Mac n Music

Mac n Music

One of the ventures I am going to begin is getting back to writing music, but this time with more of a purpose. When I was in my 20's, like every other musician of the time, I had dreams of becoming a famous recording artist. I was playing in a band and was also a student in college, struggling with which path I needed to concentrate on. I really didn't give enough time to either, so I didn't excel in either. I did however always have my voice. That was a gift and was easy to use and was the reason I received the most attention. I was a lead singer and a decent keyboard player.

For a period of time when I was in between bands and decided to put all my efforts into song writing, I spent all my time trying to come up with great stuff. Some of it was very good and a lot of it was crap, at least in my mind. I did have an "almost success" story, as I like to call it. I took some songs on a tape and went to the big concert promoter in the Pittsburgh area. I was amazed as they actually loved some of my stuff! I thought I was on my way. Well, this is a subject for another whole article, but needless to say, you never heard of me.. did you?

But those days, my writing was to be one of the famous rock stars that I idolized. Today, I have a totally different purpose. Actually, a lot of purposes! Basically, I first want to just start playing, creating and recording to come up with some good stuff that I want to develop. I intend on writing some music only and some with lyrics too, again for different purposes.

To begin this venture, I am purchasing a Macbook to use with my midi keyboard. The Macbook is the most portable and yet powerful enough to use for both music recording and video production, which is another creative venture I intend on doing. ( I will discuss that in another topic )

The equipment I will use:

MacBook 13-inch (Black), 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of SDRAM. I am getting Apple's Logic Express pre-installed for music recording and Final Cut Express for video production. I ended up not getting a refurbished Mac for two reasons. One, the model I want was no longer available, so I guess it's a keep checking kind of thing for that. Two, the model I want to be able to handle what I am going to do with video productions has 2GB of memory and the refurbished one I saw only had 1GB, which I would have had to pay an additional couple of hundred dollars for the upgrade. I also wanted the black Macbook and it seems to come only with the more memory and hard drive space. That is one thing about Apple products. They are more expensive.... but in the end, it is worth it to bite the bullet and go just that extra up front. There are macbook users still using the same computer for years, when pc users, usually have to upgrade in 3 years due to improvements and the fact that pc software actually creates the need for improved hardware. Apple upgrades in software will tend to still work on older models, for the most part.

My keyboard is a Yamaha DGX-505 88-Key Portable Grand Digital Keyboard which is a great instrument to create on.

Here is a great site that about music creation with a Macbook: (the article is not recent, but the meaning still applies)

http://www.bedroommusician.co.uk/2006/09/top-10-reasons-to-buy-macbook-for.html

I will continue to add articles about this venture and tag them as Mac & Music.

I found a forum on MacOSG which has a lot of good help for Mac users. This discussion thread gave me some help for my keyboard and Macbook connection. (http://www.macosg.com/group/viewtopic.php?t=13191)

Mac Hints & Tips

For Mac Boomers...
Here is a link to a site that posts newsletters with Mac Hints & Tips. They are a little bit technical in the writing and contain a lot of information, but if you take them section at a time, they are not very hard to follow.
http://www.mac-hints-tips.com/
He asks for donations if you like, download and use the information. You don't have to, but if you use them, it's a nice idea to donate.
January/February 2008 Issue

Once you get a Mac, you'll never go back!

I have been in the computer field as my career for 22 years. I have worked with networks, servers, backup systems, going through all the upgrades and security fixes and crashes... you name it. If I could have the time back that I have waited for pc's to reboot over and over again while I think of one more thing that may fix them and then have to reboot it again, I think I would be able to add at least a decade onto my life!

I have always heard how Macs don't crash and are so much more dependable, but I never really had one to use or experience until this last year when my daughter was going to start her first year of college. One of the big reasons so many people don't buy Macs is because of their price. That has improved a bit in the last couple of years, but they still are expensive. I checked them out as I heard the price had come down. We ended up buying the lowest priced model you can buy, the base Macbook. We were able to get a student discount, so the price with Apple's extra warranty for 3 years came to a total of about $1,300.

It came in the mail to our house in about 2 days. Even the box it came in was unique. Everything about it's appearance looked like nothing I had ever had. We turned it on and it just seemed to know what to do. It found my wireless network in the house immediately and started asking us to fill in things like our names, etc... I was so amazed that I actually don't even remember all the things it did when we turned it on... I was that excited!

It was a couple of weeks until she was going to start college, so anytime she wasn't using it, I used it. This base model was performing better than any computer I had ever owned or used.

I have been involved in the security of networks and computers for so long that I first thought, OK, where's the anti-virus and security software on this thing? I had heard that Macs do not to be concerned about anti-virus software or virus attacks, but I didn't believe it. I was sure that I needed to find out more. I researched the Internet and then asked several others who were experienced with Macs and what it comes down to is that viruses are not written to attack Macs. The operating system is written is such a way that it is really not an issue. I didn't need to buy any anti-virus software!!! It is sold, but you do not need it. Many Macs users have told me this and my daughter has had no issues at all.

I can not imagine how powerful some of the very expensive Macs must be as this little macbook with the 13 inch screen was perfect in every way as far as I was concerned. I am going to be buying one for myself very soon to help me with some of my new career ventures that involve making DVD production movies and record my own music at home. I have researched and asked Apple tech sources and this macbook will do the job very well. I still really can't justify spending $2,000 for a computer right now. Perhaps, if things work out and my income improves, I will upgrade to a larger Mac.

What I did find out was you can get some really good discounts on Macs at Apple's refurbished site. ( Apple's Refurbished Macs ) You can find 13% to even 50% discounts on Macs and accessories. These are really just machines that may have been returned by customers and then entirely repaired and rebuilt and tested and all software reinstalled and tested again. They have all normal warranties also.

Sweet Machine !!!

Refurbished MacBook 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - White

Watch for my continued posts for tips and help for new Mac users.