Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, Reviews, Music
Count The Beats: A Welcome Note...
Welcome to a brand new series focusing on music creation on the Mac and iPhone platform.As you know, here at TUAW, we are crazy about anything Apple. We just love it! But, dear reader, this is not the be all and end all of our hearts. For many, if not all of us, music is a great passion of ours too. So, when these two worlds collide, naturally, it's a beautiful thing.
Recently, you may have seen a few posts on TUAW covering iPhone apps such as FourTrack and Noise.io or Soundboard for the Mac. Well, in this series, we are going to be singing a similar tune but taking a bit more of an in-depth look, or, if you will, taking things a semi-tone down (OK, enough with the music word play).
What exactly can you expect from this (fortnightly) series? If you're a home studio enthusiast (or a singer-songwriter trying to make ends meet) there will be tips, tricks and how-tos from Garageband all the way to Logic Studio and everything in between. Reviews on some of the latest and greatest music creation software and hardware for the Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch as well as, every now and then, a bit of inspiration for those rainy days.
But don't fret (oops!) if you can't hold a tune. For those less musically inclined we know you still need a soundtrack for the holiday you had with Granny last year and she wants to share the photo's on a DVD with some 'hip and happening' music in the background - we've got your back.
Stay tuned and leave a comment if you have any bright ideas for what you'd like to see covered in this new series.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
kmcgrady90 said 10:08AM on 9-11-2009
It would be good if you covered hardware such as the apogee duet and other lower cost solutions. I'm a guitarist a need something like this but I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make to my sound. Looking forward to the series!
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Matt Tinsley said 4:03PM on 9-12-2009
Maybe a review on duet/solo as well as GiO:)
Nathan said 10:09AM on 9-11-2009
Awesome! This is one thing that I LOVE doing on the Mac -- I use Garageband and an 88 weighted key MIDI controller to make music all the time. I'm glad you guys are exploring this set of Mac usage. Can't wait to read this series!
Big fan.
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Jim Barr said 10:33AM on 9-11-2009
if you are an iPhone/iPod Touch user, by all means, check out Xewton!! (http://www.xewton.com/) Yes, it is pricey by AppStore standards at $20, but it packs a HUGH set of features.
There are many and various recording and sequencer apps available, I've tried just about all of them, and I purchased many, but so far, none have come close to offering Xewton's functionality and sophistication in an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand package.
Xewton really ties everything together nicely. Select a track, select an instrument, bring up the keyboard, tap record, and start playing. Stop the recording, and everything you played is visible on an editable piano-roll-style sequence screen. Add additional tracks, select different instruments, and add effects. Pretty amazing.
I'm NOT a musician, so I hope someone who is can chime in on this.
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Jim Barr said 10:38AM on 9-11-2009
I forgot to mention that the performance on my 2nd gen iPod Touch is excellent. The demo songs play flawlessly without stutter (a complaint by 1st gen iPod Touch users) and the really cool thing was that changes can be made on-the-fly during playback
For example, while playing the demo song Pachelbel Canon in D, I changed the Flute track to "Brass Section" on-the-fly, and without skipping a beat, the sound immediately transitioned from an airy flute melody into a stunning song with a brass lead.
It blows me away that the iPod Touch is capable of this.
Bones3D said 6:21PM on 9-11-2009
Yeah, I snatched up a copy of Xewton at launch. It's a beautiful app with amazing capabilities. Midi export is supposed to be coming before too long, which will make the app that much more useful.
Prior to Xewton, I was playing around with iComposer, which tries to accomplish much of what Xewton does now, only more rough around the edges. iComposer also had features I'd like to see come to Xewton, such as track composition via musical notation and melody conversion from mic input. (IComposer also had more instruments covering the entire general midi range.)
For the time being though, Xewton is the best musical composition tool for iPhone to date. (Though, cross compatibility with Noise.io and BeatMaker would be nice...)
Matt Tinsley said 3:28PM on 9-12-2009
Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out:)
Nathaniel said 1:05PM on 9-11-2009
I'm so excited for this! I'm actually trying to get back into music this year... I'm taking an intro to music theory class this semester and I just got a new mbp... sick nasty =]
think you guys could talk about some low cost rigs that would play well? maybe even find/talk about some open source audio apps as well?
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Pieter said 11:16AM on 9-11-2009
Very much looking forward to this.
Matt, how could i contribute to this?
I make music on macs for a living and would love to be a part of this.
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Matt Tinsley said 3:57PM on 9-12-2009
Thanks, mail me a bit more of what you do and perhaps we can look at a bit of an 'artist profile'.
Pieter said 11:52PM on 9-18-2009
Hi, Matt
not sure where you mean for us to mail you.
I see no e-mail address anywhere.
thx,
-P
Matt Tinsley said 4:48AM on 10-02-2009
HI Pieter, sorry about the delay. Best option would be to go to the 'send us tips' section of the TUAW site. Send me a bit more about what you do, set up etc, and we can e-mail from there.
In the subject space put 'Count the beats' to make sure it comes to me.
mac said 12:08PM on 9-11-2009
just wanted the "chime in" and say I too am really looking forward to the articles. If anyone could point out some interesting mac/music sites I'd be stoked :)
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Skidz said 12:21PM on 9-11-2009
I'd love to see how to re-mix a song in itunes. You know, taking a pop song and putting beats into it making it like a house or techno song!
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Skidz said 12:23PM on 9-11-2009
I meant Garage Band...Oops!!!
LunchBoxG4 said 12:33PM on 9-11-2009
Neat, a new set of articles that aren't iPhone-related! But seriously, this should be great since I love music creation on my Mac.
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kdeckard said 12:35PM on 9-11-2009
Xewton is the top music app on my wishlist, so I'd love to see a review of it.
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stuartmcfarlane said 12:48PM on 9-11-2009
I've love to hear about high quality ripping and tagging software on the Mac supporting lossless formats (e.g. FLAC).
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Eric said 12:39PM on 9-11-2009
Why not just link to Createdigitalmusic.com? That site is on top of the ball.
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John.B said 11:15PM on 9-11-2009
From your link: "Brainpipe on Steam (Windows only)"
That's why.