Just a quick mention of a review I had published in the October 2013 issue of MacUser. FingerLab DM1 is a software drum machine for OSX that harks back to the age of analogue, pattern-based hardware drum machines. Containing loads of sounds from a great selection of old hardware favourites from the 70’s and 80’s, you can find out exactly what I thought of it on page 110 of this issue.
The September 2013 issue of MacUser magazine is now on sale, and one of its super high-quality, glossy pages contains my review of the Blue Spark Digital USB microphone. This clever piece of kit can be connected either to a computer via a standard USB cable or to an iOS device using a 30-pin connector, so you can use it to record to a desktop, laptop, iPhone or iPad.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’ve had issues with Blue in the past, so this was an interesting one. You can find out exactly what I thought of the mic on page 98.
Sophisticated though it may be for an entry level DAW, GarageBand does have some limitations, one of them being a lack of any kind of provision for side-chaining effects – you know, like the bit in Titanium where the track pulses up and down in volume in time with the beat. So in this latest issue of MacUser magazine, you’ll find my six-page, step-by-step guide outlining three different techniques to work around this limitation and get this popular pumping effect in your own GarageBand projects. Accompanied by a neat little mention on the front cover, the piece starts on page 78, so if you want to ‘Guetta’ similar effect, you know what to do!
This is also the final bi-weekly issue of MacUser, because from February 14th 2013 this prestigious publication will be shifting to a monthly format, so I guess this means that there’ll be an extra week to get hold of this issue!
Excuse my excitement (and the accompanying double exclamation marks), but it’s not every day that a feature you’ve conceived, written and illustrated becomes the main cover feature of one of the UK’s most eminent computer magazines.
Shining the spotlight on the hidden apps lurking in your Mac’s Utilities folder, this eight-page feature is the latest, and hopefully not the last, in a slow-yet-steady stream of pieces I’ve had published in MacUser over the last year or so, but this is the first time one of my articles has been featured so prominently. Hopefully people will find it useful, as I know that I for one, prior to researching the piece, had no clue what the majority of the apps in this folder were for, and there is some really quite useful stuff in there. It goes without saying that all the information in the piece is bang up to date and Mountain-Lion savvy, outlining any major changes implemented with the new operating system in any of the applications covered.
To discover the secrets that lie within, pick up a copy from Smiths or download it to your iDevice, Mac or PC via Zinio. Be quick though – MacUser is published every two weeks, so this issue will only be around for another few days! The article begins on p.56, and I have to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to Adam and the MacUser team for making it look so good.
daveclews.com 