Pieter's Blog
Happy New Year everybody!
Enjoy my first song in 2012!
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (03/01/2012 18:50:25)
- Bob says: (03/01/2012 19:09:29)
- Pieter says: (03/01/2012 19:32:21)Bread??? Quite a compliment! Love the band. They wrote a song about me in the year I was born: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVtdYKVXYhI
- Bob says: (03/01/2012 20:15:25)
- Pieter says: (04/01/2012 00:04:22)Right before I go to bed, I recorded a small piece of piano music. I bought myself a digital piano few weeks ago. I forgot how inspiring playing the piano can be... I used to have a piano back in the 90's... I played it a lot. After we moved, and now we've got 3 kids, I left it for what it was... Until some weeks ago. I just can't stop playing.
- Pieter says: (07/01/2012 09:33:51)Ok I admit, I'm taking a very slow start in 2012. I recorded another song. Enjoy!
Special thanks to Nick for mixing/mastering tips and to Ruben for the bass track! - Pieter says: (09/01/2012 00:33:21)And another 2012 song. I continue until someone shouts STOP...
- Pieter says: (09/01/2012 23:19:05)The most amazing music video on Youtube ever uploaded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M
Uploaded 4 days ago. Will probably break records.
This song is originally writte by Gotye, a Belgian/Australian singer songwriter. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
These walkofftheearth people are really CRAAAAAAZY people. http://www.youtube.com/user/walkofftheearth
Check out their Adele "Someone like you" cover:
http://www.youtube.com/user/walkofftheearth#p/c/28C14FA6792ADCB4/2/2U0NFgoNI7s
Jeeezzz... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (09/01/2012 23:49:42)They are amazing:
Also check out the DRUMMER in this video: http://youtu.be/ItZyaOlrb7E
And this guy with the loop petal: http://youtu.be/K66G7Bt1o3A
But the most talented are these people: http://youtu.be/jAaw9KDlc3Y - Pieter says: (10/01/2012 15:00:48)Can I conclude my musical start of the year with my first (and only) Youtube contribution?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95WgRt-VLu0
Need to wake up now. Back to work. Phone is ringing all day long. Need to pick it up again... And my wife is starting to get pretty mad.
You know, this is all Nick's fault. He sent me a copy of Magix Music Studio MX for Xmas.
QuickerSite v31 is coming up!
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (10/01/2012 18:03:36)Wow, amazing song, and amazing video! Nice, melodic and smooth.
I'm not joking, I'm serious, it's probably too late for this year, but for next year you should write a song for Eurovision (they still have those right?). Imagine how much free publicity you and QS would get if you represent your country. IMAGINE IF YOU WIN THE COMPETITION ! - Pieter says: (16/01/2012 18:58:54)I recorded yet a new song. This time, my friend and neighboor Paul Michiels (from Soulsister - a famous Belgian band) helped me with the back vocals. In total there are 10 tracks with backing vocals only ! Amazing experience. Paul is considered one of the best vocalists of his generation.
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (16/01/2012 19:38:21)
- DavidB says: (16/01/2012 21:46:02)
- Pieter says: (17/01/2012 18:31:36)
- Pieter says: (19/01/2012 23:46:12)I'm the number 1 Country Star in Lubbeek!
http://www.reverbnation.com/main/bes_chart?artist_id=948044&genre=Country&genre_geo=Local
There is only 1 country artist in Lubbeek....
- DavidB says: (19/01/2012 23:57:26)Pieter, if you would like a graphic avatar send me a good profile picture and i will get one done for you. We are now offering the service for a lot of money......
But for all your help and support it will be on the house!
Just need a decent (clear and in focus ) head shot of yourself. My graphic designer will then do his magic.... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/01/2012 00:06:20)I had never been at the site before. That's awesome, even though you don't have any local competition. I even signed up as a fan. Can I get my gift now?
Isn't this how Justin Bieber got famous? Or was it a youtube video? I still think you should enter the Eurovision competition - what do you have to lose? - David says: (20/01/2012 11:52:35)Nice lineup, I managed to get all your songs into iTunes, was hard to find them in the iTunes library at first but once I did and then added some meta data I've been able to group them into an album, with cover art!
Keep it up Pieter you could end up a Rock Star and I agree with Nick go for the Euro contest :-)
Actually I was not able to attach a screenshot of the iTunes cover art, the popup works but no form fields to browse for file. Tried it in IE * and ( and Firefox on XP and 7
The next version of QuickerServer will include a powerful IIS Administration module, where you can manage IIS websites (QuickerSites and others). Not only that, it will also be the perfect IIS backup tool, as there is an export to Access.
Have a look at the attachment:
- In the menu, you can click "IIS Admin"
- Search the site you want to modify
- Modify the bindings (host headers)
- Check out all relevant info (site directory, QuickerSite codebase, etc).
This is a very exciting module, as it adds some very useful features to the IIS automation QuickerServer already does (create and delete sites).
Artisteer officially released v31 today. I did a quick test. As far as I can see, QuickerSite 3.0 continues to support automatic uploads and conversions of ASP.NET templates. I have not tested the other formats (Wordpress, HTML Page) yet, but I see no reason why they would break.
Why would QuickerSite users upgrade from Artisteer 3.0 to Artisteer 3.1?
Honestly, I don't know... I personally think Artisteer 3.1 is a VERY minimal upgrade coming from 3.0. You might not even notice any difference.
What I do not get, is why Artister adopts 74kB of JQuery, only, yes ONLY to position blocks. And even that is NOT working fine in IE. I mean, check this website. Blocks fly in the main DIV WAY TOO LATE :) It's very cumbersome. Since JQuery is there anyway, why not use it for other things like:
- nice menus
- tabbed pages
- a JS (AJAX) driven product page with signout options (just the JS/HTML of course)
- CSS for forums and shopping carts
- image galleries
They could do so much better...
It's time for Artisteer to come up with something HUGE in the near future if they want their customers to keep on paying upgrade fees.
Same is true for QuickerSite of course :) Even though upgrades are free-for-life here.
- Bob says: (01/12/2011 22:08:05)
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (01/12/2011 22:53:15)I agree with Bob. My subscription expired in July, and I'm running things with 3.0. It seems to me that the only benefits with 3.1 would be to open the vertical menus with a mouseover, which we can do it in 3.0 with a simple CSS injection in the Export options (I've posted this solution before), and 3.1 has less divs. I'm not sure what the real benefits of that are...
You like QuickerSite?
You might like my music as well.
Click to play my first eCD:
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (30/11/2011 20:01:04)"Morning Light" belongs in a Dire Straits CD - trust me, it's a huge compliment! I listened it at least 7-8 times, and I want more...
"Sarah" is a nice change of pace, nice touch with the megaphone part on the vocals.
The rest were very nice too, but again, most of the rest I had listened to them many times before, in different formats, maybe that's why my favs were the first 2 tracks. Placing them as tracks 1, and 2, I have a feeling you agree with me. - Pieter says: (01/12/2011 00:41:52)Nick, during the day, i remixed some songs, so the order has changed.
thx for the compliment on "Morning Light". I did not have a name for it, until this afternoon, when uploading my new.mp3 (the default file name in Magix Music Maker) to Reverbnation. Ha :)
Morning light was a half baked tune I wrote in 1996 I think. I never managed to write lyrics for it.
By the way, all songs were done with Magix Music Maker - a very affordable (50-100$) tool. For some songs (Morning Light is one of them), I used one the very first versions of Magix Music Maker, back in 1996. Anyone who wants to make some recordings and has a little budget, should have a look at http://www.magix.com/us/music-maker/ . I'm not affiliated btw...
Talking about Dire Straits. Don't you feel like my voice on "I know" sometimes sounds like Knopfler? In the chorus perhaps? Pathetic - I know (what's in a name).
While I'm typing, I'm remastering Morning Light. I've just uploaded a new version. You need to use the link above to hear the remastered version I assume... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (01/12/2011 01:58:43)Amazing! My favorite part of the song is when the drums kick in, but that part is too short for my taste. That's why I can't get no, Satisfaction ! (a little bit of rolling stones there). I would extend that part by at least 16-24 bars, and make the drums a little bit louder with a compressor. Careful, do not over do it, as that will destroy everything!
Big improvements in every aspect of your music production skills from a few years ago. Singing, playing the guitar, and producing music. You used to send me tracks, that were just mixed down, and mastering was foreign to you. Now, you are mastering, bringing the volumes up, and separating the frequencies nicely.
Software wise, may I suggest Magix Music Maker ($99), this is more geared for recording, as Music Maker is more geared towards music production using loops. Of course, their professional product is Samplitude, which is my fav. I don't know what you are using for effects and mastering, Magix's products all have native tools, but there are better ones on the market. BTW, I always go first with Waves mercury, and T-RackS by IK Multemedia, and Sampletank when I need virtual instruments. That said, I have not done anything with music for about 2 years now. You are inspiring me to turn on my equipment, and forcing my neighbors to start selling their homes (again).
I bet the professional studios who use $100,000 and up in studio gear, get very upset with what you can do at home with an inexpensive software. By the way, you can do the same things with Audacity, which is FREE ! For whatever reason, I never really liked Pro Tools like the products made by Magix. Ah, those Germans!
It is the same trend when it comes to Movie production as well. Magix Movie Maker is amazing $49-$199. Even almost all inexpensive cameras have HD and Widescreen formats as well nowadays. To top it off, fast computers with lots of RAM and large hard drives are relatively inexpensive. Anyway, time to listen to "Morning Light" (again). I like your Viagra commercial as well, "Never Get Up"
- Pieter says: (01/12/2011 09:26:48)
- David says: (01/12/2011 19:07:44)Very nice Pieter, just running through for the second time. I get a bit of stuttering but that's probably a distance and bandwidth issue here in NZ. I think I detected a little distortion on Ik kan niet lezen that I don't recall hearing the first time I heard it (a month or so ago?). It appears to be in the lower end (below 500Hz) and is accompanied by a the occasional click.
How interesting you guys all use Magix products, I've used Magix Music Studio since it was first released, currently on V12. I think it's been discontinued now in favour of Samplitude but I still cling to my old copy. I use it mainly to record our three piece but also for the audio in some web and movie projects. As you say there is quite a jump in price when you get into the higher end of the market and to be honest I wonder where the extra mony goes, apart from some better quality instruments and a few more plugins.
Anyway, well done Pieter, nice smooth vocals and I love the genre :-) - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (01/12/2011 18:37:40)
- David says: (01/12/2011 18:54:37)
- Pieter says: (01/12/2011 19:14:40)
- Pieter says: (01/12/2011 19:15:58)Oeps, I noticed this screenshot included my serial number... It might be better not to share this :)
- David says: (01/12/2011 19:32:27)Different product but from the same company, Music Studio is very similar to some of the more popular DAW's and provides almost unlimited midi and analogue tracks, Has support for ASIO drivers, stienberg VST's and other plugin's. Version 12 came with a pretty decent mastering module but maybe only the US edition. For some off reason there are difference between the european and US versions, features and so on. Great piece of software for the price and more than enough for home recording. I use it with an M-Audio 1816 firewire sound card on an old XP box (P3 3Ghz) stripped of all the gui stuff and a pair of 7200 rpm drives. Can record a dozen tracks at once no problem but mostly build the mix one instrument or voice at a time. Love it :-)
- Pieter says: (01/12/2011 19:36:40)
- David says: (01/12/2011 19:46:34)
- Pieter says: (03/12/2011 11:29:32)Attached a little musical intermezzo, recorded yesterday evening.
DiscountASP, one of the leading Microsoft ASP.NET Hosting Providers offers a (free) sandbox hosting for WebMatrix users.
In WebMatrix, you can "deploy" your website to an external host. In fact, it is basically some kind of ftp client.
You can test-drive QS in WebMatrix, by downloading the latest WebMatrix (http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/) and signup for a free sandbox on http://labs.discountasp.net/webmatrix2/.
I'm very excited about this, as this WebMatrix "deploy" is very easy to use. Not only you can use WebMatrix to install and prepare your QS, you now also have the option to use it's internal "deploy" button, to upload your site to the host.
If your kid has difficulties @ school, and school says they can't (or won't) help it, AND when the father can't do nothing but sing a song about it, you get the most depressing songs. I think. It's in Dutch...
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Recorded with my new Santa Cruz Arlen Roth. Impressive guitar!
- David says: (03/11/2011 13:08:26)I have a brother in law who lives in Holland and when he speaks to us in his adopted language on the phone I have an understanding of where the phrase "Double Dutch" come from ;-)
I did Google the title though... "ik kan niet lezen - I can not read" and if that's the issue... take comfort, when my son was heading toward the end of primary school and still unable to read, I went through all the anguish a loving dad goes through when they see thier son (or daughter) struggling.
Kids, like all human beings are unique, they learn and grow at different times and in different ways. Just keep building them up, praising the things they are good at and encoraging those things they are still working on. Works for adults to :-)
Dispite not understanding the words, the song sounded great Pieter, not depressing at all but a ballad born from the heart of a loving father. - Pieter says: (03/11/2011 13:49:05)lyrics Ik kan niet lezen
Al m’n vriendjes
M'n vriendinnetjes
Ze kijken me niet aan
En de juf zegt
Wat werk jij slecht
Ze ziet mij niet meer staan
Ik kan niet lezen
Ik kan niet schrijven
Niemand die me helpt
Ik kan niet lezen
Ik kan niet schrijven
Niemand die iets zegt
Maar als ik thuis ben
Bij mijn zusjes
Ben ik hun grote held
Ik zal hen helpen
Ik zal hen redden
Overal en altijd
Maar ik kan niet lezen
Ik kan niet schrijven
Niemand die me helpt
Maar ik kan niet lezen
Ik kan niet schrijven
Niemand die iets zegt
Maar ik kan blij zijn
Ik kan vrij zijn
Met een simpele bal
Ik kan blij zijn
Ik kan vrij zijn
Met een bal
For the record: my 8y old son has not listened to this song. And he never will, until he has a 8y old kid that goes through the same problems. I might not be around at that day... But I'm sure this song will help him understand how much I loved him. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (03/11/2011 16:20:19)
- Pieter says: (03/11/2011 20:51:18)thx Nick. I recorded the guitar without equalizing whatsoever. I added loudness when mixing down. I think the bass is a little too strong. The pickup has been installed by a guy who does nothing but installing pickups for artists all over the world. I was told he's one of the best luthiers in the world.
- Karl says: (03/11/2011 21:22:54)
- Pieter says: (03/11/2011 21:27:42)@Karl: I already forward the link to Ed:
His feedback: Thanks, Pieter – great sound (from both you and guitar!) Ed
The direct link is http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/song_10836611
Yesterday I found out about Gravatar (gravatar.com). In short, you can upload an Avatar over there that is linked to an email address. Many blogs and CMS applications will connect to Gravatar to retrieve the avatars when someone is posting in their blogs.
I have added that goodie for QuickerSite 3.1. The logic is as follows:
- In case you have uploaded an Avatar for your QuickerSite, it will show that avatar.
- In case you don't have an Avatar for the QuickerSite, it will search for the Avatar on Gravatar.com. In case no Avatar is returned, the default avatar is displayed.
I ran a little test against the 1750 members in the QuickerSite contact database. I found out that about 2% of them use a Gravatar. Not much, but not bad either.
I have isolated the code we have been using in QuickerSite for ages to auto-resize images in the galleries. You can download a stand-alone copy of that code on http://www.imageresizing.quickersite.com. I hope to help the ASP community to improve their skills and their applications this way.
I setup a working sample for Classic ASP developers who like to use Uploadify for their projects. Check it out on http://www.uploadify.quickersite.com .
Uploadify is a popular JQuery plugin that enables multifile uploads and progess bars. We're using Uploadify in QuickerSite for some time.
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (27/10/2011 06:08:10)
- Pieter says: (27/10/2011 09:44:23)I'm sure you will Nick.
Unlike the 1000's of PHP based implementations of Uploadify you find on the net, mine is 100% safe to use. The Uploadify user forums are bombed with topics about hacked websites. Even the Uploadify website is hacked 10 times/year. It is Wordpress based. And they seem to be unable to secure their download section. Why would that be?
- Aichi says: (01/02/2012 01:32:02)It's nice, but folder settings must be "write" or "modify" for public IUSR username, ADODB.stream doesn't runs under some other username, which wouldn't have needed write settings to folders...

- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (01/02/2012 01:55:47)By accident last week I found this which is a much better solution, for more complex operations http://code.google.com/p/clients-oriented-ftp/
cFTP is free but it is php/mysql based. There are 3 groups of users. Admins, Uploaders, and Clients. Admins can upload and configure the app (logo, users, etc...), Uploaders can just Upload files, and Clients can only login to their accounts and download only the files that were uploaded into their own accounts. A nice feature is that a Client can receive an automated email when somebody uploads a new file into their account. A nice and perfect way to handle online invoicing among other things perhaps?
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- Karl says: (16/10/2011 18:39:05)
- Mik says: (17/10/2011 15:05:41)
- Pieter says: (18/10/2011 10:08:10)@Karl: the guitar is with a luthier for 3 weeks already... I have played it ONCE, after I bought it back in August. It took 6 weeks to arrive...
With Studiopros.com (check www.studiopros.com) I have found a good partner for recording purposes. Their musicians are world class. I can limit myself to just putting some words on paper, and record them on the melody. The rest is done by Studiopros. I spent my time with QS, my website/hosting business and other stuff... Not to mention the kids
- Pieter says: (18/10/2011 10:09:07)
Just had a play with Wordpress...
The footer of my empty - one page - zero posts - Wordpress site tells me:
19 mySQL queries executed in 0.535 seconds
Interesting...
I opened up the full-blown - 40 paged QuickerSite demo site and I monitored database access.
Because I'm too lazy I did not care about calculating the time the SQL queries took, and the time the other elements of the page-load. In total, 38 queries, and the complete compilation of the page in QuickerSites takes 0.281 seconds. Twice as fast. For doing 10 times more. Same laptop. Same time of the day.
Go home Wordpress ....
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (10/10/2011 21:31:02)But wait. nobody uses Wordpress without any plugins. Wordpress without plugins is very basic, almost useless... Once you start adding plugins, even just a few of them, the numbers (page load times) are going to get exponentially worse. BTW, you will need more than 30 plugins to even get close to simulating the QS features.
And I have no idea how fast Joomla or Drupal are. You need to be a freaking rocket scientist to make descent web sites with them. - Pieter says: (10/10/2011 22:55:39)In QuickerSite I have always tried to make each new version - even if it has more modules - work faster than the previous one. v30 is another example of that tradition. It adds a lot of tweaks and features, AND it runs faster than ever before. A module that causes QS to slow down, will never make it to an official release.
I had a look at how modules work in Wordpress. Man... there must be hundreds of insecure modules out there. No security checking. No quality audits... No way I could ever trust a module wrapped together by a 20 year old kid, that never heared of SQLi, XSS and CSRF. Recipe for disaster. - Bob says: (10/10/2011 23:07:20)
- Karl says: (20/10/2011 00:47:06)
- Pieter says: (20/10/2011 09:05:14)
- Karl says: (20/10/2011 14:47:24)
The built-in QS Slideshow is about to be replaced by a new and exciting JQuery slideshow plugin: jQuery Cycle Plugin . We'll have the 30 transition effects! This will solve some issues with the slidesho we used so far. And it fixes a very annoying issue we have with Internet Explorer (corruption of images when you touch the mouse).
It's currently test-driving on http://www.sintmartinusschool.be, our kids school (quicker)site.
- Pieter says: (30/09/2011 14:43:26)ready for test-drive via http://www.quickersite.com/r/signup
- Bob says: (30/09/2011 15:48:44)
- Pieter says: (30/09/2011 18:05:24)this page might help Bob:
http://www.quickersite.com/r/demo-new-slideshow
this page runs a little script: (the gallery iId is 4062)
'###############################
set gall=new cls_gallery
gall.pick(4062)
set li=new cls_galleryCycleList
set list=li.list
for each li in list
gall.sCycleEffect=li
response.write "<div style=""text-align:center;float:left;margin:10px"">" & gall.build() & " <br />" & li & "</div>"
next
'###########################" - Pieter says: (30/09/2011 18:54:00)
- doc says: (01/10/2011 18:49:28)
- Mik says: (04/10/2011 12:48:34)
- Pieter says: (04/10/2011 12:54:14)
- Karl says: (04/10/2011 16:04:45)
- Pieter says: (04/10/2011 16:42:25)that is by design indeed Karl... The reason is performance. The ASP.NET image resizer in QS has no problem resizing 200X200px images to sepia or grayscale. But a 800px-picture takes 2-3 seconds to convert to sepia. All conversions are done on the fly, so you only keep 1 copy of the image. So I kept the full color mode for the detailed images.
- Karl says: (05/10/2011 00:38:44)



