O'Reilly Digital Media

This first Adventure Web Gallery represents the perspectives of nine photographers who are immersed in the culture and landscape of the Reykholt area of Iceland. Some of the artists have focused on the expansive landscape, while others examine the intimate details of the countryside.

Each photographer begins the process by capturing Raw image data, then organizing and editing the pictures in Adobe Lightroom. The output, such as this Adventure Web Gallery is created directly from the Web module. Prints are also being generated from Lightroom via Epson R2400 printers.

The next Adventure gallery will be published soon, displaying the work of more photographers on the team.

Photo by John McDermott

Technorati Tags: digital photography, Iceland, Lightroom Adventure

In the late 60s, bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin & The Who set the stage for massive live performances in stadiums and arenas around the globe. In the 70s, we saw artists like Boston, Styx, Foreigner, Journey, Queen, Peter Frampton & Genesis emerge — who really defined the moniker “Arena Rock”. These bands would sell-out the world’s largest venues throughout most of that decade and beyond. There were three primary factors behind this phenomenon in my opinion. The first was that corporations saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out enormous stadiums & they starting underwriting the tours of these bands in that era, changing the face of rock forever in that context. Secondly, there was a certain style of rock music that lent itself to these types of crowds; more pop, still rock but more melodic, songs people wanted to sing along with (and did); songs that were played constantly on the radio. And thirdly, a whole generation grew up with this kind of concert environment (from shows like “The Who Live at Leeds” to “Day on the Green” multi-band marathons). We became accustomed to it.

Fast forward three decades, and we find many of these artists still touring, in fine form, and sounding great. Of course their audience has aged right alongside of them. So many of these artists are now playing in more intimate venues (1500-2000 capacity), and their fans are still singing along — the words of each song forever etched in the collective DNA of a generation (it doesn’t hurt that many of these artists and their hits are still played on many Classic Rock stations; so they never really went away). Case in point, I’m going to see Foreigner perform later this week — at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga; I’ll see Styx at the same venue later in August. I can predict the average age of the audience members at both shows (45-50), and I guarantee we’ll be singing along with all the songs & having the time of our lives. (And holding our cell phones open during the slow ballads; the modern interpretation of the Bic lighter).

Reykholt, Iceland: It’s 10 pm and the sky is a brilliant blue and the sun is reflecting off a few high clouds. Obviously the weather is cooperating with our adventure. Yesterday, we left Reykjavik in a blur of action. The entire team and luggage piled into 6 rental cars provided by Hertz and made the 1.5 hour drive across north west Iceland, here to the tiny town of Reykholt, surrounded by farms and near the Langjokull glacier.

We were all were aching to shoot photos and as soon as we arrived and settled everyone scattered like cats after mice. Michael Reichmann and Bill Atkinson jumped in their four wheel drive with their Hasselblad H1’s and H2’s and headed north, planning on driving until the light got good just before midnight, and then sleeping a few hours in the jeep and waking at 3 am in time for the rising sun and more good light.

I jumped in our van along with Derrick Story, Melissa Gaul, Richard Morgenstein and Maggie Hallahan and headed to the small town of Borgarnes only 25 kilometers away. It took us 2 hours to get there as we stopped every few kilometers to shoot the ever-changing sky and landscape. We were like kids in a candy store tempted by achingly beautiful clouds, bursts of sunlight, and, at moments, delicate drops of rain. We wanted to shove everything into our eyes and minds, and didn’t know where to start, or stop.

We returned to the Fosshotel Reykoholt in time for dinner. The simple hotel is newly renovated and a cultural theme hotel based on Norse mythology. Covers of Marvel comics based on the Norse gods Loki and Thor hang in the hallway near my room. None of the other team members arrived for dinner, and the cook, eight months pregnant, was quite upset. She had personally prepared us a traditional Icelandic meal of roast lamb and potatoes and understandably didn’t want to see it go to waste. I reached team member John McDermott on his cell phone and John was apologetic. He was hours away with teammate and former United Nations photographer, John Isaac, and they had completely lost track of time, taken by the great light and shooting opportunities. (McDermott is a world traveler–he just returned from shooting the World Cup soccer match–and it takes a lot to impress him, as it does to impress Isaac.) As Bill Atkinson put it the next morning at breakfast after being up most of the night, “Food and sleep are irrelevant here. We’ll sleep later, when we are home.”

At midnight Melissa Gaul, one of the original Adobe Lightroom team members who started back when the application was code-named Shadowland, presented the latest beta version of Lightroom. Melissa flew to Iceland from her home in Minneapolis and I quickly discovered she, like me, has a Norwegian background. We shared lutefisk and other strange food stories and I was fond of her immediately.

As Melissa gave her impromptu presentation I was taken at the new improvements to the program. I’ve been on the inside of the Lightroom development for nearly 2 years and I’ve seen it go through a lot of versions. Frankly, at moments, I felt the product was off-track and I was concerned. But listening to Melissa I was quickly totally back in the fold, and enthusiastic and excited about this new application that promises to elegantly streamline photographers workflow. We listened and questioned Melissa until around 11:30 pm when Derrick Story looked out the conference room window and dropped his jaw. The setting sun was exploding across the horizon and we all grabbed our cameras and ran outside to catch the last rays. Back in the conference room an hour later Melissa continued her demonstration and I filled pages and pages with notes, fully intending to share everything I’ve learned with you, the readers.

BTW, Derrick is working hard to post images from the adventure. Our Internet connection isn’t great here in the countryside but we hope to have something for you to look at soon. Stay tuned!

No sooner than the Adventure team congregated in Reykjavik, it was time to head north to Reykholt where we would break into smaller groups to cover more ground. My clan explored the local area including the quiet village Borgarnes. Others traveled much farther, often staying out the entire night to capture the last glow of sunset and the first rays of morning - which were only a few hours apart.

One of the challenges of such long days is that the “photographer side” of me wants to shoot all of the time. I almost feel guilty going to sleep, even if it’s only for a few hours. Then there’s actual photo management, including upload, sorting, keywording, and editing. On one hand, I don’t want to do it now because I want to capture. On the other hand, because I am shooting so much, I know if I don’t do some organization, I’ll get buried.

So I’m trying to work as efficiently as possible in Lightroom to minimize my computer time. Getting things right at capture is an important part of this equation. I’m using the ExpoDisc to help me with color balance, and it’s working amazingly well. I’ll write more about this accessory in a future post. As a result of accurate color and exposure capture, I’m spending very little time in the Develop module. Most of my work now is in Library.

This shot of a chapel in Reykholt was shot at 11pm just after the sun had set. I wanted to shoot it earlier in the day, but the light wasn’t quite right. One of things I’ve noticed in Iceland, is that everything looks good after 10pm.

Technorati Tags: digital photography, technique, Iceland, Lightroom Adventure

Intrigued by Scott Bourne’s review of Synk Audio Musicbed DV, I watched the screencast on the developer’s site…and got even more interested. Musicbed DV is a Mac program that generates soundtracks, but what struck me was the controls it offers: They’re labeled with musician terms, not engineering ones.

Instead of knobs and envelopes for quantitative aspects like level, panning, and effects depth, you get controls for emotional aspects such as intensity, realism, and smoothness:

By changing the shape of the lines under the audio clips in Musicbed DV, you can control how the emotional character of the music changes over time. (Click to see full screen.)

Putting the controls for music production into musical terms makes a lot of sense for the target customer who just wants some unique music for a podcast or video. He or she can simply move sliders until things sound right. With typical audio software, it’s easy to mess things up (or just give up) if you don’t have recording-studio experience.

Think about it: What’s the most intimidating audio user interface for newcomers? The mixing board. (”Oh my gosh. Look at all those knobs!“) You can explain that once you learn the parts of a single mixer channel you can work any of the 15, 23, or 71-plus others, but even people with very good musical sense will likely still be scared. Even GarageBand, the “music studio for the rest of us,” starts by asking what time signature and key you want. Huh?

Since all the processing happens behind the scenes on computers anyway, I’d love to see more programs with controls for the emotional aspects of music. (Bonus points if the names are as visceral as on Funk Logic’s Funkerator dial, which goes from “The Bradys” to “Thumb Poppin’ Good”!)

And I’m especially intrigued to hear what people will do with these controls. Some of the most interesting compositions in my college electronic music classes were by the students who weren’t music majors.

I realize this is a narrow (perhaps even obscure) topic, but I have received enough e-mail to know it addresses a real problem so indulge me.

If you use an USB-powered audio interface and a MacBook Pro, plug your interface into the USB port on the left side of the laptop. For some reason, the MacBook Pro’s internal architecture causes some interfaces plugged in on the right side of the computer to have problems. Typical symptoms will include audio interrupts and/or dropped samples.

The same problem can be found on the MacBook. In this case, the proper USB port is the one located on the front of the laptop. I don’t recommend using the one located on the back of the computer because it may suffer from the same sorts of audio interrupts and/or dropped samples.

If you’ve been having trouble with an audio interface that you plugged into your new Mac Intel laptop, switch USB ports. That may solve your problem.

For more on podcasting, visit my site PodcastingTricks.com

Save This Page
Technorati Tags:
podcasting
digital music

Reykjavik, Iceland: Everyone has safely flown in from all around the globe and the adventure has officially started! Earlier this evening, before the opening presentation by the Icelandic photographer, Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson, and before our elaborate Icelandic dinner hosted by ExpoImaging, I had the honor or welcoming the group and this is what I said:

I’ve been dreaming of this moment for several months now…wait a minute, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for several years. What a treat! Here we are in Iceland one of the most beautiful places on earth, together, on an adventure doing what we love most, making and talking photography. It doesn’t get any better.

Anyway, most of you know me. Many of you have contributed images and experiences to my various digital photography books over the years. I think Maggie Hallahan goes back the longest; she helped when I wrote my first digital photography book in 1991. Bill Atkinson contributed to Photoshop for the Web in 1998. Michael Reichmann not only contributed to my book Shooting Digital but wrote the foreword to my latest book on RAW. One of John Isaac’s photos graces the cover of Shooting Digital. Richard Morgenstein is featured in my last two books. Martin Sundberg and John McDermott and Peter Krogh have also been a great help to me. Derrick Story, along with Steve Weiss, Betsy Waliszewski, Sara Winge, Mark Brokering, Colleen Wheeler and others at O’Reilly media have been instrumental in making this project happen.

So in a way, this is a big thank you to you all. I just hope Michael Reichmann has used up all the glitches and it’s smooth sailing from now on! (Michael was diverted from Toronto to Iceland via London and had quite the adventure getting here.)

Speaking of Michael Reichmann, accompanying him on his round-about trip to Iceland was Chris Sanderson, videographer, whose job it will be to stick his video camera into our faces for the whole week. If you have a problem with that, well…just tell him nicely. Chris is a reasonable guy and I think he has had enough excitement for the week!

This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Adobe. And for that I want to thank Jennifer Stern who wasn’t able to make the trip. It’s her budget that’s paying for most of us so thank you Jennifer. George Jardin and Addy Roff were critical in making this happen. Thank you! Thanks also to the other Adobe people who made the trip: Russell Brown, Melissa Gaul, and Angela Drury. I don’t know you three as well, but by the end of the week I hope that changes.

This brings me to one of most exciting parts of the evening, and for me one the most exciting part of the whole adventure: Introducing our guest speaker, Sigurgeir Sigurjonsson. I first saw Sigurgeir’s work in a book last year titled Lost in Iceland and I fell in love with his work. In fact, I’ve carried that book around to so many meetings to show it off my copy is dog-eared. Sigurgeir was born in 1948 and studied photography in Sweden and California. His background is photojournalism and portraiture and for a long time he shied away from shooting landscapes. That’s not true anymore. I think he has produced some of the finest landscapes I’ve ever seen. In fact, talking to him last night at dinner, it occurred to me that his landscapes are really portraits. They have a personality and they speak, sometimes very loudly, always very wisely. A good portrait often says as much about the photographer as it does about the subject. In this case, I think Sigurgeir must be a very wise person indeed.

Anyway, I let him speak from here on. Thank you for coming! Enjoy the rest of the adventure!

Enroute to Iceland: Sometimes there isn’t a lesson; there is just a story. In this case, it’s really a worry. I’m talking about the weather, and so was everyone else I met today as I left Norway for Iceland and the start of the Adobe Lightroom Iceland Adventure.

On the train to the Oslo airport strangers bemoaned the hottest summer in 37 years. But on the plane to Keflavik it was a different story. Greta Onundardottir, one of the Icelandair flight attendants, lamented the unusually cold and wet Iceland summer. “Fall came early this year,” she said. “In May.” Iceland has seen 4 days of sun this summer, she explained, “and on the other days people are actually turning lights on to see.”

Excuse me? No sunlight. Rain? What am I going to say to a group of photographers flying half way around the world for–as I put it a couple months ago when I sold them on the adventure– the “wonderful Iceland summer light”? I started imaging them dropping me slowly into one of Iceland’s famous active lava beds.

It was raining in Iceland when we landed, of course. It was a light rain, but rain. At the duty free shop, I bought my allotment of cognac and beer. I figured with a week of rain we’d need all the help we could get. I also tried to recall some Photoshop techniques for changing the weather in a shot. Hey, I’m the one that wrote in one of my books, “Don’t look at a picture for what it is, look at it for what it can become!”

As I drove from the airport toward town a blue patch of sky suddenly appeared. I nearly crashed the rental car as I pulled quickly to the side of the road and snapped a shot. I wanted proof to show the other photographers when they arrived the next day. Proof that there is light in Iceland in the summer, and hope for me.

Anyway, it’s late now. I can’t tell by looking out my hotel window what tomorrow will bring. But I’m so excited to be here. I really do love Iceland. There is such an energy to the land, even when they sky is shrouded in gray. And I’m heartened by something else Greta told me on the plane…”You know, in Iceland,” she said, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait ten minutes, it’ll change.” We’ll see…

P.S. Photographer Michael Reichmann and videographer Chris Sanderson get the prize for most adventure so far. I just received a call from Michael saying their Toronto > Boston leg was cancelled. (See lesson #2 about establishing good communication capabilities.) The earliest they could get to Iceland was Sunday… Well, leave it to fast thinking Reichmann. He booked a flight to London, called our man at Icelandair, Brian Sheffield, and Brian hustled and found Michael and Chris a flight from London to Iceland, arriving… Friday afternoon! So Michael and Chris be here in time for our gala dinner event hosted by ExpoImaging and featuring a slide show by the great Iceland photographer Sigurgeir Sigurjonsson. Yeah!

I’ve learned much in the past few weeks as I’ve talked to other Adventure photographers about preparing for this trip. I thought I’d pass along a few of these gems.

If you plan to use your ATM card in Iceland, and most of Europe, be sure to change you pass code to 4 digits before you leave. Otherwise there’s a good chance you won’t be able to use it while abroad. I think this is important because ATM machines are one of the best ways to get fair exchange rates for currency while traveling.

GSM phones, especially triband and quadband models, can be a blessing on the road. In Iceland, for example, I’m going to buy a SIM card at the duty free right when I get off the plane. That way I’ll have a local number during my visit. Once I get home, I simply put my Cingular card back in the phone, and it’s just like I never left.

Michael Reichman remarked that he wears his photographer’s vest while boarding the plane. That way, if he’s faced with the problem of having to check his carry on gear (containing his lenses and DSLRs), he can stuff his most valuable equipment in his vest and keep it with him.

Finally, as great as computers are, having a good tour book or two is valuable on a long flight. Books don’t run out of power, and they’re safe during takeoff and landing. It’s also a great way to do some last minute planning.

About the photos in this post. The landscape shots are courtesy of Michael Reichmann. The group shot is of the San Francisco contingency, from left to right, Angela Drury, Addy Roff, Richard Morgenstein, Martin Sundberg, and Derrick Story.

The other day I found myself hanging out the passenger window with Canon Rebel XT in hand as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. So I did what any red-blooded photographer would do… I put the camera in burst mode and started shooting.

By the time I reached the other end, I had 90 frames recorded. Now what? I decided to make what I call a “digital flipbook.” It’s essentially a series of shots saved as a fast-paced QuickTime movie. Anyone on Mac or Windows, with a copy of QuickTime Pro, can employ this technique. Essentially, you use the Image Sequence command (File > Open Image Sequence…) and point QuickTime to the first picture in a folder that contains your pictures. It does the rest.

It’s really a hoot! You can learn more about this and see my digital flipbook, called “The Bridge” over at The Digital Story.

They say that there are ten reasons to buy a new piece of recording gear and the first nine are lust. Once in a while a piece of gear comes along that proves that point. I am talking about a piece of gear that will turn your head until it’s nearly clean off your neck - “Exorcist” style. The Sony PCM-D1 is that piece of gear. In just one week, I’ve grown to realize that if any piece of remote recording equipment is worth $1900, this is it.

I’ve been using field recorders since the 70s. And for years, the Sony cassette recorder was my mainstay. But times have changed and digital is the way to go now. Prior to owning the Sony, I tried several recorders and each had its limitations. My most recent recorder was the M-Audio Microtrack. For $400 it did a great job, but its proprietary battery system and a cheap plastic case left me wanting more. Additionally, in the field, I grew tired of carrying the charger, memory cards, the mic, the cables, etc., necessary to make that unit work.

So I began to research the notion of a sturdy, all-in-one unit. I didn’t want to have to carry a mic or cable; just one box that did it all. The Sony quickly landed on my radar as not only the most feature rich product available, but also the coolest looking.

Ulefoss, Norway: Sometimes we learn lessons the hard way, all by ourselves. Other times we learn by watching others. As I pack my bags and get ready to fly and meet the rest of the Adobe Iceland Adventure team I’m obsessed with what to bring and what to leave behind. I remember something that happened years ago to my good friend Rudy Burger, then director of Media Lab Europe, when he was humbled by his boss, Nicholas Negroponte.

Rudy and Nicholas (everyone calls Negroponte by his first name) were standing in the MIT reception area in Cambridge. I was standing discretely nearby. Rudy was explaining to Nicholas why he hadn’t responded to emails for a few days. His laptop had crashed and his brutal travel schedule didn’t allow time for repairs. Nicholas glared at Rudy for a second, and then said, very coolly, but with great heat behind the words, “That’s why I always carry two laptops where ever I go.”

Rudy paled and I turned away, a little embarrassed for my friend, but also impressed with the simple logic of carrying a spare laptop, especially when computers are critical to one’s work. I certainly would never travel anywhere without a backup camera.

Anyway, with two laptops staring at me from my desk, and my bags nearly full, I only hesitated for second: Two laptops it is. The pair of rain boots stay behind.

One of the laptops is my shinny new Apple MacBok Pro, with a 17 inch screen. It screams along at 2.16 GHz and I bought it primarily to run Adobe Lightroom, the new imaging software we’ll be testing. Lightroom is optimized for the new Intel chip and boy does it make a difference. I can run Lightroom on my other laptop, an older Apple Titanium Powerbook, but it slugs rather tediously through my numerous RAW files. (Lightroom also now runs on Windows.) The McBook Pro runs Lightroom really fast, however, when it comes to running Photoshop CS2 in Rosetta mode, I don’t see much improvement in speed with the new machine.

I’m also bringing my LaCie 300 GB external hard drive. We’ll be shooting RAW files everyday for a week, and it won’t take long to fill my memory cards, even the 4 GB cards graciously provided to the adventure by Sandisk. (RAW files from my Nikon D200 weigh in at 15.3 MB each.)

Yes, my baggage is getting out of control. And yes, I long for the days when all my equipment will be really miniaturized and built with the strength of a tank. … but then again, I also long for the days when we can teleport ourselves anywhere in the world (or universe) and not suffer from uncomfortable plane seats, or jet lag. Just call me a dreamer. And as my colleagues pack their bags and get ready to head to Iceland, I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I got a call today from a producer with a bunch of audio files that wouldn’t open. Because he’d made the files in Mac OS 9, I suspected they didn’t have filename extensions. So I sent him this little drag-and-drop application I’d made with AppleScript when I ran into a similar situation.

Simply copy and paste the code below into Script Editor, save it as an application, and drag some files onto the icon to add the “.aif” extension.

I considered making a fancier version that lets you specify what extension you want to add, but the “Add to File Names” script that comes with OS X already does that. This one’s so drag-and-drop easy I just leave it on my desktop, where it joins Deep Niner’s Xtract2Wav44 anything-to-WAV converter and Doug Adams’ Drop a Few My Way anything-to-MP3 converter.

on open draggedItems
	tell application "Finder"
		repeat with eachFile in draggedItems
			if the name of eachFile does not contain "." then
				set fName to (name of (info for eachFile)) & ".aif"
				set name of eachFile to fName
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
end open

on run
	display dialog "Drag and drop some files onto this icon to add an \".aif\" suffix." buttons {"Whatever"} default button 1
end run

What audio shortcuts are you using?

Ulefoss, Norway: We take SO much for granted, until we leave home. Take communications, for example. Cell phones work, mostly. Internet connections are everywhere. Heck, in the U.S. you can even pick up an old-fashioned phone and dial anywhere in the world for song. On our Adobe Iceland Adventure, which begins in just three days, communication is critical, and if we are not prepared, it could spell disaster or at least contribute to a miserable time.

Our adventure involves 16 people, arriving in Iceland from all over North America and Europe. It also involves several local Iceland photographers and on-the-ground support. We will spread out over three locations using 6 rental cars provided by Hertz to get around. (BTW, Hertz is also providing horses. How’s that for a good marketing line: “Horses and Cars by Hertz”. Quick, trademark it!)

So how are we going to communicate? I’ve been to Iceland several times and never had good luck with my Cingular cell phone, or even my Norwegian Telenor mobile phone, which connects to the local service but tells me I can only make SOS calls only. One time, in the summer, I desperately needed to change a plane reservation but it was after 4 pm in Iceland and everything was closed. (When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. During the summer months most Icelanders go on vacation and those who don’t get off as early in the day as possible.)

I did some fast thinking. If I could call the U.S. (EST), which is 4 hours back, I’d certainly find an operator that would help me. Only problem, the cost of a phone call from my hotel room was prohibitive. We are talking several dollars per minute… and knowing that I’d be on hold several minutes before even talking to an agent, made this not an option.

Instead, I hooked up my laptop, paid a few dollars for ½ hour internet connect time, and used Skype to make my call. It worked great, and only cost a few cents a minutes.

Last time I was in Iceland I got really smart and bought an Iceland SIM card for around $60. It easily replaced my U.S. SIM card and now I have my own local Iceland number. Hey, admit it, that’s cool!

Tip: Buy your SIM card at Duty Free when you arrive at Keflavik International airport. It’s cheaper. You can also get a heavily discounted calling card for “charging” your phone to make local or international calls. Just make sure your cell phone is GSM or Vodafone compatible and isn’t “locked”. If you don’t know, check with your carrier before you depart on your trip. And if you forget to get your SIM card at the airport, gas stations also carry them, albeit a bit more expensive. Yeah, gas stations… don’t ask me why.

BTW, Frommer’s has a good article on using a cell phone in Iceland.

As the adventure unfolds, I’ll let you know how things go… if I can get a line!

Ulefoss, Norway: In just a couple days, on July 28th, the Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop Iceland adventure officially begins. But I’ve already learned my first lesson and it cost me a pretty penny. Hopefully you’ll learn from my mistake!

I’m writing from Europe. I came out early, leaving San Francisco and flying here to Norway to the family house with my wife and two daughters. I packed everything I could in my carry-on–two laptops (hey, computers are critical when you are testing beta software), and most of my cameras and lenses, but not all. As I approached what felt like several hundred ponds of carry-on baggage I decided to pack some of my lenses into a bag I planned to check in.

I recalled a big sign at the airport warning against locking check in bags. Homeland security, you know. So no locks for me. Just blind faith. Well, turns out that wasn’t enough.

We stopped in Iceland, but one of my two checked bags never appeared. Yep, you guessed it. The one carrying my extra lenses. There is nothing worse than watching people walk away with their bags while you stand there waiting for yours. I spent the next two days in Iceland setting up the hotels, restaurants, transportation, parties, etc. for the Adobe Lightroom Iceland adventure. At the end, still no bag, no extra lenses.

Finally, a few days after we arrived in Oslo, the bag was located and returned to me. I felt something was wrong before I opened it. A vib thing. Sure enough, my Nikkor AF-S VR 24-120 lens was missing from its box. I immediately informed the airline and quickly got an apologetic email back. “We are so sorry for your loss,” the email read, “However, we are not liable…check with your insurance company.” Sure, I have camera insurance, but with a $500 deductible. So there you go…money down the drain.

When I told Derrick Story, another one of the Adobe Iceland Adventure team, about my loss he was sympathetic, but then he said gently, “You know you could have locked the bag.”

Huh? I felt pretty stupid. “Yeah,” Derrick said, “There are TSA-approved luggage locks that have both combination and key access. According to National Geographic - where I bought mine - only TSA personnel have the keys to the locks. If the locks are opened by TSA, it is indicated on the lock by a red dot. You can learn more about these here.”

Thanks Derrick! Next time…

Stay tuned for more lessons from the adventure…

Most podcasters use music in their show in one way or another. And you can’t legally use mainstream music in your show unless you’ve paid to license it or unless it’s royalty free or otherwise “podsafe.”

Many producers turn to “clip music” for use in podcasts. Like clip art, this is generic music that can be used by pretty much anyone.

With the advent of Apple’s GarageBand, podcasters and others could easily make their own music. And it works well. The problem with GarageBand is that everyone who has a Mac also has GarageBand. Accordingly, the music starts to sound the same in every podcast.

So if you’re a Mac user who wants to set your show apart, you need to explore other alternatives. One such alternative is a program called Musicbed DV from Synk Audio. It’s an OSX application that allows you to browse music clips much the way you would browse Apple Loops. But there are some major differences. For starters, this program was originally designed for use in video, but the company realized that podcasters were a growing market and wisely offered this technology to a wider audience. And since the software was developed to help video and film producers score their projects, the feel of Musicbed DV is much different than Garageband. And ultimately, if you’re looking for a new sound, that’s a good thing.

A while back, I wrote about some slick tempo-detection software. A week later, Erica Sadun reported on a utility she was using, and complained about how long it took to analyze songs.

The developer of that program just wrote to explain that compressed music files like MP3s must be expanded before they can be analyzed, and that takes time. Curious, I contacted Aaron Higgins of MixMeister Technologies, which makes some powerful tempo-detection programs for Windows. He confirmed that surprising statement, and explained why:

Yes, it’s true that you need to decompress before analyzing. There are several tricks you can use to minimize the workload, like only decoding a few short clips of the track as opposed to the whole thing. Alternatively, it might be possible to partially decompress the data since you don’t need to reconstruct the entire frequency band, just the most prominent stuff. But, this optimization requires that you actually write your own decompression routines, which I don’t believe is worth it.

In practice, it is just easier to generically decode everything and then write your analyzing routines assuming decompressed audio. That is what we do. If you want to measure the amount of time spent decompressing, you could try analyzing the same song twice, once as a wave and again as an MP3.

Given how useful knowing the tempo of a song can be, it would be cool if ID3 tags could store a highly accurate tempo map (not just an overall tempo). That would enable some exciting synchronization techniques, such as changing slides or movie clips on a beat or quickly organizing songs into flowing playlists.

Speaking of which, Higgins also mentioned that MixMeister just released a DJ sequencer called Fusion, which looks to take creative synchronization to a new level.

Whoa. I was recording a great-sounding hardware synth last night and noticed that my USB audio interface was picking up some digital grunge. Today I tried using the Mac G5’s built-in audio input instead. Not only was the sound cleaner, I found could crank the input latency down much farther before getting glitches.

For years, the computer audio mantra has been “Don’t use the built-in audio.” (And many would say, “Don’t use USB audio.”) But the better advice remains “Use your ears.” I’ll keep the external interface around for my Windows laptops, which have atrocious sound quality, but color me surprised—and pleased. What’s surprised you about computers lately?

Adobe announced the public beta of Adobe Lightroom software for the Windows platform, a digital imaging workflow solution for professional photographers. Now available for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms, all professional photographers can import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images. Windows-based photographers now have the opportunity to assist with the development of Lightroom by testing this new beta download and submitting feedback to the Adobe Labs forums at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom.

The Windows and Macintosh versions of Lightroom currently contain somewhat different feature sets, but the core of Lightroom remains consistent across platforms, focused on efficiency and quality from capture through output. As the beta for each platform evolves, the features will converge and the final released versions will be the same.

Lightroom beta cross-platform support allows photographers to effortlessly work on projects from any Windows or Macintosh computer on-location, in the studio or in the office. When combined with the editing power in Adobe Photoshop software, Lightroom provides one clear path for taking images all the way from processing to final presentation. This allows photographers to spend less time at the computer, and more time behind the lens.

“Over the course of a recording career spanning several decades, The Residents have remained a riddle of Sphinx-like proportions; cloaking their lives and music in a haze of wilful obscurity, the band’s members never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise — usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks — and refusing to grant media interviews.” This pretty much says it all! The Residents are about to celebrate their 35th anniversary of creating the wildest art/music/technology fusion imaginable; they are among the earliest multimedia pioneers in music. And in my humble opinion, after all this time they remain a best-kept secret among those in the know.

Their latest endeavor is to release a set of two blank CDs — yes you heard me right, blank CDs. The basic notion is, they create & you burn.

In June, The Residents and the Cordless e-label teamed up to create a unique multimedia experience that essentially seeks to integrate the physical, digital and mobile worlds. They have issued their “River of Crime” - a 40’s style radio serial with a band-composed musical score — in a cardboard double-CD package with artwork that naturally reinforces the band’s indelible trademark eyeball, for $14.99. The twist? It contains two blank CDs so that the five episodes, which will be released sequentially during a 10-week period, can be burned after the last one becomes available. A unique code for each package allows users to unlock the subscription to participate. The episodes can also be downloaded individually as they are released at all digital music stores. Each episode is priced at $1.99.

Customers purchasing the limited-edition digital subscription will also receive digital extras like ringtones and mobile wallpaper as well as materials that can be burned onto the blank CD-Rs, including alternate versions of the “River of Crime” artwork, scripts and instrumental soundtrack elements. Through the effort Cordless, Warner Music Group’s e-label, can help brick-and-mortar stores sell digital product in physical form. It’s a unique and ambitious experiment, worthy of a band with a similar orientation. What will they think of next? (I’m hoping they’ve got another 35 years worth of goodies for us!).

i used to be a Wang programmer [ok, stop laughing, i know that sounds funny, but you wouldn’t be reading this if it weren’t for An Wang, inventor of magnetic core memory and founder of Wang computers, which kept me gainfully employed by day in the 80’s while i fed my jazz and salsa music habit by night] and i clearly remember the day a brand spankin’ new Wang VS80 “mini-computer” was installed in the raised-floor, climate-controlled, machine room at American Management Systems — it cost something like $50 grand, was the size of an industrial washer/dryer, and everyone in the office got all excited because it contained an entire MegaByte of RAM … that’s ONE Mb, right?

the history of computer technology development can be described as “faster, smaller, more” … faster processing and data transfer speeds, smaller devices and storage media, more memory. at no point has there ever been a need for slower, bigger, or less — and the exact same trend is readily apparent when you look at the development of the internet.

let’s look at connection speed:
If the internet is an ocean of data and your ISP provider is the conduit, then a 14.4 modem is a cocktail straw that lets you send and receive text, and voila! email is the new “killer app” …

(btw, anybody reading this remember the days BEFORE email? how did we communicate!?)

with a 56k modem, you’ve got a soda straw, so graphics become possible, and thereby the Web …

I get lots of email from new podcasters. And without question, one of the main complaints I hear relates to noise. People using small digital field recorders to record their podcasts seem to have particular problems with noise.

In most cases, these are simple environmental noise problems like unbalanced AC power sources, air conditioners, fans, fluorescent lights and other environmental factors that can ruin your recordings. The fix is usually simple.

Try to use balanced AC or use power conditioners. Make sure that you don’t locate your recorder near an AC power source, fluorescent lights or mobile phones during recording.

Turn off any electrical item in the room that you don’t need. Turn off fans and air conditioners.

Summer NAMM-watcher Mark Vail just sent me a link to the gorgeous TonePort KB37 from guitar-processor manufacturer Line 6. In fact, it’s a guitar processor with keys and a 24-bit USB audio interface.

In a world of square, gray MIDI controllers, this guy really stands out. And the audio I/O looks pretty flexible. You get two mic inputs with phantom power, a guitar input, stereo line inputs, a monitor input, balanced stereo outputs, S/PDIF digital output, and a headphone output with—hooray!—a dedicated volume knob. There are two footswitch jacks and a footpedal input as well, for sending MIDI commands to the computer.

Other thoughtful touches include the transport control buttons and octave-shift indicators. And bucking the trend of cramped two-octave keyboards is great news.

With synthesizer gurus like Marcus Ryle, Michel Doidic, and Rob Rampley at Line 6, it was only a matter of time before they put out a keyboard. I wonder if there’s a way to make the effects DSP produce sound….

Following along with our fun adventure of the One Laptop Per Child initiative is a video of the first working model, courtesy of RedHat. Take a look!

More videos for those who want to investigate the OLPC initiative.

I’m currently trying to track down the interactive music applications that Barry Vercoe and Simon Schampijer reportedly presented in San Diego on 2006Jul08. If you know the whereabouts or have information about “Walk Among the Music” and “Sound Match”, please comment below!

On the topic of “I’m not your friggin’ test department,” I’d like to submit my first example of proof that products I suspect are being released with “bullet-point features” that have never been tested even once.

Example One: Vox Valvetronix: The Wonderful Amp With the Useless Direct-Out Feature That Turns The Amp Into a Bass Drum Mic

The Latest in Bass Drum Microphones

The only thing you need to know to enjoy this article is that a “direct out” recording from an amp like this should contain a good, pure guitar/amp sound, and because no mics are used, there won’t be any other instruments “leaking” into the sound.

The technical quality of most vlogs and podcasts today are… in a word… yucky. It’s tiring reading about the advances in multimedia on the web only to find, time and time again, pathetic production values in podcasts and vlogs (Scoble POV.) Apparently authors care little about their message since most are riddled with distortion, clipping and uneven volume levels

Dear Member of the High-Tech Audio Industry:

Please.

Stop thinking about performance and features for a second: focus on “does it work or does it crash?”

If you are under the impression that your testing staff is doing a good job of addressing this problem, then

–you are very likely living in blissful ignorance, or
–you are in an industry other than hardware and software for music on computers.

Blaming Microsoft does no good to your customer who is trying to beat a deadline. Blaming other companies is only harmful to the industry.

If you are selling something to me, you _MUST_ be able to clearly state the conditions under which it is known to work and not work. Too many people are satisfied if their product is compatible with 70% of the systems out there. (That’s a quote from one of your companies). If it works on 70% of systems, you are _robbing_ 30% of your customers.

Hmmmmm.

I think some examples of stupidly untested high-tech audio devices would make for entertaining reading, don’t you?

There are lots of opinions about the right kind of mic for podcasting. In this post I want to cover some of the secondary factors that should go into selecting a mic.

NOTE: I will make some generalizations for the sake of space and this post is based on my own experience and opinions. Your mileage may vary.

1) Power

Dynamic mics (like my favorite the Heil PR-40) don’t require an external power supply. If you select one of the popular condenser mics, you will either need an on-board battery, phantom power supply or a mic pre-amp. This is typically no problem in a studio but might be more challenging in the field.

2) Environmental

Will you be using your mic in a very damp, humid or hot environment? You should know that most condenser mics will have more trouble in these environments than dynamic mics. Condenser mics have polarization problems in these conditions. This is what causes a crackling sound in some mics.