ATTENDING: Tom B, Bob S, Robert
S, Deb S, Bernadette N, Don H, Peter H, and Larry T.
TOPIC: Garage Band
Peter Hutchings
gave us a glimpse into the ways he uses Apple's Garage Band to
rehearse, as well as create, music. Peter is a concert pianist
visiting from Los Angeles where he works with choruses at Loyola
Marymount University. Recently the groups toured four cities in
Italy and performed a special concert in the Sistine Chapel (read
more here).
We also enjoyed a short slideshow of the beautiful architecture
and canals of Venice.
By using the high-quality
sound samples included in Garage Band along with live recording of
piano and voice via the built-in mic of his MacBook Pro, Peter was
able to create professional compositions. He shared some of his original
piano compositions from the Katrina Project, followed by some experiments
with cricket and wave sounds of Keuka Lake. Garage Band is one of the
apps found in the iLife
'09 bundle included in new Macs running OS 10.5 Leopard. Listen
to some of Peter's original compositions below:
HMUG
Demo - music & tracks (composed before the meeting)
Audacity -
free application to record live instrument or voice with a single click.
Export recording as MP3 to reduce size and make it playable on your
iPod. See example.
MicPlug ($20
at OWC) - Connects any XLR dynamic microphone (such as a Shure 58)
to your Mac via USB. A handy on/off switch lights when active. Works
with USB 1.0 and 2.0. Great for GarageBand. See MicPlug
specs.
OTHER INTERESTING THINGS
Robert
Scharf, Jr., visiting from Texas, shared a great
shot of Keuka Lake taken from the International
Space Station - can you see your house? Here are some
earlier images taken from the space shuttle orbiting the earth.
Robert, a 1994 R.I.T. graduate
who majored in scientific imaging, currently helps instruct astronauts
on picture-taking for NASA.
Tom
recently took his 11 year-old granddaughter to the Sciencenter in
Ithaca, NY. One amazing thing learned at the Nano exhibit was about
the hidden microscopic image of the Lincoln sculpture inside the Memorial
on the back of a penny! (view it
here). These images were scanned using an old $10 USB HP Scanjet
3570c with a 2001 PBTi. Isn't it great how backwards-compatible macs
are?
Hammondsport Mac Users Group - Hammondsport, NY 14840
- www.hportmug.com