I’m starting to post some pictures from starting in 2000 when I had a Kodak DC265 Zoom camera. Those were the days! Most of these are more my attempts at something artistic. If you want to follow, please do!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mathan416/
I also have some photos at the following link as well:
http://mathan.ca/Gallery/index.html
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there about how to setup instruments that can connect to a DAW such as Propellerheads Reason over USB, with MacOS X Mavericks. Most tutorials start having completed the setup process already.
Here is a tutorial about how to setup a Roland TR-8, Roland TR-3 with MacOS X Mavericks (10.9) and Propellerheads Reason.
I am currently using the following equipment:
I am also using a Korg Microkey25 and a Kaossilator Pro which were setup quite quickly.
The high level steps for this are:
Download Drivers
The first thing you have to do is to download the drivers for your TR-8 and TR-3. If you gave the drivers installed, then you can setup your audio devices to talk to CoreAudio, Apple’s technology for interfacing everything audio on your Mac.
Setup your audio devices
Do this via Go > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup and you should see your TB-3 and TR-8 setup on the left side.
What I noticed in Reason was that I could select one of the TR-8 or the TR-3, but I could not play and record both at the same time, which is not really all that helpful. I also noticed the same in Logic.
You need to setup an Aggregate Device:
You want to add the Built-in Output in the Aggregate Device so that you can select it as the outbound device within Reason. You’ll see this in the next step.
Setup Reason’s preferences
Load up Reason and do this via Reason > Preferences > Audio.
Setup the audio tracks
Now you want to go ahead and create the audio tracks. Everything should be virtually wired up and ready.
Hit the Start/Stop button on your device and you should hear everything come out of your Mac’s speaker.
Pain Points and Tips
There are definitely some pain points to this setup. What I have found is:
And there you go. Hopefully I’ve taken away some of the pain that I had setting up my equipment.
I’ve been visiting Portland OR and Vancouver WA for the past 3 years – at least 1 trip per quarter. As a result, I’ve had a chance to visit some very nice restaurants here. Here are my recommendations
Tommy O’s – Hawaiian-esque cuisine, great sushi and Ahi Tuna. Desserts are tasty! I’ve been downtown and at a location in Vancouver (Washington, not British Columbia).
Elephant’s Deli – And don’t forget their PDX airport location, Flying Elephants. Great lunch – I highly recommend the Kale salad, any of the sandwiches, Mac & Cheese (best I’ve ever had), the chocolate mousse and anything from the bakery. The staff are friendly, and you’ll see a lot of great Pacific NW beards here.
Red Onion – Great place for quick Thai at lunch.
Toast & Pho – A quick hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant, family owned.
Mother’s Bistro – We stumbled on this when we went for walk around the city. You can get half sized portions of their main entrees so you can try multiple dishes. Admittedly, despite being half the size of their portions, it’s still quite a bit of food. Still, if you’re diet conscious, go for a half portion and you’re set. Try the spiced plum tea – it’s awesome.
Beaches Restraurant – The only restaurant I’m mentioning that’s located in Vancouver WA. You can get a beautiful river view table. The fish and desserts are awesome, and the staff are friendly.
Goodness – it’s been a few months since I wrote anything in this blog. I’ve been travelling between Portland, Dallas and Ann Arbor for the past 6 out of 7 weeks with 3 more weeks of travel coming up. A 2 week break and then 1 more week of travel.
True to form, some may say, “Some may doth protest to much”, and that’s pretty true of the XBox One.
I bought one.
I like it.
Possibly more than my PS4.
So what was it that turned me around?
I’m feeling a bit burned by my PS4 purchase, honestly.
Now that said, I know it will get better. The PS3 started out slow and became such an amazing game machine. Or at least, I hope the PS4 will get better.
So what about the stink I made when the XBone was announced?
What else turned me around?
I still think the XBox 360 is one of the lamest, modern, game consoles available. I think Microsoft has somewhat redeemed itself.
I still think the amount of advertising they spent on the XBone shows how desperate the company has been to address the asinine way Mattrick and others first announced the XBone.
The XBone may be worth looking at relative to the PS4.
Scott and I are back from our honeymoon hitting Walt Disney World and our Cruise to the Western Caribbean visiting Eleuthera Island, The Bahamas; and Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos.
Check out out wedding blog for more details. Meanwhile, some pictures:
Scott and I have talked about me learning to cook in the kitchen. It’s not that I can’t cook in the kitchen. I can cook basic things like eggs and bacon, I can bake, I can follow directions on a box, I can make a basic spaghetti sauce, I’ve roasted turkeys and chicken.
But I’ve not done it enough in certain circumstances for it to be second nature (turkeys, chicken come to mind). I don’t know what things I could substitute. I feel I should know how to do a basic white sauce so that I can then kick it up with something tasty.
Along with redoing the kitchen, with the graciousness of some of the wedding gifts we’ve received, and with an amazing deal we got on pots and plans that we bought before the renovation was completed – we’ve upgraded some of the tools we have in the kitchen as well.
I’m intimidated by the kitchen! I tried frying an egg in a new frying pan and almost burned breakfast! ARGH!
We’ve been talking for a long time about me learning how to cook things how to do things in the kitchen, and we started tonight.
We picked up a pasta maker yesterday, and set out today to pick up supplies to make fresh pasta. This was Scott’s first time making pasta as well.
The vision – stringy cheese macaroni and cheese with 4 kinds of cheese (Gruyere, Fontina, Mozzarella and Old Cheddar).
What really turned out was more a pasta bake (which we’ve always done) with turkey and red pepper.
It turned out amazingly!
It was also our first night eating with our new china and the Ralph Lauren Highball glasses.
Sort of.
I got a call on Thursday while I was working from home from Bell doing their typical, “How do you like the service, is there anything we can do better.”
I like Bell – I’ve never had a real problem with them and given I know a bit about the technology they’re using to run the phone network, and also know the upgrades they have made our area.
My only complaint is that the service can be pretty expensive. Of course, when they call, there’s nothing they can do because I typically have the lowest price packages, everything is bundled, etc… Right?
Well… they finally had an offer for a long existing customer. Our services that we had were:
With what we had, you either pay $30 more unlimited internet… or pay $30 more for unlimited internet and Bell TV!
The offer became
So you’re thinking – Iain, you’re a fool, you could have stuck with Rogers for free. Yes, but then I wouldn’t have unlimited internet, and I wasn’t willing to pay for unlimited internet unless I got something else, honestly. $30 is a complete rip off for unlimited internet, and I do believe the plans need to be better. Still, this was too good to pass up.
What about the TV service?
This is exactly why I didn’t want to pass up this deal.
In short, Rogers is shit:
Prior to moving to the condo, Scott and I had Bell ExpressVu. The satellite we had was GORGEOUS. The signal was so clear and that was prior to high definition television. Cousins of mine also have Bell TV satellite service and it’s still gorgeous.
Interestingly, I actually have never seen Bell Fibe TV truly in action. I had seen AT&T U-Verse in action and was pretty impressed by that.
Needless to say, I’m gobsmacked at
The only draw back we have is that we had to move all of our networking equipment into the living room:
The outcome is that our wifi signal is low in the bedroom. So it’s to be determined if it’s going to be a big issue or not. I could re-wire the condo so that the STB is in the man cave, and the wireless terminal is on the main TV – which works beautifully too, that wireless terminal is responsive.
But, if I choose not to use the wireless terminal in the future and just use Rogers in the bedroom – after all we still have Rogers “for free” (really, it makes up $35 of our condo fees) – then I’d like that option.
So, first 5 hours with Bell TV – I’m hooked. I really like the service, and I think people should consider it as an option, more so than Rogers, once it’s available province-wide.
Now that said, I am surprised that cable has not followed the lead of what Bell and AT&T have done. There’s no reason why they could not go with an IP-based TV solution over cable with the same picture quality. And all the features that Rogers has, Bell could have as well.
*shrugs*
So Microsoft has decided to back track on their DRM and always on ‘functionality’, and even went as far as to turn off region locking. Here are a few articles:
There is one article that stands out the most for me:
It’s true. It’s all about integrity. The only reason Microsoft has backtracked is because the PS4 was outselling the XBox in pre-orders 2 to 1 according to rumors and they want their money back.
Now, at one level, I don’t have a problem with companies making money from relatively kosher means. But as the article states:
Having integrity proves to the world that you are true to yourself and to others. It shows that you stand up for what you believe in, and against all odds, do not lose sight of yourself. Integrity should be the backbone of all companies and should be what we all strive for, each and every day.
I liken this to coming out as a gay man. You don’t see me going back into the closet because it’s popular to be straight, and I’m not gay because it’s popular all of a sudden, it’s what I happen to be.
If Don Mattrick truly believed in the XBox One and the way gaming is going, then why not stick to your guns, and not turn the XBox One into the XBox 180? Show us what the benefits are of what you are proposing? Instead, we get an integrity issue.
Okay, okay, fucked if you do, fucked if you don’t. Yes, the XBox team is probably in a bind here. If you truly believe in the technology then stick by your guns and do what you can to explain why it’s a benefit.
I have to admit, I was coming around to the way games could be shared, being able to login on any XBox One around the world and having access to my games. That idea was pretty neat honestly. And it would allow my friends to be able to explore games that I have.
I had problems with the 24 hour ‘must’ connect to play games. In short, stupid. Yes, my PS3 connects to the net every 24 hours because I choose to. Big difference – choose versus must. If Microsoft had made this an option – and made it clear – less of an issue. This was, probably, my biggest issue.
The ‘giving a game once’ wasn’t clear to me either.
Simply too many mixed messages, nothing clear. EXPLAIN YOURSELF!
Mattrick’s arrogance is clear as seen here over at Engadget: “fortunately, we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360.” So you’re going to deny key markets and individuals (see the Navy Times article above) access to the latest and greatest technology?
Take a flying leap.
As one guy, posting on EB Games’ feed promoting the newly updated XBox One said:
Don't be sheep and instantly change your mind...this is the company that tried to shove it up your ass and make you swallow their policies... Don Matrick even said "if you don't want to connect every 24 hours we have a console for you...it's called the Xbox 360 "..what an asshole.. that was their stance until their wallets seemed lighter now Don has released a statement all of a suddenly saying "we heard everyone and are excited to offer a change"? Sorry but I won't buy this console or even consider it in the slightest until that little puke resigns from Microsoft and learns the hard way that you can't give the people who are the reason you get a check every two weeks the finger and then expect them to come back
Especially when you have to pay for an XBox Live Gold membership, and they have all kinds of advertising all over the user interface. Double dip much?
My response:
You're going to buy a console from arrogant slime that double dips with advertising and your monthly dollars? I think not! Don needs to step down for his arrogant buy a 360 comment. Know what? I'm buying a PS4 - that's my 360.
The main reason I have an XBox 360 is to play Forza and to turn that box into an arcade gaming machine. I LOVE the fact that XBLA has a bunch of classic arcade games for sale, and I’ve got most of them with a handful to buy to complete. After seeing this crap about the XBox One – I’m turned off big time, and I was already turned off because of my 360 experience.
I don’t buy for a minute that games would drop in price had this functionality remained in place, which was one argument. Use the Steam argument? We’re talking about game publishers like EA and Microsoft.
An article at Gizmodo states:
The real fear behind DRM on games is the idea that at some point in the future, you'll be told that you are no longer allowed to use the content you'e paid for. It's that you're "allowed" to use anything at all, instead of outright "owning" it. And in the past, shitty DRM has absolutely worked like that. Walmart MP3s and the like have taken their servers offline, stranding file formats and leaving them to die, forgotten. That is not how DRM, by and large, works today. There is very little risk of any particular format dying off. The dangers, as such, lie in a dropoff of support, or at worst, confiscation. That for whatever reason, Microsoft would tell us to screw ourselves and stop supporting Xbox One games, or kick you, specifically, out.
BULLSHIT. I’ve already got content on my XBox 360 that I had bought in the cloud that is no longer available, games that I was hoping to buy no longer available for purchase and I know some of the content on both systems will expire.
At some point you know that both Microsoft and Sony will turn off their servers and make games and other downloadables no longer available, so if you lose your drive, You’re SOL. You better have a back up – which thankfully I do for my PS3 content – and still have to do that for my 360.
In short – Microsoft did a piss poor job of communicating the benefits to the masses and instead of fighting the uphill battle, they threw in the towel and waved a white flag. A total train wreck and cluster fuck by Microsoft executives.
Why am I so passionate about this? Because I know something better is out there and had Microsoft scaled back on part of their DRM a little bit to appease things, it would have been pretty cool.
Microsoft, you have an integrity issue.
As someone on my Facebook thread said, there are definitely more pressing and important issues out there in the world. I agree. Maybe I should be more passionate about those issues, and should be giving a voice to those as well.
I hesitate to consider myself a Sony fanboy. I am a big fan of my PS3 and love the games that are available for it. Considering it’s the second game console I’ve had where I’ve significantly and consistently played the games.
When the PS4 was first announced by Sony a few months ago, the only mark I had against it was the fact that it did not have backwards compatibility with the PS3, although with Sony purchasing Gaikai, the plan is to make old classic titles available through Cloud gaming. It’s kind of like ONlive where the games are streamed to a console, very little of the logic is actually run on the console itself.
I’m kind of meh on this style of Cloud gaming. Mainly because, here in Canada, and I suspect a good part of the world outside the United States, we have caps on our net bandwidth. We don’t have the unlimited bandwidth plans that other countries have, or otherwise I am looking at changing to another provider. Admittedly, I’d prefer not to change providers because of this.
Ideally, I’d have preferred to be able to retire my older PS3 (though I love the first generation design!!) and use the PS4 in the living room and the PS3 in my mancave. Looks like I won’t be doing that.
If my older PS3 does die, I’ll either get it fixed or I’ll invest in a newer PS3 slim with the sliding door. I am surprised I’ve not seen the YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death) on that old PS3.
Most of my friends are also interested in the PS3 and are interested in the PS4. Even my 360 friends are interested in the PS4. So that is a big consideration.
The consideration of DRM was also a big factor. If Sony had similar DRM restrictions on the PS4, I would be second guessing purchasing in this whole generation.
I am not concerned about DRM from games companies. We’ve seen Electronic Arts and others institute codes for playing online or requirements to buy an online pass if you buy a used game – and those seem to be going away. We’ve already seen this. I dealt with this in the 80s and 90s on older platforms too. Key thing is, DRM is not built into the platform, and I like that I can let my friends borrow my games and play them and vice versa.
I also buy used games. Why not – if someone doesn’t care much for a game, why should I pay full price? I also have no problem with the capitalistic model used by EB Games/Gamestop. I get what the game is worth at the time, and I often have my games for a long time. I also find I trade in games I’ve only played for a short period of time – which other people have only used for a short period of time. Like I said in my last post – almost all of my PS Move games have all been traded in. Also interesting to note, most of my Nintendo 3DS games were worth more than my PS3 and 360 games I traded in.
The price point was also right. I invested in a PS4 when it was $499, around the time Little Big Planet came out. I did think long and hard about making this purchase and I justified it as the PS4 was more than just a game box, but also supported BluRay, NetFlix (which I don’t use) and other services.
Funny that with the XBone I’m somewhat critical of it because I won’t use the TV services, yet with the PS3 I was looking for something more than just the gaming aspect.
$399 was a no brainer for me for a Day One purchase.
I will be critical of Sony for a moment – that $399 doesn’t include the PS4 Camera. I can see this going two ways – it’s a good thing because you’re not forced to buy gratuitous hardware that’s simply not needed. At the same time, you’re putting out more money. $449 versus $499? Is that really a good bargain? To be determined.
One thing I didn’t go into was how much XBox Live Gold is a/was a rip off relative to PS Plus. I would say that PS Plus did take a step backwards that in order to play multiplayer games online that you need a PS Plus membership. But they are not requiring it for Netflix and Free-to-Play games. XBox Live does require it. You also get free games – some are AAA titles, some are less so, but I would say PS Plus is the greater value. With Microsoft including free games, it does change the landscape in a good way.
The games I am looking forward to on PS4 are Driveclub, Knack and Infamous Second Son. The rest I’m neither here nor there about.
Sony’s attitude has also been a lot more open and they’re interested in gamers and helping developers. Sure, it’s going to help them in the long run to get profits. I have no issue with that, it’s good business sense. If they’re being a good corporate citizen, then I’m happy to support Sony. I can’t say the same with Microsoft.
I think Sony is striking a good balance between downloading games from the cloud and physical media. There aren’t a lot of frills and if you want them, then you can add them as needed. You’re not forced into it. There’s very little advertising, you get a lot of value with PS Plus, there’s little DRM, and the graphics seem better – though Driveclub versus Forza remains to be seen.
If I’m gaming, I’m gaming. I don’t need to bring my television into my gaming system. Voice recognition – it’s fun but I find it annoying. Yes, Kinect is ahead of it’s time, and it’s a cool system, but along with Kinect, I don’t use Move as much as I was thinking I would.
I would LOVE to see someone come up with a few games that leverage a cloud gaming infrastructure that Microsoft has created. That’s probably my only wish from Sony. Cloud gaming in the Gaikai format I have little need for, but if that helps to introduce intelligent AI type functionality, that doesn’t hog my bandwidth, I’m all for it.
December can’t come soon enough, though hopefully the PS4 will be out for Black Friday. That would be very cool, especially given that’s the start of the holiday shopping season.
That said – I know Microsoft and Sony will do well on the sales of their respective consoles. As much as I was anti-XBone, I have actually somewhat chilled on my stance. Still, the way the XBone works, and even how my 360 works, they both irk me.