In the final few days of 2009 I made a trip to my local independent record shop, Banquet, to buy tickets for the club night they put on called New Slang. It is an indie night where there is normally at least one live band playing. They had somehow managed to get one of Brooklyn's many finest bands Vampire Weekend to play, all for a bargain £10. On top of that they also threw in the bands new CD. This was pretty unbelievable, so I went down there as soon as I could to get tickets. At the point I bought the new tickets the album was not out. I was told that I had to come and pick it up at some point in the week of release and that the shop would be staying open late on Thursday (the night of New Slang) for that reason. I later found out that the band really wanted their album to get to number one in the charts when it came out and were heavily promoting it. Apparently they played the gig for just expenses.
On the day of the event I got to Kingston at about 8:30pm and went to the record shop picked up the CD and exchanged my ticket for a proper one. I then went off to a pub opposite the venue to wait for a friend. At that point there was already quite a queue. New Slang has recently moved to the Hippodrome after a spell at McCluskys. It had been at the Hippodrome before, but at that point the club was known as the Works. It is a big venue and had sold out, but they kept back 100 tickets to sell on the door.
We actually went to join a different queue for ticket holders ourselves at about 9:30pm. Another band Good Shoes were supposed to come on at 9:50pm. We did not get in until after 1opm. Idon't know quite why it took so long. It must have been the security. Although the bouncers just seemed to be more interested in playing a guessing game about what you had in your pockets than anything else. Good shoes were already playing when we got in. The Hippodrome is quite clearly a night club and not a gig venue. The stage was very low and the lines of sight are poor. The dancefloor was packed when we got in, so we wondered around trying to find a vantage point and ended up on a high up balcony. I had it in my head that I did not like Good Shoes, but I was actually pretty impressed. They are local boys; my favourite song of theirs is Morden, although I was buying drinks when they played that. The drinks were very cheap. Although the bar I went to did not do draught beer. I went there because the queues were shorter.
After Good Shoes finished the dance floor cleared a bit and after a bit of walking round we decided to get in place for when Vampire weekend came on. They were meant to come on at 11pm. They didn't it was actually just before midnight that they came on. The dance floor was becoming more and more crowded, but everybody seemed quite accepting of the fact the band were not on time. The cheap beer on offer meant that I was unable to hold off a trip to the toilet and had a difficult job getting back to where I had previously been standing, during this time the band started playing.
The band played a great set with a surprising number of songs from the first album, considering that the gig was to promote their new album. The crowd was very into what the band was playing. There was a surprising about of moshing considering the genre of music being played. I think it must have been with so many people crowded into a small area. The Hippodrome is a big club and I think it was full to capacity. However, on a normal club night everybody would be spread around the building, but as a band was playing everybody was crammed into the small area where the band could be seen.
It seems that the reason the band was late was because they had played a gig a free gig at Somerset House in the early evening and then gone on to record a session at XFM. Apparently the band had come from the XFM studios in separate taxis. Most of the band arrived at 11pm but the fourth member's taxi was delayed and they went straight onto the stage as soon as he got there. He barely had a chance to take his hat and scarf off.
After the band had finished we left the club, I went to the bus stop, a bus arrived straight away and I was at home within about quarter of an hour. All ready for work the next day.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
GarageBand Guitar Tutorials
GarageBand is part of the iLife suite of software that comes with a new Mac. Its main purpose it recording music. I play guitar and GarageBand was one of the reasons for my choosing to buy a Mac, so I record myself playing and mix tracks.
As well as creating music, there are also tutorials available on guitar and piano. This post is mainly about my experiences with the guitar tutorials. There are nine tutotorials available. The initial guitar and piano tutorials are pre-loaded onto new Macs and there is a link to get the rest. They are all free (well included in the price of a Mac). You can also download tutorials on specific songs, but seeing as they mainly seem to be songs by Fall Out Boy, Sting or Nora Jones, you probably won't want to.
I have been playing guitar for a few years, but I would not say that I am particularly good. The tutorials are pretty basic and I knew the majority of what was taught anyway, but definitely got something out of the lessons. The first lesson is a basic introduction to the guitar. The next three lessons go through major and minor open chords. I already knew all the chords but what I am not so good at is strumming patterns, particularly up and down strumming. I tend to play almost exclusively down strums. This probably comes of playing mainly an electric guitar.
The way the lessons work is that you first watch a video tutorial. The tutorials are presented by a charming man called Tim. The tutorial is broken down into sections so you can watch what you want and loop sections. Tim normally goes through things then asks you to play along with him. You can also change the tempo to slow things down to make things easier to play. If you slow things down you can't hear Tim's voice, but the music remains at the correct pitch. So it is normally best to watch the video through first and slow things down if necessary later on. As well as that you get a diagram of the guitar neck indicating what strings are being played at the time and tab or chord diagrams as appropriate. It is all quite clever and well planned out. Once you have seen the tutorial there is a track for you and Tim to play along together to music played by a backing band. It has all the same features as the tutorial section apart from that it is not broken down into sections and you see two separate videos showing what Tim is doing with his right and left hands.
You can also open the lessons in GarageBand itself. So you get the backing tracks and record your own playing as an extra track on top of that, which is quite handy and gives a good way of discovering how GarageBand works, which is probably the whole point of the lessons anyway.
Lesson Five is the first on lead guitar playing. They go through an explanation of tab and then show you how to play riffs and melodies. I found this harder than the previous lessons not because I was learning things I did not know but the tab just kept on coming at me and I was not sure what was coming next.
For Lesson Six Tim decided to get out his Strat. Up to that point he had been playing an acoustic. He went through power chords, including palm muting. All pretty straight forward and what I was most comfortable with. It was fun to play along with the song afterwards.
Lessons Seven and Eight were on barre chords (major then minor). He went through some different strumming patterns, which I found helpful. Lesson Eight also went through arpeggios - something I was a aware of, but had not really practised very much. The song at the end of lesson eight is pretty challenging and great practice for specifically for arpeggios and more generally forming barre chords of different types.
Lesson Nine is the last lesson and only the second on lead playing. It is called 'Blues Lead' and goes through the A Minor pentatonic scale and then licks based on that scale. The problem with this lesson is that Tim goes through three licks each more complicated than the last. However, he spends a lot more time going through the first one than the others. You can loop the section, but all three licks are in the same section so you can spend time going over the lick you already know to get to the ones you don't know. Also the tab tends to disappear off the screen quite quickly. Tim then very quickly mentions that there are such things as hammer-ons, pull-offs and bends. I have not got as far as looking at the songs after the lesson, but I understand there are two. One is a blues track for you to improvise lead lines in the A Minor Pentatonic key you have just learned and the other one is a chance for Tim to show off
I think the GarageBand Guitar lessons would very good for a beginner. An intermediate player would know most of what is in the lessons, but would probably find some things to improve certain aspects of their playing. Advanced players would probably not get much out of the lessons, but may have fun playing along to some of the backing tracks and messing round with them in GarageBand.
As well as creating music, there are also tutorials available on guitar and piano. This post is mainly about my experiences with the guitar tutorials. There are nine tutotorials available. The initial guitar and piano tutorials are pre-loaded onto new Macs and there is a link to get the rest. They are all free (well included in the price of a Mac). You can also download tutorials on specific songs, but seeing as they mainly seem to be songs by Fall Out Boy, Sting or Nora Jones, you probably won't want to.
I have been playing guitar for a few years, but I would not say that I am particularly good. The tutorials are pretty basic and I knew the majority of what was taught anyway, but definitely got something out of the lessons. The first lesson is a basic introduction to the guitar. The next three lessons go through major and minor open chords. I already knew all the chords but what I am not so good at is strumming patterns, particularly up and down strumming. I tend to play almost exclusively down strums. This probably comes of playing mainly an electric guitar.
The way the lessons work is that you first watch a video tutorial. The tutorials are presented by a charming man called Tim. The tutorial is broken down into sections so you can watch what you want and loop sections. Tim normally goes through things then asks you to play along with him. You can also change the tempo to slow things down to make things easier to play. If you slow things down you can't hear Tim's voice, but the music remains at the correct pitch. So it is normally best to watch the video through first and slow things down if necessary later on. As well as that you get a diagram of the guitar neck indicating what strings are being played at the time and tab or chord diagrams as appropriate. It is all quite clever and well planned out. Once you have seen the tutorial there is a track for you and Tim to play along together to music played by a backing band. It has all the same features as the tutorial section apart from that it is not broken down into sections and you see two separate videos showing what Tim is doing with his right and left hands.
You can also open the lessons in GarageBand itself. So you get the backing tracks and record your own playing as an extra track on top of that, which is quite handy and gives a good way of discovering how GarageBand works, which is probably the whole point of the lessons anyway.
Lesson Five is the first on lead guitar playing. They go through an explanation of tab and then show you how to play riffs and melodies. I found this harder than the previous lessons not because I was learning things I did not know but the tab just kept on coming at me and I was not sure what was coming next.
For Lesson Six Tim decided to get out his Strat. Up to that point he had been playing an acoustic. He went through power chords, including palm muting. All pretty straight forward and what I was most comfortable with. It was fun to play along with the song afterwards.
Lessons Seven and Eight were on barre chords (major then minor). He went through some different strumming patterns, which I found helpful. Lesson Eight also went through arpeggios - something I was a aware of, but had not really practised very much. The song at the end of lesson eight is pretty challenging and great practice for specifically for arpeggios and more generally forming barre chords of different types.
Lesson Nine is the last lesson and only the second on lead playing. It is called 'Blues Lead' and goes through the A Minor pentatonic scale and then licks based on that scale. The problem with this lesson is that Tim goes through three licks each more complicated than the last. However, he spends a lot more time going through the first one than the others. You can loop the section, but all three licks are in the same section so you can spend time going over the lick you already know to get to the ones you don't know. Also the tab tends to disappear off the screen quite quickly. Tim then very quickly mentions that there are such things as hammer-ons, pull-offs and bends. I have not got as far as looking at the songs after the lesson, but I understand there are two. One is a blues track for you to improvise lead lines in the A Minor Pentatonic key you have just learned and the other one is a chance for Tim to show off
I think the GarageBand Guitar lessons would very good for a beginner. An intermediate player would know most of what is in the lessons, but would probably find some things to improve certain aspects of their playing. Advanced players would probably not get much out of the lessons, but may have fun playing along to some of the backing tracks and messing round with them in GarageBand.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Shaw Music Prize 2009
I have to admit that I am a bit of geek. A trait I share one of my friends. We also both like music. For the last ten years he has been doing the Neville Music Prize. He does not have a blog; he announced it as a Facebook status. Fortunately another friend has blogged it for him
I also do my own prize. The most important category is the Best Album award. it has to be released in 2009 and will almost certainly be one that I own, so that I can form a sensible opinion about it. To be honest, I am not as up to date with new music as I would like to be and as I used to be. However, I had it down to a shortlist of four. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective, Wall of Arms by the Maccabees, XX by the XX and Humbug by the Arctic Monkeys. I am quite a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, but this dropped out of the running as I don't like it quite as much as some of their earlier work. This kind of made things easy as I was able to give awards to each of the other three nominees. Possibly a cop out, but I don't care
Animal Collective actually won Best Video for My Girls. Best Video does not always appear as a category in the Shaw Music Prize. Its first appearance was to honour the genius of Beyonce's Crazy In Love This was the first song I heard from Animal Collective and was the spur for me to buy the album. The album is excellent it is very much in a similar vain to this track. Arty synth and sampler work with multi-layered vocals. I think that the video really adds something to the track. It is a performance video, but has been heavily processed. I particularly like the lips.
The XX won Best Breakthrough. It is also a new category in the Neville Music Prize to mark its tenth anniversary. I wanted to have it too. The XX are a new band and they are very young so hopefully there is more to come from them. I really like the album and they do some other good songs like the Womack and Womack cover Teardrops and Hot Like Fire originally by Aaliyah. All the tracks on the albums are original. What I like best about the band is the production by Jamie Smith. He uses an Akai MPC to provide drums and I think some other samples for the band. That gives the band a very different sound - more dance based than the average band. The band has two vocalists Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft. They both sing on almost all the bands songs. They are probably not the greatest singers in the world, but they combine well and sound good in the context of the music
That means that the winners of the Best Album Prize are the Maccabees with Wall Of Arms. I first saw this band at Bestival festival on the Isle of Wight a few years ago. I did not really think very much of them. Note sure why now. I saw them again at the Glastonbury festival and thought they we really good and bought the album straight after I got back. I really enjoyed it and bought their first album a couple of weeks later. The first album is not quite so good, which may explain why I did not enjoy seeing the band the first time round. I like the guitar playing on Wall of Arms. The band features two brothers on guitar and the lead singer also sometimes plays guitar. I am not generally very interested in lyrics, but I do like the lyrics on this album. However they may be a bit to sentimental for some tastes.
I have a Single of the Year too. I sometimes have mixed feelings about this award as I normally give it to a single from a genre that I would not normally listen to. The sentiment being that particular song is good, but I would not buy the album. The song I have chosen this year is Dance Wiv Me by Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris (also featuring Chrome). The fact that is a collaboration I think makes it more valid as a choice of single as it is more of a one off. In fact the threesome also collaborate on Holiday. Both tracks also appear on Dizzee Rascal's Tongue N' Cheek album, which contrary to my usual attitude to my Single of the Year winner, I have actually bought. I like it a lot, but I definitely think that those two tracks are the standouts.
The final award is Best Live Act. I was going to give this to the Dead Weather after a great performance I witnessed at the Brixton Academy, but instead decided to give it to the Purple Cobras who are a covers band featuring one of my old school friends. I saw them play several gigs in 2009 and enjoyed them every time.
In Summary the Shaw Music Prize 2009 is:
I also do my own prize. The most important category is the Best Album award. it has to be released in 2009 and will almost certainly be one that I own, so that I can form a sensible opinion about it. To be honest, I am not as up to date with new music as I would like to be and as I used to be. However, I had it down to a shortlist of four. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective, Wall of Arms by the Maccabees, XX by the XX and Humbug by the Arctic Monkeys. I am quite a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, but this dropped out of the running as I don't like it quite as much as some of their earlier work. This kind of made things easy as I was able to give awards to each of the other three nominees. Possibly a cop out, but I don't care
Animal Collective actually won Best Video for My Girls. Best Video does not always appear as a category in the Shaw Music Prize. Its first appearance was to honour the genius of Beyonce's Crazy In Love This was the first song I heard from Animal Collective and was the spur for me to buy the album. The album is excellent it is very much in a similar vain to this track. Arty synth and sampler work with multi-layered vocals. I think that the video really adds something to the track. It is a performance video, but has been heavily processed. I particularly like the lips.
The XX won Best Breakthrough. It is also a new category in the Neville Music Prize to mark its tenth anniversary. I wanted to have it too. The XX are a new band and they are very young so hopefully there is more to come from them. I really like the album and they do some other good songs like the Womack and Womack cover Teardrops and Hot Like Fire originally by Aaliyah. All the tracks on the albums are original. What I like best about the band is the production by Jamie Smith. He uses an Akai MPC to provide drums and I think some other samples for the band. That gives the band a very different sound - more dance based than the average band. The band has two vocalists Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft. They both sing on almost all the bands songs. They are probably not the greatest singers in the world, but they combine well and sound good in the context of the music
That means that the winners of the Best Album Prize are the Maccabees with Wall Of Arms. I first saw this band at Bestival festival on the Isle of Wight a few years ago. I did not really think very much of them. Note sure why now. I saw them again at the Glastonbury festival and thought they we really good and bought the album straight after I got back. I really enjoyed it and bought their first album a couple of weeks later. The first album is not quite so good, which may explain why I did not enjoy seeing the band the first time round. I like the guitar playing on Wall of Arms. The band features two brothers on guitar and the lead singer also sometimes plays guitar. I am not generally very interested in lyrics, but I do like the lyrics on this album. However they may be a bit to sentimental for some tastes.
I have a Single of the Year too. I sometimes have mixed feelings about this award as I normally give it to a single from a genre that I would not normally listen to. The sentiment being that particular song is good, but I would not buy the album. The song I have chosen this year is Dance Wiv Me by Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris (also featuring Chrome). The fact that is a collaboration I think makes it more valid as a choice of single as it is more of a one off. In fact the threesome also collaborate on Holiday. Both tracks also appear on Dizzee Rascal's Tongue N' Cheek album, which contrary to my usual attitude to my Single of the Year winner, I have actually bought. I like it a lot, but I definitely think that those two tracks are the standouts.
The final award is Best Live Act. I was going to give this to the Dead Weather after a great performance I witnessed at the Brixton Academy, but instead decided to give it to the Purple Cobras who are a covers band featuring one of my old school friends. I saw them play several gigs in 2009 and enjoyed them every time.
In Summary the Shaw Music Prize 2009 is:
- Best Album: Wall Of Arms, The Maccabees
- Best Single: Dance Wiv Me, Dizzee/Calvin/Chrome
- Best Live Act: Purple Cobras
- Best Video: My Girls, Animal Collective
- Breakthrough Act: The XX
Snow
I was supposed to be going to a football match today. It was Arsenal against Blackburn Rovers. This match was supposed to be played in August or September, but Arsenal were involved in a Champions League qualifier against Celtic and so the match had been postponed until today. Unfortunately, it had has to be postponed again this time at four hours notice and no new date has yet been set. The reason for the postponement was snow fall in London. It had snowed the previous night but the snow was starting to melt in the morning. However there was further heavy snow fall in the afternoon which caused the problem. The pitch at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium was actually playable, as the club has invested in under-soil heating. However, the area around the ground was slippery and the club was concerned about the safety of the fans getting into the stadium and also potential transport difficulties.
At least the Arsenal Photographer had fun
I am pretty disappointed that the match has been postponed. If Arsenal had won they would have gone to second in the league only one point behind leaders Chelsea. It is the legendary 'Game in Hand' - whenever Arsenal's league position is discussed there is mention of the fact that they have played one less game than the clubs around them. If this game had been played it would have 'leveled the playing field'. It was also a very winnable game as Bolton are towards the bottom of the league, although they are in a state of managerial flux, which often results in improved performances. It is possibly a good thing for Arsenal as it will potentially allow some injured players to return to action.
Fortunately, I won't have to wait too long to go to another game as I am planning to watch Arsenal play Everton on Saturday, weather permitting of course.
At least the Arsenal Photographer had fun
I am pretty disappointed that the match has been postponed. If Arsenal had won they would have gone to second in the league only one point behind leaders Chelsea. It is the legendary 'Game in Hand' - whenever Arsenal's league position is discussed there is mention of the fact that they have played one less game than the clubs around them. If this game had been played it would have 'leveled the playing field'. It was also a very winnable game as Bolton are towards the bottom of the league, although they are in a state of managerial flux, which often results in improved performances. It is possibly a good thing for Arsenal as it will potentially allow some injured players to return to action.
Fortunately, I won't have to wait too long to go to another game as I am planning to watch Arsenal play Everton on Saturday, weather permitting of course.
Automator
So, as mentioned in a previous blog I had a problem when I was transferring some files. I lost my Wi-Fi connection mid-flow a few times. I had to re-copy the files. Not totally sure exactly how it happened but I ended up with quite a lot of my folders suffixed with ' 2'. I did not want this as I was going to import the music files in these folders into iTunes and thought that my artist names might end in 2. I could have manually edited the file names but there were quite a lot of folders and I could not be bothered.
If I had been using Windows instead of my MacBook I would have tried to write a VBScript to rename the folders, but that requires thinking and testing and couldn't be done on a Mac anyway.
When I had been nosing around my Mac previously, I had noticed a cutesy robot icon called Automator, which, as the name suggests, was supposed to automate repetitive tasks. I thought I would give it a go in this situation and it worked. It was fairly simple once I broke the process down into steps.
If I had been using Windows instead of my MacBook I would have tried to write a VBScript to rename the folders, but that requires thinking and testing and couldn't be done on a Mac anyway.
When I had been nosing around my Mac previously, I had noticed a cutesy robot icon called Automator, which, as the name suggests, was supposed to automate repetitive tasks. I thought I would give it a go in this situation and it worked. It was fairly simple once I broke the process down into steps.
- Get the folder containing the folders to be renamed
- Get folder contents(i.e. the folders to be renamed)
- Replace Text in Finder Item names (i.e. replace ' 2' with '')
Monday, January 4, 2010
iTunes
The first thing that I wanted to do with my new Mac was to transfer the tracks on my iTunes. I figured that this would be a simple case of plugging in my iPod into my Mac and my music would fly across to my laptop. This was not quite the case!
The first thing was that I had an older version of iTunes on my Mac than on my PC and iPod touch. Slightly surprising seeing as my Mac was brand new and comes directly from the company that makes iTunes, but iTunes is updated regularly and my 'new' Mac might have been sitting in a warehouse or on a boat for a while. So I had to install an update. At the same time my Mac realised I needed to do a firmware upgrade for Bluetooth. I was warned to make sure my Mac was plug in. Firmware upgrages come with a risk of 'bricking' the new device it they stop mid-stream. I am not sure whether I could have actually 'bricked' my Mac or just its Bluetooth facility, which would not have been a great loss.
Then I had to authorise my new MacBook to be used with my iTunes account. You are allowed to authorise five computers on one iTunes account. I had previously authorised my desktop, but a couple of months ago when I plugged in my iPod I was asked to authorise my Desktop again. I don't know why. I should look into it, but as it stands I have three computers associated with my iTunes account - my MacBook and my Windows Desktop twice.
This did not really get me much further in my quest to get my music onto my computer because I have never actually bought music from iTunes. I have burned it all in from CDs. It did allow me to get some pod casts and iPod apps I had downloaded from iTunes onto my Mac. It seemed that my options to get my music across would be to burn the tracks onto a disk and import them. I did not think that this was viable as I have a lot of music. It seemed that the better option was to enable disk usage on my iPod to get the music across. I have a 32GB iPod and about 20GB of music. With the few gigabytes for Apps and the iPods Opertaing system there is less than 10GB of spare space so what I had to do was delete all my music off my iPod, enable disk usage, and put all my music back on again. I was able to delete all the music on my iPod quite easily. I remember when I fist got an iPod there being an option called 'Enable disk usage'. This seems to have to have been 'simplified' in later versions of iTunes and now has if you select something like 'Manually Manage Music' it does the same thing, apparently at least. Once I had done this I was supposed to be able to see it as an external hard drive in Windows Explorer. This did not happen. I could see something but was not able to transfer files to it. I tried un-plugging plugging in my iPod and going in and out of iTunes, but to no avail. I probably should have re-booted by desktop, but life is too short. I was about to go out and wanted to listen to some music on the way, so I decided to put re-sync my iPod with my Windows iTunes. This took some time..
The syncing had not actually finished by the time that I had to leave the house, so i stopped the syncing and unplugged my iPod It seemed that all the tracks had actually transferred, but the playlist had not been updated, so I could not listen o anything. I was left with just one pod cast to listen to.
When I got back home I was able to complete the syncing process and de-bricked my iPod. While I was out I came to the conclusion, with the assistance of two Mac owning friends that I needed to create a network share to transfer the files across. I have created file shares before at work but not at home as I have only ever had one computer and certainly not with a Mac involved and after having had a few drinks.
I had to enable network file sharing or something to that effect on my desktop first then create the share. I was wondering how to get to network shares on the Mac. In the event it was quite easy. My PC appeared under Network on the Mac Finder. Clicking on it revealed the share. Then it was a case of copying and pasting to my documents folders. This was supposed to take four hours but actually took longer and I lost my Wi-Fi connection a few times, so I had to start copying from where i left of. This did cause a slight problem that I was able to use my Mac's Automator application to resolve. This probably warrants a post in its own right, so I will end this post by saying that I was eventually able to successfully inport my music files from my documents into iTunes.
The first thing was that I had an older version of iTunes on my Mac than on my PC and iPod touch. Slightly surprising seeing as my Mac was brand new and comes directly from the company that makes iTunes, but iTunes is updated regularly and my 'new' Mac might have been sitting in a warehouse or on a boat for a while. So I had to install an update. At the same time my Mac realised I needed to do a firmware upgrade for Bluetooth. I was warned to make sure my Mac was plug in. Firmware upgrages come with a risk of 'bricking' the new device it they stop mid-stream. I am not sure whether I could have actually 'bricked' my Mac or just its Bluetooth facility, which would not have been a great loss.
Then I had to authorise my new MacBook to be used with my iTunes account. You are allowed to authorise five computers on one iTunes account. I had previously authorised my desktop, but a couple of months ago when I plugged in my iPod I was asked to authorise my Desktop again. I don't know why. I should look into it, but as it stands I have three computers associated with my iTunes account - my MacBook and my Windows Desktop twice.
This did not really get me much further in my quest to get my music onto my computer because I have never actually bought music from iTunes. I have burned it all in from CDs. It did allow me to get some pod casts and iPod apps I had downloaded from iTunes onto my Mac. It seemed that my options to get my music across would be to burn the tracks onto a disk and import them. I did not think that this was viable as I have a lot of music. It seemed that the better option was to enable disk usage on my iPod to get the music across. I have a 32GB iPod and about 20GB of music. With the few gigabytes for Apps and the iPods Opertaing system there is less than 10GB of spare space so what I had to do was delete all my music off my iPod, enable disk usage, and put all my music back on again. I was able to delete all the music on my iPod quite easily. I remember when I fist got an iPod there being an option called 'Enable disk usage'. This seems to have to have been 'simplified' in later versions of iTunes and now has if you select something like 'Manually Manage Music' it does the same thing, apparently at least. Once I had done this I was supposed to be able to see it as an external hard drive in Windows Explorer. This did not happen. I could see something but was not able to transfer files to it. I tried un-plugging plugging in my iPod and going in and out of iTunes, but to no avail. I probably should have re-booted by desktop, but life is too short. I was about to go out and wanted to listen to some music on the way, so I decided to put re-sync my iPod with my Windows iTunes. This took some time..
The syncing had not actually finished by the time that I had to leave the house, so i stopped the syncing and unplugged my iPod It seemed that all the tracks had actually transferred, but the playlist had not been updated, so I could not listen o anything. I was left with just one pod cast to listen to.
When I got back home I was able to complete the syncing process and de-bricked my iPod. While I was out I came to the conclusion, with the assistance of two Mac owning friends that I needed to create a network share to transfer the files across. I have created file shares before at work but not at home as I have only ever had one computer and certainly not with a Mac involved and after having had a few drinks.
I had to enable network file sharing or something to that effect on my desktop first then create the share. I was wondering how to get to network shares on the Mac. In the event it was quite easy. My PC appeared under Network on the Mac Finder. Clicking on it revealed the share. Then it was a case of copying and pasting to my documents folders. This was supposed to take four hours but actually took longer and I lost my Wi-Fi connection a few times, so I had to start copying from where i left of. This did cause a slight problem that I was able to use my Mac's Automator application to resolve. This probably warrants a post in its own right, so I will end this post by saying that I was eventually able to successfully inport my music files from my documents into iTunes.
MacBook Pro
I recently bought a MacBook Pro.
I have had a Windows desktop for many years, but was lured into the world of Apple by an iPod. About nine months ago, I got a iPod touch, which then lured me into setting up a wireless network. As well as the traditional listening to music, the iPod touch is also good for checking email, Facebook, uTube, internet surfing. A lot of what I used my PC. Also, as is typical of PCs ofa certain vintage, mine became very slooooow, particularly at boot up. Despite hard disk de-fragging and all the usual nonsense this remained the case.I probably should have tried re-installing windows, but was worried about messing it up and being without a computer. It got to the stage when I could only be bothered to use my PC about once a week, during which time various updates and scans took place and it all became very tedious. At the same time I was using my iPod touch for multi-tasking such as watching TV and uTube at the same time. So I was tempted to get a laptop computer to use on my wireless network away from my usual computer area.
I don't like being ripped off, so I was initially attracted by the low prices of Windows machines. However, I was very happy with my iPod and liked the idea of having my Hard Disk de-frag automatically and not having to worry so much about viruses - particularly running the anti virus software. Also I like playing guitar and taking photos, both of which are things that Macs are supposed to be good for. I certainly don't consider myself as one of the 'creatives' that Apple likes to market to, but I do like to do certain 'Mac type'.
I have spent quite a lot of time, like a lot of people it seems, in Apple shops or 'Retail Stores' as Apple woud have us call them 'trying out the computers'. It got to the stage that I really wanted a Mac but did not want to pay the money they were asking, especially as I really wanted a nice shiny metal one that costs £100 more than the standard. In the end I decided to stop wanting a Mac and freak out the staff in the 'Retail Store' and actually buy something. Of course, you can't actually just buy a Mac, I had to first have a chat with somebody in a red T-shirt about transferring from Windows, why I wanted a Mac, what I was going to do with and pushed into buying some training and having my files transferred, which I resisted. I am quite good with computers and thought I would be able to transfer the files myself and work out what I wanted to do, especially as Apple markets Macs on their ease of use. They did have a good deal on printers, which I resisted as I aready have a printer.
So, the upshot is that I am now the proud owner of an Apple MacBook Pro and will almost certainly be making further posts on my experiences with my new machine
I have had a Windows desktop for many years, but was lured into the world of Apple by an iPod. About nine months ago, I got a iPod touch, which then lured me into setting up a wireless network. As well as the traditional listening to music, the iPod touch is also good for checking email, Facebook, uTube, internet surfing. A lot of what I used my PC. Also, as is typical of PCs ofa certain vintage, mine became very slooooow, particularly at boot up. Despite hard disk de-fragging and all the usual nonsense this remained the case.I probably should have tried re-installing windows, but was worried about messing it up and being without a computer. It got to the stage when I could only be bothered to use my PC about once a week, during which time various updates and scans took place and it all became very tedious. At the same time I was using my iPod touch for multi-tasking such as watching TV and uTube at the same time. So I was tempted to get a laptop computer to use on my wireless network away from my usual computer area.
I don't like being ripped off, so I was initially attracted by the low prices of Windows machines. However, I was very happy with my iPod and liked the idea of having my Hard Disk de-frag automatically and not having to worry so much about viruses - particularly running the anti virus software. Also I like playing guitar and taking photos, both of which are things that Macs are supposed to be good for. I certainly don't consider myself as one of the 'creatives' that Apple likes to market to, but I do like to do certain 'Mac type'.
I have spent quite a lot of time, like a lot of people it seems, in Apple shops or 'Retail Stores' as Apple woud have us call them 'trying out the computers'. It got to the stage that I really wanted a Mac but did not want to pay the money they were asking, especially as I really wanted a nice shiny metal one that costs £100 more than the standard. In the end I decided to stop wanting a Mac and freak out the staff in the 'Retail Store' and actually buy something. Of course, you can't actually just buy a Mac, I had to first have a chat with somebody in a red T-shirt about transferring from Windows, why I wanted a Mac, what I was going to do with and pushed into buying some training and having my files transferred, which I resisted. I am quite good with computers and thought I would be able to transfer the files myself and work out what I wanted to do, especially as Apple markets Macs on their ease of use. They did have a good deal on printers, which I resisted as I aready have a printer.
So, the upshot is that I am now the proud owner of an Apple MacBook Pro and will almost certainly be making further posts on my experiences with my new machine
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