The iPad has created a whole range of new ways for music making from recreating traditional instruments:
to rethinking the way instruments work:
http://youtu.be/cad2iWNop9A
and Smule have a range of apps that cover both ends of the spectrum. The latest is the MadPad with which you record sound & video samples of any objects you happen upon. These are then laid out in a grid for you to drum on to create your masterpiece.
One of the default sets is a range of bicycle sounds. So following in the footsteps of a young [wikipop]Frank Zappa[/wikipop] on a 1963 edition of the [wikipop]Steve Allen Show[/wikipop]
On Saturday the [wikipop]MacBook[/wikipop] was getting a bit clunky and on investigation the hard disc was found to be damaged and needed wiping/formatting. Just what those girls do to the poor thing, having previously destroyed the old [wikipop search=”iBook G4″]iBook[/wikipop]’s disc, remains a mystery.
After backing up to the [wikipop search=”Time Machine (Mac OS)”]Time Machine[/wikipop], downloading the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and installing that on an old USB hard disc we were ready to boot from the external disc and wipe the internal disc. The wiping did not affect the recovery partition that [wikipop search=”Mac OS X Lion”]Lion[/wikipop] creates and so that was used for the reinstallation.
The process seemed to go without a hitch until the point when the computer should have restarted which it failed to do:
It repeatedly downloaded the installer but then hung showing either 5+ Hours remaining or Around 0 seconds to go. The download was restarted half a dozen times each with the same inconclusive result. Fortunately [wikipop]Tim Minchin[/wikipop] was hosting the Comedy Prom on TV and his Lullaby helped to relieve the frustrations:
Having shut down the MacBook for the night I tried it one more time on Sunday morning. It seemed to stall yet again but while I perused the support forums for any advice there was a reassuring [wikipop]startup chime[/wikipop] and it leapt into life and started the installation process. Once installed Martine sat in bed retrieving the backed up stuff which, to her alarm, reinstalled thousands of old emails.
But in the end, albeit with a little frustration, the whole disc-less wire-less installation did not fail us.
MIDI controllers control MIDI devices. They do not make sound no matter how high the volume is set. One of the main requirements for having an app distributed through the App Store is that the app should work as described. So one star reviews claiming “it does not work” should be ignored.
Amongst the barrage of idiotic comments about the new version of Final Cut are asides such as in an App Store review:
It does have a export to facebook button, need I say more. (sic)
The old version provided sharing options with the likes of YouTube and MobileMe so you could publish your work straight to your account.
That such options have been expanded to include Vimeo and Facebook accounts is apparently a bad thing. Or is it just professional snobbery? Why buy software that is not suited to your needs? You still have the old version if needed.
The program also seems downright counter-intuitive in some areas: the new Media Manager is found under the Sequence menu and not Tools, or even Window. And the preferences don’t reset themselves for the current project. All these inconsistencies should have been resolved before the program was rolled out… Not being OS X-compatible is a serious drawback though, and Final Cut Pro 2.0 still retains an unfinished feel in several areas.
Nine months after the release of Final Cut Pro 2 Final Cut Pro 3 arrived.
Interesting email from Apple offering huge discounts on Adobe software…
..but wait. That is not my usual email address. The web site looks like an Apple site apart from the poor [wikipop]typeface[/wikipop] choice.
The About Us page masterfully utilises the English language to convince anyone that might be thinking that this was not a real Apple page.
Shock! Horror! Microsoft’s Photosynth is a neat little free app that captures a panoramic image (up to 360° if required)…
Simply tap the screen to start shooting, sweep the [wikipop]iDevice[/wikipop] camera around the scene and it will automatically take a sequence of shots (or you can tap the screen again to add a shot). Tap the Finish button and it will stitch the images together to create your panoramic picture. I could have cropped the edges of the image to straighten them up but apparently we prefer the organic/ragged look.
So MS can do it when they try. If only they tried harder more often.
Progress! In the unrelenting march to some ideal, feature rich, future we have to occasionally update the WordPress software which normally amounts to clicking on the Automatic Update link and waiting a moment for the updater to do its thing. Alas the 3.1 update did not do its thing and the blog was broken; left bereft with only the message:
Unable to even log in to see what the problem was I turned to my trusty FTP software to get into the blog. The usual suspects are the plugins which add myriad enhancements but will often cause as many problems. Renaming the plugins folder, so WordPress will not recognise it, allowed me to get to the login screen; and once in I was greated with the message
Clicking the link to run the updater again successfully updated WordPress. Moving all the plugins back into the newly created plugins folder showed that it was not the plugins at fault this time but the errors seemed to be from my own child theme. So we are now back with a hacked about a bit Twenty Ten theme which will break when the next update comes along. Ho hum.
