Readers
that have read my blog before might remember a post from a couple of years ago
where I was working with a studio in Norway that is developing a small
portfolio of local talents. The collaboration has developed, we have invested
in some new gear and new artists have gone into the studio. Another project I
posted from where we collaborated was on the web-casted release-event for thealbum of singer/ songwriter An-Magritt. On a current project produced by studio
owner Geir Simonsen I am recording and mixing. Geir posted a couple of pictures
from my own studio the other day on Twitter, so the existence of the project is
no longer officially secret. But you’ll have to wait for the single release to
hear it and find out what artist we’re working with this time. I will keep you
posted once it’s out!
Another
collaboration is the collaboration with Alive Creative Institute, formerly
known as Alive Dance. It was Alive Institute that held the initiative for the
2011 and 2012 Skogbrann Festivals that I have written about earlier. Alive
Creative Institute is in the process of developing from a regional dance school
with some six hundred part-time students into a full-fledged arts institute
aiming to cover all contemporary art forms. Alive Creative Institute will in
the future have full-time and part-time programmes across a range of topics. My
role has been to start the planning of programmes that will fit the vision of
the institute. A first generation of documents has been developed that aim to
put the academic side of the institute on tracks. Several rounds of planning
are needed but a broad foundation for both the institute and the programmes has
now been laid.
3. Arts Education in Malawi
As you might
have seen, I spent parts of December in Malawi in Africa. I absolutely loved it
to pieces! My friend Trev Chi is a renaissance multi talent who works in
finance and HR, while managing a portfolio of local artists and running his own
photography and video-production company. His company has worked with some of Malawi’s biggest artists including
Piksy, Armstrong Kalua and Trumel. Trev brought some of us
visiting-musicians-in-town to a local studio and we started dreaming up a new
education program for the creative arts in Malawi. Countries like Ghana,
Nigeria and South Africa have put their distinct marks on the regional music
industry. Malawi has lots of creative talent but very little in terms of
established creative industries and arts education. We believe education and
creative industries are closely linked. In Norway I recently met a group of
exchange students from the Music Crossroads project in Lilongwe.Music Crossroads educate musicians in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia
and Zimbabwe. It is a great new initiative to benefit young talents and the
regional music scene.
After my stay in Blantyre we have
developed a document that outlines a comprehensive creative arts education that
works along with established industries, government sectors and universities in
Malawi to develop a new generation of talents, and a more established arts and
entertainment scene. The project incorporates every branch of modern performing arts
and media/ technology based arts. If you have any questions about the proposal
please do not hesitate to get in touch!
Me in Malawi, shot by Trev Chi (scanned from paper in Norway, so any imperfections in image are on myself).
Two new
developments from Apple have lately caused the audio-community to question how
dedicated Apple is to their pro-audio users. Here are some thoughts on Logic Pro X and the new Mac Pro.
1. Logic Pro X
The new
version of Logic Pro can only be bought through Apple’s own App Store and the user
interface has been simplified. The changes to the interface has left many Logic
Pro users wondering if they were to end up with a pro-version of Garage Band.
One of the main concerns have been whether Apple were to remove pro-functions
that are not used by the average consumer. Judging from Sound on Sound’s reviewof the new software it seems like most functions have been maintained, but some
have been moved around within the interface. This may even improve the workflow
when you get accustomed to it, but for pro-users it also means that they might
have to sit down and re-learn a few things.
Once upon a
time Logic was a MIDI-sequencer and ProTools was an audio-sequencer. Their
cousin Cubase integrated both these functions to a complete audio- and MIDI-editing
package. With time Logic and ProTools became the first choice of music
producers, providing either a focus on audio or MIDI. Cubase always seemed to
be more attractive in the semi-pro marked. Recently the tables have been
turning. Steinberg (that makes Cubase and Nuendo) has seen a distinct increase
in their sales over the last couple of years. When I talk to representatives
from both Steinberg and AVID (ProTools), both can confirm that they are getting
new pro-users from Logic’s old customer group. With the recent 64-bit ProTools
11 and the mildly astonishing 7th generation of Cubase we have
better tools available than most could have dreamt of just a few years ago.
Where does this leave Logic? As an App Store download, with its attractive pricing and
with its simplified work environment we all knew Apple was aiming more towards
the average consumer and first time home studio owners. We also know that both
ProTools and Cubase have gained a number of pro-users lately, many of which
would have jumped ships from Logic. But the scene is maybe not as gloomy as
first feared. Do you need to mix on the run while you travel? Do you record
with your artists in their living rooms, maybe even in different cities? Then
the prospect of a MacBook Air with no iLok or eLicenser (in crumbly plastic)
with endless updates you have to have to run Cubase may seem very attractive.
Also, if you produce music and need a fast workflow but rarely any deep
processing the new Logic could be the way to go. This could for instance be the
case for anyone programming and producing, but not mixing their own material.
Another group that would enjoy the reduced prices and easy download is the
education sector. Both Steinberg and AVID are big on education and they both
offer upgrade/cross-grade programmes, something Apple has dropped for Logic Pro
X since the software is already quite affordable.
Mark Wherry
in Sound on Sound wrote these words in his summary of Logic Pro X:
“Logic Pro
X introduces a new interface and a large number of powerful, inventive and
musical features, but not all existing users will feel their needs have been
met with this release”
I think
that sums up both the pros and the cons very well.
2. Mac Pro
Steve Jobs
passes away and Darth Vader takes over?
Welcome to the new Death Star.
If you have
mixed on a laptop or an overloaded desktop for more than five minutes it would
be easy to agree with Apple that thinking new about computer cooling is a good
idea. However, getting rid of the whole cabinet of arguably the most
professional machine for the creative industries over night is a less good
idea. Let’s picture this: you own a studio with AVID converters, PCIe expansion
cards and a stack of inbuilt hard-drives (system disc, synths, audio, video
etc.) but your computer needs replacing, what do you do? Indeed, there are new
systems on sale to connect your PCI/ PCIe equipment to the Thunderbolt
standard (Ex. Sonnet and Magma), but that means you were just forced to buy more equipment. If you
don’t put all the new gadgets in racks your workspace will be less tidy, and
who said that discs in an external cabinet or on the desktop is less noisy than
internally mounted ones?
Another
question is: in a world of over-heated Macs working on maximum power under huge
post-productions for film or gigantic multi-channel mixes (really, how many of
us have not been working with one eye on the DAW and the other on the CPU
meter?); is it actually going to work? Is the new design going to cool down the
CPU sufficiently? Maybe it is, but it would be nice to hear it from the audio
industry first and not just from Apple.
To provide
a little more perspective, this is a part of a larger trend that isn’t all that
bad after all. Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 and the Dante Ethernet standard are
together going to provide new and really exciting opportunities for
audio-professionals in the coming years. When I see the new Universal Audio
interfaces and WD discs that can be attached via Thunderbolt I haven’t been as
excited since the late/ mid 2000’s. Then we got a whole new generation of
multi-channel interfaces (Digi 003, M-Audio ProFire,RME Fireface, FocusriteSaffire, etc.). This especially improved the work-environment for
semi-professional studios. When we look at today’s developments (RedNet, UAApollo etc.) it is easy to see that the next revolution is also about to impact
the high end pro-audio marked. There will be less need for PCI(e) equipment
because of the sheer speed and capacity provided in a modern computer’s
com-ports.
Does this
justify Apple’s over-night discontinuing of the old MacPro? For users with
high-end expansion card equipment the answer is no. The new direction Apple is
taking is coming anyway, but new standards needs more time to get established.
If not, Apple is dictating how we set up our workflow and are forcing us to buy
a set of third party equipment that we really have no need for in the first
place.
Again, I’ll
let Mark Wherry in Sound on Sound sum it up:
“[Especially
for users] in larger studios and post-production facilities, the second word in
the Mac Pro’s product name will seem more Project than Professional.”
I need a
Mac Pro upgrade, but what to buy now?
I’ll make
four suggestions for you:
1.Get
an old Mac Pro that’s a couple of years old and not very much used.
2.PC’s
are getting better than ever before. Especially if you know how to build your
own computer and can run Linux or a similar OS with a minimum of clutter you
might both get a solid solution and perhaps even save some money.
3.Embrace
the new technology and go for a new Mac Pro or an iMac.
4.Wait
or find an interim solution. There’s likely to be a well of new products on the
marked over the next few years. By the time there is a second generation of the
Mac Pro (initial bugs fixed, more knowledge about if the cooling works,
upgrades etc.) there will also be a lot more interfaces, discs, hubs and other
peripherals on the marked. They will let you tailor your workflow better, give
you more quality to chose from and force the prices down.
Here is a
really informative video from iFixit.com for those who want to see
what the new Mac Pro looks like inside. If their conclusion holds it should be
really easy to fix, which is a huge plus to its credit:
Another
collaboration is the collaboration with Alive Creative Institute, formerly
known as Alive Dance. It was Alive Institute that held the initiative for the
2011 and 2012 Skogbrann Festivals that I have written about earlier. Alive
Creative Institute is in the process of developing from a regional dance school
with some six hundred part-time students into a full-fledged arts institute
aiming to cover all contemporary art forms. Alive Creative Institute will in
the future have full-time and part-time programmes across a range of topics. My
role has been to start the planning of programmes that will fit the vision of
the institute. A first generation of documents has been developed that aim to
put the academic side of the institute on tracks. Several rounds of planning
are needed but a broad foundation for both the institute and the programmes has
now been laid.
