冬の。。。読書?

日本に帰ると一つの嬉しいところはやはり出版されている面白い本の数。。。

私から見れば特に音楽に関して海外より多く出ている気がする。

そして、数だけでなく、書き方も優しいし、分かりやすく色々細かいことを解説してくれる本が盛りだくさん。

昔から(アメリカに住んでいたころも)我が家のインターネットショッピンの大黒柱とも言えるアマゾンからついつい注文してしまう。

そのもう一つの理由とは:スウェーデンと比べて(またアマゾンのない国。。。)配達は安く、早く、丁寧に家まで運んでくれるのでとても便利。。。

今回は特に音楽理論に関連する本を多く買っています。私はDTMとこのブログを始めたのは2012年。それから曲をたくさん頑張って作ってみたけど、やはり最近強く感じるのは理論的な基礎知識が足りていないこと。

耳でなんとなくごまかせるところは多いかもしれないけど、やっぱり作曲とかトラックを作るところで(何故?どうして?どうやって?)という様な質問に納得出来る答えが出ないと壁感じる。

やっぱり、音楽に基礎、基本となっている理論をもっと把握したい!

と、そんな気持ちを含め今回(ここまで)購入したのは以下:

まだまだスウェーデンに戻るまで一週間以上あるので、おそらくリストが増えると思うけど。。。 :)

日本語での更新

このブログを始めてからの日本語の更新は今までほとんどなかったけど、新年の約束として、2015では必ず回数を増やして、書き込みをします。

最近スウェーデンに引っ越しし、日本語を使うきかいが減ったので言葉数もまえより大分少なくなってるけど、頑張ります!練習にもなりますので :-)

この2015年も、よろしくお願いします!

Japan Shopping #3 – Logicool K480

I’ve had my eyes on this keyboard for some time since I wanted a better input method for my iPad. The K480 is great as it let’s you pair up to 3 devices, which means I can have it ‘connected’ to my iPad, my iPhone and my Mac at the same time.

IMG_2700

An added benefit of purchasing it here in Japan is that I also got the Japanese keyboard arrangement.

The only downside I see after using it for a couple of days is that the iDevices wont respond to arrow key strokes outside of input fields, which means you can’t scroll webpages or the home screen. I minor problem perhaps but still a bit annoying.

Learning Logic Pro X (for real)

I mentioned before that I’m using the down time in Japan to study. It’s turning into a mixture of music theory, composition and software techniques, and I wanted to particularly highlight a book (Logic Pro X – Professional Music Production) that I found used on the Japanese Amazon store:

Screen Shot 2014-12-28 at 11.06.50

This book is part of Apple’s Pro Training Series, and is certified by Apple as part of their official certification program. This is important because it means you can expect a certain level of quality and accuracy in the material, and the book certainly does not let you down.

It takes the form of a series of lessons which all work out like tutorials complete with all the necessary content. The book starts off with a tour of the UI and leads you through all the major ‘features’ and workflows (think mixing, arranging, editing, working with Midi and Audio files, setting up instruments and so on).

It’s a beautiful, full color book with a very well paced and pedagogical language that requires basically no prior knowledge of Logic, though it does assume you are familiar with the basic concepts of audio editing and production.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the depths and capabilities of Logic Pro X, and especially to anyone making the jump from another DAW to Logic.

The lessons are just about long enough (60 to 90 min )to check off one a day, which means you’ll work through the entire book in about 10 days.

Read more about why I decided to move over to Logic here.

Mac Pro

The main computer in my home studie is an iMac that I bought back in mid 2011. It has served me really well and is actually still holding its ground on simple tasks like browsing and emailing.

Screen Shot 2014-12-20 at 23.07.35However, trouble started about a year ago when I decided to upgrade my software catalog (mainly Maschine and Live) and also to try out Cubase and Logic. Turns out that my old iMac was not up to par anymore and could no longer handle much of the new software I tried to run on it.

Since then my productivity has actually been pretty low since Live and Maschine kept crashing due to memory and CPU not keeping up, and Logic kept dying since the disk was not fast enough.

Tired of dealing with this I decided to buy a new Mac, and given that I expect this types of investment to last for a while, I aimed high and pulled the trigger on a pimped out Mac Pro. It’s not top of the line, but I got the 6 core, 16GB, 512Gb version.

Hopefully this will keep up with developments over the next 3-4 years at least.

What are your thoughts on the new Mac Pro? Have you made the jump? Are you thinking about it? Leave a comment and let’s discuss.