iPad Box

Finally got my iPad 64gb 3G…

It truly is a magical devise; as soon as my mother touched it she instantly had an uncontrollable urge to buy one. Clearly this is some witchcraft from Apple…

Full set.

When I first heard of the story I’d only just downloaded Readerrific and innocently (I only read the stories in passing) that they were talking about that. I only discovered that is was MobileRSS when I bought that later on it’s 99¢ sale.

]]> http://yagankiely.com/blog/splash-of-colour/feed/ 0 http://yagankiely.com/blog/new-to-classical-music/ http://yagankiely.com/blog/new-to-classical-music/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:27:58 +0000 Yagan Kiely http://yagankiely.com/?p=282 What’s good music to give to someone that has never listened to ‘classical’ music before? Obviously, Wagner, Schönberg, Boulez, Monteverdi et al are not instantly enjoyable pieces to those completely un-learned with ‘classical’ music. I would think you’d start with pieces they already know (Beethoven’s 5th, 1812 etc.) but are what are other good ones? I would think they would need to be very melodic and quite simple, and indeed, short. Presenting someone with the whole of the extremely recognisable Beethoven’s 9th final mvt would simply be too overwhelming. I’ve noticed people have a close connection to voice and chorus. We are naturally social, so that may be why.

A more controversial option may be to adopt pseudo-classical music. I don’t mean in the Andre Rieu way, I mean, fore example, John Williams which clearly does have strong classical ties. This, I dare to say, is undoubtedly an inroad, but is it setting a bad example.*

Leave comments on Twitter, here or Facebook.

*Don’t get me wrong, I frequently listen to soundtracks, but they are (especially john williams in Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc.) almost like pop songs in their instant gratification/no enduring interest.

Apple Devices

I thought I may as well provide a list of my technology/gadgets I own.

Apple:

MacBook Pro, Late 2008 15″ (2.4Ghz, 4gb RAM, 320gb HD)

MacBook Air, Late 2010 13″ (1.86Ghz, 4gb RAM, 128gb SSD)

iPhone 4, Black (32gb)

iPad 3G + WiFi (64gb)

iPod Nano 3rd Generation (8gb)

Other:

Xbox 360

• Halo Wars
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Halo 2
• Halo 3
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo: Reach
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• Call of Duty: World at War
• Midnight Club LA (with South Central addon)
• Farcry 2
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Grand Theft Auto IV: Liberty City Stories
• Borderlands
• Three controllers

PlayStation 2 (with various games)

XBox (x2) (with various games)

TwelveSouth Basejump

Meizu 8gb MP3 player

drobo (2tb, 2tb & 1tb) – used for iTunes library.

laCie Neil Poulton HD (USB 2.0, 500gb) – used for Time Machine backup.

laCie Rugged HG (Firewire etc., 500gb) – used as a downloads folder

Buffalo HD (USB 2.0, 320gb) — unused.

Sennheiser HD 515 Headphones

Sennheiser in-earphones

Philips in-earphones

Samsung in-earphones

Bose Companion 2 speakers

Samsung TV (32″)

Samsung Monitor/TV (26″)

Fujifilm Finepix s1000fd (12x, 10mpx)

Monoprice iPhone battery (x2) (2200mAh)

Sunbeam EM6910 Café Series Espresso Machine

iPhone v. iPad

The most obvious thing is the equality between Productive apps and Games for the iPad and the disparity in the iPhone. This should mean a combination of two things:

1. The iPad is treated very differently than the iPhone (screen size etc.);
2. and the iPad is bought by a different demographic than the iPhone.

The iPhone is on a plan and is more likely to be bought by/for children in conjunction with the iPad’s larger screen real estate being more suited to more professional needs.

Interesting all the same.

Starting fat a similar topic to one from my previous post: I believe technology is an asset that can be employed as an aid, althoughI have still yet for find a good enough reason to use technology within my compositions. Much of my setup involves extensive use of technology – MacBook Pro, iPod, iPad, iPhone and an A3 printer/scanner – but I do still use more traditional items such as a small notepad, blank manuscript and what comes out of the printer.

iPad Wi-FI + 3G (64gb)

Main apps:

Safari

Twitter

iPod

GoodReader – PDF reader

Pages

Reeder – Google Reader (RSS)

Synotes – Syncs with the iPhone version, a web app version and JustNotes on the Mac

Concise Oxford Dictionary

Concise Oxford Thesaurus

Mover+

TiltShiftGen

Photogene

CameraBag

After sixteen weeks with the iPad (completely and coincidentally as of today) the device has completely settled in. When I first got it I almost completely stopped using the MacBook Pro all together. Then the iPad stopped being a shiny new device and started to be just another [delightfully fully pretty and fun to use] tool. It may not get used as much as it did, but it still runs out of battery after a day a couple of times a week.

One of the main uses I get from the iPad is from GoodReader. I’ve uploaded my collection of PDF scores to it (all organised) and study them while I listen the the respective music from the iPad itself or the iPhone or iPod. This is incredibly useful to me as I don’t get much out of music without the score (at least relative to when I do have the score).  Most of the rest of the apps are self evident; Twitter for Twitter, Safari for the web, the dictionary for… …there all useful.

I use Pages for more major writing jobs (relative to the limitations of a touch screen device) such as editing assignments. I also use it for Law notes in my lectures etc. because I’ve yet to find a applicable note taking app yet.

If I’ve taken a few photos with my Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd I’ll use the latter three of the above listed apps to (maybe) edit what I’ve taken. There as powerful and as mixed in function as I need. If I’ve taken a few photos with the iPhone I may use Mover+ to put them on the iPad; it’s just easier on the bigger screen to to larger jobs.

I do a lot of Twitter ‘work’ on the iPad, I have scrabble installed for Café outings and Words with friends for some light ‘gaming’.

The main thing I’m looking for but haven’t found yet is a notation app for jotting down musical ideas, I still keep checking and I have unrealistic and far fetched hopes that MakeMusic will release a Finale like app or just something that read *.mus files.

iPhone 3GS (32gb)

Main apps:

Camera

Camera+ – Not on the app store as of this writing.

Twitter

Reeder

iPod

Symphony – Notation

Quickoffice

2Do

Synotes

Mover+

TiltShiftGen

Photogene

CameraBag

Unlike the iPad, the iPhone does have a notation app (Symphony). I use the iPhone in much the same way as the iPad except it’s for super-portable and/or very short services.

However I do use the iPhone, even with it’s short sighted camera, as a point-and-shoot. As wit the iPad I use the “…use the latter three of the above listed apps to (maybe) edit what I’ve taken. There as powerful and as mixed in function as I need. If I’ve taken a few photos with the iPhone I may use Mover+ to put them on the iPad; it’s just easier on the bigger screen to to larger jobs.” There isn’t much extra to say about the iPhone……

iPod Nano 3^rd Gen (8gb)

Only recently started using it again to bolster my portable music collection after I read this and thought it was good way to carry it without it getting in the way. It’s only 8gbs, but I can fit my Mahler and Sibelius on it.

MacBook Pro

Main apps:

Pages

Chrome

Tweetie

Finale 2010

Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO)

iTunes

Cloudapp

JustNotes – Syncs with Synotes

DropBox – Described in web apps

MobileMe – Described in web apps

iPhoto

Transmission

As of this writing the [early 2008 15”] MacBook Pro desperately short of hard drive space; the external media hard drive is also completely full. Pages is obviously my main writing tool (I have Office:Mac but try to avoid it as much as possible). I actually use Chromium rather than Chrome, unless of course a build fouls up. Deftly obvious iTunes is the media player, and while it does run slow at times and is… quite clunky I do like it’s interface. But why no Cocoa or 64bit!? iPhoto is my main photo organiser, I had a pirated copy of Aperture for a little while (about as long as the trial anyway – I just don’t like trials or demos, I want to try it without the rush of a trial or the lack of features of a demo) but didn’t need it so I got rid of it.

Finale 2010 + GPO are definitely the most important ‘creative’ OS X apps I have. I love Finale’s input method and likewise can’t stand Sibelius’s input method. I used to use normal midi, but GPO makes imagining a real sound so much easier. You have to be aware of it’s obvious shortcomings (compared to a traditional approach) and deliberately and consciously avoid them, otherwise the Finale starts to control your compositions rather than just being a tool. As I said before, I use finale as my instrument; Beethoven, Mahler, etc. composed on the Piano, Finale is my Piano.

Brother Multi-Function Centre 6490CW

Wonderful purchase. It’s great being able to print A3 thus being able to read some of my larger scores. Scanning A3 is likewise useful.

And lastly, all that archaic stuff

I use a notepad for jotting down stuff or comparing stuff when an iPod or iPhone just doesn’t seem appropriate. I sometimes use blank manuscript for musical scribbles (and sometimes musical notes/analysis). I discovered – what a discovery! – recently (purely because I hadn’t thought of it before……) that I could print out my larger scores and after brief analysis gain a larger picture of the piece to provide insight into what I’d actually composed. This helped a lot in editing the form of the piece and making it work coherently.

Regarding the iPod Classic should, it, in addition to ridding itself of a HDD and gaining a SSD, should be given the capabilities of an external hard drive; most people’s entire iTunes could fit on it. It could actually be used as the library.

Just two thoughts…