Written by Jim Dalrymple
Inspired by raw power and performance, Revstar’s sound is as unique and bold as its aesthetic. Working to evoke a visceral, unbridled power and an individual, organic tone that is made possible only by considering every detail, Yamaha’s engineers chose materials carefully and designed custom pickups to make sure Revstar sounds as stunning as it looks.
I had a demo of these guitars today and I must say, I was impressed. They have a presence in look and feel that many guitars are missing these days. They aren’t heavy, but they are solid when you play them. I wouldn’t hesitate adding one of these to my collection.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
With the TouchFlow Operation interface optimized for touch panel control, experienced engineers as well as newcomers to the field will find it easier than ever to achieve the ideal mix. Recallable D-PRE™ preamplifiers support sound quality that will satisfy the most discerning professional ears, while advanced live recording features and seamless operation with high-performance I/O racks give these compact digital mixers capabilities that make them outstanding choices for a wide range of applications. Experience the intuitive control and creative freedom that a truly evolved digital console can provide.
Yamaha made these mixers as foolproof as possible. They have a touchscreen display and a ton of presets preconfigured for each instrument in the band. You can also use an iPad to configure settings away from the mixer, so you can go onstage or anywhere in the room and check your sound. If I was going to buy a mixer today, I’d take a serious look at the TF series.
Written by Dave Mark
Producer Greg Kurstin on working with Adele and Logic Pro, straight from Apple’s site:
When Kurstin needed a sound he couldn’t create, he’d find it in a Logic Pro project containing a select set of sampled vintage synth and keyboard sounds. “I was working on my MacBook Pro away from my own studio,” he says. “And playing a rented guitar with none of my favorite pedals. So I didn’t have all my trippy effects there. But I was able to pull out everything I needed from my plug-ins, channel strips, and effects.”
On finishing “Hello”:
The chords were promising, and Kurstin and Adele were able to write most of the song that day. But they couldn’t finish it. “We tried different choruses, but we didn’t quite nail it,” he says. “And I didn’t know if we ever would. I thought maybe this one was going to end up on the shelf.” But Kurstin was called back six months later to finish the song. He used Logic Pro X instruments and plug-ins to enhance the bass line and drums. More radically, he lowered the entire song a half step at Adele’s request. “We tried really hard with a bunch of different ideas,” he says. “And we finally got it right.”
For Kurstin, the song didn’t feel finished until they recorded Adele singing the chorus. “When Adele gets on the mic, she blows your mind. I was moved when I first heard her sing ‘Hello,’ and I’m still moved every time I hear it.”
Written by Dave Mark
Dave Winer, with his thoughts on the dominance of Medium and his efforts to keep blogging/Tumblr posting alive and well:
Medium is on its way to becoming the consensus platform for writing on the web. if you’re not sure you’re going to be blogging regularly, the default place to put your writing is Medium, rather than starting a blog on Tumblr or WordPress.com, for example. I guess the thought is that it’s wasteful to start a blog if you’re not sure you’re going to post that often. It’s something of a paradox, because blogs are not large things on the storage devices of the hosting companies. If they’re doing it right, a blog is smaller than the PNG image in the right margin of this post. They’re tiny little things in a world filled with videos and podcasts and even humble images. Text is very very very small in comparison.
And:
Because I cross-post my stories to Medium through RSS, you will be able to read this there. I guess they won’t recommend it. It probably won’t appear on the front page of Medium. See there’s the other problem with ceding a whole content type to a single company. Since you’re counting on them not just to store your writing, but also build flow for it, the inclination is to praise them, to withhold criticism. To try to guess what they like, and parrot it. If Medium becomes much stronger, this will be what SEO becomes.
Does Medium control the flow? Is there an algorithm that controls how much exposure your Medium post gets, or is it all hand-picked by an editorial team? If the latter, is there a policy regarding posts like Dave Winer’s, posts that are critical to Medium?
If anyone on the Medium team wants to respond, please send a tweet here.
Written by Dave Mark
The TIOBE Index uses this methodology to gauge the popularity of software languages. According to the latest measure:
- Java has swapped places with C, moving from number 2 in January 2015 to number 1 this month.
- Objective-C has moved from number 3 all the way down to number 18, one year later.
- Swift has risen from number 25 to number 14.
- C++ has moved from 4 to 3.
- Python has moved from 8 to 5.
An interesting comment from the article:
Java’s rise goes hand in hand with Objective-C’s decline (-5.88%). Apple’s announcement to replace Objective-C by Swift some time ago was the main cause of this fall. It was expected that Swift would gain as much popularity as Objective-C left behind, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. This is also observed in practice: TIOBE’s customers are not eagerly migrating to Swift yet.
I would have expected Swift plus Objective-C usage to be a near constant. Any fall in Objective-C would see a corresponding rise in Swift. That doesn’t appear to be the case.
Interesting.
UPDATE: You might also want to take a look at the annual Stack Overflow developer survey, found here. [H/T Eric Jacobson]
Written by Dave Mark
Donald Trump said:
“we’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries”
John Gruber digs in to the logic:
The U.S. can’t compete with China on wages. It can’t compete on the size of the labor force. China has had a decades-long push in its education system to train these workers; the U.S. has not. And the U.S. doesn’t have the facilities or the proximity to the Asian component manufacturers.
The only way these jobs are coming back to the US is via legally mandated means (a government tariff or trade restriction of some kind). Economically, it just doesn’t make sense, or the jobs would never have left.
Written by Dave Mark
This is a terrific piece from Rich Mogull, writing for TidBITS, that looks at why Apple stands alone in defending encryption. But the article goes further. It lays out the history of government monitoring of communications, as well as the arguments that drive both sides.
If you haven’t already, take a minute to read this post about the proposed law in New York state banning the sale of devices that support encryption without offering matching decryption. Then read Rich’s post.
Written by Dave Mark
From Apple’s press release:
The iOS App Development Center, to be located at a partner institution in Naples, will support teachers and provide a specialized curriculum preparing thousands of future developers to be part of Apple’s thriving developer community. In addition, Apple will work with partners around Italy who deliver developer training to complement this curriculum and create additional opportunities for students. Apple expects to expand this program to other countries around the world.
And:
In Italy, over 75,000 jobs are attributable to the App Store and the developer community is vibrant. IK Multimedia launched its first app in 2009 and since then has had over 25 million downloads. Musement, launched in 2013, is now available in seven languages and 300 cities across 50 countries, making it easy for people to book travel and excursions on the go.
Roberto Macina, CEO and founder of Qurami, said: “Apple’s continued innovation inspires us to create the best mobile experiences and make our customers’ lives just a little bit easier. Apple’s app ecosystem is the anchor for our business, and developing across Apple’s operating systems has enabled us to easily and quickly bring the Qurami experience to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch users.”
Thousands of companies are expanding because of their work with Apple, which supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in communities large and small across Europe. Milan-based Laboratorio Elettrofisico makes some of the most sophisticated magnetization equipment in the world and their technology enables some of the industry-leading magnetic features found in Apple products. Apple also works with Europe’s leading manufacturers of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, which create tiny components that power some of the incredible sensor and audio technologies found in iOS devices.
This looks to be the same program that started in Brazil (Brazilian Education Program for iOS Development, or BEPiD) and was previously announced by the Indonesian embassy:
In a visit to Apple headquarters hosted by Apple Senior Vice President of Operations Jeff Williams, Apple announced a new commitment to build an iOS App Development Center in Indonesia. This development center will be the first of its kind in Asia. The Indonesian government and Apple also discussed continued efforts to promote sustainable tin mining in Indonesia. The Indonesian government intends to improve social and environmental conditions for tin miners in Bangka Belitung. Indonesia is the world’s second largest tin producer after China.
January 20, 2016
I’m usually pretty excited when Apple updates its music software, but I was blown away when they showed me their newest app, Music Memos and the updates they did to GarageBand on iOS.
Like many musicians, Voice Memos has become a quick and easy way for me to record my music ideas. Sometimes I just hum the idea, but most of the time I’ll be playing my guitar and just reach over and tap record. If I don’t record the idea then and there, it’s gone forever.
I have hundreds of these little snippets on my iPhone. Sometimes I work them into full songs, sometimes I combine different ideas to make a song and sometimes they just sit there because I have no idea what they are.
Apple took the idea of Voice Memos and expanded it for musicians with a new iOS app called Music Memos.
When you first launch Music Memos, you are treated with a record button in the center of the screen—it couldn’t be simpler. Tap the record button and start playing your guitar (piano or other instrument) and it records. The app will show you a waveform at the bottom of the screen and you will also get feedback from the circular record button as well.
The 24-bit 44.1kHz audio file is recorded to your iPhone, but it’s when you stop recording that the magic of this app happens.
Music Memos analyzes the recording for tempo and chord changes for guitar and piano. It places the chords you played right on the waveform so you can see them instantly1.
The brilliance of the app is that Apple built-in a drummer and bass into the app. Simply tap on those instruments and you can hear your song idea with a full band. Like Drummer in GarageBand or Logic, you can choose a different type of drummer, go half time, or any number of other options.
Since Music Memos analyzed the audio track you recorded, it follows along with you, even if you sped up or slowed down during the recording.
You can name the song so it’s easier to find later, but you can also tag the piece of music using the location or whether it’s a verse, chorus, etc. Of course, you can go back later and search for any of those tags, but Apple also included a smart slider. As you move the slider, it will show you files you worked on the most, or have tags, or that are named—basically files you showed some interest in.
There is also a place within each file to store lyrics, what tuning you used for the instrument—even custom tunings—capo position and other information.
Of course, all of the Music Memo files can be shared to social media. If you do this, the uncompressed audio files in the app are compressed so they can be easily shared. However, if you export them to GarageBand, the files are transferred into a multitrack GarageBand project, where they can be edited and adjusted as needed. The bass tracks are exported as MIDI, so they can be edited, and GarageBand recognizes the drummer track, so you can make whatever changes you want there as well.
This is just a really smart app. It answers a lot of the problems musicians have had over the years in recording ideas quickly and easily, but it took that 100 steps further.
I’m really excited about Music Memos.
[wpvideo gMOSVujg]
GarageBand
In case you missed it above, GarageBand 2.1 for iOS introduces the drummer feature found in Logic and GarageBand for Mac, and it works great. The new version also supports supports 3D Touch on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but those are not the biggest features of this new version. That has to go to a new feature called Live Loops.
Apple says Live Loops was inspired by DJ hardware controllers and drum machines. It allows you to create music by simply tapping on cells or playing a column of cells in a grid. I played around with Live Loops and it’s very intuitive, even for a novice DJ like me.
Of course, GarageBand automatically keeps everything in sync with perfect time and pitch, so it’s hard to really screw something up. You can easily add loops by tapping on a cell and choosing one of the included loops. Apple added 1200 new loops to this version of GarageBand, so you’ll have a lot o choices.
[wpvideo y0meJUsb]
Apple includes quite a few Live Loop templates in a variety of genres including EDM, Hip Hop, Dubstep and Rock. You can also create your own from scratch—either way, it’s easy to get started.
Music Memos is available for free on the App Store and is compatible with iPhone 4s and later, and iPad 2 and later. GarageBand 2.1 for iOS is bundled free with new iOS devices 32GB and larger, is available as a free upgrade for existing users with compatible iOS 9 devices or later, and is available to everyone else for $4.99 via the App Store.
Written by Dave Mark
Neil Cybart, writing for Above Avalon:
Apple knows that one day the world will move beyond the iPhone. That day won’t be tomorrow, next month, or even next year. It may not even be for another five years. Apple could very well make another trillion dollars of revenue from the iPhone. But it is inevitable that the iPhone will eventually lose relevency. Apple knows the best way of navigating such a future is to be the one that makes the iPhone irrelevant.
Apple has to think this way. This is solid long term thinking, certainly, but it is also forced on them by the battle of the two Apples, one driven by thoughtful curiosity and inventiveness, and the other by market forces.
This has been around forever, but someone asked about this yesterday, thought it was worth a mention.
To enable half-star ratings in iTunes on your Mac (there’s a Windows equivalent, too), do this:
- If it’s running, quit iTunes
- Launch Terminal (It’s in Applications > Utilities)
- Type this command in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE
To turn half star ratings back off, type:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool FALSE
