Thursday stuff
Tomorrow morning I'll be up and out of here early, will begin my work day from the condo, so T can begin his three-day virtual meditation retreat at 10am. I will likely stay there until Monday -- which is a (somewhat controversial) federal holiday. Monday would also be a Maids Day, but I'm going to call to have that rescheduled.
I'm having a good exercise week. Monday I ran & lifted weights, Tuesday I ran & did abs, Wednesday I hiked, today I stretched and will lift weights, tomorrow I will do a dance video & abs.
Yesterday my mood improved as I began to focus on creating music. I'm sad about not having access to my GarageBand projects from eight years ago, but I've done all I can do to look for them right now. I'm trying out three different DAW (digital audio workstation) platforms to see which I might like best. They mainly do the same things, but puzzling out their interfaces and extra features is a challenging task at first. Simple things like "how do I turn the sound on" LOL. Interface design is crucial -- like when you get into a rental car and you can't figure out how to turn on the headlights or the windshield wipers.
DAWs like GarageBand, which is free for users of Apple's operating systems, perform a few major functions: (1) recording sound input, (2) providing a variety of "instruments" that you can play using your computer/phone (keyboard/touch screen) or an external MIDI device (such as an electronic piano), (3) providing a variety of repetitive "loops" that you can add to your music project, such as drums or background vocals, and (4) sound editing & mixing controls.
Some DAWs have more functions than others. It seems to make the best use of them you'll need a large monitor for manipulating the sound tracks, one or more external MIDI devices, and a high-quality microphone.
If you get your music from indie bands on Bandcamp or SoundCloud, a significant number of these songs were made using GarageBand (which you can tell from inspecting their MP3 files) -- it's a good enough DAW for people who want to produce their own music for distribution to fans. I was happy enough with GarageBand as my starter DAW eight years ago. If you're a professional, you probably use Ableton Live, "FruityLoops" (aka FL Studio), or Logic Pro.
I'm taking a fresh look at GarageBand, I downloaded a 90-day evaluation copy of Ableton Live, and I'm also trying the free version of Waveform. By the end of this month I'll probably have decided which of these to work with. So far, ranking ease of use, I'd go with GarageBand, Ableton Live, then Waveform. But I want to figure out how to use each of them before I get into which has the features I want.
I'm also reviewing some Music Theory for Dummies resources to reboot my musical brain. When I was a kid I played keyboards and the trombone, and also sang in the choir, so I was able to read music back then, able to play or sing melodies on sight. But as an adult I haven't been involved in creating music that often. I've kind of forgotten how to sight read music, but I still have an intuitive grasp of playing chords and melodies on a keyboard.
Last time, eight years ago, I only stuck with this music creation stuff for a few weeks and then I became too busy, dropped it so completely I lost track of my GarageBand project files when I upgraded my laptop five years ago. And gave away my keyboard & mic to K so he could experiment. Now it turns out K left the keyboard behind in the condo, and I can get another good mic for $40. If I end up sticking with this hobby I can keep a keyboard/mic combo at each of condo & house. I may need some music editing headphones for the house, though. We'll see whether I really stick with it this time.
Part of me ultimately wants to program my own instruments and loops, if I can ever learn how that works. I know C++ and both Ableton Live and Waveform are programmed in C++. I've never studied how complex sounds can be arranged using computer programming languages.
I'm having a good exercise week. Monday I ran & lifted weights, Tuesday I ran & did abs, Wednesday I hiked, today I stretched and will lift weights, tomorrow I will do a dance video & abs.
Yesterday my mood improved as I began to focus on creating music. I'm sad about not having access to my GarageBand projects from eight years ago, but I've done all I can do to look for them right now. I'm trying out three different DAW (digital audio workstation) platforms to see which I might like best. They mainly do the same things, but puzzling out their interfaces and extra features is a challenging task at first. Simple things like "how do I turn the sound on" LOL. Interface design is crucial -- like when you get into a rental car and you can't figure out how to turn on the headlights or the windshield wipers.
DAWs like GarageBand, which is free for users of Apple's operating systems, perform a few major functions: (1) recording sound input, (2) providing a variety of "instruments" that you can play using your computer/phone (keyboard/touch screen) or an external MIDI device (such as an electronic piano), (3) providing a variety of repetitive "loops" that you can add to your music project, such as drums or background vocals, and (4) sound editing & mixing controls.
Some DAWs have more functions than others. It seems to make the best use of them you'll need a large monitor for manipulating the sound tracks, one or more external MIDI devices, and a high-quality microphone.
If you get your music from indie bands on Bandcamp or SoundCloud, a significant number of these songs were made using GarageBand (which you can tell from inspecting their MP3 files) -- it's a good enough DAW for people who want to produce their own music for distribution to fans. I was happy enough with GarageBand as my starter DAW eight years ago. If you're a professional, you probably use Ableton Live, "FruityLoops" (aka FL Studio), or Logic Pro.
I'm taking a fresh look at GarageBand, I downloaded a 90-day evaluation copy of Ableton Live, and I'm also trying the free version of Waveform. By the end of this month I'll probably have decided which of these to work with. So far, ranking ease of use, I'd go with GarageBand, Ableton Live, then Waveform. But I want to figure out how to use each of them before I get into which has the features I want.
I'm also reviewing some Music Theory for Dummies resources to reboot my musical brain. When I was a kid I played keyboards and the trombone, and also sang in the choir, so I was able to read music back then, able to play or sing melodies on sight. But as an adult I haven't been involved in creating music that often. I've kind of forgotten how to sight read music, but I still have an intuitive grasp of playing chords and melodies on a keyboard.
Last time, eight years ago, I only stuck with this music creation stuff for a few weeks and then I became too busy, dropped it so completely I lost track of my GarageBand project files when I upgraded my laptop five years ago. And gave away my keyboard & mic to K so he could experiment. Now it turns out K left the keyboard behind in the condo, and I can get another good mic for $40. If I end up sticking with this hobby I can keep a keyboard/mic combo at each of condo & house. I may need some music editing headphones for the house, though. We'll see whether I really stick with it this time.
Part of me ultimately wants to program my own instruments and loops, if I can ever learn how that works. I know C++ and both Ableton Live and Waveform are programmed in C++. I've never studied how complex sounds can be arranged using computer programming languages.