I had just recently watched a couple speeches and interviews by Neil Young because I wanted to understand exactly what he was doing. I heard a lot about PONO, but just hadn’t taken that time. Short answer: I’m no fan of MP3s and I have to constantly struggle to remind ...

Björk... the other woman.

One of the highlights of 2012 so far was our trip to New York to see Björk at the Roseland Ballroom on March 2. I’ve been listening to Björk for years, as a sort of guilty pleasure that not many understand. Bjork has been on my stereo a lot more ...

Over the years I’ve had a strange relationship with percussion. From home-made shakers to drum machines, to a variety of live performers and friends – the language of rhythm has played a large part in my work. I don’t really consider myself a percussionist, yet my collection has grown ...

Light as sound? Check it out… http://lightguitar.org/Light_Guitar.html … ...

Lots of recording since I last posted. Tried GarageBand for one experiment, though the many pre-composed elements that come with GarageBand are a real turnoff for me. I still have a tentative relationship with loops to begin with, especially when they are not simply percussion or drums. Anything melodic is ...

For all of the minor technical problems that I’ve had (which I think are universal for any computer), I need to step back and comment on some of the many positives of writing/recording with the MacBook Pro. These observations fall into two categories: Software (in this case Garageband) and Hardware ...

Native Instruments’ free VST synth platform Kore is a nice tool. It comes with many great patches, and works well on PC, but the Mac version appeared to have lots of trouble recognizing a MIDI input from a Triton… or so I thought. Read about my wild goose chase… ...

One day when I sat down to our HP laptop (Audra’s main machine), I had a moment of confusion when the touch pad would not “click”. I’ve gotten used to this feature on the MacBook. Also, since I have not been using a mouse on the MacBook, it felt slightly ...

Another 30 minutes and the printing issue is solved! ...

OK, so how long will this journal go on? I think my initial goal of documenting the first week of the Mac experience is sufficient. I’ll probably post some more experiences as I get deeper into using some of the programs I’ve installed, and after I use the machine to ...

Not much computing today. Lots of running around and visiting, so not much to say about the Mac. Tried to use wireless hot spot in Borders, but it looks like T-Mobile is pulling their hotspots after mid-September. ...

This is the beginning of my “birthday weekend” in Harrisburg. It’s our last chance to get a little R&R before my next class at BU and Audra’s next school year starts up. Having lived in Harrisburg for four years, it is fun to visit old friends and see some of ...