[Ti] Pet Shop Boys + Powerbook

[b]

Steve Martin paused, thought it over, and spoke thusly:

>I saw the same thing at a Sting concert early this year. 
>Keyboard/synth player had at least 2, Apple logo's glowing away...
>
>On Jul 11, 2004, at 1:07 AM, Dr. Trevor J. Hutley wrote:
>
>>
>>I happened to see The Pet Shop Boys playing on a show on BBC 
>>television last night, and saw that the keyboard player had a 
>>(Titanium?) Powerbook open right up there in front of him, where 
>>you might have sheet music positioned, if you were playing from 
>>written music.  The 'Book and Apple logo were very visible.

There are any number of really nice apps that one uses with 'live 
sound reinforcement', 'musical sound treatment', etc.

Every synthesizer from the last 15-20 years, or so, is simply a 
computer with a keyboard on it. And a lot of 'storage'.

"Samples" (what we all think of, or perceive, as 'sounds'), are 
digital files. And the things that turn those samples in tto the 
many, varied 'versions' of each tone (modulatin, reverb, echo, 
crescendo, etc, etc) are digital signal processors.

All sequencers are computer-based. A musician might have something as 
simple as a 'click-track' on a Mac, and the signal (a metronome) can 
be sent to the drummer's headset, other players, etc, in order to 
increse the likelihood of unified timing amongst the players.

Or, sounds that are stored on the Mac could be added to the over-all 
'mix', and at the same time,  new material that is being played live, 
can be 'sampled' and regenerated.

Although it would be more likely to be found in the area of a mixing 
desk, rather than onstage, there are also one or two amazing apps 
that can focus on hotspots, dead spots, in terms of room 
characteristics, (as a room fills with people, the bass sounds may be 
dominating more, and the app would illustrate this, perhaps rolling 
off some low end frequencies and boosting some mid-highs, etc).

I saw Pere Ubu (a rather unusual band from Akron, Ohio, I believe) 
back in the early 80s, and their keyboardist actually borrowed an old 
M1 synth from me, and had it hooked to an Apple during the show. In 
those days Apples were (and still are, actually) the dominat computer 
systems in all the largest, and many of the smallest, music recording 
facilities, worldwide.

I used an SE running MIT-designed sequencing software, at home in the 
mid-eighties.  In those days, things were not nearly as 'developed' 
as they are today.  I used Vision software to not only store tracks 
of MIDI info for multiple instruments, but to act as the software 
'go-between' for my 8-Track recording deck, and the SMPTE time code 
generator that kept digital, analog, and already-recorded music in 
'sync'.

I miss those days. It was tremendous fun. I saw my first 
multi-million dollar independet recording facility being "run" by a 
IIci back in the day.

You can check here for 'testimonials (under Pro Music + Audio):

http://www.apple.com/pro/archive/index.html#promusic

or here, :

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/audio/

and here:

http://www.macmusic.org/home/?lang=EN&vRmtQjpAznOhMa=1


there are many thousands of apps, forums, resources, etc, available, 
try www.google.com/mac  (input 'Audio")

~flipper