PAST MEETINGS

August 16, 2010 - Hammondsport Mac Users Group

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)

Casualties of War - photos with music by Peter Hutchings

Apollo & Daphne -photos with music tracks by Peter Hutchings

Katrina Project - photos with music tracks by Peter Hutchings

Monday MUG Blues - music and tracks (this was composed live at meeting)

View on-line tutorials for Garage Band. The basic steps are: 1) Create a New Project. 2) Choose from sample loops (click the 'eye' symbol), then drag the preferred loops into your project. 3) Under Window, select either Keyboard or Musical Typing to create your own track.

SOFTWARE + HARDWARE

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