What a big statement for a title right? A revolution is a pretty big thing. One of our most popular blog posts set out to declare the iPad would change the way we perform, create, and produce our music. In alot of ways we can say the iPad has done that, but there’s still lots of room to go. In a way the iCloud and Lion announcements have got me back into dreaming mode. There are four new features I’m particularly interested in and I’ll explain why I think they’ll revolutionize the way we make music.
Before you upgrade to Lion you’ll want to check out this post to see if your software is compatible
Gesture Tracking
Apple revolutionized (again with the powerful words…) the way people experience media, browse the web and use non-PC devices with the iPhone and iPad. The touch gestures just work. I’ve seen my nephews use an iPad and an iPhone without needing any explanation. That’s when you know something “just works”. With Lion, Apple is working to further integrate multi-touch gestures into the PC. You reach out and “almost” touch what you’re working with. We use all the same gestures we’re used to working with but now on our laptops.
Imagine what this could mean for producing music. Your DAW could integrate multi-touch features into the program easily. Two finger swipes take you back and forth between Session and Arrangement view. Maybe four fingers down, opens up clip view. Swiping from left to right adjusts the volume of your track. Swipe around the trackpad to set your filter frequency. Record the automation by “drawing” your automation curve on your trackpad.
What if two fingers started playback. A two finger swipe to the right jumped to the next song/marker? A swipe to the left takes you to your previous song. Three fingers sets your tempo. Four fingers stops your track. The possibilities are endless. Maybe instead of looking at iPads to control our DAW’s, we’ll look at using our trackpads in a more in-depth way. Combine your iPad and your trackpad and you’ve got the ultimate DAW controller.
Air drop
Do you ever have a thumb drive when you really need one? I know I don’t. When you’re sitting around and working on songs with your friends, or creating a set-list for Sunday that you need to get to your drummer, you’ve got to go find your thumb drive. Now you can just open your mac, drag the file to your drummer’s picture representing his mac and off the file goes. No need to worry about the thumb drive. It’s just there. Open your mac and transfer the files while you finish setup. No need to let the file transfer to your thumbdrive and then get it to your drummer. This could be a good solution for those of us that are used to using dropbox for file sharing, but maybe the internet isn’t great where the church meets. Maybe airdrop will do file transfers the way i-chat file transfer should have. Here’s to hoping file transfers get the Apple, “it just works” treatment.
Auto-Save
Oh wow.. this is huge. Sure, there are programs that do this now, and that’s great. But how about the feature being built into the OS? How about Ableton adding the function in? We already have a file-recovery system for when our favorite free-ware plugin crashes Live, but what about never having to worry about saving again! You’re working on a loop for Sunday late Saturday night (I know YOU’D never do that…) and the coffee and Red bulls are wearing off. You haven’t saved in a few minutes and one C chord too many, it’s time for bed. You go to close live, and because of the ungodly amount of caffeine keeping you awake is clouding your judgement. You choose to close Live without saving.. Oops. There goes that great remix of As the Deer (Maybe it’s a good thing it crashed after all?) With auto-save we don’t have to worry about our files. We just create. We record and we play music. “Command S” is so 2010.
iCloud backup and file transfer
Maybe I saved the best for last. iCloud’s implementation of the cloud for backup and file transfer is pretty snazzy. It works in the background without us having to learn/re-learn anything and again…just works. Apple is allowing Developers to build the option to send files to iCloud into their programs. So now the game is changing. Imagine opening Live to work on a file. You’re working for a good 45 minutes and you’re making some good progress. You’ve got to stop working for some reason (there’s a rob bell webcast on) and so you go to check it out. Remember we’ve got Auto-save so Live automatically saves your file. But because it’s connected to iCloud your files are magically making their way to the home in the sky (really a giant building in NC).
Let’s say the Webcast with Rob Bell went well, so you get together with your seminary buddies to discuss it over a Piper sermon. After your Theological conversations, you turn to discussing your great new dub-step track. You didn’t render out an mp3 to play for them, so you borrow your buddies laptop. You open his version of Ableton Live and log into your iCloud account. Of course by then Ableton Live is sold in the Mac App Store, so if he doesn’t have it, you can log onto your account and download it to his computer. Within a few minutes your Live session with all your clips and all it’s dubstep goodness, is now playing for your friends. Make some changes, tweak the mix, and then close the program. The changes are backed up to the cloud for you to wrap up the mix at home.
Okay so clearly some of this would take place in the distant future. (Rob Bell and John Piper in the same day? Not even Steve Job’s could make that happen)Sure Ableton isn’t in the App Store yet, and downloading all those clips from the cloud could take a while. But all this functionality is simply waiting to be implemented into Live (9 maybe??). With the release of Lion and iCloud it’s all possible. The future is closer then we think. With Lion and iCloud its even closer now.
These are only a few of the features of iCloud and Lion that could change the way we make music. What are you most excited about?
Will Doggett is a certified Ableton Live Instructor, musician, worship leader and educator based out of FL. He currently works in the Worship Ministry at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and teaches Ableton Live and Ensemble courses at Ocean's Edge School of Worship . You can reach him by Email and find him on Twitter @willdoggett. He's currently available for consultation and training for churches and musicians interesting in learning to integrate Live into their setups. Want more info? Shoot him an Email!
Why Lion and iCloud are going to revolutionize the way we make music
Posted by Will in Gear
What a big statement for a title right? A revolution is a pretty big thing. One of our most popular blog posts set out to declare the iPad would change the way we perform, create, and produce our music. In alot of ways we can say the iPad has done that, but there’s still lots of room to go. In a way the iCloud and Lion announcements have got me back into dreaming mode. There are four new features I’m particularly interested in and I’ll explain why I think they’ll revolutionize the way we make music.
Before you upgrade to Lion you’ll want to check out this post to see if your software is compatible
Gesture Tracking
Apple revolutionized (again with the powerful words…) the way people experience media, browse the web and use non-PC devices with the iPhone and iPad. The touch gestures just work. I’ve seen my nephews use an iPad and an iPhone without needing any explanation. That’s when you know something “just works”. With Lion, Apple is working to further integrate multi-touch gestures into the PC. You reach out and “almost” touch what you’re working with. We use all the same gestures we’re used to working with but now on our laptops.
Imagine what this could mean for producing music. Your DAW could integrate multi-touch features into the program easily. Two finger swipes take you back and forth between Session and Arrangement view. Maybe four fingers down, opens up clip view. Swiping from left to right adjusts the volume of your track. Swipe around the trackpad to set your filter frequency. Record the automation by “drawing” your automation curve on your trackpad.
What if two fingers started playback. A two finger swipe to the right jumped to the next song/marker? A swipe to the left takes you to your previous song. Three fingers sets your tempo. Four fingers stops your track. The possibilities are endless. Maybe instead of looking at iPads to control our DAW’s, we’ll look at using our trackpads in a more in-depth way. Combine your iPad and your trackpad and you’ve got the ultimate DAW controller.
Air drop
Do you ever have a thumb drive when you really need one? I know I don’t. When you’re sitting around and working on songs with your friends, or creating a set-list for Sunday that you need to get to your drummer, you’ve got to go find your thumb drive. Now you can just open your mac, drag the file to your drummer’s picture representing his mac and off the file goes. No need to worry about the thumb drive. It’s just there. Open your mac and transfer the files while you finish setup. No need to let the file transfer to your thumbdrive and then get it to your drummer. This could be a good solution for those of us that are used to using dropbox for file sharing, but maybe the internet isn’t great where the church meets. Maybe airdrop will do file transfers the way i-chat file transfer should have. Here’s to hoping file transfers get the Apple, “it just works” treatment.
Auto-Save
Oh wow.. this is huge. Sure, there are programs that do this now, and that’s great. But how about the feature being built into the OS? How about Ableton adding the function in? We already have a file-recovery system for when our favorite free-ware plugin crashes Live, but what about never having to worry about saving again! You’re working on a loop for Sunday late Saturday night (I know YOU’D never do that…) and the coffee and Red bulls are wearing off. You haven’t saved in a few minutes and one C chord too many, it’s time for bed. You go to close live, and because of the ungodly amount of caffeine keeping you awake is clouding your judgement. You choose to close Live without saving.. Oops. There goes that great remix of As the Deer (Maybe it’s a good thing it crashed after all?) With auto-save we don’t have to worry about our files. We just create. We record and we play music. “Command S” is so 2010.
iCloud backup and file transfer
Maybe I saved the best for last. iCloud’s implementation of the cloud for backup and file transfer is pretty snazzy. It works in the background without us having to learn/re-learn anything and again…just works. Apple is allowing Developers to build the option to send files to iCloud into their programs. So now the game is changing. Imagine opening Live to work on a file. You’re working for a good 45 minutes and you’re making some good progress. You’ve got to stop working for some reason (there’s a rob bell webcast on) and so you go to check it out. Remember we’ve got Auto-save so Live automatically saves your file. But because it’s connected to iCloud your files are magically making their way to the home in the sky (really a giant building in NC).
Let’s say the Webcast with Rob Bell went well, so you get together with your seminary buddies to discuss it over a Piper sermon. After your Theological conversations, you turn to discussing your great new dub-step track. You didn’t render out an mp3 to play for them, so you borrow your buddies laptop. You open his version of Ableton Live and log into your iCloud account. Of course by then Ableton Live is sold in the Mac App Store, so if he doesn’t have it, you can log onto your account and download it to his computer. Within a few minutes your Live session with all your clips and all it’s dubstep goodness, is now playing for your friends. Make some changes, tweak the mix, and then close the program. The changes are backed up to the cloud for you to wrap up the mix at home.
Okay so clearly some of this would take place in the distant future. (Rob Bell and John Piper in the same day? Not even Steve Job’s could make that happen)Sure Ableton isn’t in the App Store yet, and downloading all those clips from the cloud could take a while. But all this functionality is simply waiting to be implemented into Live (9 maybe??). With the release of Lion and iCloud it’s all possible. The future is closer then we think. With Lion and iCloud its even closer now.
These are only a few of the features of iCloud and Lion that could change the way we make music. What are you most excited about?
Wills website