Random Connections – Page 113 – A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

iPad Music Notation

January 11, 2012 Tom No Comments

Gear, Music

Saturday we had a Chorale Chamber Ensemble “retreat,” basically an all-afternoon rehearsal when I would have preferred being out on my kayak. This group is fairly tech-savvy, and there is always a good contingent of smart phones, e-readers, and iPads somewhere in the hall. Usually these are pulled out before rehearsal or during break (or surreptitiously used to take blurry photos, as I did in this post.) However, at this particular rehearsal I glanced over at one of our tenors and saw that he was holding his iPad throughout rehearsal rather than his music. Perry had scanned all of his music into PDF files and was reading from the iPad.

This caused quite the stir during break, and several of us pulled out iPads to compare scoring apps. Perry was kind enough to share his scanned PDF files (not illegal in this case since we have legitimate copies in our possession.) The following Monday evening I had the music on my iPad, as did soprano Amy.

…Which leads to this post in my series on iPad music. What apps are available for both reading and creating musical scores? Quite a few, as you might imagine.

Electronic Music Primer

January 9, 2012 Tom No Comments

Gear, Music

I figured that before I dive into the musical capabilities of the iPad, it might not hurt to define some of these terms and acronyms that I’m tossing around. As with any field, electronic music has its own jargon that can be quite confusing. These are roughly in order of how frequently I’ll be using the terms over the next several posts. I don’t pretend to be an expert, and will probably get some of this wrong, but here goes…

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) – MIDI was developed as a communications protocol in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s. It allows musical keyboards to control other keyboards and devices such as computers, etc.

Even though it was developed thirty years ago, MIDI is still very much in use. Back in the day when computers didn’t have much memory, MIDI was also a very efficient way to create complex compositions. A computer or external sequencer only had to record key-on/key-off, pitch, and duration data. The actual sounds were produced by the external keyboards or sound modules. Other capabilities were added to the protocol, such as the ability to detect velocity, or how hard a key is pressed, and the ability to control various settings on instruments such as sustain, and to trigger events such as changing lighting, changing settings, etc. You could also play multiple keyboards from one controller keyboard, creating thick sounds and tonalities from multiple instruments.

MIDI has 16 different channels, and different instruments can be assigned to various channels. On most keyboards you will find a MIDI in, out, and through port. On many modern keyboards the MIDI signal is now transmitted through a USB port.

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Table 301

January 8, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Restaurants

…or, “I watch way too much food television…” Laura and I had delayed our anniversary dinner. Our actual anniversary is right after Christmas, and this year we were traveling. So, this year we decided to go out for a nice meal at a more convenient time. We had been to The Lazy Goat several times … Read More “Table 301” »

iMake Music

January 6, 2012 Tom 5 Comments

Gear, General Technology, Music

It seems timely that the lowly Commodore C64 was introduced 30 years ago this week. The C64 was my introduction to music technology, and my gateway to the larger world of instructional technology. I used the C64 with a MIDI interface and some very basic sequencing software to control a Casio CZ101 keyboard, a Korg … Read More “iMake Music” »

One Eye or Two?

January 3, 2012 Tom 3 Comments

Gear

When we got married our good friend Joyce gave us a pair of Nikon Travelite binoculars. She knew we enjoyed birding, and would get good use from them. Too much use, almost to the detriment of our marriage, as it turns out. We fought over who got to use them. So, we bought a second … Read More “One Eye or Two?” »

iPad After Six Months

January 2, 2012 Tom No Comments

EdTech, Gear

It’s been over six months since I’ve had my iPad (well, nearly seven, actually) and has been about that much time since I first wrote about it. Since then I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces and see what apps I like best.

I’m still frustrated by the lack of Flash. There are just too many online applications that I use on a regular basis that need it, from Aviary.com to Audioboo.fm to Flickr to…, well I think you get the point. Even though some of these sites advertise themselves as iPad compatible, or have apps, the embeddable players for blogs still run on Flash. I hope they are able to fix these.

I’m also still concerned about the “appification” of the web. Rather than making their sites HTML5 compatible, some sites are just creating apps to host their content, then charging for the apps. Content that use to be free on the web is now hidden behind an app fee if you want to read on an iPad. I’ve seen a couple of other editorials in the past month lamenting this practice, so I know it’s not just me.

That being said, I’ve found a whole host of other things that make the iPad an outstanding device, and one that I’ve come to rely on all the time. As one might imagine, I’m finding new uses beyond the traditional laptop/netbook that really make it a game changer. I guess the real clincher was when I recently reached up and tried to touch my laptop screen to select something.

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RandomConnections Calendar 2012

December 31, 2011 Tom 1 Comment

Photography

Each year I do a calendar from some of my photos for my family. I use Qoop to create my photos because (A) they do a pretty good job and (B) they are a bit cheaper than some of the alternatives. What they lack, though, is a good space for text, so the photos have no descriptions. Therefore, I’ve started putting the descriptions here each year.

Cover – Looking Glass Falls

This is a photo of Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah National Forest north of Brevard, North Carolina. Normally, there are tons of people here, and it’s hard to get a shot. We were there on a spring morning in the middle of the week, so it wasn’t very crowded.

The photo was taken with a longer exposure time to give the falls that silky look, then processed in Photoshop with the ReDynamix plug-in to bring out the details.

An Old Fashioned Blog

December 27, 2011 Tom 2 Comments

Uncategorized

Laura was with me in Barnes and Noble when I lingered over the leather journals. Later she apparently read my blog poston the subject. Subsequently, I received a beautiful leather-bound journal for Christmas. As I wrote earlier, the temptation was to put the journal away and use it for a special project. In my heart … Read More “An Old Fashioned Blog” »

Florida Christmas 2011

December 27, 2011January 25, 2020 Tom 1 Comment

Family, Paddling, Photography, Travel

Another Christmas has come and gone, and again this year we’ve spent it in Florida with Laura’s sister, Amy. It’s been a busy week, with boat trips, paddling trips, and explorations of the area. Normally I would have done several posts, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. So I’ve combined a few items in one long post. Here are a few highlights and photos…

Beaches

We took a couple of trips to the beach. First was a trip up to Avalon Beach on North Hutchinson Island after a shopping trip to Vero Beach. The wind was whipping, and the waves were higher than usual. We didn’t stay long at the little park, but just parked so that Laura’s mom could look out over the ocean and we could walk on the beach.

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Winter Solstice Sunrise Paddle

December 22, 2011 Tom No Comments

Paddling, Photography, Travel

Last night was the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice occurred at about 12:30 am. That meant sunrise would also be the latest of the year, and I could paddle out to enjoy it without having to get up too early. It also helped that both my kayak and body of water on which I’d be paddling were only about 100 ft away from my bed.

…but backing up a bit…

We arrived at Amy’s house in Fort Pierce earlier this week. In addition to luggage, my electronic gizmos, and Christmas presents, we had strapped the tandem kayak to the top of the car. While the weather down here is spectacular – hovering in the 80s during the day – paddling conditions have not been ideal. It’s been breezy and very choppy out on the Indian River.

I tried a couple of solo trips. On one a large sea turtle came up next to me and kept me company for awhile.