So I decided to save up my pennies and get this new laptop. And of course I love it. But unlike every computer I’ve come into ownership of before, this one didn’t come with the whizbang sense of multifaceted potential that computers often represent to people like me (“nerds”). This felt more like getting a new instrument. And really, that makes sense: the major thing that this laptop does that my last one didn’t is hold up in certain musical situations.

So okay, Core Audio is great, the hardware is more stable, and the the whole package is much prettier. None of this is really surprising. What hasn’t been as obvious has been the little features and details that come from the platform, particularly with Ableton. I haven’t confirmed this, but I’m pretty sure that Ableton was originally designed and developed for Mac OS, and the Windows version was a port designed to interest people like me who were more
casual and weren’t investing in the more expensive Macs. And of course this means that certain things have to be somewhat shoehorned onto the different environment.

For example, in with ASIO on Windows, as far as I know, the ASIO application takes exclusive control over the hardware. It is possible to have Ableton or Reaper fail to load the ASIO device on startup because I left a YouTube tutorial on in the background and forgot about it. Because it couldn’t load the device, I have to either close the DAW, close YouTube, and restart the DAW, or switch to DirectSound or WDM and deal with the latency. This has not been an issue on the Mac, since direct hardware access isn’t necessary – Core Audio apparently can reconcile multiple applications and low latency. I don’t know how it works, but it does. And it saves me time and frustration.

There’s a similar feature for MIDI devices. Just plug them in whenever, and go to town. On Windows, for whatever reason, MIDI devices are only checked on startup, so I have to restart Ableton if I want to plug in something new, or if I lose USB for whatever reason. I don’t know if this is an app problem or a Windows limitation, but either way it works better on my new computer than on my old one. This feature alone has been worth a ton, and has enabled some “oh shit I need this controller for this trick” improvisation that I would have never tried on the old system due to all the restarting.

Of course, nothing is ever easy. The biggest problem I’ve run into was’t so much a problem with the new environment, but just that I’m doing a platform shift at all! There’s no Synth1 in the Mac. There are other synthesizers that do similar things, but my old projects don’t reference them. At best, I can set up a small Windows box to host that program and act as an external synth. This doesn’t hamper new creations, but it’s a problem in the meantime. Perhaps it is a necessary headache.

The crux of it is that I’m very happy with the new setup and it’s nice to be using the software in the way it was, I think, originally intended.

Probably the biggest surprise has been how much the “sleek and nifty” features actually have gotten in the way of using it as a music player. The touchscreen is pretty, but now I can’t really use it while walking around without taking it out of my pocket and looking at it. Usually, I just reach my hand in if I want to skip a song or pause it, neither of which are uncommon. Now, I have to click the button, slide on the screen to open it, and then control the player application from the screen. Not hard, just harder than it used to be.

But here are the cool parts: I seem to be able to run most of the iPhone apps, and have basic internet access through wifi. This reminds me of the Palm OS days, when it was fun to just see what I could do from the device. It’s often practical, sometimes not, but definitely fun, since you can pick it up and take it with you. Which for some reason is like crack where consumer electronics are concerned. Throughout the years I’ve used PDAs, music players, Nintrndo DS’s, and a TI-89 for much the same reason.

So finally I see what all those iPhone people were talking about. I’m just glad I don’t have to pay for a data plan.

Pre-orders are open for this year’s Songs for the Cure CD at http://www.cancerdrive.org.  You can view the list of contributing artists at that site.  There are some pretty well-known names in there, in certain circles.  I’m very much looking forward to hearing what they’ve come up with this year, as there seems to be a push to step it up from last year’s disc, which had some excellent tracks on it.  we’ve been asked not to distribute our work for now, so as not to compete with our own project, so you won’t see my song on this site in the near future, and IMCD will be the exclusive distributor for the time being.  Apologies for the inconvenience, but we feel it’s the best way to help their efforts.

Pricing is variable – we aren’t selling CDs, we’re asking for donations to cancer research.  For donations over $25, we’re sending out physical copies of the album, which I believe is going to span two discs, considering there’re something like 30 groups contributing.  For smaller donations (I forget the cutoff) there will also be a digital copy available later.  The physical CDs will be a one-time pressing, so get yours in now if you want one.  All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

Warrior Bob – No Reason Not to Fly

I originally wrote this for Josh Whelchel’s excellent Indie Music Cancer Drive album last year.  The version on that CD was written by me and mixed/mastered by Josh, but I’ve learned a bit more about how sound works since then and have, with his permission, decided to release my own mix of it for free on this site.  I hope you enjoy listening to it.  I certainly enjoyed making it.  It is the limit of my current ability.

At the very least, I can look that cool, since I happen to have his second one in my possession: a beautiful bass guitar that matches his fist lead guitar.  And it looks awesome.  And I do, by association.  Rock.

EDIT: Not like anyone reads this so it’s no worry.  :)

The single hilarious failure – and it seems there will always be one -  were the crappy drumsticks included with the set.  They’re lightweight, to match the admittedly small set, and are otherwise unremarkable except for the “Guitar Hero” logo printed on the side.  Also they appear to have a use-life of approximately eight minutes, as halfway through my third song one of them decided to become two of them over the course of several strikes.  It didn’t shatter or snap, like you might expect, rather it just sort of disintegrated, so that I was holding a stick in my left hand, the front half of a stick in my right, and the back half of a stick against my right palm.  It didn’t really affect my playing, other than distracting me via the WTF reflex.

Fortunately I had a set of Drum Circuit-branded Studio 1 sticks which were about the same weight and were within rummaging distance, but I’m not really sure what market they intended the pack-in sticks for.  As if giving kids (who love this game) little sticks to hit each other with wasn’t bad enough, now they’re giving them sticks that turn into spiky implements of jagged stabbery when their parents aren’t looking.

I wonder which suit at Activision thought that up.

Score one for Twitter, and I guess, by extension, one for drinking.