Comments on: Survey Experiments http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/2009/11/11/survey-experiments/ Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:10:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Alan http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/2009/11/11/survey-experiments/comment-page-1/#comment-2889 Alan Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:18:45 +0000 http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/?p=119#comment-2889 John David, Using the survey questions to find out more about my audience is great advice. Because really, I don't know much about how drumlines acquire cadences these days. Not knowing who I should be targeting, plus the fact that I feel out of touch with the current state of marching percussion (and the high school drummers themselves), makes things even more difficult for me. I'm actually using a few open source tools, my own marching percussion notation (which gets converted into formats understood by those open source tools), and a soundfont of marching percussion instruments I found online. I have considered buying professionally recorded samples/soundfonts (and I actually did, but it's for non-commercial use ... more about that mixup <a href="http://www.flamswiss.com/2009/07/10/soundfont-snafus/" rel="nofollow">here</a>). Last night I wrote in-depth about how my toolset came about. That post is <a href="http://www.flamswiss.com/2009/12/07/my-tools/" rel="nofollow">here</a>. On November 8 I started using another tool to create wav/mp3 files from MIDI+soundfont, and it resulted in a much better sound. I imagine you heard the updated versions... the previous demos were even worse! So cold and empty. In the new ones you can tell the samples were made in a gymnasium (at least that's what it sounds like to me). John David,

Using the survey questions to find out more about my audience is great advice. Because really, I don’t know much about how drumlines acquire cadences these days. Not knowing who I should be targeting, plus the fact that I feel out of touch with the current state of marching percussion (and the high school drummers themselves), makes things even more difficult for me.

I’m actually using a few open source tools, my own marching percussion notation (which gets converted into formats understood by those open source tools), and a soundfont of marching percussion instruments I found online. I have considered buying professionally recorded samples/soundfonts (and I actually did, but it’s for non-commercial use … more about that mixup here).

Last night I wrote in-depth about how my toolset came about. That post is here.

On November 8 I started using another tool to create wav/mp3 files from MIDI+soundfont, and it resulted in a much better sound. I imagine you heard the updated versions… the previous demos were even worse! So cold and empty. In the new ones you can tell the samples were made in a gymnasium (at least that’s what it sounds like to me).

]]> By: John David Eriksen http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/2009/11/11/survey-experiments/comment-page-1/#comment-2692 John David Eriksen Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:56:02 +0000 http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/?p=119#comment-2692 Oh, and lovers of percussion-heavy music will do well by becoming familiar with Nigerian Fuji music ;] http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Refined_Fuji_Garbage/21918785 Oh, and lovers of percussion-heavy music will do well by becoming familiar with Nigerian Fuji music ;]

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Refined_Fuji_Garbage/21918785

]]> By: John David Eriksen http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/2009/11/11/survey-experiments/comment-page-1/#comment-2691 John David Eriksen Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:53:32 +0000 http://www.greaterscope.com/blog/?p=119#comment-2691 Embedding survey questions directly in a site is a great idea. I'll be sure to remember that approach for the next time a client requests that we add a survey to their site. I think that, in most cases, it's preferable to a popup or modal window. Giving people a chance to read through and parse your site before blasting them with an unwanted distraction and they will be more likely to give you feedback. You could even supplement a set of on-page questions with a link or popup that appears if they answer all of the questions as a sort of reward to users that seem genuinely interested in helping you out. With regard to your cadence site, you might want to consider learning more about your audience than what you are currently asking. Asking them what their background is (student musician, paid faculty, etc.), and how they obtain their cadences (which print catalogs and website?) might help you understand who out there is looking for cadences. I'm assuming you are using Finale or Sibelius or something like that to compose. Have you considered buying a sample library of marching band percussion and using the MIDI file that those programs can export along with a sequencer program such as Cubase or Sonar to create cadence demos with a fuller and more expressive sound? I think that polishing up your demos could win you more purchases. Embedding survey questions directly in a site is a great idea. I’ll be sure to remember that approach for the next time a client requests that we add a survey to their site. I think that, in most cases, it’s preferable to a popup or modal window. Giving people a chance to read through and parse your site before blasting them with an unwanted distraction and they will be more likely to give you feedback.

You could even supplement a set of on-page questions with a link or popup that appears if they answer all of the questions as a sort of reward to users that seem genuinely interested in helping you out.

With regard to your cadence site, you might want to consider learning more about your audience than what you are currently asking. Asking them what their background is (student musician, paid faculty, etc.), and how they obtain their cadences (which print catalogs and website?) might help you understand who out there is looking for cadences.

I’m assuming you are using Finale or Sibelius or something like that to compose. Have you considered buying a sample library of marching band percussion and using the MIDI file that those programs can export along with a sequencer program such as Cubase or Sonar to create cadence demos with a fuller and more expressive sound? I think that polishing up your demos could win you more purchases.

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