We live in a digital age. It’s only appropriate that we listen to digital music. We want our music where we spend our time, and for many of us these days that’s on our computers.
Do you remember the good old days? Our lounge rooms would be full of racks of CDs, cassette tapes, and even records. We’d pick an album or two that we wanted to listen to, hit play, and listen to the songs in order. We were impressed with auto-reverse cassette players, and CD players that would play one album’s songs in a random order. The last CD player I bought can play three CDs at once, and play songs from any of the CDs in random order. I thought it was amazing.
Today, most of us have our entire music collections on our computer – hundreds or possibly thousands of albums. The flexibility of playing a single album, or all the songs by an artist or group of artists, or just shuffle through our entire collection, seems normal. And most of us take our music collection – or a big hunk of it – with us on portable media players.
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The HTC Dream Android phone (elsewhere known as the G1) arrived in Australia recently, and I’ve had mine for about a month now. I have been an enthusiastic user of palmtops, organizers, PDAs and smartphones since the late 80s, and this one is very nice, though the battery could last a little longer, and it sometimes feels more sluggish than it should.
The iPhone broke exciting new ground in the smartphone space, and Android – an operating system developed by Google – follows strongly in that tradition. At this stage, in terms of both hardware and software, the iPhone unquestionably comes out on top. But it is Android’s philosophy of openness that interests me most, and could open up very interesting possibilities in the future.
Eight months ago Joel Falconer reviewed six applications for musicians on the iPhone. How does Android compare as a gadget for musicians? (more…)
I first heard it around eight years ago. I was at the mixing desk for a live gig, and was concerned about a high pitched ringing sound I could hear. “Can you hear that high pitched sound?” I asked the guy standing next to me. “Yeah”, he answered vaguely. So I started trying to isolate which channel the sound was coming from, and eventually started to adjust the EQ of the mix trying to get rid of that sound. I managed to achieve a ridiculously muddy sound, but couldn’t get rid of the ringing. As I drove home I laughed out loud. I could still hear the ringing! I discovered then and there that I have tinnitus, also called “ringing in the ears”.
Since then the ringing has become worse, and the wax seems to build up quicker in my ears now, too, making everything sound muffled. When I play live I often try to watch the drummer’s high hat stick so that I know I’m playing in time. I don’t know what caused the ringing, but I did buy a nice pair of headphones around a year earlier, and used them a lot. I mentioned the tinnitus to the doctor I had at the time, but he didn’t think much could be done. My wife – a nurse – has wondered whether anything could help, but hasn’t offered much hope. She does become increasingly frustrated, though, every time I say, “What was that?”
This year I’m determined to see what can be done for my hearing. I don’t have all the answers, and would love to hear from you if you’ve had any success. Here are some tips about how musicians should look after their hearing, and a few hints about what you can do after the damage is done. (more…)
So… you’ve got a problem on the sites or perhaps you just want some advice? You know it’s not quite a support issue, and you’re wondering who you can talk to about it. Well, Envato is very happy to announce that there is now someone whose job it is to help you figure out your troubles. His name is Adrien Gardiner (but you might know him as ADG3Studios). 
Adrien has been a moderator for some time now, and as such is one of the marketplaces’ most active, respected and knowledgeable members. Adrien will now also be taking on the role of community manager. He will lead the moderation team as our active forums keep growing, and will be there to answer any community related questions you may have. You can reach him via his site mail, or at adrien AT envato DOT com. You can feel free to write to him in English, French, Spanish or Russian.
Last week we looked at why Linux deserves some consideration when choosing an operating system for your digital recording studio. But even the worthiest operating system is useless without useable apps.
Fortunately, there is a long list of excellent music applications available for Linux. If you choose one of the Linux distributions recommended last week, many of them come preinstalled,
We’ll leave out the programs not directly about making music – programs like guitar tuners, streaming systems, notation software and guitar tab apps – but we will look at some of the plug-ins and effects systems that are available. And we’ll leave out the applications that have better alternatives. My original list had over 50 programs.
Most of the programs are available free of charge, and in general are of higher quality than the free audio apps for Windows we looked at a few weeks ago. So without further ado, here are 29 music making applications for Linux.
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We’ve been informed by support staff that there has been some confusion regarding the new “Maximum Earnings” feature for authors.
This feature is designed to allow authors to request their maximum earnings for the month at any time during the month. This means that an author can now go to their earnings page at any time during the month of March (for example) and tick a box that ensures the sum total of their earnings for March will be sent to them automatically.
Please note that this feature is NOT intended for automatic withdrawals over multiple months. It needs to be ticked each month for the maximum withdrawal to be made and transferred to your account. So for each month you wish to receive your maximum earnings for that month you MUST go in and tick the “All Earnings” option.
We sincerely apologize for any confusion regarding the use of this new feature and hope it’s use is now clear. If you have any questions please direct them to Support who will be happy to help.
Imagine a Mac versus PC ad about digital audio recording. The Mac guy would talk about his creativity, and how talented he is with multimedia. The PC guy – actually a Windows guy – would tell us that he is a stable workhorse, and very reliable. The banter would go back and forth. What would be missing from that ad? Linux.
Like Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, Linux is an operating system, but it is one that many people have never met. You won’t see ads for it on TV, and you’re unlikely to see it running on a computer in a shop. Nevertheless, Linux has a growing base of enthusiastic users, and there are good reasons to consider it for a digital recording studio.
This article comes in two parts. This week we will consider what makes Linux worth considering for digital audio. Next week we will look at the large range of audio software available for Linux. But first we’ll have look at what you may lose by choosing Linux. (more…)
