19 posts tagged “apple”

A propos of nothing, here is a bit of my tech history. I lived in Tanzania (Afrika) from the age of three to six, where my parents had an Aristona 1/4″ open reel recorder. This was probably my first fascination into audio recording. It was slightly similar to the Philips N4407 recorder, and probably manufactured in the same year. I never did any tape splicing on it, but used the pause button for a few weird experiments during the 1970’s when we had returned to Groningen, The Netherlands. My hooray! moment in audio was 1978, when my cousin introduced me to portable cassette recorders. I used several portable cassette players, all mono, to record everything going on in my surroundings. This included interviewing everyone and recording special events such as new year’s eve 1979/1980. “My” first cassette recorder was my dad’s Realistic recorder (from Tandy, now Radio Shack I guess). I saved money to buy a Philips N2235, which had interesting features such as variable pitch. I then gradually started to invest in better equipment. A Teac V40 was my (extremely modded) stereo cassette recorder that I used to do a lot of editing. Some of this editing even made it onto Ferry Maat’s Soulshow. After saving 4000 guilders from my first job in the Academic Hospital of Groningen in 1986, I bought a brand new Revox B77 open reel recorder which ran at 7.5 and 15 i.p.s. This was the first recorder I used to do tape editing, always at 15 i.p.s. As much as I enjoyed doing 1/4″ editing, I think digital editing is much easier and as such better suited for creative editing. It’s also much cheaper! Back in 2003 when I studied at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) we had to do a bit of open reel editing too, and it was fun to notice I still had the same routine, even though I hadn’t done any tape editing for some 10 years. As for computers, we had an Acorn Atom at school which I used for some stupid BASIC experiments around 1980/1981. A lot of calls to random functions, yes, hmmm…. My dad got a 8086 IBM XT computer running MS-DOS in 1987, but I didn’t do much with it at first. A bit of WordPerfect 4.something. Later on in life it was the “spare computer” in my parents’ house, and I experimented a lot with it using Borland’s TASM assembler and Modula-2. It was 1989 when I got my first own computer, which was an Atari ST 520 STFM I got from my parents as a birthday gift. I used it to run some MIDI programs to talk to my Yamaha DX 21 synthesizer and Kawai drummachine, but soon I drifted off in the direction of computer programming. I used TDI Modula-2 a lot. I taught myself C and C++ during my stay at filmschool (1988 - 1994), but never excelled in those languages. I also did a lot of programming in Toolbook II. These days I do a liiiiittle bit of php/mysql. In 1994 I re-discovered editing on my PC, a 486SX machine. It was the first time I noticed that my PC was fast enough to do audio editing in okay quality. Do mind, this was way before the internet was ubiquitous. I wrote two books on computer topics on non internet machines! My first own modem connection to the internet was in 1996, where I was hz37@xs4all.nl. I’ve owned several different PC’s running various versions of Windows and used programs such as SoundForge to do most editing. When I started taking piano lessons in 2000, I got more serious about music production and got a license for Emagic Logic Platinum. When it was discontinued on the Windows platform, I bought my first iMac in 2005. I now also have a Macbook Pro, which runs Logic Pro 7.2 and Protools LE with an MBox. And several other apps of course. At work we use Windows PC’s, running Protools HD. My girlfriend and I also own a custom built PC running Windows XP, but we’ll probably upgrade it to a more quiet core 2 duo machine some time soon.

Technorati Tags: apple, cassettedeck, core2duo, editing, logic, macbook, php, revox, soulshow, toolbook, windows

Here’s an interesting thing from the rumor mill, according to Ars Technica: Amazon could be the next major name to dive into the world of unprotected music sales. Various rumors have been picking up over the past couple of weeks that the online retailer was readying itself to launch an MP3 download store in May, which some see as one of the only retailers that will be able to truly challenge Apple’s ubiquitous iTunes Store. [more…] Also a very interesting read from Peter Gutmann, A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. I especially think this is very true: “[…] there’s only so many things that you can do with (say) a word processor, and at some point you’ve made the last meaningful change and the only thing left to do is repeatedly tweak the eye candy and bump the version number every few years. Windows has the same problem. If you take an eight-year-old PC running Windows 98, put it next to a current PC running Windows XP (with the Fisher-Price colour scheme turned off), the typical user won’t be able to tell you what’s changed without a point-by-point comparison of system features from one machine to the other.” [more…] Powered by ScribeFire.

Technorati Tags: drm, amazon, itunes, apple, windows, vista.word.microsoft

We’ve come a long way since dial-up modems. Right now, when I’m living here and there and nowhere with my trusted Macbook Pro, WiFi is such a blessing! In my temporary home in Utrecht there’s an open WiFi network. Here at work in the Mediapark in Hilversum there’s of course a staggering amount of WiFi spots: I wonder when we’ll be all reaping the benefits of municipal WiFi, WiMax and satellites, trains, roads and airplanes equipped with hi-speed wireless networking. I can see a future where you see people everywhere emerged in Second Life, Skype video chats, wearable internet… 24/7, at every street corner. I already love the 3G network which means I can check my email just about everywhere I go. This online zine has more about all this technology.

Technorati Tags: wifi, wimax, secondlife, airport

Okay, I admit it, my previous experiment failed miserably. For two reasons: 1) It didn’t show up on my iPod and 2) it looked horrible with those horizontal lines. Let me first hark back to where this experiment started, which is a mail I got from Apple. Nothing personal, just because I’m registered in the iTunes store as a podcaster: Recommendations for Formatting Video Podcasts 1. If you’re encoding your video podcast at 320×240, please increase the resolution to either 640×480 or 640×360 (depending on the aspect ratio of your source files). Why? Because video podcasts at this resolution look great on Apple TV and still port to video iPods. Lower resolution podcasts might also work on both platforms, but they don’t look nearly as good on a widescreen TV. As always, make sure to test any encoding changes you make to ensure device compatibility. QuickTime 7.1’s “Export to iPod” function will ensure that a video file is encoded at a width of 640 and is iPod-compatible. 2. It’s best not to create two different podcast feeds for different resolutions. By doing so, you dilute the popularity of your podcast and reduce exposure in our charts. It’s better to have one feed high in the charts than two that are lower. 3. If your source files are 16:9, stick with that aspect ratio. Don’t add letterboxing to make them 4:3. By doing so, you prevent the video from expanding to fill a 16:9 widescreen TV and instead end up with black space on all four sides. Also, your original source files should be at least 640 pixels wide. Of course these are just recommendations. We understand that there are good reasons for 320×240 (bandwidth bills) and 720p (looks fantastic). Do whatever makes the most sense for your show. For more information on formatting video, see the recently updated spec: http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html To see a sample of excellent podcasts that also look great with Apple TV, check out the Apple TV Podcast Showcase. So with that out of the way, I was endeavouring to create my own 16:9 widescreen movie that would a) be a valid video podcast, b) play well on a video iPod, c) look good on an Apple TV too and d) contain elements of both real world video and animations. Making a valid video podcast is easy enough. Just add an enclosure to your blog posting. That part always works. To play on a video iPod, the bitrate shouldn’t be too high (I guess I went wrong there in my previous experiment). In such cases, where the bitrate is too high, you can only see your video podcast on the web in a player or in iTunes, but it won’t transfer to a video iPod. It is all described in detail in this article. To look good on an Apple TV, it should be 640 x 360 for widescreen, according to Apple. My biggest gripe though were the ugly horizontal lines that showed up in the clip when I exported it directly from iMovie HD to the iPod. It didn’t matter much whichever m4v or mp4 setting I tried… it always showed those lines. I’m not sure what the source of those is, probably my JVC MiniDV cam that isn’t HD? I don’t know. But what solved it was a two way export. First to DV stream progressive (that was the key), and then a QuickTime Pro export to iPod. In the latter case, there’s nothing you can adjust. But the net result is a clip that’s 640 x 360 widescreen which still looks awsum on my iPod. I don’t have an Apple TV (I don’t even have a tv right now, I just watch Joost and video podcasts!), so I can only hope it looks good there too. Below you can find the movie which describes the process a bit. I’ll set the PodPress player to 450 x 252 so it won’t mess up this blog posting, but rest assured the movie is 640 x 360.
Download Jelle the dog 2

Just wondering what video podcast export format should work best for both Apple TVs and iPods. This first stab at it uses iMovie HD’s internal export to Apple TV option. My biggest worry is size. This 0′54″ clip is already 28 MB.
Download Jelle the dog

We live in interesting times….: Brussels to target Apples iTunes site By Tobias Buck, Karl de Meyer in Brussels and Emiko Terazono in London Published: April 2 2007 19:04 | Last updated: April 3 2007 02:46 Apple and several big music companies are facing a European Commission antitrust probe after Brussels issued formal charges alleging that the deals underpinning the sale of music through the hugely popular iTunes platform violated competition rules. [more…] And this in the same week that Apple announced it will sell DRM free music on iTunes. Remember Jobs’ letter a few weeks ago? It seems it indeed marked the change of the music industry concerning digital rights management. Meanwhile, my own podsafe music has a lot of exposure via the amazing podsafe music network. So what do you think is gonna happen? Sure, Apple can chain the EU iTunes stores together into one EU store if they have to. But does the EMI deal flag the start of a new era of DRM free music??

Technorati Tags: emi, apple, drm, itunes, europe, antitrust, brussels, podsafe

I installed Lightbox on my blog. Click on the picture of the studio I work at below to see: What else is new? I just bought a new Wacom tablet, a modest Graphite 4 CTE-440, that works better with OSX than the one I used to have. Sounds Good episode 14 is in the making, now with the comfort of this new lovely pen device!

Technorati Tags: protools, wacom, hilversum, lightbox, wordpress

From: http://www.insidehomerecording.com/?p=328 By: Paul Garay “My new tutorials are now available at macprovideo.com If youre sort of new to Podcasting and are a GarageBand user, these tutorials will take you through everything from setting up your microphone with your Mac, all the way to publishing your Podcast to the web with iWeb software. I had a lot of fun creating the tutorials, and I hope you like them. Thanks to Mike Kaye and Hens Zimmerman for helping me out with the remote interview segments.” powered by performancing firefox

Technorati Tags: podcasting, garageband, iweb, skype

Podcasting gets little respect from traditional media. To them we’re little more than a joke, than amateurs. What they don’t understand is that podcasting is more than just a delivery mechanism - it’s a social movement. People are sick of the watered-down, cookie-cutter content that networks and record companies expect us to enjoy. People are tired of watching friends and loved ones get sued by record labels who only care about profits and nothing else, not even the artists they supposedly represent. We want and deserve more. On March 22, 2007, we’re going to change that with your help.

Technorati Tags: itunes, podsafe

Oh well.. skipped a day! It’s a bit crazy, what with me moving to another town and getting prepped for a new job. In the mean time I also made a family movie with old Super8 movies using Logic, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, VisualHub, Soundtrack Pro, LiveType, MediaFork and iShowU. I also discovered that old 18 fps Super8 movies captured to PAL 25 fps look better if you set Playback Quality to Standard in iMovie HD’s Preferences. High and Highest definitely looked more shaky with the old Super8 movies, and I didn’t see any drawbacks of the Standard setting in my own 25 fps material (LiveType and iPhoto Ken Burns things). Today’s “tip” is of a more generic nature. You may not fully realize this, but the internet has morphed into a place where your opinion matters; a place where you can query the hive mind if you’re anxious to find out the answer to a difficult question. Here’s a few examples: 1) Metafilter, and more specifically AskMefi. The first is a community weblog, the latter is a way for you to ask a question to a whole lot of people at once. You will get answers too! Of course you can also answer questions from other people if you happen to know the answer or have an opinion about something. This is different from places like Yahoo Groups or the plethora of forums out there, because AskMeFi is a diverse audience answering question from diverse people. Sometimes that helps. 2) Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, etc. If a thousand people think some matter is interesting, it’s definitely worth checking out, I think. Of course this is an argumentum ad populum, but that’s what the hive mind is all about. It also doesn’t guarantee that an interesting story is always spotted as such, but at any rate, the popular stories on the aforementioned sites make a good read if you ever find yourself bored. It’s also a great way to see if something *you* find interesting strikes a nerve with the world at large…. 3)… which brings us to tip 3. Start a blog! Share your thoughts. It’s a great way to make new friends, make a difference, write something down in history. At the very least, you can share your photos on a free FlickR account. That’s a super great service to share your photos with friends, groups, family. It’s also one of the best interfaces on the web, I think. Before you know it, someone will think your photo is a favorite of theirs. I recently upgraded to a pro FlickR account, which means you have unlimited storage. And the FlickR uploader tool is really totally intuitive to use. Works on both Mac and Windows.

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, digg, flickr, ilife, imovie, iphoto, ishowu, livetype, logic, mediafork, pal, super8, technorati, visualhub, yahoo