Motion Picture Sound Editors now on YouTube

Subscribe to the Motion Picture Sound Editors YouTube channel

OSX 10.7 Lion and some new Mac models out now

Well the release of Lion and two new Mac models have been highly anticipated and today they have been officially released. If you are running Pro Tools do not rush to install Lion as it is not yet qualified! Lion doesn't bring many more features to the table, however it does offer quite a few refinements, including re-sizable windows from any corner. You can read more here.

Appart from Lion, Apple today also released a new range of MacBook Airs and Mac Minis. The Airs  now come with Core i5 and i7 processors claiming speeds up to 2.5 times as fast as the previous model.

What I was interested in was the new Mac Minis. These too have had the i5 and i7 upgrade and now appear to be a desktop version of the MacBook Airs.  This includes the redesign of the housing to EXCLUDE the internal DVD drive. I was completely optimistic in hoping that this model may of included Blu-Ray as many people are using Mac Minis for home theater use. Apple have been having licensing issues with the inclusion of Blu-Ray drives,  however I had hoped that this may have been resolved. Now if you want a Mac Mini you need to purchase an external SuperDrive separately. Something that MacBook Air owners have already been doing. I feel that Apple will lose sales on the Mac Mini on this detail alone... unless they release an external Blu-Ray drive in the near future. If you are wanting the mini for a HTPC you may be better off buying the recently outdated generation... it will be cheaper and includes an internal DVD drive!

iTunes Australia just got 20% cheaper

Apple has adjusted the international App store pricing to reflect current currency exchange rates. For Australians this means that the $1.19 apps are now selling for $0.99. This is also reflected on some of the more expensive Apps for example V-Control also being reduced quite heavily. With Apple on the verge of releasing the new Lion operating system and new hardware models, hopefully we can also see a reduction in prices reflected here. Now we just have to wait for these new HIGHLY anticipated hardware models!

Neyrinck V-Control Pro for iPad

Neyrinck have just released an update to their V- Control for ProTools. Version 1.1 now adds dual surround panners and peak hold meters to the already impressive interface. Having used version 1.1 for a few days now I have to say that I am very impressed indeed. I have tried and worked with various control surfaces over the years, however for the size of an iPad and quality of this software, this is hard to beat.

My initial  impression was that V-Control was a gimick, a toy, and something used just to show your friends as I was quite dubious about not having "actual" faders to push and pull. However this is not the case. This is actually a very serious piece of software and  the response of the touch faders is excellent. Panning using the virtual pan pots takes some getting used to, however the new surround panners compensate for this. It also supports flip mode, sends, a scrub and shuffle, group suspend and many more features...

At US$49.99 or AUD$59.99 V-Control on the iPad is now a far cheaper option than any other control surface.... plus you can check your email, read the paper and play games in your downtime! even factoring an iPad, the price and flexibility of this configuration is amazing!

Do you run 2 monitors on your mac?

If you run 2 monitors on your Mac and are sick of always having to go to only one monitor to get to your menus then there is a solution! Andreas Hegenberg has created a nifty little app called Secondbar.

Apple Magic Trackpad and Pro Tools

After hypothesising about the new Apple Magic Trackpad in July last year, I have now had a chance to have a proper play with it in conjunction with my Pro Tools setup.

I have been using a Kensington Trackball ever since I started my working career, so jumping across to the Magic Trackpad was rather peculiar to start with. I have a MacBook so using it's inbuilt Trackpad always seems so limited when working within Pro Tools. In many cases I would just connect my trackball to keep my work flow efficient. The Magic Trackpad is quite different however. Although seeming to  be a bigger version of the laptop trackpad, the Magic Trackpad is so much more.

After setting up the Magic trackpad via bluetooth  the system preferences allow some customisation of the gestures which now allow you to control and customise your magic Trackpad. I did find these very limited, and the settings are all global controls meaning that you cannot have specific gestures for specific programs- something that Kensington allow for with its Trackballs. The program BetterTouchTool, a freeware application opens up these gestures by having this program sit on top of the Apple System Prefs. This allows for specific gestures for specific applications. Once BTT is running, the Apple Magic Trackpad comes into it's own. This makes the Magic Trackpad ideal as an editing and mixing peripheral, as you can fade, pan in surround and edit far quicker than using a conventional mouse. I also have BTT setup to switch between Pro Tools and AudioFinder, with a gesture (single click in middle at top) setup to export my AudioFinder sounds straight into my Pro Tools timeline! Very Cool indeed!!!

After taking a couple of days of getting use to and setting up gestures, the Magic Trackpad has now become my new "must have" editing and mixing tool. Because you can also import and export gestures from BTT, I can now easily use the Magic Trackpad with my laptop with no differences in my workflow.

Free ProTools plug-in from Soundtoys!

Want a free ProTools plug-in?
Soundtoys are giving away an audio level destroyer - for free!
All that you need to obtain this goodie is an ilok...

Here is the link

 - link has now expired -