macos

3 New Apps I Am Using

Tweetbot 6

I spend a bit of time on Twitter. It is a great place to curate an information feed from people who I am interested in. Unfortunately, the Twitter app uses its algorithm to feed me things like ads and promoted Tweets which shows me unwanted clutter and news that I often don’t come to Twitter for.

Tweetbot is a Twitter client with a superior design and shows me the Tweets of the people I follow, in the order that they tweet them. I have used it off and on for years.

Until recently, Twitter had revoked some of the technology that made third-party Twitter apps good. Recent changes in the company have started to reverse this decision and Tweetbot 6 reflects these changes. 75 percent of the issues I had using the old version of Tweetbot are resolved now that I can see consistent image and tweet thumbnails, view polls, and receive push notifications for DMs.

Now Twitter feels like a news feed that I have curated rather than one curated by someone else or a machine.

Tweetbot now costs a subscription price of 6 dollars a year. Some people won’t like that. For me, I use it numerous times a day and that is worth it.

Carrot Weather 5

Carrot has for long been my favorite weather app on iOS (also on Android). It is simply the best designed and most feature-filled weather app I have found. I particularly like the amount of customization it gives me over the Apple Watch version of the app.

Carrot Weather 5 updates the design (it’s pretty!) and allows the user to customize every element of how the data is displayed, down to the pixel. It is a really nice update and has made me want to use the app even more than usual.

ReadKit on iOS

ReadKit is an RSS client that has existed on the Mac for a while. I like it because it aggregates my RSS feeds from services like Feedbin alongside my read it later services like Pinboard and Instapaper.

I am really glad to see an iOS version finally come to the iPhone and iPad. Unfortunately, my favorite feature (Smart Folders) is planned but did not ship with this version. For now, I will probably keep using Reeder for subscribing to blogs.

New Macs announced yesterday, new Mac operating system shipping tomorrow

Apple's "One More "Thing Event

Apple announced three new Macs yesterday that will use their new M1 chip. This will allow unprecedented increases in power, speed, and battery life. It will also allow iOS apps to run on them natively.

I have shared some real quick impressions below. If you want to hear more about this transition, Will Kuhn is on the upcoming episode of the podcast to talk about his impressions, amongst other topics in technology and music education. That episode should drop over the weekend.

Quick thoughts

  • Apple announced a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13", and Mac mini. Of these three, the Air and Mac mini are particularly tempting to me. They maintain similar prices (way cheaper in the case of the mini), and dramatically improve performance, battery life, speed, and allow for using iOS apps. If you need a Mac, and you don't need the most powerful one on the market, I couldn't recommend either of these more. Of course, it is always safe to wait for reviews, but I anticipate that there won't be any significant deal breakers outside of potential software compatibility.
  • There are a lot of things Apple could do with the M1 chip down the road. Add FaceID, a cellular chip, a touchscreen, and maybe even a new design. Apple decided not to do these things yet and keep the designs pretty much like the last generation. I think this sends the message to the general public that this is not some new, experimental thing, but instead, the same old Mac you know and love. Just way better.
  • I was surprised not to see more iOS apps demonstrated. Apple showed a few iOS apps (like the game Among Us and HBO Max) running on one of the new Macs. Before the event, I have noted that it is weird that the TV app will show my recently watched HBO shows, but I can't play them on an intel Mac like I can on iOS or tvOS, which have the HBO app. This will be an obvious improvement. But where is Hulu? Netflix? Surely Apple chooses who they feature on stage strategically. Still, I would have expected them to do more bragging if they were anticipating a ton of extremely popular apps to launch on day one. Fingers crossed for a lot of new options in the Mac App Store early on.
  • No AirTags, over the ear headphones, or Apple TV. I was personally curious about these devices, particularly the rumored studio headphones, but maybe they will come later.

macOS 11 - Big Sur

The new Mac operating system, Big Sur, is coming out tomorrow. This update is dramatic in numerous respects. You will immediately notice a fresh coat of paint. The user interface and app icons will feel a lot more like they do on iOS.

iPad Apps on the Mac

I am excited because iOS app developers I care about are finally starting to announce Catalyst apps in volume. Catalyst is Apple's technology that allows developers to easily turn their iPad apps into Mac apps. There have been relatively few good examples of this over the past year. GoodNotes 5, Streaks, Twitter, and Home, are a few of the ones I use regularly, but the list isn't long.

Instapaper has a Mac app as of today (yay), and forScore is launching one tomorrow. I expect to see a lot more in the coming weeks. It seems like changes to this new OS have finally provided developers the tools they need to make their iPad apps "good enough" to ship on the Mac.

Will I Install It On Day One?

While I usually wait to install releases like this, forScore will be enough of a productivity boost for my Mac workflow that I will be reckless and install it tomorrow, most likely. This will put my online teaching software setup at risk, but I think it is worth it. I am tired of having a beautifully curated music library on the iPad and not on my most powerful machine. Until forScore ships iCloud syncing, I plan to move my "true" sheet music library to the Mac version.

Music Software Compatability

If you depend on any creative professional music software, audio interfaces, or other apps you aren't sure will be compatible with Big Sur, don't be like me. Wait! I have a fallback Mac mini I can use if things get ugly.

If you are wondering what score editing software is compatible with, fortunately, Scoring Notes has already got the scoop. Read their article below.

Music notation software, macOS Big Sur, and Apple Silicon M1 Macs:

As far as Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, MuseScore, and Notion, are concerned: Broadly speaking, Big Sur does not appear to affect these applications much one way or the other. We don't expect users already working on macOS Catalina to be negatively or positively affected by Big Sur when working with these applications — and whenever a new OS is involved, status quo is very welcome news indeed.

App of the Week: Neural Mix Pro

I have been testing out a Mac App called Neural Mix Pro, made by the people who make the popular DJay App for macOS and iOS.

It promises to take songs in your music library and hard drive and independently isolate vocals, drums, and other accompaniment so that they can be separated and mixed independently.

It works. I haven't played with it enough to know the breadth of its capability, but I tested the following songs, and they worked enough that I think I would use this tool for future music projects and teaching resources.

  • Blues for Time: a fusion song in a drum set method book I assign often. I already had a drum-less version of the track, but the one I could make in Neural Mix Pro was satisfactory. There are some artifacts when you filter out instruments, but that was to be expected. No vocals on this track, but drums and other accompaniment separated correctly.
  • Material Girl, Madonna: The vocals and electronic drums are so heavy in this track that isolating just the accompaniment instruments resulted in the correct instruments but not with an EQ that I would use for anything professionally. The vocals and drums sounded ok when separated.
  • Jesus Walks, Kanye West: very satisfactory separation of drums, accompaniment, vocals. The backup vocals in the intro are tied to the vocal track, however. No way to separate that. With Neural Mix, you can export just one of the three tracks and apply a target key or tempo to change to it. I exported this tune to an even 80 bpm (it was around 78.x bpm, to begin with) into Logic Pro and has some fun toying around with adding my own improvisations using software instruments. I can see how this could be a useful tool for DJs, music producers, and music educators alike.

Here is a video of my quick demo. I made this on a computer with limited access to my music library and no real goal in mind other than to play around. Let me know if there is something you think I should test in the app.

I can see this app being useful in the music classroom for a few reasons. In my general music class, where we use Soundtrap to produce music, I could giving students a vocal track for a pop song and having them remix it. The results in Neural Mix are, by far, good enough for student use, and I imagine my students having a blast with this.

I could also use this in private lessons by taking songs my students drum along to and making "Minus One" recordings out of them that don't any longer have the drums. Alternatively, I could make them a drum-only version of a song to study the details more closely.

This would be more useful you could separate other instruments than just drums. Taking an instrumentalist out of a jazz record to create a track to improvise over is one of a handful of possibilities that immediately popped into my head. Perhaps these features are in store for a future update. Or maybe this app will remain geared towards pop music, DJs, and music producers. Either way, I can see myself using it on my never-ending quest to make fun play-along tracks for the band to play along to.

App of the Week: Reeder 5

The Reeder widget can serve up articles from blogs I subscribe to or that I have set aside to read later (or both using a stack of widgets).

The Reeder widget can serve up articles from blogs I subscribe to or that I have set aside to read later (or both using a stack of widgets).

On episode 18 of Music Ed Tech Talk, Reeder 5 was my App of the Week.

It's a really good app and I thought it was worth linking to the review from MacStories if you want to learn more.

Reeder 5 Review: Read Later Tagging, iCloud Sync, and Design Refinements - MacStories:

Last year we named RSS client Reeder 4 the Best App Update as part of the MacStories Selects awards for a good reason. Reeder has been one of the best-designed RSS apps available for a very long time. With the release of version 4, developer Silvio Rizzi rebuilt the app on a modern foundation from the ground up. Roughly one year later, version 5 is out as a brand new app that takes what Rizzi began last year and extends it further with a host of excellent new features and design refinements.

I don't trust social media to show me what I want. If I like a blog, a Twitter account, or an email newsletter, I subscribe to it through Feedbin, and then read my Feedbin articles through Reeder 5. I also log into my Instapaper account through Reeder 5 and clip articles I want to read later to it with a speedy swipe-left.

On page two of my home screen, I have this medium sized widget at the bottom that rotates between different news sources: Apple News, Apollo, Feedbin, and Instapaper, the later of the two using the Reeder 5 widget. It's a great way to stay on top of the news that's important to me.

Using Drafts and TextExpander to Organize Lesson Notes

Taking notes on sectionals in the Drafts app.

I am moving more of my text notes to Drafts these days. You can read about how I use Drafts here. Drafts is a note-taking app where most of my text typing starts. When I am ready to act upon my text, the actions on the right side of the screen allow me to send it off to messages, emails, tasks, notes, social media, and more.

Generally, I use Drafts as a text-inbox, where I eventually process all of my text ideas and send them to other apps that are better suited for them. But lately, I wonder why I need to take the extra step of sending a draft to another app when Drafts is perfectly suited for organizing and searching text.

Let's take Lesson Notes, for example. When I teach a sectional, large ensemble, or private lesson, I like to take notes on what we played and what I assigned. Usually, I would type these in Drafts and then send the finished text to Apple Notes. But lately, I am just keeping it in Drafts and archiving it so that it doesn't clutter up the inbox area. Everything is in plaintext so searching my entire 7,000 draft library is way faster than searching Apple Notes. Plus, it reduces the amount of time I ever even need to open Apple Notes by 90 percent.

My "Sectionals" Workspace.

I add the tag "sectionals" to a draft where I have taken sectional notes, and I have a custom workspace that allows me to see just the drafts with that tag.

Here is how I have set up my Sectionals Workspace to include drafts with the "sectionals" tag.

Adding tags is as simple as typing them into the tag area.

Additionally, tagging them "badge" makes it so that the draft doesn't contribute to the number on the red badge of the Drafts icon. I use the badge only to inform me of drafts that need to be processed to another app.

I write most of my drafts in Markdown, which means I use "#" symbols to note levels of the heading, "**" to indicate things I want bold, etc... If you want to read more about how I use Markdown, read this post. Drafts and common web editing tools like WordPress (and even Canvas) can turn this Markdown into HTML. I only use Markdown for my sectional notes to show bullet-pointed lists and first/second-level headings. Drafts does some light formatting to help me better see this information by, for example, highlighting the headings green.

It gets tedious to retype this template for every class, so I have TextExpander snippets to do it for me. Read about how I am using TextExpander here.

In the case of the snippet below, I type "sectionalnotes" into the body of the draft and then TextExpander prompts me for the ensemble and sectional name and then automatically fills in that data, with my fill-ins and the current date.

My TextExpander snippet for Sectional Notes.

Using an action called Current UUID, I can copy a link to a draft to my clipboard and paste it in to the calendar event for whatever class, lesson, or sectional it is related to. That way, I can easily refer to it by date, using the visually friendly interface of a calendar app.

Apple's Apple Watch and iPad Event

Apple had an event yesterday where they announced some new stuff. Here are some very quick thoughts I have on the announcements...

  • The new blood oxygen sensor in the Apple Watch Series 6 looks great. I love my Apple Watch for health tracking. The more health sensors, the better.

  • Apple Fitness+ looks awesome. I am a dedicated Peloton subscriber, but it will still be interesting to see Apple's take on this. One issue with Peloton (and other third party app workout class content) is that watching on Apple TV or iPad doesn't track any data from the Apple Watch. This seems to be a big benefit of Apple Fitness+. But as with most services, whether people like it or not will be determined largely by the quality of the content. Apple can engineer great tech features into their products to give them an edge, but fitness content is also very dependent on the engagement of the instructor.

  • Apple One seems like a great way to save money if you subscribe to a bunch of Apple's services. It's kind of like their version of Amazon Prime. It's looking like I will be able to keep paying what I already pay for Apple Music, iCloud Drive, and Apple Arcade, and get the Fitness+ and News+ services bundled in for a similar cost.

  • New iPad Air: this is a really nice update. If I didn't depend on the larger size iPad for reading sheet music, I would strongly consider this device over the iPad Pro now that they share the same design, Apple Pencil, and Magic Keyboard Case.

Here are some links to great posts about the event:

Click the headline to read more.

Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE - The MacsStories Overview

The New iPad Air and 8th Generation iPad - The MacStories Overview

Apple One The Long-Awaited Services Bundle Is Coming Soon in Three Tiers

Brief Thoughts and Observations on Today's 'Time Flies' Apple Event | Daring Fireball.net

What was new at the Apple Sept. 15 event | Sixcolors.com

METT Podcast #16 - Master Your Virtual Teaching Tech, with David MacDonald

Thanks to my sponsor this month, MusicFirst

David MacDonald returns to the show to talk about the hardware and software in our virtual teaching setups. Then we speculate about touchscreen Macs and consider how Apple's recent App Store policies might impact the future of creative professional software on iOS.

Topics include:

  • New Zoom features for musicians and teachers
  • David and Philip Rothman's new podcast, Scoring Notes
  • Using Open Broadcaster Software to level up your virtual teaching
  • Routing audio from your apps into Zoom and Google Meet calls
  • Teaching with Auralia
  • LMS integration with third-party music education apps
  • Using MainStage and Logic for performing instruments into virtual classrooms
  • Touchscreen Macs
  • Apple's App Store Policy

Show Notes:

Where to Find Us:
Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book
David MacDonald - Twitter | Website | Blog

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Subscribe to Music Ed Tech Talk:

Subscribe to the Blog

Subscribe to the Podcast in... Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Today's episode is sponsored by MusicFirst:

MusicFirst offers music educators and their students easy-to-use, affordable, cloud-based software that enables music learning, creation, assessment, sharing, and exploration on any device, anywhere, at any time.

MusicFirst Classroom is the only learning management system designed specifically for K-12 music education. It combines the flexibility of an LMS with engaging content and powerful software integrations to help manage your students’ progress, make lesson plans, and create assignments.

And for younger students, MusicFirst Junior is the perfect online system for teaching elementary general music. It includes a comprehensive K-5 curriculum, hundreds of lessons & songs, and kid-friendly graphics to making learning and creating music fun!

Whether you’re teaching remotely, in-person, or in a blended learning environment, MusicFirst will work with you to find a solution that fits your program’s unique needs. Try it free for 30 days at musicfirst.com.

David’s teaching setup.

David’s teaching setup.

My teaching setup.

My teaching setup.

…From far away.

…From far away.

Is Apple Making Touchscreen Macs?

Speaking of forScore coming to the Mac, I continue to hear chatter in the technology community about touchscreen Macs. The design of Apple's forthcoming macOS update, Big Sur, has larger, more spread apart, user interface elements, indicating that it might be getting prepared for touch input. This would align well with Apple's transition to putting their own silicone chips in their devices this year.

I have no idea if Apple is making Macs with touchscreens, but I find it hard to believe they would take their existing Mac laptop and desktop designs and simply make the current screens touchable.

At Apple's developer conference this past June, there were obvious signs that Apple wants developers to adopt design elements from macOS in their iPad apps and vice versa.

Silicone enabled Macs will run touch-first, iOS apps natively, and Apple has been working hard to make their technologies consistent across all platforms. I wouldn't be surprised if touch screen Macs came out of the box with Apple Pencil support. And if Macs have Pencil support, no one wants to awkwardly hold a pencil up in the air in front of them and draw on a horizontal screen.

Here is where I am going with this. With sheet music apps like forScore finally coming to the Mac, and Apple technologies being shared across devices, I am starting to think that I would love a Mac with a display that folded back on its keyboard. Something that I could plug into my audio interface and large screen monitor to edit audio on at home, and then flip onto my podium and read scores off of during band rehearsal. They could charge nearly anything for a 14 inch MacBook Pro in this format and I would buy it.

Who knows if it would be an optimal experience? Who knows if it's what Apple is planning? Who knows if it is anywhere near ready? Not me. It will be very curious to see what happens over the next few months as Apple has announced that some Macs will make this transition by the end of the year.

forScore is coming to the Mac

In the hustle of our school semester starting, I forgot to post about possibly the most exciting app news I have heard this summer.

After writing about it and talking about it on the podcast for well over a year, I am pleased to say that forScore has announced they are making a native Mac app. It will be coming this fall, alongside their version 12 update. Read all about version 12 here...

forScore | forScore 12:

forScore comes to the Mac in a big way with a brand new, fully native experience built for some of the most advanced and powerful devices out there. forScore runs on macOS Big Sur, both on Intel and Apple Silicon-powered Macs, and it’s included with forScore for iOS and iPadOS as a universal purchase. That’s right—it’s absolutely free for everyone who has ever bought forScore.

IMG_2981.png

From the looks of it, forScore is using Apple's Catalyst technology, which allows iPad apps to be ported to the Mac.

While I have not seen the Mac version of forScore, I have been testing the iOS version of forScore 12. It's great! My favorite small (but significant) feature is that you can now annotate while viewing two pages at a time without the app jolting into annotation mode. You just write directly on the screen with the Apple Pencil and your markings appear immediately.

I store my score backups on my hard drive's file system, which is how I access them on the Mac. But I store my most frequently read scores in forScore on the iPad. I am glad the experience of interacting with my sheet music will now be consistent across both devices.

Something I have felt would need to happen for this to be useful is iCloud syncing. forScore says that is coming too...

Bringing forScore to the Mac is just the beginning—a whole new platform means a whole new set of opportunities. From subtle refinements to major new features already in development like iCloud Syncing, we’re building the future one step at a time.

We’re just getting started. Again.

Using a Mac version of the app with the need to maintain two separate score libraries would have been a nonstarter for me. As an added side benefit, I can see this getting me to use forScore on the iPhone. Its not the best screen size for sheet music, but every now and then, I'd like to be able to take it out of my pocket and reference a score real quick. The problem is that it is never real quick because none of my scores are there!

I could not be more excited about this announcement!

Learn OmniFocus Workflow Guest: October 3, 2020

I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining Learn OmniFocus as a Workflow Guest on October 3rd, 2020.

Learn OmniFocus is a website dedicated to helping others live a fulfilling and productive life with OmniFocus, complementary productivity apps, and services.

You can learn a ton from their free resources, including basics like organizing tasks into projects and assigning tags to them. They also have information on advanced features like project templating and automation.

2020-10-03 - OmniFocus Workflows with Robby Burns - Promo.jpeg

My session will be all about how I use OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps to keep my life as a teacher and musician together. Here is the session description:

Teacher, musician, and technologist, Robby Burns will be joining us from Ellicott City, Maryland to share how he uses OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps to keep his active life on track.

Robby has been using OmniFocus since 2010. He has a long history with Apple technologies and was originally drawn to OmniFocus’ deep integration with Apple’s operating systems. He especially appreciates that the Omni Group is quick to add support for new Apple technologies.

During the LIVE session, Robby will share details of his OmniFocus setup and workflows, including:

  • How and when he uses OmniFocus on his iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

  • Adjustments that he’s made to his use of OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps since switching from in-person to virtual teaching.

  • His strategy for using tags.

  • How he uses the Forecast perspective to keep his calendar lined up with his commitments.

  • How he uses defer dates to relieve the stress of seeing too many things at once.

  • Custom perspectives that help him hone in on his most important tasks, including his “Top 3” perspective that narrows his focus to only three items.

  • How he creates OmniFocus projects based on templates stored in Drafts.

Read more and register here. The session will have a live Q/A and members can interact and share ideas. I hope to see you there!

You can become a member of Learn OmniFocus here. They have educator and student discounts. It is worth checking out if you wish to be more productive!

A free recording of the video will be made available to everyone by October 10.

Find Robby elsewhere on the web