To quote Steve Jobs’ favorite songwriter: “The times they are a changing…”

If anyone is working on hardware upgrades and has any wisdom or warnings, please let us know. This will affect a lot of long time Pro Tools setups in smaller studios for sure.
–Damon

This is the holy grail for some users, but make sure you do your homework. There is a laundry list of as yet still non-64 bit compatible features:

• Firewire streaming of video
• Digital Cinema Desktop
• AAF import and export
• EuCon control surface support
• Automap of parameters with control surfaces
• OMF import and export
• Conversion to MP3
• Recycle (REX) file support
• ReWire support
• Vienna Symphonic Library Tool
• Logic Node processing
• AKAI format sample import

The Vienna Symphonic Library item is a show stopper for me just yet. But hopefully these third party issues will be resolved in short order. The OMF conversion and ReWire will be a pretty big deal for some folks as well.

Anyway. If you take the plunge, be sure to give us a full report!

Damon
The Studio FIles

128 track sequencer, full editing capabilities, send the mixes to your computer with wi-fi. I really like that you can stretch the keyboard. This would be pretty cool to use to demo a theme to a client or director, or scratch down an idea that comes to you during a long walk in the woods…

Xewton Music Studio.

The rumor mill has been swirling for months over at www.appleinsider.com with reports that the Mac Mini will get a much needed revamp, along with new iMacs featuring Intel Quad Processors.  It has also been reported that iWork is due for an update and I personally think that iLife will see an update as well.  Perhaps in light of the new Pro Tools release, Apple will make an announcement regarding Logic and Logic Express too! Hopefully, since this is Apple’s last year at Macworld, they’ll go out with a bang.  We’ll keep you posted.

Have any expectations or predictions for Macworld 2009? Tell us about it in the comments!

-PJ

Rather than simply turning the phone off or chucking it across the room, my good buddy and cell phone guru Jake recommended that I switch my phone to “Airplane Mode”  whenever I’m in the studio.  Viola!   Worked like a charm, thanks Jake.

Note: Airplane Mode disables all calls, EDGE and Wifi activity.

So this post is for any iPhone user that is tired of the buzzing and popping in your speakers or headphones – just flip it to Airplane mode and you’re done!

-PJ

Better late than never! I finally made the switch to Leopard by way of a new Macbook Pro (Feb. 08 Edition) and with it the newest version of GarageBand.

By the way I don’t think I’ve formally introduced myself. My name is P.J. I work for a local Dayton company as a Network Admin, Database Manager, Graphic Designer, Webmaster and everything else computer-related. I’m also a full-time Computer Science student and digital audio enthusiast, which brought me to the Studio Files.

Along with being an avid gamer, my biggest hobby is working with GarageBand (and more recently Logic) so needless to say I am thrilled to own the latest version. After my initial run through of GarageBand ’08, I discovered a lot of neat little additions and features that I’d like to cover in this post.

New Start Up Screen

Straight from the get-go you will notice things are a little different on the new start up screen. Apple has added a “Video Tutorials” button which is simply a link to the Apple site that features basic videos for all iLife applications. Even for advanced users, these videos are worth a look if only for the production value.

Magic GarageBand

The movie score button from GB 3 is gone replaced by the Magic GarageBand button. Press the magical button and this happens:

It’s magic! This is likely the biggest addition to GB ’08 and is designed for the first time GarageBand user as an interactive tutorial and introduction to the program. You start by selecting a style of music and then select the accompanying instruments. Center stage is all you and after clicking “create project” GarageBand starts and loads tracks and loops for the instrument you selected and a blank track so you can jam along. Here is a magical video of the whole thing:

Magic GarageBand ’08 Demo

It may seem silly but the tunes are pretty catchy and it can be a fun distraction.

New “LCD” Display

Ok, so the magic is over but let’s get into the real meat and potatoes of ’08. The UI has a slightly tweaked and more stylized look starting with the track strips on the left and more noticeably the new display now called the LCD.

All the goods are still intact including the counter, tuner, key and tempo but are now selectable by scrolling with the up and down arrows instead of the microscopic icons from GB 3. Indeed, a definite improvement.

Full Effect Automation

The track strips now have an “Add Automation” click under the volume and pan automations (shown below).

This is by far my favorite new feature. You can now automate any parameter that generates the sound. Previously in GarageBand 3, these were only available in the details windows as non-automated parameters. This opens up unlimited combination’s of effects with your tracks.

Visual EQ!

GarageBand ’08 takes a page out of Logic’s book and offers a slick visual interface for the equalizer along with a handy “Analyzer” feature. Very impressive!

Better effects and more of them

In addition to the new effect automation, you can now add more effects per track (4 versus 2 in GB 3) and some effects have been reworked with new interfaces and more detailed parameters (including a much needed update to the compressor which was simply a slider bar from 0 to 100 in GarageBand 3). Here is a look at the updated details window and compressor interface.

Trimming the fat

So this last item is not exactly a new feature but I found it interesting nonetheless. GarageBand ’08 actually comes with FEWER loops than GB 3. Instead, many loops are grayed out in the loop browser with an arrow next to file that displays this message:

In my opinion, this was actually a pretty smart move. Even though every new Apple computer comes with GarageBand, my guess is that more than 50% of users never even open the program. So this is simply a way to save space – 1.2 GB of space to be exact. Side note: Since I will be installing Logic Pro I won’t need to download these as all GarageBand loops are included with Logic.

Is it worth the $79 upgrade fee?

Considering that for $79 you will get the entire iLife ’08 suite, I would say this is absolutely worth the price. However if none of the other iLife apps interest you, I would recommend putting the $79 towards Logic Express. If you are hungry for more software instruments and effects, better recording ability or looking for a GarageBand “Pro”, then Logic is where its at. The best part is that all of your GarageBand files are fully compatible with Logic Express and you can take advantage of all those additional features to breath new life into your tracks.

Ok, so that’s my initial rundown of GarageBand ’08. If you use GarageBand and have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me via email or leave a comment below. Thanks!

PJ

Click here.

Happy remixing. The link will have to be opened with iTunes, so when your browser says so, don’t fight it! You could even dump the tracks into a free application like Audacity, slice and dice and… voila!! Be sure to let us know if you post your own version at Radiohead’s website. It would be great to hear what all of you come up with.

DS
The StudioFiles

Many builds of 10.5.3 have gone out to testing (I think they are on 22? or somewhere around there). Digidesign needed Apple to fix some main glitches in CoreAudio and how the processing streams were working in order to get Pro Tools LE up to speed. Pro Tools can put a hefty strain on the processers when retrieving all that audio from the hard drive, and playing it back with sample accuracy. This release is also supposed to bring full support for the 8-core Mac Pro computers (as right now most of us have to select less processor usage in the settings of Pro Tools).

I wouldn’t get your hopes too far up, as we have been let down a few times now… but definitely keep your browsers pointed at Digidesign.com and Apple.com for updates.

C

The Studio Files

There’s hope! Apple just released the second testing build of 10.5.3 today (the second one in less than a week). Also, this update is supposed to fix some core audio errors. Sounds promising to me. Digidesign has hinted that they needed to wait for the next version (after 10.5.2) of Leopard to make Pro Tools LE compatible

Be ready with some hard drive space though, this Leopard 10.5.3 update is going to be about half a gig… (some say its already over 400MB)

Also, I got an email today (and thanks to Jeff C. for the reminder!!) from Amplitube. It said that their new product line (Amplitube 2 Duo) is coming out soon. It also said that the demo will be shipping with the upcoming Pro Tools ignition pack, and will be compatible with all operating systems. Indeed. I think this is good news.

So Digidesign’s Pro Tools LE should be compatible with Leopard sometime in April or early May. We have had some luck with Pro Tools in 10.5.1, but less so in 10.5.2.

This video will be just like the Pro Tools bouncing to disk video, only now I am in Logic. I show the same basic process and menu selection options.

Transcript:

In this video from The Studio Files .com, I am going to show you how to bounce to disk in Logic Pro. Bouncing to disk is one of the faster ways to export a mixdown from Logic Pro in a variety of file formats, whether you are exporting an mp3 file to email to a friend, or the final wave mix to send to a mastering house. First, you need to tell Logic what to bounce, and you do that with the loop selection up here. If you click and drag from the start to the end of your song, Logic will bounce that whole region. But, since I am going to bounce in realtime, I will just select the first four bars here. And, once you have that selected, just go to File>Bounce. Now first let’s make a name for our bounce. Let’s first make a name for our track (PIT first bounce). Now, rather than putting it into the bounces folder, which is actually very convenient, I am going to put it on the desktop. Look over here at the destination format. You can actually bounce multiple file formats at a time. For now, I am just going to bounce an mp3. These default settings are pretty good to start with. 192 kbps with variable bit rate encoding, highest quality, joint stereo. Notice that in my start and end times, Logic filled in those boxes with my loop settings. I am going to bounce it in real time as well. Hit F11 and go to the desktop where we bounced it, and there it is. Now you know how to bounce tracks to disk in Logic Pro.

C

The Studio Files

Apple – Support – Downloads – GarageBand 4.1.2
About GarageBand 4.1.2
This update improves overall stability and addresses issues with the automation of software instrument parameters, FireWire and USB based audio devices and Magic GarageBand.

A much-awaited release from Apple finally came out today. The 10.5.2 Leopard update fixes TONS of bugs and errors that existed in 10.5.1

There are fixes in many applications (including iCal, Time Machine, Mail, etc) as well as bug fixes and visual improvements to the OS overall. But… [drum roll please] it supposedly also provides fixes for problems in Core Audio. !Ding Ding Ding! So, all the pro audio people are getting excited. Perhaps soon, updated versions of Pro Tools (and other DAWs) will become available. Supposedly many DAW manufacturers, including Digidesign, were waiting until 10.5.2 to release their updates. Be sure to Time Machine before installing big updates like this!

Click to see our page on Digidesign and Leopard compatibility

Click to see our page on Logic Studio compatibility with the Leopard update (10.5.1 vs. 10.5.2)

NOTICE: Pro Tools HD is now compatible with 10.5.1, so hopefully Pro Tools LE will be as well. But, I would suggest that Pro Tools LE users NOT upgrade to 10.5.2 yet. This is not only in case Digidesign only approves LE for 10.5.1 (which they probably will not), but mainly because users are reporting additional problems with 10.5.2. If you have everything working on 10.5.1, do not upgrade. If you did upgrade, hopefully you have a Time Machine backup, or you could just reinstall.

Read a full report at Macworld.

Read Apple’s detailed release notes.

C

The Studio Files

Wow, what a big question. There are so many options. When you install software for editing and manipulating audio onto a computer equipped with audio input/output hardware, you have what is called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

As in my post about building a home studio, you need to ask yourself some questions:

1) Would an upgrade to my current computer be sufficient?

2) What would I like to be able to accomplish with my computer DAW?

3) What is my budget?

4) Do I want to use a Mac or a Windows PC?

Ah, the great “Mac vs. Windows” debate. If I do say so myself, I am a great person to talk to about this, because I have machines in both platforms. Although I use my Mac more because it is more powerful than my PC, I will officially go on the record with this statement: You can have completely awesome workstations on either operating system; when configured properly, they are both great! In my personal opinion, problem-free Windows operation is more dependent on the proper configuration and a responsible user, but it can be fine. I’ve been running a P4 3.4Ghz with 2GB of ram over the past 4 years. Its literally never choked up on me. This is partially due to the fact that I periodically “clean out” my computer.

Once again, both Windows and Macs are great choices. It depends on budget, style, and preference.

NOTES ON OPERATING SYSTEMS:

Both Microsoft Vista and Apple Leopard are having compatibility issues. Proceed with caution! Check manufacturer’s websites (Digidesign, MOTU, Cakewalk, Apple, Cubase, etc.) or email me to check if certain programs work with a specific OS. In general, I would watch out for Digidesign and Leopard (as they are not technically compatible) as well as Vista in general (as it is also having lots of issues)

So lets get into the meat and potatoes. What you want to generally look for:

1. Fast Processor – the faster the better, the more cores the better

2. Lots of RAM – more RAM means more plug-ins, tracks, VIs etc…

3. Room for expansion – slots for more SATA drives, PCI slots, and other expansion ports can really be a big help when you are upgrading/adding things to your system

4. Plenty of Firewire and USB ports – you will amass lots of peripherals over the years, so you better be able to plug them in!

5. A video card with at least two outputs – if you can swing it, it always helps to have at least 2 displays when working with digital audio. Screen real estate is a must!

So now that we know we need all those things…. lets look at some models. I am going to restrict it to desktops today. We will hit laptops a little later.

If you want to go with a Windows machine, I would suggest one of two paths

Path A – Order a Creation Station from Sweetwater.com. These are great machines! Rackmount, quiet, optimized, expandable PCs with a great warranty at a great price. Plus, the best customer service in the biz. These things will work, guaranteed. I’ve never heard a bad thing about them. There are many different models, ranging from moderate desktops, to extremely powerful rackmount workhorses. The variety of models can be right for everyone from the small home studio owner, to the experienced Pro Tools HD user.

Path B – If you are savvy and want to save some money, you could visit NewEgg.com, order the parts yourself, and put the computer together. In theory this will save a fairly large amount of money. BUT! Beware! Incompatible chipsets, user-error, finicky firmware, and plenty of other things make this option daring for even the most techie of us all.

You can also get powerful computer from companies like Dell, HP, and others. However, be sure to contact the distributors of both the recording software and computer before ordering to make sure both are compatible with each other.

Ok, now for the Mac options

Path A – Mac Pro! These beasts are quite the computer. With up to an 8-core 3.2Ghz processor, 32GB of RAM, and 4TB of internal drive space, these are some of the most powerful computers in the world. They can also be very expensive (although the base model for 2008 is very reasonable). These are the right machine for orchestral scoring, Pro Tools HD, and overall large numbers of tracks, VIs, and plug-ins.

Path B – iMac. These are a great buy. The processor and RAM options on these machines are getting very good (I think up to 4Gb of RAM now!). The built in displays are big and beautiful. iMacs are also fairly cost-efficient. My suggestion would be to get a good external hard drive for recording audio though, as the internal drive of an iMac may limit your productivity. An iMac is a great choice for anyone tracking bands, writing jingles, or doing other non-PCI based recording.

There is also the Mac Mini, about which I’ve heard some pretty good things. If you are on a tight budget, or just need a machine for applications with minimal stress on the computer, it may be a good option. In most cases though, I would suggest a more powerful machine.

If you are looking to buy a computer for music production, please email me or post a comment here. I would be more than happy to help you with your decision.

C

For Pro Tools versions before v.8, see below.

Edit: Pro Tools LE is now compatible with Leopard, click this link to be directed to the most recent information. This article was written before the release of 7.4.2.

So… if any Pro Tools user is like me and just couldn’t wait to get their hands on a new Mac (which of course now comes with the Leopard OS), you are probably having some compatibility issues.Currently, Pro Tools is NOT supported or even technically compatible with Leopard. On top of that, the new Mac Pro’s are not supposed to be able to run Tiger (although there is a tricky work around… I would be happy to talk anyone through it via email).

I have a Digi003Rack running fairly stable on my new Mac Pro. Here’s what I would suggest:-Install the latest Leopard update from Apple (10.5.1). You can get this by running the system update on your machine (or, the newest computers from Apple will come with that installed already)-If you aren’t already running Pro Tools 7.4, upgrade! Anyone who is having success with Leopard and Pro Tools is running 7.4- Once 7.4 is installed, be sure to visit Digidesign’s page to DOWNLOAD the 7.4cs2 update.That should get you working. I have recorded bands on it without too many problems. You might get the occasional “increase the buffer” error message, but no big deal. Don’t mess around with CoreAudio too much (iTunes, Quicktime, etc.etc) as that has caused a few kernel panics on my computer.

IF Pro Tools will not install, there may be a work around. Backup your files, and do a clean erase and install of Leopard. If you only have a 10.5 disc, go ahead and upgrade to 10.5.1. Some people who couldn’t get Pro Tools to install (“The System extension “/System/Library/Extensions/DigiIO.kext” was installed improperly and can not be used. Please reinstall or contact product’s vendor for an update” sort of error messages) just needed a clean install of Leopard, although I can’t guarantee this will work.

Also, if you are using sample libraries, be prepared for some bugs. I have the whole Digidesign VI Box Set, and only Structure is working properly. The rest of the programs are running, but with funky yellow/red color schemes. There are also known problems with ReWire (Reason, Melodyne is fixed, etc…) and many plug-ins (But Waves has resolved their issues with the latest updates) …Alas! Updates are coming soon. Digidesign has not been able to comment on anything that specific until recently. From my contact with tech support, an announcement on the update should be made withing 1-3 weeks. Please email me about leopard and digidesign problems with any questions, or if you are having trouble getting things to work on your machine.