Steve Oval

Main reason I'm back on SL is I just got a new M1 MacBook Air. I know. Bottom of the line Mac but meets minimum specs for Live12. Upgraded from 9 suite to 12 due to 9 not being supported any more on my old (ancient) MBP. Tend to use Akai Force and MPC Live2 for live stuff, or I can use prerecorded backing tracks through a TC Halicon VL3x. Live12 more for dance/'electronic/house, call it what you will. Use the MPC/Force to create backing tracks, trio format, so basically just Drums and Bass for live guitar/vocal. I know a lot of people use Reaper, cost wise, and a lot use Fruityloops. Never tried either. I Use Studio One for recording, mixing, mastering. I would probably be more interested in an older aged avi. It's a long time since I was 30something. Point of difference too. I started my computer music interest 20 years ago when I completed a 3 year full time 'commercial music' course as a mature aged student. Back then I was older than most of my class mate's parents .Entered that as a guitar instrument major. Singing is a relevantly recent thing for me. Just got sick of dealing with vocalist's egos and thought Nah it can't be any harder to just do it myself. Don't have a big range, but a well tuned ear. Have been described more as a story teller. Did the usual open mic thing and lots of busking. Was just starting to find my feet, and confidence, when Covid put a stop to that. Have a video of a bush fire benefit I did back in early 2020 after the fires here on Youtube.. Can send you a link if you want to see it.

Sorry for my slow reply and thank you for taking the time to offer such sound advice Cristiano and Nalates.. "Find a face you like" sounds like the best advice ever. Will definitely follow advice re shapes, heads and skin. I am not concentrating 100% on SL, main reason being I am back as a result of buying a new laptop after way too long a time. I have a ton of stuff to do downloading and updating music software, my main passion being music. Interested in doing live music in SL once I get it sorted. As to asking questions and knowledge base, I need to totally edit my profile, friends list and groups. Need to search knowledge base to find out how to do that. No rush atm though. I am totally impressed by the willingness of people to spend their time helping noobs and old members such as myself who have never taken the time to learn anything. I was always the download, click and play type and when trying to get my head around audio streaming for live music in the past, just gave up. I have more time on my hands these days and a new laptop with top shelf music software to play with. Who knows. You may see me gigging in SL yet. Got to find my face first. Regards and thanks Steve. PS: One last thought. In RL I am retired and have played guitar most of my life, Jazz and Country. I am also into modern dance/electronic music. That's where most of the top shelf software is based. I may well want an alt. Something I never thought I would. One younger dance DJ type. One older Blues Country Jazz type. That could be a real challenge face wise.

Thanks Cristiano. Mighty generous of you. Been looking around a bit, sandboxes and the like. The dressing rooms in the beginners sims are pretty handy for messing with outfits etc but I might be more comfortable to just upgrade and get one of those free houses. Had a few offers of help in world but yeah, demos of everything is a good point. I'll start at the dollar shops so not much point there. I've everything to learn so best start at the beginning.

Can't thank you enough Ayashe and Persephone. Yes I will try myself with the beginner stuff and full note taken of BOM. A lot to learn and I hope this thread helps others in a similar situation. I've done little more than stick my head in for a bit of a look in the last 10 years, after spending way too much time (and money) here in the preceding 4 years. My inventory would probably make a good SL museum.

Thanks Persephone. See already You are way over my head. I was mostly out of my depth 1/2 way down your last post. I'm about 1/2 way through the video that Rowan shared and learning lots. It's all a bit information overload atm. Really appreciate it though. That's the problem with looking in-world. The amount of assumed knowledge that I just don't have. Certainly have enough to keep me busy for a day or 2 atm and will repost here once I have some questions.

Just one quick question. What sort of budget for avi and a few outfits? 5K?, 10K?, 20K?, all of the above? Also is there anyone in SL doing these sort of make overs as a business?

Thanks for the incredibly fast response. Was not expecting that. LOVE the "Queer eye for the pixel guy" title....... Me to a T! Will check out the 'Sense Blake' avi for sure and thanks Rowan for the video. Yet to watch it. I'll go check these out now. Thanks again and cheers. Oh and btw all of my inventory would be at least 10 years old.

I am returning to SL after a long absence. I have reverted to a stock free avi as I think everything I have is old and laggy. I don't understand mesh at all and quite frankly I'm not at all interested in understanding it. I would just like to get something that works, looks good enough, has reasonable animations and does not cause too much lag. I have no real idea as to budget but am open to all suggestions. I have tried looking in shops and via search in-world but due to my lack of knowledge and understanding I find it impossible. I would greatly appreciate any information, referrals, links, whatever I may need to find what I'm looking for with the minimum need to understand all the ins and outs of it all. Just a click and wear sort of approach. Thanks Steve.

So this is RL is it?

Thankyou Ohjiro. An excelent link. I will study it and try to make sure I know what I am doing first. I managed to replace some missing items through a simple re-delivery from the vendors.

Thanks Kelli May. That's exactly the type of help I was looking for. Really, I am not looking for relationship advice. I would just like to know exactly what happened.

Yes all of the above is obvious. All I wanted to know was if I could gain access to the log in details of my account and in a menu driven context rather than a request from LL help dept. On a more philosophical not those who do not love do not get hurt and those who do not trust do not get burned. I elect to do both in full knowledge of the risks involved and it's my own stupid fault for forgetting that I had given her my password and not realising that anyone could be such a vindictive low life scum. Think I'll just forget about SL for a very long time. Cheers all

I stronly suspect an ex-partner has used my log in details to log into my account and sabotage my inventory. Is there a record of my log in times kept by SL and if so how do I access them. This happened over night so if "I" logged in when I was asleep that would pretty much explain what has happened. While I realise there is probably nothing I can do about it, it would be nice to know that that is what has actually happened and would spare me from trying to find answers and solutions elsewhere. If it is at all importand my password was given to her so she could work on my avi. The warning everyone should take from this is Change your Password when you end a relationship if you have given your partner your password and remember that you have.

Thanks for the input. I was hoping there was a better one than the free ones. I got 9/100 for French at school. They suggested I try something other than languages. LOL I am picking up a few words and her English is way better than the translators. Thing is I can always tell when she is thinking in English and when she is thinking in Spanish and then translating, but she is a wonderful woman and I would not swap her for the world. Guess I'll just have to push my Spanish a bit, but I find this one of the most wonderful things about SL. One big global community.

Can someone please recommend a good translator. My partner is Spanish and although her English is not bad ( My Spanish is non existent ) she does like to use a translator at times. The one she has is a free one and murders everything she says. Is there a good one? Quite happy to pay for one. Thanks for any suggestions.