Want to inject a bit of dread, fear, garment-ripping, frustration and regret into your life?
Try installing a new operating system on your computer.
I've been hanging back from up-grading my computer to Apple's Lion variant of the OS till I was sure all the bugs had been picked out of it and, to be fair, Apple have made up-grading quite easy to do.
No wandering into (un)P.C. World to buy a box of discs, just a few mouse clicks and it's on it's way down the interwebtubes.
Well, it would've been if...
I set the process in motion (4.05G download) and took Linda for a walk, I estimated about 2 hours should do it.
On returning home I find the broadband connection had dropped out after 40 minutes and I had to re-start the process all over again.
Why does that happen?
Why, at that specific time, on this particular day, did that happen?
In the words of Toyah Wilcox "ippssh a mythtareeee".
So, having sat patiently for another hour and a half, I have Lion installing.
Which takes around 40 minutes.
When the computer restarts I find that two of my important applications don't work anymore.
Reason will need an (expensive) upgrade and WireTap, one of the single most useful apps I have, has been "Sandboxed".
Arrrgggg!
On the other hand, there's lots of little nips and tucks that will make life in cyberspace a little easier.
I can't instantly bring them to mind but, time will tell.
Happy(ish) with the new OS I decide to do one more piece of upgrading.
My recording studio weapon of choice is GarageBand.
Not the best nor the most flexible studio package but the one I'm familiar with and like using because it's simple, which counts for a lot.
I suppose I should consider going for something like Logic Pro but I'd end up getting distracted by all the extra bells and whistles and run the risk of "over-producing" tracks which is a very, very bad habit to fall into.
After a cursory glance the programme seems to be everything it was.
There's a new tweak that allows individual recorded tracks to be beat-matched to the overall tempo of the recording which will save an enormous amount of editing time trying to do the same trick manually.
I treated myself to one little (free) 'toy' for GarageBand, an AudioUnit called 'Vinyl' which can make all the lovely clean recordings I've made sound like dusty scratched records from any decade between 1930 to 2000.
I'm going to have fun with that, right now.
Saturday, 25 February 2012
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5 comments:
I hear you!
Yesterday at work, I got to deal with a laptop that they'd given me with Windows 7 on it (a global company requirement) a month ago, only to find the local site's programs couldn't cope with it. So yesterday, Windows XP was installed on it, and I got to sit through 42 mandatiry Micrsoft product upgrades PLUS re-installing a different version of Office PLUS a yet different version of MS Access PLUS re-installing some truly rancid vendor software with horrific verification methods. IE: One has to download it from their site, install it (which demands a reboot,) then run it once to generate an 80 character code, then go back to the website to paste the code in, and then wait for an email for an unlocking code ... And the software itself is crap!
So after that day of installs, last night I tried out my new audio/MIDI interface with Cubase, which it came with ...
After reading that I'll stop whining immediately!
I'm never smug about my Mac but, considering what Windows users have to deal with I feel, sort of, lucky.
I'm not so bothered about losing Reason, I only used it as a loop-station, but losing WireTap is a pain.
It allowed me to rip any audio going through my computer.
Which will have implications for my bank balance.
This home stuff is on this 4 year old Mac Mini running OS 10.5.something.
I got the interface last month as a first move toward being able to play portably, and thus in public.
So this thing is a Tascam US-144MKII, which boasts USB, 4-channel input, kinda sorta, with phantom power for 2 mics, line/guitar input, S/PDIF digital audio I/O, MIDI I/O, a headphone jack ...
So far I'd discovered that the headphone jack can play a bit louder and better than any other headphone output of the Mac, so I've been very happy with that. Odd thing is, when you have this device as your system sound device, suddenly the remote control volume control doesn't work. And if you switch sound devices while it's on, iTunes sometimes needs a restart.
Also, you know the "Audio MIDI Setup" utility app? It can be wildly useful in that you can define Aggregate Devices with it. For instance, I tied together the iMic's input with the Mac's own, and added the Mac's stereo output to create a 4-in/2-out "device" that applications could then treat as something real. Unfortunatly, the Tascam seems to be immune to such niceties.
But what the heck, I've got better headphone listening, and I can finally send digital audio from my XL-7 to my Mac.
... or any other computer I choose to get. On that ambition of playing live, since the Tascam thing is as funcitonal on Windows machines, and Ableton Live exists for Windows as well as Macs, this bit of hardware suddenly makes many a Windows-based laptop sufficient for my needs, if I get too impatient to save up for a MacBook.
This bit of hardware might let you do what you did with WireTap.
Have you checked out Reaper? $60 for a license for us mere mortals, and it has a 30 day try-out period.
All my recording work revolves around my MacBook.
I use the Edirol UA-25 for my main I/O with a selection of mics: sE Z3300 A, Oktava MK219 (Commie!) and AKG C1000 S.
For master & sample editing I use an Italian programme called Quattro X.
I did fiddle about with the midi app a couple of years ago to link a vsti Wasp and a 16 step sequencer together just for old times sake as I used to own 2 EDP Wasp synths and a Spider Sequencer but traded them in for a TB303 when it first came out.
One day I'll post about playing live with an Atari ST520 running Qbase and an Akia Sampler.
That was "fun" an' no mistake.
Awww you didnt trade in the WASPs?
We had some fun time with those little devils. I especially liked the way you tweaked it just a touch too far and it just stopped. That was fun mid-gig. I think it was your WASP I used with Nodrog and Julian (?) one odd night at that bloody disco upstairs above the railway station. We did 'Close to You', but then Nodrog has always had a weakness for the Carpenters
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