samedi 21 février 2004

Think I forgot to jump on the GarageBand-wagon? "Dent du Midi (what a beautiful name!) is an application that allows you to convert MIDI files into GarageBand loops or tracks. Enjoy," Heli recommends (at 'Heaven and Hell'). While I've not yet tried GarageBand, touted by Apple (iLife) as "the easiest way to create, perform and record your own music whether you’re an accomplished player or just wish you were a rock star," everybody else with a Mac, a log and an ear to music has been raving about it. All that has stopped me getting my own hands on GarageBand was the lack of the required DVD player and time, and the first obstacle has been overcome. Scarcely was it released last month before "NeutrixX" was reproaching others in a MacMusic forum entry: "I don't think you guys really understand how big of a deal GarageBand is (and I mean to paid musicians whom already own pro audio software). I produce downtempo electro-acoustic psychedelic (bassy breaks stuff) tracks for a local label with [expensive programmes] Reason, Ableton Live and Logic, but none are as sweet (or should I say organic?) looking as GarageBand for recording and editing tracks (Reason actually looks quite good for a synth/sampler/effects rack: yet visually lacks when one is editing within the track mode). Why should I even mention to you how good looking GarageBand is? Why you say? Simple. If it excites me to work with a good looking piece of software - which I admit - it does very much (appealing to my eye - with incredible ease of use and superior workflow), it will inevitably inspire my work. And if it inspires my work, in any sort of creative way, I would gladly pay far more than the small price of $49 for it!" That's telling 'em. Apart from MacMusic, where there are now GarageBand reports and discussions aplenty for pros and amateurs alike, Apple's evidently astounding offering has got a host of newer sites going. GarageBand, which is out "to redefine how music is discovered and promoted", is not one of them, but likes the technology: "'We have tremendous respect for Apple's vision and leadership in the digital music space,' said Ali Partovi, CEO of GarageBand.com [Jan 7 press release]. 'We've always shared their goal of empowering musicians, and today we're excited to share with them our name. Now, any musician can create music on Apple's state-of-the-art GarageBand software and promote their recordings on GarageBand.com's award-winning web services.'" Getting inside Apple's new device, Andy Dietrich provided the magnificently comprehensive review at Ars Technica I've learned to appreciate from that site. MacBand is, among other things, an online way of sharing music made with GarageBand, where songs and loops are made available under a non-commercial, share-alike Creative Commons licence. MacJams, another user community, offers plenty of listening -- with, say, iTunes or QuickTime -- and seeks contributions, as well as being generous with tutorials, such as yesterday's 'Using Native Instruments' software synths with Apple GarageBand' (MacJams). Jean Burgess's blog points to other such sites. In his entry on 'GarageBand: Usability vs. Hackability' at 'creativity/machine', this Australian cultural studies and new media student and non-Mac owner triggered one of those comments: "GarageBand will be the litmus test for the long proclaimed creative superiority of the Apple client base: Will drag and drop music made by the musically unskilled with a Mac be any different than drag and drop music made by the musically unskilled with a PC?" That came from Kaden, who lives at 'eccentric genius' (skippable Flash intro). 10:10:22 PM  link   your views? [] Writing to thwart the copy editor Africa was busy enough for an otherwise quiet Saturday to give me no fewer than six good stories to signal to the Factory's clients on the 1600 GMT news advisory (these are kind of "best of" and big story round-ups news agencies put out every few hours as daylight works its way through the world's time zones). For those who persist in telling me I should write another novel as well, pay heed to the 'Nobbly' view at 'Words with Wings': "You'll be pleased to know that yesterday I came up with an excellent first sentence for my novel. This is very pleasing, and it has only taken eighteen months." "Yes," said Barry, when I regaled colleagues with that little gem. "And then some copy editor got his hands on it." "Some copy editor ruined one of my best intros," he added. "I had to write a piece about the farm outside the Vatican. I started it: 'Yes, there is a papal bull.' But this fellow told me that might offend Catholics. 'How would you know?' I asked him. 'You're a Jew.'" Some stories I have to set on one side for BJ. Nothing inspires him more than the kind of news that today leaked out of one of Africa's most squalid tropical dictatorships, the rarely reported and suddenly oil-rich former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea. This hot spot has since 1979 been in the hands of a thug named Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and his squabbling family. Obiang Nguema overthrew and then executed his uncle to get his clutches on the place. All is now less well than ever. Few papers tomorrow will probably bother to report that it's emerged that dozens of people, including senior army officers, have been on trial behind closed doors since Tuesday. BJ, like most journalists, writes especially well when he can get his teeth into copy which fires his imagination, like that story which arrived at the Factory in French. The latest episode of this sorry tale is not on the Net yet, but the last one is, at of all places, a site called 'SpaceWar - Your Portal to Military Space'. What BJ did, as published there, with 'Mysterious army movements in Equatorial Guinea' is a lesson in how committed journalists can write a story which tells all in its revolting detail while remaining "objective". Anybody with half a brain will find it hard to read, in context, "The general was reported to have twice attempted to commit suicide recently. Now in Spain for medical treatment, Ndong Ona reportedly drove his automobile into the sea after 'strong words' with the president's eldest son," without thinking along the lines the French use for life's ironies in conversation: "He was suicided." Another delightful little tale from the same part of the world showed us why journalists are still paid to edit things computers can't. An online translation programme could, after all, have done a pretty lousy job of the story from the Atlantic archipelago of Sao Tome & Principe in the Gulf of Guinea. Washington has just kindly granted the government of these volcanic chunks of rock -- which mainly exported some cocoa and good music until they too were recently found to be sitting on top of lots of oil -- 800,000 dollars to finance airport expansion and a feasibility study into building a deep-water port. The US Trade and Development Agency explained that the aim was to promote "trade and travel". Nowhere did the USTDA press release, the US ambassador to the place or even the Reuters version of the story bother to mention a point which has long been doing the diplomatic rounds in the region, particularly in Nigeria, after the Bush administration tried to buy west Africa's oil giant out of OPEC. Increasingly interested in African oil since "9/11", Washington has long been suspected of having a scheme to turn a chunk of Sao Tome & Principe into a most conveniently located military base. Now that indeed would be good for "trade and travel"! Nobody needs a novel from me when the "real world" is so entertaining? You'll have to make to do with this place. 8:05:10 PM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.