Michael Schutz :: Blog » Technology

iPhone blogging

Michael — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:36:57 +0000

So I got an iPhone when we moved to Canada. So far I love it. And I just found out there’s a Wordpress app so I can blog directly from the phone.

Maybe this a good way to revitalize!

Sibelius 6 drops

Michael — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:19:14 +0000

I just got an email from the makers of Sibelius, music notation software, that version 6 has dropped, and is available now. Anyone who’s interested in notation software (which should be anyone who’s in music ministry ) should seriously look at Sibelius or one of the other products in their lineup. I know that sounds like I’m a shill, but I promise you I make no money from them at all by saying anything good or bad. I just think it’s a fantastic thing.

As a full-time musical worship leader, I can tell you that Sibelius is one of the best tools I have in my toolbox. I’ll write another post on why everyone who leads music ministry at their church should check out notation software, but for now, here’s what I’m most excited about in Sibelius 6:

Magnetic Layout: automatically adjusting lyrics, dynamic markings, etc. to position them properly underneath notes. In previous versions, it put them in a default position which needed to be tweaked. This alone would save me hours in scoring.

ReWire support: glueing Sibelius to Cubase (I’m also a long-time Cubase user and fan) is brilliant. Cubase has always had scoring features, but they’ve never been that great, honestly. To be able to record a Sibelius score into Cubase, add acoustic tracks (like guitar and vocals) and sync them up will make demo production so much easier.

Audioscore: input music with voice or other acoustic instrument. Sing your ideas into the score! Sure, it’s a Lite version bundled, and the Pro version (read: more money) probably works better, if Photoscore is any indication (and it probably is, since Neurotron makes both). But still, this also will be a huge improvement in getting ideas into notation much more quickly than going from voice to keyboard to notation.

Better playback engine: it’s always had high-quality sounds, but loading sounds from Kontakt Player has taken time and latency has been a problem. So if the native sound playback engine lives up to its billing, it’ll be so much better.

Of course, they proclaim a host of other improvements too, all of which I’m sure will be helpful.

The one question I do have which I haven’t seen answered (and really wouldn’t expect see on their marketing anyway) is if they’ve improved copy protection at all. Their copy protection scheme has always been annoying to work with, IMO. So we’ll see whether that’s changed at all.

I’m gonna have to get my hands on this upgrade as soon as I can.

Church musicians, do you have experience with Sibelius, Finale, or music notation in general? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts too – comment away! And stay tuned for another post(s) for my argument(s) on why this type of tool is essential for doing church music work well.

The top 3 reasons I’d get a Mac

Michael — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:38:14 +0000

After reading this thoughtful blog post from Smashing Magazine, I was thinking more about Macs and all the arguments for and against them (surprisingly, the blog post mentions a few of the latter). As a Windows user, I’m not a fanboi, just one who’s always used Windows machines (except for laying out our Grade 11 creative writing magazine). I’ve been bugged for a long time (you know who you are, Taylor) to switch, but haven’t really ever found a compelling enough reason to shell out so much more money for the same computing power.

(One disclaimer before I go further: As a musician/armchair designer, being a Windows guy dooms me to loserdom. Macs are all over the design/music/production world, but I don’t really care that much. As I’ve said before, I don’t derive my self-worth or talent from the computer I use. It’s a tool. That’s it.)

Giving it some thought this afternoon, I thought of the top 3 things that would convince to me to jump in, and none of them (well, maybe #3) have much to do at all with the “traditional” reasons one would think are strong arguments (eg. “it just works”, “OMGSHINY”, “you can run Windows inside it!”, and the like…)

S0 with all that, here are the 3 three reasons I’d seriously consider a Mac for my next computer:

It’s based on UNIX. The more I get into web developing (especially with Drupal), the more this appeals to me. I’ve been playing lately with Linux, but dual-booting or Virtual Machining is annoying. To have the terminal and local installs would be great. (I know you can do XAMPP, etc. on Windows too, but the native implementation in *NIX is much better.)
The new multi-touch pad is superawesome. I’ve never been a fan of the one-button mouse. (Both my mice now have at least 5 buttons, and I use all of them regularly.) But my brother got a Macbook a little bit ago and when I played with the new multi-touch pad, that alone is almost enough to convince me to switch. If you can set it to tap-to-click instead of depress-to-click, it would be superduperawesome.
Someone would give me one (or just give me the $3000 it would take to get the new 17″ Macbook Pro). Seriously, Apple. $1000 for a 4GB RAM upgrade? Seriously? I get that your pricing is higher because you believe you have a superior product. But the “Apple tax” sits somewhere around 25-35% for almost identically equipped machines, and that’s just not feasible for me. So if someone for whom that’s not an issue wants to step up, I’m happy to be a recipient. Then maybe I could be considered a “real” musician/designer.

Just some random thoughts on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.