Inspector
Use ‘Inspector’ instead of ‘Get Info’
RT-click finder item then hold alt, “Show Inspector” will appear. Or use shortcut CMD+Option+i
This is like the Get Info window but it will not clutter up the screen and will show combined data for selections.
Resizing windows
Shift-drag will scale height and width of the window
Alt-drag will resize opposite sides at once with same center point
Cycle options in dialog boxes It’s a pain in the arse to move the mouse to click Cancel or other buttons in those pop up option windows. Hitting Return/Enter will do the default action. Use the TAB key to cycle the options, then hit the spacebar.
Hiding apps
The hide function works how minimize should.
CMD+H will hide the active window
Alt+click the desktop (or the will also hide.
Alt+CMD+click the desktop will hide all windows except finder
Alt+Cmd+click dock icon will hide all apps except the one clicked (and open it if not already open).
Close all windows
To quickly close all windows for an app: hold Option and click the X in the top left of the window
New Folder with selected items
I love this featured added in OSX Lion
Instead of making a new folder, giving it a name, grabbing items, and dragging them to the new folder, now you can just select the items, rt-click and choose “New Folder with selected items” right at the top.
CMD+Shift+N makes a new folder.
Hidden audio controls
There are several ‘hidden’ functions dealing with your Macs audio options.
* Hold Shift to avoid the annoying click when changing the volume (or disable it completely in Sound>Sound Effects prefs)
* Alt + any volume button on the keyboard will open the sound preferences
* Alt + Shift gives you finer resolution on the volume control
* Alt + click the volume control in the menu bar to bring up a menu for quick input and output changes
Moving files
One thing that confuses many new OSX users is the lack of ‘cut’ function for files to cut and paste to a new location. On the system drive, dragging a file to a new folder will move it, but dragging to a second drive will duplicate it. Sometimes you don’t want a second copy. In OSX you copy the selected file, and use the ‘move’ command, CMD+Option+V
If you prefer drag + drop, just hold CMD.
In case you didn’t know the other files for dragging files: Option +drag will duplicate (and append a number to the file name starting at 2).
Color labels
You can color code files with the Labels function either through rt-click menu or adding the labels button to the toolbar.
I use Red for current projects, Green for recently finished projects that have been paid for, Purple for personal, Grey or none for misc
Arrange & Sort
Since OSX Lion, the Arrange function can be found in Finder. It’s great if you work in Icon view a lot, but not great if you work in list or column view. In fact there is a bug with color labels in column view, it doesn’t refresh correctly.
If you set Arrange to None, you can sort your files by name, date, label etc. by clicking the column headers.
Navigating files with the keyboard
I use Finder in List View almost exclusively because it is very easy to navigate through files and folders within the same window using just the keyboard arrows. Instead of double-clicking to open, you can use CMD+O or CMD+DownArrow. In list and column views you can use the left and right arrows to expand folders. If you push any letter key it will select the closest file starting with that letter. Pushing the same letter does NOT go to the next one though. Try typing the first 2-3 letters of the filename. Use spacebar to preview files.
OSX Lion Mission Control click to enlarge
Navigate dashboard and workspaces The Control key plus arrow keys allows you to jump to the Dashboard, Mission Control, and Spaces/Desktops. The Dashboard is where helpful widgets live. Primarily I use this for a basic calculator, a couple timers, and a unit converter. Get to the Dashboard with Control+Left Arrow.
You can have multiple desktops/spaces to work in. It’s a bit like having multiple monitors. You can assign apps to any desktop from the dock icon or just click and drag them around. Control+Right Arrow moves over to the next desktop.
Mission control zooms out and shows you all open windows, the dashboard and desktops at once. Great for finding that dialog box hidden under other other windows or for moving stuff to other desktops. Control+Up Arrow shows Mission Control
I use my iMac and iPhone for hours and hours every day. Sometimes I get frustrated when I have the same app on both devices but they do completely different things. The point of this article isn’t to complain and rant but to point out the differences and hopefully save you some frustration.
iTunes
iTunes for OSX is a media player, music library, and store for audio, apps, podcasts, movies, tv shows, and audio books.
iTunes on iOS is just the store. To play music on the iPhone you need the Music app.
App Store
App Store for OSX allows you to browse buy and update apps for your computer, but not for iDevices
App Store on iOs allows you to browse, buy and update apps for your iDevice.
Already it seems like I need a chart just to keep this stuff straight.
Task
OSX
iOS
Buy music
iTunes
iTunes
Update iOS app
iTunes
App Store
Listen to music
iTunes
Music
Buy App
iTunes
App Store
Address Book & Contacts
In OSX you use the Address Book app to manage contacts. This gets synced through iTunes to your Contacts app on your iPhone.
BUT on the iPhone there are two ways to manage contacts. Either through the contact app or through the contacts section in the Phone app.
Photos
iTunes does not transfer photos when you synch your iDevice. You must do this through iPhoto. On the iPhone there are two ways to access photos, the Photos app or the “camera roll” in the Camera app. These apps have different options and it’s quite annoying when you can’t find something. For example: when you access the camera roll from the lock screen, the sharing options are disabled.
Videos
Transferring of videos made on your iPhone is handled by iPhoto on the Mac. The Videos app on the iPhone is for viewing videos purchased from iTunes.
Videos you took with the iPhone camera are accessed through the Camera Roll or Photos app. Would be really nice if the app could sort images from video files.
Notes
The iPhone has the handy Notes app. The problem is there’s no way to access these from a computer besides emailing them from the phone. May as well just type the note in an email to begin with. Evernote is a good alternative.
These are the main ones that I’ve come across since getting my iPhone last year. I’m sure there are more. It would be so nice to have things more unified between the two systems.
Are you ready to take your home studio mastering skills up about 10 notches? Ian Shepherd – mastering engineer, loudness activist and full-time Englishman – has just opened the doors to his audio mastering training course. This is an excellent course and there’s nothing else like it. Videos, written material, interviews and in-depth while Ian masters real songs.
The course is 8 weeks starting on April 5th 2013
I learned a ton from Ian in this course last year. Are you ready to accelerate your mastering skills?
Last week our friend Bjorgvin at Audio Issues released his third eBook Live Sound Survival: Big Sounds out of Small Systems.
The book is packed full of practical information and tips for getting started with live sound and running the show. Fundamentals that will apply to any size PA system and situation.
After I posted about the book in November, Santeri contacted me about proofreading and editing the book. He’s a fan of the blog, I’m a fan of the book concept and content. I was happy to help. Together we got the book finished nearly a week early.
I may be biased since I worked on the book… but I’ve also read this book cover to cover five times! It’s an excellent drum recording guide and a must for everyone working in hard-rock and metal, from drummers to producers, in basements and project studios. There’s something for everyone with solid advice and techniques that can be followed even on the smallest budget and in less-than-ideal spaces.
Santeri guides you though choosing and setting up the drums to get the best acoustic sound. Picking the best mics and placement for each drum. There’s an overview of acoustics and microphones. There’s a strong emphasis on getting the phase right, and how to correct it. Tuning, headphone mixes, editing and mixing are also covered.
Here’s a video tip from the book on getting huge ambience in a small space.
The format is pdf, over 100 pages with tons of photos and diagrams.
WikiAudio.org is now offering a free online course called Interactive Audio: Learn how to build web & mobile audio applications using Javascript & the Web Audio API.
This is a new and ongoing series of tutorials designed to help people familiar with digital audio technology (samplers,sequencers,synths,drum machines,etc) learn web/mobile application development and the Javascript programming language by building interactive audio applications. These tutorials are intended to help a total beginner become familiar with web/mobile development and programming assuming they have some kind of experience with digital audio technology/art.
Prerequisites:
A Macintosh or Windows computer with an internet connection.
Basic computer literacy.
Familiarity with general audio/music technology & terminology (synths,mixing consoles,DAW’s etc)
Either Chrome 21+ or Safari 6+ Web browsers.
Sublime Text2 code editor
Looks to me like a great way to get your feet wet with Javascript programming. At the end of the course you will have built an audio app you can play with on the web or on a smartphone/tablet.
Way back in 2007 I wrote about the FaderWear Guides: Aggressive Drum Recording. Recently the author announced an updated eBook is coming, the cost will be pay-what-you-want.
Here’s the trailer and a quick tutorial for recording with just 2 mics.
Cycle options in dialog boxes
Hidden audio controls
