So as usual Apple has released a bunch of new items and previewed some tasty things. I like the new Macbook Air in theory but until they get a bit more quick they are useless as live show machines. Facetime in OSX is a no brainer if you have an iPhone 4 and a spouse at home. iLife 11 seems to be just a minor feature bump. It’s still killer software that makes all Macs even nicer especially considering the price. With regards to this blog any music instruction is good so if you get a copy please watch a few piano lessons in Garage Band ok? Lion is what has me happy. The new Mac App store is going to be great and bringing much of the iOS stuff into OSX is a win. Don’t kid yourself and believe what Steve said today about touch screen Macs. He’s lying through his teeth… they are coming 100%.
“We took our best thinking from Mac OS X and brought it to the iPhone. Then we took our best thinking from the iPhone and brought it to iPad. And now we’re bringing it all back to the Mac with our eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Mac OS X Lion arrives in summer 2011.” – apple.com
For more info: apple.com
This entry was written by , posted on October 20, 2010 at 7:06 pm, filed under apple and tagged apple, Lion, Macbook Air. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
A few days ago Tunecore sent me an email containing an Excel spreadsheet to fill out in order to procure my Apple Ping profile. Last night I received an email from Apple with set up instructions. The process only took a few minutes. I picked my preferred genres, uploaded my photo, typed a two line bio (they can be longer if you like) and picked ten songs I wanted to feature. That last part is interesting because I checked out a few other artist profiles and the hip-hop guys all chose some of their own music while most others picked a selection of music they were listening to. I went the later route to give fans a taste of my influences. All the songs have to be in iTunes and happily even the obscure music I searched for was there. To kick things off I uploaded a few photos from my recent live show and a video from my last show in Malta. The only real downer is when I went to find artists and people to follow I discovered most of the bands I like don’t have profiles yet. If you are on Ping please friend me there and let me know if there is anyone interesting you are following.
“True fans know it all: What their favorite artists are playing — and when and where they’re playing it. Set your inner groupie free by following your favorite artists on Ping.” – Apple.com
The Horrorist at Ping: click here
This entry was written by , posted on October 14, 2010 at 3:20 am, filed under apple and tagged apple, iTunes, Ping, social network, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
As a musician the word to describe how I feel about the new Apple Ping social network is: exhausted. Musicians have become the tech industries guinea pigs. Why not? We try anything and work cheap right? After creating and curating profiles on MySpace, Last.fm, Imeem, Facebook and then Facebook Fan Pages and on and on now it’s time for Ping. Of course most musicians I know won’t be able to create and artist page yet will they? At this point in time indie artists will have to create normal user profiles and watch the Lady Gaga’s get all the love. As an Apple fanboy I’ll download iTunes 10, create my profile, share it with the world and friend a bunch of people I don’t know. Let’s hope the new network really does help music discovery.
“Follow your favorite artists with a click and become part of their inner circle. Get in on the action with artist photos and status updates. Even add comments to join the conversation. Find out what music an artist likes and pick up a few recommendations. Ping is built into the iTunes app on iPhone and iPod touch. So you can see artist updates from anywhere.” – apple.com/itunes/ping/
Download iTunes 10 with Ping: click here
This entry was written by , posted on September 2, 2010 at 5:32 am, filed under apple and tagged apple, iTunes, Ping, social network. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
My favorite device just got better. Videochat? Beam me up!
FaceTime. Retina Display. Multitasking. HD Video recording. – Apple.com
The WWDC Keynote is now online: click here
This entry was written by , posted on June 8, 2010 at 3:53 am, filed under apple, iPhone and tagged apple, FaceTime, iPhone, iPhone 4, Retina Display. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I know just another iPad synth demo. But this one is uber Liquid Skyesque therefore it gets a post. Every Wednesday in the middle of hardcore Left Brain thinking it’s good to get a shot of the weird. There’s no reason to be all spreadsheet for five days!
“Left Brain… Logical, Sequential. Right Brain… Random, Synthesizing” – funderstanding.com
For more info: retronyms.com/synth
This entry was written by , posted on June 2, 2010 at 5:21 am, filed under apple, hardware, iPad and tagged apple, iPad, Kaossilator, Korg, Retronyms. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m waiting for the 3g model but the press seems to think we have a winner (duh!). Evernote on the iPad is going to be a killer App for me at my day job. If the Netflix rumor is true then yipeee: click here. Music Apps on this thing will be amazing. Ableton are you making an iPhone App too?
Wall Street Journal: Apple iPad Review: Laptop Killer? Pretty Close
USA Today: Verdict is in on Apple iPad: It’s a winner
Time: Apple’s iPad: The Mothership Prepares for Launch
NYTimes: Reviews: Love It or Not? Looking at iPad From 2 Angles
Chicago Sun Times: iPad is pure innovation – one of best computers ever
So are you getting one? If no why not? What are you looking most forward to using it for?
This entry was written by , posted on April 1, 2010 at 5:05 am, filed under apple, iPad and tagged apple, iPad. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
With the release of the iPad immenent it’s clear a MIDI interface for the pad or iPhone could be put to good use. I’ve been enjoying the lack of MIDI and the simple sound mangling apps such as Bebot, Curtis, TOPLAPapp and sampleToy. However, some Apps such as synthPond scream, “I want to be hooked up to to a DAW in sync and use me with external sounds”.
“MIDI Mobilizer is the only MIDI interface for Apple iPhone and iPod touch. Play, record, and backup MIDI information from any MIDI device, any time, any place.” – line6.com
We may not need a new MIDI standard but how about a new tiny MIDI plug?
For more info: line6.com
This entry was written by , posted on March 18, 2010 at 4:00 am, filed under apple, hardware, iPad, iPhone and tagged apple, Bebot, Curtis, iPad, iPhone, Line6, midi, sampleToy, synthPond, TOPLAPapp. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
MStretchSynth Demo – Kevin Schlei (2010) from Kevin Schlei on Vimeo.
Here’s an interesting synthesizer based on a Macbook Pro’s Trackpad. I like futuristicish things and MStretchSynth surely fits that bill. If this interface gets tied to user generated samples it’s going to be great.
“‘MStretchSynth’ uses multi-point (multi-touch) data streams to create a synthesis instrument driven by the relationships between points. Instead of mapping touch positions (X and Y coordinates) directly to synthesis parameters, relationships such as angle, distance, and velocity compared to other points are used. ‘MStretchSynth’ uses angle, distance and total velocity between points to map to synthesis parameters pitch, amplitude and delay depth.” – Kevin Schlei
For more info: kevinschlei.com
via Synthtopia
This entry was written by , posted on February 9, 2010 at 5:39 am, filed under apple, hardware, synthesizer and tagged apple, controller, Kevin Schiel, macbook, MStretchSynth, trackpad. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
After a mountain of hype the Apple iPad is finally here. It’s more an evolutionary product than revolutionary. What I mean is it doesn’t have a front facing camera behind the screen that tracks your movements and let’s you do hand swipe gestures in mid-air. It really is more like a large iPhone. So far the amazing re-invention of the magazine as seen in demos from Time and Sports Illustrated are not on this device. Those are two examples of stuff I would have characterized as revolution. Am I really disapointed? Not one bit because as an iPhone owner I know how amazing the iPad is going to be. The touch screen interface on my iPhone is such a joy to play with a larger more useful sized iPad is going to lend itself to the creation of thrilling new apps. Peter Kirn over at CreateDigitalMusic went on a bit of a rant in a post titled How A Great Product Can Be Bad News: Apple, iPad, and the Closed Mac. He states he displeasure with Apple’s closed system, the choice of an iPhone vs Mac OS in the iPad, lack of ports on the iPad and so forth. I disagree with Peter and think the iPad is going to be an amazing piece of equipment for musicians. How do I know? Because my iPhone is already an amazing piece of equipment for musicians. My iPhone doesn’t need virus protection, App makers make money and I love the look and feel of the thing in my hand. We are musicians right? Don’t we gravitate to beautiful things? Luckily for Peter he has a great option: Android.
So what about the futuristic features some of us dreamed about earlier this week? Front face video chat and 4G are so 2011! Wonderfully, the entry level iPad is $499. Most Americans with day jobs can save that amount of spending money in one week. Ok I’ve done my Apple fanboy post… see you on stage!
For more info: apple.com/ipad/
This entry was written by , posted on January 28, 2010 at 5:55 am, filed under iPad and tagged apple, iPad. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s92YywVZSPQ
I once owned a Magnavox Odyssey 2 (Wikipedia link) videogame system. I also spent a good amount of time at two Arcades. Galaxy and Mr. Arcade were their names and sadly they are both gone. I remember there was this gum filled grape candy I used to love. It was like a square Blow Pop without the stick. So no wonder when anything 8Bit retro pops up on my computer screen I stop for a minute and think to myself, “Yeah this is cool somehow”. 8Bitone (iTunes link) looks very solid and Vocoder Synthesizer SV-5 (iTunes link) look useful beyond retroness. I really like making music and every now throwing in the iPhone’s audio.
“This tune is ‘Behind The Mask’ by Yellow Magic Orchestra. So I performed on 8Bitone and Vocoder SV-5 that is iPhone/iPod touch musical apps by Yudo. 8Bitone is retro 8-bit sound monophonic Synthesizer and 4 track Sequencer. SV-5 is authentic Vocoder and polyphonic Synthesizer like a Roland VP-330.” – humanmaestro
8Bitone and Vocoder Synthesizer SV-5 are .99. Insert Coin!
This entry was written by , posted on November 23, 2009 at 6:16 am, filed under apple, iPhone, sounds, synthesizer and tagged 8bit, 8Bitone, apple, iPhone, retro, Vocoder SV-5, Yello Magic Orchestra, Yudo. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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