than the technology. Back then they kept it 
pretty simple. Often just a drum kit, a couple of guitars, a bass,
a singer, and maybe a piano. 
I think today we sometimes lose that elegantly simple focus.
In summary - TS is an attempt to get back to simplicity.
It may not have all the bells and whistles - BUT - for a very 
affordable price - it will let you get your song down !!
Also - i bet - you will find out - as i have - that many times -
when your not worrying about all the advanced gear you might use 
on a particular song - sometimes the simple approach realises
a good song.    
In summary building in this level of advanced support introduces
many other complex technical issues - a larger program - 
hence longer downloads - significantly larger audio storage needs
- hence larger costs to the musician. So please give me your 
feedback - so i can guage demand.
Remember - I want to keep TS available to the musician who cant 
afford a lot of expense.
There are also new architectures on the PC coming that 
will have big impacts.
Once it becomes easier to address these issues as PC
architecture becomes more powerfull, and at the same time offer
the poor musician a low cost solution without introducing
other technical issues - i will do so. 
You might ask when will TS have a internet site ?. 
It all comes down to that old demon - money. It cost a lot to bring
TS to this stage. Not only my time - but also special technical
development environments the normal user never sees.

If i can get enough registrations and support from musicians and 
recording folks out there - i will set up a user site on the internet. 
You can do wonderfull songs - as i have done - with T-star - 
provided your PC is set up properly for audio - and with a little
imagination and songwriting i hope many of you get hits.

Whether you liked TS or not - I sincerely wish you many years 
of HAPPY and CRAZY recording, and prosperity !! 

                    (END OF DOC).
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