Category: Things We Like Page 1 of 5

Social media know-how is desired in employees but remember to pay attention to detail.  One employee could have been a little more meticulous when they live streamed their boss.

A cat filter was accidentally applied to a Pakistani minister’s live press conference as it was broadcast on Facebook.  The video was later deleted but the screen shots will last forever.

Logic Pro X by Apple

Ever since I took my first piano lesson at 6 years old, music has been an integral part of my life. When I was in high school I learned simple music production skills such as cutting and pasting tracks, recording, syncing of tempos, and mixing tracks on Garage Band. Nevertheless, after coming to Dickinson and walking into the Media Center, I was introduced to Logic Pro X, Mac’s professional recording studio that helps you from the moment you set up the instrument you need to play the first note to the moment you fully master several tracks and create a final song. The software costs $200 but at Dickinson, you can utilize it for free!

From the moment you open up Logic, you can create a new project or select previous projects you’ve worked on. From there you can pick whether you’d want an Audio track, software instrument, drummer track, or other types of track, and the inputs and outputs of the tracks as well. Normally, I use different tracks for different instruments. For example, I always use an electric piano track, a drummer track, and an electric guitar track to start off a song. The best way to make sure that your tracks are synced up with the right input and output see if the sound comes out when you play a note and if the sound comes out without a lag. What comes after setting up your input and output as well as your tracks, is being able to select your plug-ins and find that unique sound you are looking for.

Personally, this is my favorite part because this is where you get to find a Synth Bass to accompany a Raindrop piano keyboard and an Atlanta drum set. From a selection of thousands of thousands of different drum-kits, and plug ins for MIDI and software instruments, Logic gives you the freedom to recreate your favorite tracks or become a producer yourself of your own music. If there is one tool or aspect of Logic that has helped me easily create tracks and make even the most offbeat and off-tempo tracks sync up and sound nice, it has been the Quantize tool on the sidebar on the left. The Quantize tool helps sync-up notes played on midi or software instrument tracks to be played on every 1/4 note, 1/8 note, or other possibilities.

Most recently, there are personalized drummer styles and kits that have been added by Logic that allow you to use already pre-set drum kits that already have beats which can make it easier for one to play a bass or guitar riff that will sync up with it. Also, Apple has recently come out with a Smart Tempo system that will keep multiple tracks in sync regardless of their original tempo. Logic has gone from being a hobby to a passion, because of the fact that it is a software that will take time to master but once you get the hang of it, you can start creating great music and content that I promise you’ll be proud of.  

WordPress is the most widely used content management system (CMS). More than 25% of all sites across the web is built on this platform. WordPress allows you to publish, manage and organize wide variety of contents including articles, tutorials, photos, videos, stores and much more. WordPress is very easy to learn and use as it doesn’t require prior programming knowledge to build and maintain a simple website. Also, it is very secure, reliable, and pleasant to work with.

Personally, I use WordPress to maintain my blog that contains programming tutorials and other general tech articles. I chose this over other CMS because it is flexible, fully customizable, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly, and highly interactive. Furthermore, WordPress allows programmers like me to use my programming skill to customize the website’s design and functionality. However, the skill is not a must.  So personally I really suggest people to use WordPress if they want to build and maintain a website or a blog with little or no programming experience. 

My first interactions with GarageBand and music editing began when I was in middle school, my father had just purchased our first apple Macbook to be used as the home computer. I remember that while we were setting up our user preferences, we just stumbled upon the GarageBand program and started for lack of a better terms “twiddling” with it.

After that, my brother and myself both began mixing our own tracks from the presets and loops, and then collaborating to make in our minds “albums”. Also, in part to a camcorder my brother received for Christmas, we began to record films and then add sound tracks and effects to these projects. As I have grown, I continue to enjoy mixing rhythms and melodies into my own creations for future enjoyment. Now that I play instruments as well, I am planning on seeing if I can integrate the tools for editing tracks from external devices (i.e. my guitar) into my hobby as well.

Using GarageBand; one can create, edit, synthesize, and share their created songs or tracks with a fairly user-friendly interface. Tools such as an equalizer, count in, gain control, and tuner are readily available in order to edit either already created compositions or your own, new creations. With proper equipment, namely an auxiliary cable connector and a sound board, you are able to connect an electric instrument to whichever device utilizing GarageBand and record a a new physical track into your songs. From this interface, instruments can have effects added to them and be synthesized as well as acoustic instruments or vocals can be captured in a similar fashion using a setup with microphones. For note: when implementing external recording onto GarageBand, make sure that the recorded audio is a “mono” track, as well as the sound intensity may have to be adjusted to agree with the parts overall role in composition. Make sure the loops you want to include agree in keys and timing. I have made some bad pieces because I was using the wrong key.