Nord Stage 3 without Windows or MAC

[analogika]

I am not native, but isn't the meaning suggested by maxpiano expressed by "anything but", which, to my ears, indeed means the *opposite* of "all but"?

Linux is all but irrelevant ---> indeed almost irrelevant
Linux is anything but irrelevant ---> very relevant, couldn't be more relevant

Indeed, that's exactly correct.

The reason "all but" is confusing is because of the two ostensibly "opposite" meanings:

"all but irrelevant" is the assessment of a QUALITY — how irrelevant something is, how insignificant something is, how ubiquitous something is, how certain something is. In that context, "all but" means "almost". All of it, but not quite.

"all but two" is a NUMERIC assessment — while it means "except", it actually, logically, kind of means the same thing: "all of them, but not quite."

They kind of mean the opposite, but they don't, really.

Also, may I just say that this forum is absolutely wonderful in how members have agreed upon English as lingua franca, but go out of their way to deal with misunderstandings or translation difficulties. As such, I'm rather grateful for the way this discussion played out, especially given that I kicked it off by using a confusing turn of phrase.

[Hlaalu]

All but two of the apples are red ---> There are a lot of apples. They're all red, except for two.

Yes this usage I am familiar with, yet it's simpler to grasp for non natives because when followed by a noun, as it is now, the meaning it's closer to the literal meanings of "all" and "but". The bigger confusion is when there is an adjective after it.

What about putting a grand finale on this with the following:

All but two of the apples are red, and those two apples are all but red ---> Those two apples aren't red, but nearly so.

All but two of the apples are red, and those two apples are anything but red ---> Those two apples' colour couldn't be more distant than red.

Speaking of red, it's the same colour as Nord's.

[analogika]

"All but red" is a little weird; I'm having trouble imagining how an Apple could be *almost*, but not quite, red.

All but two of my keyboards aren't red, btw.

[Hlaalu]

"all but two" is a NUMERIC assessment — while it means "except", it actually, logically, kind of means the same thing: "all of them, but not quite."

Indeed, but I also can see why this is very confusing for Italians especially, because to our ears the "all but" can easily be misunderstood to mean "everything except"... which is, "you can say anything about it but NOT that is such and such". Hence, the confusion...

Indeed, isn't "everything but" the same as "anything but"? Linux is everything but easy to use ---> difficult to use. In our ears, "all" and "everything" means almost (all but!) the same, so... again, that's the origin of the confusion...

What's amazing to me is how in the world after so many years of English usage (and, hoping not to sound like I want to brag, what I consider a good command on it) I had never thought this thing through...

P.S. Agreed that it's very nice that such conversations take place so smoothly in this forum.

[dmamfmgm]

I'll all but jump the shark and aim for a complete colloquial overload by saying:

English? Affirm or negate a sentence like the other romance languages? Yeah, right.

http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/Willis-Negation.pdf

[Hlaalu]

Not sure what you mean but I can tell you Italian has a negation system which is possibly more ambiguous than English...

[Kaffimusic]

I think: You really should look for a way to use the given programs with the instrument. The stuff is programmed in a way that it works so close together with the NS3, that it´s like an integral part of the machine. Without the sample- or the soundmanager the NS3 is just half usable unless you are completely satisfied with what is preset in the instrument. There is no other way to exchange or alter samples which the machine relies on heavily. The amount of programs is also pretty small for todays standards, so you have to delete or shift programs around or store them for a while elsewhere but in the machine.

[FZiegler]

The amount of programs is also pretty small for todays standards...

You mean the program slots like A:11, A:12 etc., right? Probably they are meant to store basic program drafts - the rest of the game is adapting sounds live. I also think that I'm short of program storage, but only because I haven't erased all those original presets yet.