studio posts

Filed under: Audio, Hardware, Features, Rig of the Week, Music

Count The Beats: Interview with a film & TV composer

by Matt Tinsley (RSS feed) on Oct 13th, 2009

If you've ever played Gears of War 2 (who hasn't), or watched Desperate Housewives (we know you secretly love Mrs Van De Kamp), then chances are you've heard music composed by Pieter A. Schlosser from PaaxMusic in Los Angeles.

Pieter's been in the music business for the last five years working on a whole lot of tunes for film, TV and gaming. From CSI New York to composing in "French" for The Sims 3, he's got a wealth of experience in this field and, must be mentioned, he's an avid reader of TUAW too.

When Pieter got in touch with us regarding our 'Count The Beats' series, and sent us the above picture of his studio, suffice to say that the TUAW offices descended into a flurry of excitement (papers flying in the air and everything). What can we say, we love a picture of an inspiring setup.

The logical next step was to sit down with Pieter and talk shop. Read on to find out how the complexities of this mighty setup come together, how the iPhone works as a part of the composing journey, a little bit on DAWs, the "dream upgrade" and how to get the job done when all else is failing.

A word of warning, there is some serious music tech geekery ahead. If in doubt, just pretend that it all makes sense and slowly nod your head, then move onto the next paragraph. That's what most of us do anyway!

Continue reading “Count The Beats: Interview with a film & TV composer”

Tags: composing, count the beats, CountTheBeats, cubase, inspiration, interview, midi, music, protools, setup, studio

Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, Reviews, Music

Count The Beats: A Welcome Note...

by Matt Tinsley (RSS feed) on Sep 11th, 2009

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.

Tags: composer, fret, fretboard, home studio, how to, music creation, MusicCreation, noise.io, record, recording, soundboard, studio, The88, tips

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, iPhone

Ringtonator Studio makes ringtones from any QT format

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 22nd, 2007

We wrote about Ringtonator a while back, reader Joe's GUI program that used Cleverboy's hack to make ringtones. At the time, we were looking for a program that didn't require AAC, where you could pull any mp3 out and turn it into an official ringtone on iTunes. Then 7.4.2 hit, and we had bigger problems with ringtones than just converting them from mp3.

But now, Joe's sent us his new version, called Ringtonator Studio, and he tells us that not only will it accept any Quicktime formats, but it will also let you crop your tunes, and then translate them directly into ringtones. And, he says over on his blog, it will work with iTunes 7.4.2. That's probably a YMMV thing, but if you're really frustrated that you haven't found a way to get around Apple's lockout, it's worth a try.

And no guarantee, of course, that any ringtones made won't disappear with 7.4.3. But kudos to Joe for putting this all together, and doing his part in the fight to give us control over our ringtones.

Tags: aac, apple, crop, itunes742, joe, mp3, ringtonate, ringtonator, ringtones, studio

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail, Other Events, Apple

Memorial City Store Grand Opening Announced

by Dan Lurie (RSS feed) on Jun 13th, 2006

Mac geeks in and around the Houston, TX area have begun receiving the "Come meet your new neighbor" emails which Apple sends out in preparation for a new Apple Store opening. The store located in the Memorial City Mall will hold its grand opening on June 17th at 10AM. As is standard practice with store openings, the first 1000 people through the doors will get a special edition t-shirt emblazoned with the name of the store. Customers will also be registered for a prize package which includes a 17" iMac, iPod nano, Canon PowerShot digital camera, and HP Deskjet printer. The new location will feature "The Studio" to provide support for creative amateurs and professionals alike.

As always, please send us your pictures and reports from the opening. Have fun!

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in.)

Tags: apple, city, grand, houston, mall, memorial, opening, prize, retail, store, studio, texas

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