Smooth Operators
Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jason Blum and Markkus Rovito
Although some of the brainiest, most technically gifted geeks are trading potentially big bucks for their passion by working in the music/pro audio technology industry, it's still an industry that often lags behind the leading edge when compared to consumer electronics (CE). Samplers rock Zip drives long after they're dead to the rest of the world; workstations sport CD drives ages after DVD drives became commodities, etc. Part of that is due to how small the music tech market is compared to the CE market, and part of it is due to musicians and producers wanting to stick with working methods they're accustomed to. Being an early-adopting gear nerd is fun, but nothing compares to mastering a speedy workflow and then sticking to it, eschewing hardware and software upgrades until you really need them.
That's especially true with computer operating systems. In the ever-tiresome debate of Mac vs. PC, when it comes to making music, sticking with the platform they know best is often how musicians “choose” a computer in order to be most productive. And before upgrading an OS or buying new computers with the latest OS installed, they should make sure their favorite software is compatible, which can take a lot of time for the small staffs that handle much of their beloved music programs. So, while Apple's OS 10.5 Leopard and Microsoft's Windows Vista have been available for some time, enough critical mass of audio-oriented third-party software support now has arisen to warrant a thorough look at both systems and how their new features will affect musicians, digital DJs and producers.
Although it now sells millions more iPhones and iPods than Macintosh computers, Apple quietly toiled on Mac OS 10.5 Leopard for more than two and a half years, adding greater than 300 features overall and giving it a general spit-and-polish that makes it the prettiest operating system in computer history. Apple knows that its OS defines its Macs and sets them apart from the competition; without the Mac OS, you've got just another computer.
Early this decade, OS X gave us gifts such as Core Audio and Core MIDI, which made making computer music so much more pleasant that anyone doing it in the '90s instantly had something to complain about to their grandkids. Leopard doesn't grace musicians nearly as directly; its core improvements are organizational with an eye toward security. Some power users who constantly strive to work as fast as possible will find Leopard's simple-yet-elegant time-savers irresistible, while penny-pinchers or upgrade-phobics may be content to wait until buying a new Mac introduces them to the newest cat in the OS X family.
BIG STACK ATTACK
Installing versions of OS X has always been fairly straightforward — no big deal to anyone used to installing software from discs, and there's no serial numbers or authentication required. Like many programs, you can choose what not to install, such as printer drivers, fonts, language translations, etc. It is a good idea, however, to create a clone (an exact copy) of your Mac's hard disk on a bootable external drive in case something goes wrong during installation. (Try Bombich Carbon Copy Cloner for a $10 donation at www.bombich.com.) Once installed, download any software updates or drivers you need to make your studio setup Leopard-compatible.
The first thing you notice when Leopard boots is the fancy-schmancy new Desktop, with transparent menu bar and dock. We artists can appreciate aesthetics, but the new Dock also harbors a nice new tool called Stacks. Represented as folders in the right-hand side of the Dock, Stacks are basically receptacles and launchers for any group of files or programs. You create a Stack by dragging any folder from a Finder window into the Dock. When you click a Stack, it shows the contents of the folder in either a “fan” of files spread vertically across the Desktop or in a grid. You can set each Stack to display as a fan or grid in its contextual (right-click) menu. Either way, a Stack shows the file name and a graphical preview for each item, and clicking on the items launches them. As a tidy way of cleaning up the Desktop, a default Downloads Stack holds all files you download from the Internet until you move them somewhere else.
I enjoyed creating a Stack called Music Apps where I kept all my favorite programs in order to launch them quickly. Stacks are also great for keeping your sessions in progress or keeping track of your most recent sessions, perhaps using the Finder's new Smart Folders.
ALL KINDS OF WAYS TO FIND STUFF
Once you open a Finder window, you see several new features: a left-hand sidebar based on that of iTunes, an “eye” button in the toolbar that launches the new Quick Look and another new toolbar button that launches the Cover Flow view.
The Finder's new sidebar features collapsible folders, as well as Smart Folders. To create a Smart Folder, use the Finder window's search function to detail a specific search and then click on the Save button. For example, you could create a folder that has only Pro Tools session files from the past week, month, year, etc.; AIFF files that only contain “final” in the name; and so on. Drag one of the Smart Folders to the Dock as a Stack, and you've got a very handy automatic way to find specific things. Leopard's Finder also lets you search other Leopard-running Macs and servers connected to your network.
With a file selected in the Finder, if you click on the Quick Look button or hit the Spacebar, you can instantly preview any QuickTime-compatible audio or video file; images; PDFs; or text, Word, Excel, Pages, Keynote and Numbers docs without actually launching any software. The Quick Look window that opens instantly plays audio files, so it's great for auditioning songs, loops and samples. You can also add images to iPhoto straight from Quick Look.
Also ported over from iTunes, the Finder's Cover Flow view displays crisp and vibrant previews of documents that you can flip through using the mouse or the arrow keys. Cover Flow's previews flip through as if you were rifling through documents in a filing cabinet. Cover Flow is most useful if you're not sure what you're looking for or the name of what you looking for, but a visual aid would help.
Click to continue reading about Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and Windows Vista in "Smooth Operators"
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