Home Recording Articles, Tips, Tricks and Advice

So it’s been a while since I last posted on here. The reasons are many but of no interest here.

One reason though was the acquisition of an iPad.

First my views on apple products before I took the plunge – shook hands with the devil!

As a PC user I disliked apple products for a few reasons.

The two main ones being Cost &Apparent smugness.

There go the apple users at this point, but hey hold on!

I said apparent smugness, let me quantify.

I play guitar and I teach, all my guitars are of a price range agreeable with my students.

That is to say not one guitar passes the £500 mark.

For me to own priceless gibsons and martins would in my mind be off putting, besides I feel the same way about people who have gibson guitars.

Gibson = apparent smugness.

Yes I know, looks like jealousness to me but it’s not, it’s about access for everyone.

And that is why I love pcs.

When you teach you want your students to feel comfortable and have the best they can afford.

What really is the difference between a squire telecaster and a gibson gold top when you can’t play?

This is also my thinking when it comes to apple macs.

It’s about accessibility, I could afford a mac now but would it be the right thing to do?

I teach recording and programming as well and lets face it almost everyone has access to a laptop or desktop.

The apparent smugness left apple for me when the iPhone came out, oh it was there at the beginning in my mind because it was new and I was stuck with my blackberry.

But the iPhone fascinated me, the apps I heard where amazing.
Dammit I had access too!

I had friends and students showing me, and that feeling of apple smugness left.

I became jealous and intrigued.

But I still resisted, why?

Blackberry!

Yes you read that right.

Blackberry was central to my business, the fact I could get email instantly was of utmost importance to me business wise.

But Blackberry was losing it’s grip.

The apps are business orientated and clunky.

But worse still Blackberrys crash, a lot, a real lot.

Also their business use became difficult and time consuming.

Using vista or windows 7 meant even more difficulty.

And they crash.

A lot.

Labouring the point?

I think I must, and here is why and how I became an apple fan and on the road to buying an iPad.

After 16 months of my contract using my Blackberry Touch 2 something happened.

Halfway through a phone call my phone died.

I was on the phone to a student who had missed a lesson and then had called me to apologise.

At a crucial point in the conversation the phone died, just went into spin mode and then stopped.

It looked like I’d hung up.

I panicked, I was out at the time and had no access to a pc.

Now ok this could happen to an iPhone, the battery could die mid conversation but this wasn’t the battery, this was the blackberry just giving up on me.

Fortunately when I got home I could access my pc and get the phone number of said student and call back, luckily for me he understood but the damage could have been done.

And it had, for me Blackberry was dead.

So my choice had to be made, I needed a new phone.

Do I go Android or iPhone?

I’d seen both, the iPhone 4 had been out a while and seemed to be the stronger choice.

Decent battery, well compared to the Blackberry it is.

The best apps?

It seemed so. I’d had the use of an Android tablet and wasn’t overly impressed.

So iPhone it was.

And there it was, I was in love.

It worked, it worked well.

It did everything a blackberry did but better, it has never crashed, the apps are awesome, It can play music, it connects to wifi all day and I still get a days usage out of it.

And that was the start of it.

My head was turned but was it enough to buy an iPad?

The iPad for me was a gadget, something that smug business men pulled out on trains and waved at people lugging laptops around.

It seemed too far, but my curiosity had been fed by my iPhone.

I knew about the music software and had been instantly envious but could not bring myself to buy a £400+ gadget.

Then came the call from my phone provider.

A special offer.

For loyal users.

A 3G iPad 2.

Resistance is futile(Internet geekery? Never watched start trek!)

The iPad 2 – feels like at this moment we need some music, revelatory music, or a big light bulb turning on.

The last 8 months has opened up with the iPad 2

I’m a fan, a massive fan, a massive smug wave it at people with laptops fan.

I even have apple tv, I have a subscription to iTunes match, I’ve bought an iPod touch, I even contemplated buying a second iPad and now I’m waiting for the iPad 3.

I sold my laptop! (bit over the top and something I regret in hindsight)

The iPad 2 is a very important part of my business now.

For me as a guitar teacher it has given me a greater workflow.

I can write guitar solos out using a great software package called Progression. It’s hands on, no mouse! From a working fast point of view it’s hard to explain how damn satisfying that is.

I can write out song sheets with chords and strum using a griffin stylus(£10) and a software package called Notepad. Again no mouse or having to painfully use a graphics tablet.

The calendar, the email, the contacts, the reminders need I go on?

GarageBand and Notion my two favourite apps.

AC-7 Core – control your pc daw – a wifi midi controller, amazing.

iBooks!

Internet browsing.

And it never crashes,

Sometimes an app will but I’ve found that to be rare.

It’s fast.

And it’s silent.

I will be looking at the music and guitar apps in more detail in the future.

And I apologise for the ramble but needed it out of my system.

Long live the iPad!