Signing Up

Before you can use VRS, you must Sign-Up.

Signing up for VRS does a couple of things. First, It gives you a VRS UserID and Password. This helps to ensure that you can control your own contact information and music projects. This is important to us, because we are also musicians and songwriters, and we understand that protecting your music is important to you. We also understand that you are the best person to decide who should have your contact information. We have designed VRS with this in mind, and although we understand that this might limit who signs up for VRS, we believe that in the long-haul, VRS users will appreciate that we have always tried to protect their music and their private contact information.

Signing up also puts you in the VRS directory which allows other VRS members to add you to their projects. We hope that this will build community, and connect musicians, songwriters, mixers, and producers that may have never met otherwise.

When you signup for a VRS UserID you will be asked to enter the following information:

• VRS UserName: This will be the name that you use to login to VRS. It's like a nickname. We suggest that you use the same name that yo used for your email address. For instance, if your email address is JBloggs@JoeBlogs.com, we suggest you use JBloggs as your VRS UserID. But you can use any name with letters and numbers in them. VRS will not accept spaces or other special characters in a VRS UserID.

  
  

• VRS Password: This will be your Password to login to VRS. Please DO NOT make your UserName and Password the same. A good rule for passwords is that they be at least 8 characters long, contain upper case, lower case and numbers. Remember that a good passord helps ensure that only you can manage your VRS information and projects.

  
  

• Re-Type VRS Password: Type in your password again. This is just a check to make sure that your VRS Password has not been mis-typed. We would really hate it, if you signed up for VRS and your password did not work!

  
  

• Your eMail Address: This will need to be a valid email address. We will send a confirmation email to this email address. This is a common way for web sites to make sure that a real person is signing up for legitimate purposes. We just want to protect the VRS community from spam and protect VRS from being used improperly.

  
  

  Once you signup, you will get a confirmation email, and a confirmation number. Your VRS UserID will not work until you confirm your registration with your VRS UserID and your VRS confirmation number.

  
  

• Your Web Site Address: If you have a web site, you can enter that here. It is not required, but since VRS is really meant to connect people, this will allow other VRS users learn more about you and what you do.

  
  

• Your Display Name: This is a more expanded version of your name. If your VRS LoginID (nickname) is JBloggs, this might be your full name - Joe Bloggs.

  
  

• About You: This is for the VRS team to know how you heard about us, and what you plan you use VRS for. It will help us to change and grow VRS. We want VRS development to be driven by the VRS community. We know that there are some VERY creative people that will be signing up for VRS, and we would love to have as much of their input as possible to grow VRS into something that is useful, well designed, and fun to use.

  
  

• Acceptable use: You will need to agree to the VRS acceptable use policy. We really hate that we have to do this, but there are people that would use VRS for purposes that would harm the VRS community. We want to make sure that VRS users know that if they do something illegal, unethical or harmful to the VRS system, it's users, or the VRS team, their ID will be terminated, and their files deleted. We do this to protect VRS and the VRS community.

  
  

Logging In To VRS

VRS Login:
To Login to VRS you will need:

• * Your VRS UserID and

• * Your VRS Password

If you Forgot your Password, simply clock on the "Forgot Password" link. You can then enter your VRS UserID, and the VRS system will Email your pasword to The Email address you entered when you signed up for VRS.

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VRS Main

VRS Main:

When you login to VRS, the first thing you will see is the "Main" VRS screen. The Main VRS screen will contain a lot of information including:

• * Your UserId

• * Your Email address

• * A link to invite others to sign up for VRS, and

• * The VRS Navigation Tabs.

• * A table of your Song Projects

The VRS navigation tabs will be shown on almost every VRS screen (except the popup screens, like the directory or Email popup screens). This ensures that you can easily navigate from one part of VRS to another. It also serves as a way to easily see the different sections of VRS without having to remember a series of menus and screens. As VRS grows and more features are added we will always strive to make VRS easy to navigate.

The table of projects will show a list of all of the project that you are participating in, including important project information such as the Project Creator, The Project Name, The Project Description and a summary of the uploaded tracks and mixes. To delete the project (if you are the creator), you can click on the "Delete" button. Otherwise you can remove yourself from this project by clicking the "Remove Me" button. To edit the project, add tracks or mixes, or view the details of the project, you can click on the Project Name. This will take you to the project details screen.

Note: If you have not created any projects or been added to anyone else's projects, your table of projects will be empty.

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Project Details

Project Details:

The Project Details screen will contain all of the information on the project you are working on. This includes:

• * Project Creator

• * Project Name

• * Project Creation Date

• * If there is an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement)

• * The Project Description

• * How many Tracks. Mixes, and if there is Final Mix

• * Mixers in this project

• * Musicians in this project

• * Comments that participants have left

• * Tracks that have been uploaded

• * Mixes that have been uploaded

• * Final Mix, if it has been uploaded

You can also take the following actions:

• * Add new comments

• * Delete your own tracks

• * Upload new Tracks (Musicians, Mixers, & Project Creator)

• * Upload new Mixes (Mixers & Project Creator only)

• * Upload a final mix (Project Creator only)

• * Download existing Tracks and Mixes.

Note: One of the unique features of VRS is the ability to attach an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) to any VRS project. The NDA is a text display that each VRS user MUST agree to before they can download any tracks or mixes from that particular project.

This is one of the advantages of writing VRS from scratch. VRS has it's own upload and download engines, that control each upload and download request. If the VRS project creator has attached an NDA agreement to their project, the tracks and mixes CANNOT be downloaded until the VRS user agrees to the NDA. The NDA can be a long complicated legal-ese text, or something as simple as: "I agree not to share any of these tracks or mixes with anyone." It's just another way that VRS strives to allow the Project Creator to control how and when their music is made public.

Each project has it's own NDA agreement, which can only be input when the project is created. A project does not HAVE to have an NDA agreement - so if you don't need one, just leave it blank. Also, please note that an NDA agreement cannot be changed, or added later. So if you decide later that you want an NDA agreement on your project, you will need to delete that project, and create a new one.

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Each Track and Mix also has other information that can be filled out to help other collaborators import these tracks into their mixing software. This includes:

• * Time Offset

• * Mono, Stereo, or Surround

• * Bit Depth

• * Sample Rate

• * Track/Mix Description

Your Final Mix can be made "Public" - that is, people can link to it from other web sites (such as MySpace) by checking the box underneath the Final Mix description.

The Link will always follow the following format:
http://TheNetStudio.com/Public/[VRS UserID]/[Proj Name].[MP3|WMA|WAV]
Just replace [VRS UserID] with your actual VRS UserID, and [Proj Name] with your actual VRS project name.

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Some Navigation Notes:

1. By clicking the little address book icon next to the "Mixers" input, you will get a popup directory listing. From there you can select multiple VRS users to add as mixers. VRS will accept two(2) mixers.

2. By clicking the little address book icon next to the "Musicians" input, you will get a popup directory listing. From there you can select multiple VRS users to add as musicians. VRS will accept sixteen(16) musicians.

3. Musicians can upload Tracks, and delete their own Tracks.

4. Mixers can upload Tracks, and Mixes, and delete their own Tracks and Mixes. They can also add Musicians to the Project.

5. The Project Creator can upload Tracks, Mixes and a Final Mix, they may also delete Musicians, and Mixers, as well as add new Musicians and Mixers. The Project Creator can delete any Tracks and Mixes.

6. Remarks can be added at any time, and they will show as the latest remarks at the top.

7. When changing any project information, or adding a new remark, make sure you click on the "Update Project" button.

When viewing Project Details, you will also see a "Project" Tab across the top that allows you to view the Project Details, The Project Chord & Lyrics Chart, and to go to that Project's individual chat room. The Project tab will only be displayed when you are viewing the Project Details.

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Creating A New Project

Creating a New Project

To create a new VRS music project, simply point to the "New" Tab and select "New Project". This will navigate you to the "New Project" screen. The New Project Screen is where your new VRS project begins. Here you can enter:

1. The Project Name

2. The Project Description

3. The Project Creation Date (You probably want to leave this as today)

4. Remarks

5. The text of your NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) if you want one

6. The Mixers for this project
   By clicking the little address book icon next to the "Mixers" input, you will get a popup directory listing. From there you can select multiple VRS users to add as mixers. VRS will accept two(2) mixers.

7. The Musicians for this project
   By clicking the little address book icon next to the "Musicians" input, you will get a popup directory listing. From there you can select multiple VRS users to add as musicians. VRS will accept sixteen(16) musicians.

Don't worry if you don't know who your musicians or mixers will be. You can always add them later, by "Updating" your project.

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VRS EMail

VRS EMail

The VRS EMail tab will allow you to send Email to another VRS user.

The Email screen allows you to enter:

• * To:

• * Subject:

• * Message:

The "To:" must be a VRS UserID. Not the actual VRS user's Email address.

The Email will be sent from the VRS Mailer. This allows you to send an email and receive email from other VRS users without needing to know their actual email address. Using this method allows VRS users to change their email address in their VRS profile, and continue receiving email from other VRS users without the need to notify them of a change in their email address. It also prevents the VRS directory from being used to spam VRS users.

A note about VRS Email:
The VRS Email system is really designed to try to protect each VRS user from unwanted SPAM. We are not trying to keep collaborators tied down to VRS by "hiding" their Email addresses. If you want to provide your collaborators with your Email address, we have nothing against that. In fact, if you want to use a different forum or chat system, we are OK with that too. Heck, you might even < gasp > collaborate with other musicians using other web sites. We are OK with all of that. We would like for VRS to be the pentultimate music collaboration web destination - but if VRS is only one tool that you use to collaborate, that's OK with us - as long as your music is getting made.

We would like to take a moment here, to thank David Harris. We are using his Mercury Email server. We have used Mercury in one form or another since the early 90's when it ran on NetWare 3.x. This is an amazing piece of software and we are grateful that David provides it for donations only. You can learn more about Mercury and David's email client Pegasus here.

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The VRS User Directory

VRS Directory

The VRS Directory is a listing of all the VRS Users, and their web site address. The directory serves as a way for VRS users to let other collaborators know more about them. The Directory will eventually be expanded to provide more information. The directory shows the following information:

• * VRS User Avatar

• * VRS UserID

• * VRS User Name

• * VRS User Web Site

• * VRS User Tags

By clicking on the VRS User's avatar, you will be able to send them a VRS EMail. This is a quick and easy way to contact another VRS collaborators

The VRS Directory screen also allows you to search for a specific VRS UserId or a group of VRS UserIds. For instance: If you cannot remember the specific VRS User that you want to contact, but you remember that they had "guit" in their ID, you can simply enter "guit" (not including the quotes), and VRS will return all VRS UserIds with "guit" in them.

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VRS Discussion Forums

VRS Forum

The VRS Forum is actually a separate open source Forum system called E-Blah, created by Justin Osborne. The VRS team has modified E-Blah to integrate it into VRS, but the forum software was not written by the VRS team. We are grateful to Justin and his team for providing such a high quality system!

You can learn more about E-Blah here

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VRS Want Ads

VRS Want Ads

VRS provides a "Want Ad" capability to allow:

• * Musicians to find Music Projects

• * Project Creators to find Musicians to collaborate on their projects

Any VRS user can submit, view, and reply to VRS want Ads. When a VRS user replies to a VRS Ad, an email will be sent to the VRS user that created the Ad, using the VRS Email system described above. The Email will be sent from the VRS Email system, and will not contain the actual Email address of the sender.

VRS does this to prevent the VRS system from being abused by spammers.

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VRS Contact Tab

VRS Contact Tab

VRS is as much about collaborating on music projects as it is about connecting musicians. The VRS team has tried to create many different methods and channels for VRS users to communicate and connect. The "Contact" tab has the following ways to connect VRS users to communicate on their projects:

1. Mail - This is the same as the VRS Email mentioned above

   
   

2. Forum - This is the same as the VRS Forum mentioned above

   
   

3. RealTime Chat - VRS has integrated the Open Source PJIRC IRC Chat program into VRS. This is a JAVA Chat Applet that the VRS team has integrated into VRS. When you select Realtime Chat, you will be automatically connected to the VRS IRC server, and entered into the VRS general chat room. Our thanks go out to "Plouf" and his team for this fantastic piece of software. You can learn more about PJIRC by clicking here. We would also like to mention that we are using the fantastic open source ircd-hybrid as our IRC server. You can learn more about ircd-hybrid by clicking here.

   
   

4. Comments - The VRS team has create a public comment system that allows any VRS user to submit public comments. All VRS users can submit and view these comments. It is our hope that this will be a way for VRS users to make comments and suggestions to further improve VRS.

   
   

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MY VRS Profile

My Profile

Every VRS user has a profile that contains their VRS user information. Some of the information such as the VRS user's web site is public, and some of the VRS user's information is private - such as the VRS user's email address. The VRS user Profile will be expanded in the future, but currently it contains:

1. VRS UserID - This cannot be changed

2. VRS Password - You can change your VRS password here

3. Re-Type VRS Password - Re-Enter your password to confirm the change

4. Your Email Address - The Email address that you will receive all of your VRS Email at

5. Your Web Site Address - Enter your Web Site here. This will be displayed in the VRS directory, and will let other VRS users learn more about you. Please make sure you DO NOT enter the http:// part of the web site address. If you do, the hyperlink will NOT work

6. Your Display Name - This is your displayed VRS User Name

If you make any changes, please be sure to click on the "Update Profile" button.

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Login To VRS

VRS Login

This tab is for logging in to VRS. This would be used if your session has expired (VRS will expire your session after a half hour of inactivity).

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VRS Logout

VRS Logout

VRS will expire your session after a half hour of inactivity, but we recommend that you logout of VRS when you are done to ensure security.

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The End

That pretty much covers it. If you have any question, you can always email us at TheNetStudio@verizon.net, or post on the VRS forums.

The VRS Team.

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Help Menu:

Signing Up | VRS Login | The Main Screen | Project Details | Add A New Project | Sending An EMail | The VRS Directory | VRS Discussion Forums | VRS Want Ads | VRS Contact | My VRS Profile | Logging In To VRS | Logging Out of VRS | Top of page