audacity keyboard shortcuts on mac for "transport > skip to start" and "transport > skip to end"

i was messing around in audacity on my mac and couldn't figure out the keyboard shortcut to move the cursor (in logic it's called "playhead position") to the start or end of the track. the Transport menu in audacity just shows diagonal-looking arrows pointing top left and bottom right:

i tried combining arrows with different function keys and found out that on mac you use the fn (function) key with the arrow keys:

skip to start (left arrow):
fn + <--

skip to start (right arrow):
fn + -->

then i found out you can also just use the letters j (track start) and k (track end)

Batch-convert multiple wav files to flac on mac: xACT (Audio compression toolkit)

If you want to convert a folder of audio files (WAV, AIF, etc) on mac to e.g. FLAC, then install xACT.

This makes my life easier when I publish samples on ccMixter. I export Regions or Tracks from Logic Pro X as wav, then open them all at once in xACT, then batch-convert them to FLAC because ccMixter wants users to upload files as FLAC.

Please upload a preview in 128k MP3 and individual tracks as FLAC. Upload small samples as FLAC in a ZIP.

Synthesizer Patel

lol, this guy is like the indian Eric Wareheim :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2myFLUDB74

[SOLVED] skullcandy crusher headphones - bass boost only works when i hold in the embossed skull button

i got the skullcandy crusher headphones for christmas :)

the instructions say to put the red end of the 3.5mm connector cable (2 lines) into the headphones and the other end (black, 3 lines) into the audio device (e.g. laptop, phone, etc). but when i did this and turned up the bass using the slider on the left headphone speaker, i couldn't hear any bass unless i held in the embossed skull button on the cable.

(unless my product is defect, then) THIS IS WRONG! when i put the red end of the cable into my laptop and the black end into the actual headphones, THEN THE BASS WAS ON THE WHOLE TIME, without having to hold in the skull button! :)

once i figured that out, WOW what a great, shaking sound experience! :)

here's my amazon review for the skullcandy crusher headphones.

Book Review: "Instant Audio Processing with Web Audio"

I was asked by Packt Publishing to review their new book "Instant Audio Processing with Web Audio".



Here's my generalized review:

In order to get the most out of this book you MUST download the code bundle from Packt. It is full of great, working examples of how to play audio in the browser using jQuery and the Web Audio API. Worked totally fine on Ubuntu Linux 13.04, in Chrome v31.0.1650.63.

I also recommend reading the "Bonus Recipies" PDF mentioned in the intro, first.

The book suggests using the Apache server to test the examples. I recommend using python's "SimpleHTTPServer", which works on Linux and Windows (and Mac, I assume, but have not tested), instead of messing around with a bloated XAMPP/LAMPP bundle, just to get the apache server (php and MySQL aren't needed). Here's how to quickly and easily set up the python web server.

--

Here's my review on amazon.
Here's the book on Packt's website.

New track: 08. Time Is Of The Essence (raw recording) ["Blacks N Whites" album]

08. Time Is Of The Essence (raw recording) ["Blacks N Whites" album]

New track: 07. Can't do anything about it (raw recording) ["Blacks N Whites" album]

Just published a live recording of me improvising on the piano:
07. Can't do anything about it (raw recording) ["Blacks N Whites" album]

New track: 06. Heidi Honey ["Blacks N Whites" album]

Just published a new, short, improvisational piano piece I recorded last night:
06. Heidi Honey ["Blacks N Whites" album]

Cherny upright piano

I got a ukranian "Cherny" piano yesterday for free, from an old lady in Olso, Norway, last night. I was struggling to find information about it, but thanks to my russian friend Alexey, it looks like the Cherny piano was made by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory ( Чернігівська фабрика музичних інструментів ).

alternativ spellings seem to be:
Chernigov, chernigiv, Чернигов


UPDATE 20131106

here are some images of my piano (production number 382309):

 
i just found this user comment:
"
And finally one in the Ukraine, the old piano factory in Chernigov (sold under the "Cherny" name - we have a plethora of used Cherny pianos for sale in Denmark - sold here cheaply in the 70's and 80's) bought by the Dutch piano distributor Van Urk in 1997. They now sell them under their own Van Urk and the Steinhoff names:
www.vanurk.nl
"
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/80338/1.html

if anyone has any more information on this piano, e.g. when it was made, please let me know :)

New track: 05. Für Flollo ["Blacks N Whites" album]

I recorded my first improv session on my "new" Cherny piano and dedictate it to my best friend Frode: Für Flollo

New track: 05. Neverending Disappointment ["Senut Cissalc" album]

Just published a live recording of me improvising on the guitar:
05. Neverending Disappointment ["Senut Cissalc" album]

New track: 08. B74 - The Prequel (Raw Edition) ["MXL" album]

I stumbled across this recording I made over a month ago, and I thought it was good enough to upload as is:
08. B74 - The Prequel (Raw Edition) ["MXL" album]

New track: 04. Lone Wolf ... In The Wilderness ["Senut Cissalc" album]

Was in a trance and listening to pink floyd when I wrote this one:
04. Lone Wolf ... In The Wilderness ["Senut Cissalc" album]

New track: 03. Piss Off Passive Agressive ["Senut Cissalc" album]

Was kind of in a trance when I recorded this new track live last night:
03. Piss Off Passive Agressive ["Senut Cissalc" album]

New track, "B74", on the "MXL" album

Just published a new track I call "B74", the seventh song on my "MXL" Album:
https://soundcloud.com/nickleus/07-b74-mxl-album

Recent, new music tracks I've published on soundcloud

Let me know what you think :)

Lilypond - how to set score BPM (tempo) as a variable

Here's how you define a variable for the tempo for the whole score in Lilypond:

\version "2.16.0"

scoreTempo = \tempo 4 = 88 % BPM

\score {
  \new PianoStaff <<
    \new Staff {
        \relative c' {
            \clef treble
            \scoreTempo

            r2 r8 c8 (ees4 | g1)
        }
    }
    \new Staff {
        \relative c {
            \clef bass
            \scoreTempo

            <c c,>1~ | <c c,>
        }
    }
  >>
}

Image of 88 piano keys on sheet music with note names, octaves and midi numbers

I made this sheet music using Lilypond. Here's the lilypond file and here's a pdf version.

There's more to music clefs than meets the eye--the clef symbol itself points to where a specific note is on the staff

I didn't know there was anything more to music clefs than simply denoting which clef the staff is, when actually they represent the placement on the staff of a particular, single note.

The treble clef is aka the G-clef because the G note is on the line that runs through the swirly/curly base of the symbol.

The bass clef is aka the F-clef because the F note is on the staff line that runs between the colon part (two dots) of the symbol.

 

The best spectrogram/frequency monitor for Ubuntu Linux: baudline

I tested spek, freqtweak, sndfile-spectrogram (sndfile-tools), jaaa, xoscope, but baudline seemed to be the best one.

Baudline isn't in the Ubuntu repos so you have to download it from the link above.

Since I wanted to analyze a sine wave generated by AMS, I ran baudline_jack (instead of baudline).

Here's a screenshot showing the frequency of a sine wave generated using AMS, using a VCO set to octave 3.

If you mouseover the white left to the left, you'll see the frequency at the right--in this case, a sine wave set to octave 3 in ams generates a tone at ~150 Hz, which is near a D3 note.