The Great Studio Build-Out Begins…
Today is a very exciting day. I’ve been working behind the scenes for months on a new studio upgrade that is inline with a lot of professional goals I have. For those of you who have been around for awhile you likely noticed a face lift on my website recently, which allows me to automate and upgrade my forthcoming newsletter as well as regular scheduling for clients and colleagues.
However, in addition to this, I’ve recently written and received a grant that will be focused on overhauling some of my instruments and significantly bolstering my audio, video, and lighting equipment for content creation. That process begins today with the first item arriving—a 13” M1 MacBook Pro.
I have been an iMac user for 16 years and have had a desktop computer for as long as I remember. My family had an Apple IIe, in high school and college I had a custom built PC, and then when I began grad school I bought an iMac. I love working at a desk and as I’ve proclaimed earlier, am obsessed with large work spaces. I’ve had laptops along the way, but have always had a desktop as my main machine.
However, I’ve always been frustrated by how dialed in I get my home machine, and much of that work doesn’t transfer to my laptop or my desktop at work. At home I have Hazel automating in the background, certain settings in apps like Apple Mail are tweaked, or even something as simple as a new desktop wallpaper may be missing. All kinds of small things occur and I never want to go back and do those a 2nd, or especially, a 3rd time on another machine. In general there is maintenance to multiple machines as well from software updates to battery life, and the friction really adds up.
So, with the announcement of the new Apple Silicon chips, I’ve decided to give the laptop lifestyle a chance. It’s a bit terrifying, but over the coming weeks, I’m planning to (attempt) to merge everything from my home iMac, work iMac, and work laptop (my rock solid 2012 MacBook Air) onto this new 13” M1 MacBook Pro which has been fully upgraded to include 16GB of Ram and a 2TB hard drive. This machine is going to drive audio/video recording sessions as well as all of my daily computing, and I can’t wait to get it fully optimized. Much more to come on this transition and all the equipment coming for the new studio. Until then, it’s a bittersweet day as I step out into new territory with this laptop.
Reactions to the Apple Event
Really enjoyed sitting down today and checking out today’s Apple Event during quiet time in our house. Kids sleeping/resting and having lunch with dedicated relaxing time seemed to be a rare alignment of the stars. I jotted down a few thoughts as I watched:
I definitely see a HomePod mini in our future. We have a few Echo devices and I’d love to see how much I use one of these. Specifically, I can never hear my podcasts over the noise from the shower and having one in the bedroom in the mornings seems like a great way to get the news, weather, and have a great speaker for any listening during the morning routine.
The intercom system would also be really helpful. Studio AB is in the bottom corner of our house and I know my wife and I would use this feature throughout the week.
The iPhone 12 Pro looks amazing and I’m especially excited about the continued evolution of the camera. It feels like every year Apple doubles down on the previous camera improvements, which has been a big selling point for me. These cameras are by far the #1 way I document my kids’ childhood and I value having such a high quality camera on my phone despite having just bought a “big kid” camera.
Though I loved the Bond theme music, I don’t see the desire for an iPhone mini. I’m excited to be proven wrong, but for me, I don’t really see an obvious use case at the moment.
I think I am most excited about the MagSafe system and how flexible it is with iPhone accessories. I love the idea of a shared charger for the iPhone and Apple Watch as well!
Freedom in the Groove
I just returned from Macstock 2019 in McHenry, IL and had an amazing time. It was such a treat to branch out of my usual activities and share two days learning about something I’m passionate about, while also making some new friends.
I wondered how much I would have to add to the conversation as someone who is not a computer programmer or an engineer, for example. However, in meeting all of these tech-enthusiasts, I was amazed at how many of them mentioned music being their muse. My new friend Mike Melcer from NY showed me two awesome new-to-me apps (review on the way) that he uses for casual music making at home. He even stumped me when he asked for suggestions for apps that help develop relative pitch. Mike Schmitz and I had a great chat about his upbringing on violin and I got the chance to bump into Kourosh Dini, who lives in Chicago and regularly plays piano and guitar. All of us work in different fields day-to-day, so it was enlightening to see how easy it was to find commonalities.
The first night I was there, I had an extended chat with David Sparks (aka MacSparky) and Mike Melcer about a range of topics including Apple, Star Wars & Galaxy’s Edge, and his background as a jazz saxophonist. David has spoken often about how he uses the saxophone as a 30-minute break in his day-to-day, and how the short breaks actually help him to refocus and recharge his energy in the afternoon. Among our conversations, he mentioned a favorite track of his by Joshua Redman called “Hide & Seek,” from his 1996 album Freedom in the Groove. I could sense his pride when he mentioned his daughter being able to scat through most of the tune from his repeated plays of the track, an experience I’ve shared as I’ve heard various records work their way into my kids’ playlists and backseat singing. Always a heart-warming experience as a Dad.
When the weekend wrapped up, I grabbed a car to the airport and was actually feeling a little overwhelmed. The weekend helped to focus lots of really exciting ideas and possibilities to use technology as a means to creating more meaningful work, and that is always an exciting prospect. Once I worked through airport security at O’Hare, I popped in my AirPods and grabbed a meal at the Chicago Cubs Bar & Grill (where else?). I started reviewing my notes and was reminded that I needed to check out “Hide & Seek.” My history with Joshua Redman actually goes back to ~2002, when I joined some friends on an impromptu trip into Chicago from Northern Illinois University. We headed to the Jazz Showcase and saw the Dave Holland Quintet, grabbed dinner at the ESPN Zone, and then found out Redman was in town, so we headed up to Martyrs to hear him with Sam Yahel and Brian Blade, touring their recent Elastic album release. I picked up the album and played it nearly every morning for a solid year as I was getting ready…my roommate was a jazz bass major and may never listen to Joshua Redman again because of me.
O’Hare that day was slammed and, in general, was feeling rather claustrophobic. However, thanks to my AirPods, I was having a completely musical experience – all but dancing down the terminal hallway toward my gate. David was right. “Hide and Seek” is an incredible opening track and the album ended up sticking with me for the rest of the night. It was so inspiring to reconnect with a musical favorite that had made his way off of my recent playlists. My gate ended up being at the end of the terminal in one of those basement, dead-end, cul-de-sacs, where everyone is crowded and miserable. Meanwhile, I was having a completely isolated experience trying not to draw attention to myself as I was digging each track of the album. I got on the plane and was seated next to someone whose body type was taking up half of my seat. Didn’t matter though, I was locked into the record.
I knew Sunday night was going to be a long night, with a late flight and even later commute home, but listening to this album made it feel like time travel. I finally hit Knoxville, just shy of 1AM and reveled while listening to Invocation, another favorite track of mine from the album. Now on my Apple Carplay and on my 3rd or 4th time through the disc, I was driving home and excited to start the week home with my family. My overwhelm was gone and the travel time seemed to disappear. The music inspired me and I was able to capture some clarity and meaningful notes on a few projects during the journey in Apple Notes. While AirPods, an iPhone, and Apple Notes are not exactly “advanced” technology, this experience never would have been possible years ago. We had talked all weekend at MacStock about using technology to get to the creative work, and I was thankful to be arriving home inspired, clear-minded, and ready to get back to the daily mission of creating meaningful art.
Ruler App
A recent late night date with Quickbooks had me going back and forth between a few PDF documents to reconcile an account. While the creative part of being a musician is great, having clean books is a necessity and I found myself having to tighten up a few groups of data. Thankfully I have a TV in my office and could monitor the MLB playoff race at the same time...
Some workflows on the computer are just not as easy as paper and pencil and using a ruler to keep your place while reconciling an account vs a statement is a trick as old as time. I remember my Dad doing it at his desk growing up, however it seems a little unnecessary to print everything in 2017 just to get this job done accurately and quickly. Enter this nifty Ruler App.
This handy ruler was a huge help with banking and could easily be used to keep your place on any kind of document where your eyes have to go back and forth often, even if in the same document. I can imagine it having uses in score study perhaps or while reviewing any information across a few locations. The colors are changeable, it can be multiplied to have more than one, and can be used vertically or horizontally. A nice little find for $2.
Auto-Filing Email With SaneBox
I’ve enjoyed getting on board with SaneBox this year to help me stay in charge of my inbox. Since I began teaching in higher education, my email intake has increased significantly, while the processing team remains the same size – me. On top of this I have 2 other email accounts that manage, so it is important that my time in Apple Mail is as efficient as possible.
SaneBox comes with several folders that can be enabled for sorting through the wide variety of messages hitting the inbox, which I use to screen messages in Apple Mail a few times a day. The Inbox messages remain untouched by Sanebox and are the messages I want to see and spend my time on. Often these might be about a potential collaboration from a colleague, a message from a former student, or an email from a friend.
The rest of the messages get pulled into the following folders. By doing so, they are then trained to arrive in these folders in the future:
SaneLater: These are important messages that can’t be dealt with at the moment. Not having to re-read these multiple times, often over several days, makes processing the other actionable items easier and distraction-free.
SaneCC: SaneBox automatically files messages here that I am cc:ed on. Again, these are typically important, but rarely would be the first items I would act upon if I only have a few minutes. Having them out of the way until I have some extra time is extremely helpful.
SaneBulk: Real emails that don’t need to interrupt focused work. Newsletters, marketing from retailers, notifications from social media, and many other types of non-urgent and frequently uninmportant messages. I’ve found more than 50% of the emails I receive daily fall here. I often can scan them quickly, Select All, Mark as Read, and then Archive / Delete. This replaces the constant “pruning” many of us have resorted to on our phones while spending time with others, when we could be having focused, meaningful interactions.
SaneBlackHole: Junk mail. Real or spam. Drag emails here and they will be put directly in the Trash in the future. By not unsubscribing, I save time and don’t risk exposing myself to more junk by clicking through on the initial message.
Email can be rewarding when spending time on correspondence that is important, but all too often we spend our time sorting through unimportant messages, trying to get to a place where we can focus on the important stuff. SaneBox has acted as my digital sorting assistant since I signed up and I’ve been cruising through my inbox at much faster speeds since, not to mention enjoying many of the other features SaneBox offers.
More information can be found at SaneBox.com. If you decide to give it a shot, consider using this link to save $5 off a paid subscription.
Getting Started with TextExpander Snippets
In a life where creative time is at a premium (which is just about any creative person) I always get excited when I can find time to automate the administrative side of my work. For me, TextExpander scratches that itch daily.
Whenever I'm working through my daily punch list and find myself anticipating work that is remotely repetitive, I find my geek-senses kick in and I begin thinking about how to automate tasks. For example, it is the beginning of the semester at the University of Tennessee, and I am on paternity leave, meaning I need to put a lot of people in touch with a colleague of mine who is replacing me for Fall 2017. I could put up a standard away message to all utk.edu email, but there are lots of people who don't necessarily need this information; on the contrary I don't want to type out an explanation for me being away, when I will return, and how to contact this person, dozens of times each week until the new year.
So instead, I type "xaway" and the following message appears:
Thanks so much for your message. I am away on paternity leave for the Fall 2017 semester celebrating the birth of our new daughter! As a result, please contact UT's Visiting Lecturer of Percussion xxxxxx whose email is xxxxxx. The UT Percussion Studio work phone is also of course live which is xxx-xxx-xxxx. I look forward to connecting once I'm back on campus in a few months!
Warm regards,
Andy
Once this happens, I can modify the text, add/subtract text, and format as I wish, but it saves a lot of time. And it doesn't only have to be used in email. This is one of the simplest ways to use their snippets and there are countless ways this can be implemented, not only for efficiency, but also for consistency.