hey! what to say, it is really a nice opinion!
the 2 small toy of windows, "narrator" and "windows sound recorder" is
just priceless! :-)
I also believe that, specially the sound professionals should stick with
the Sonar in window. the beginners like me, may try pro tools. but in
other hand, though, I might be wrong, if some of the blind sound
professionals do not use pro tools, then, who will give feat back to
Apple about the bugs in accessibility?
I know, some engineer are there to look after it, and they are getting
money for that. but in the last 10 months I am with the JSonar family. I
am very very happy to see the contribution of the sound professionals in
finding bugs, as well as making some suggestions for them.
if I have been ever asked to find some bugs in sonar either in window,
or in mac, I will be in the jungle without a white cane! because I know
a very little about Sonar as well as sound engineering.
so, I personally think, if some of you partially use pro tools and also
use Sonar for your professional project, it will be very helpful for the
development of accessibility in Mac.
kind regards,
Pradeep
On 7/25/2011 7:13 PM, Yamuna Jivana dasa wrote:
Hi there,
It seems the Mac Vs PC accessibility studio discussions are still
coming up from time to time! <smile> So here's my take on it from what
I have heard doing the rounds these days.
Sonar under Windows has many years of accessibility implemented by way
of the free JSonar scripts, and also it has many audio effects and
soft synth plugins which have been made accessible to us through the
front-end mouse clicking program called Hot Spot Clicker, which very
very basically, allows the user to move the mouse to desired locations
within the application, and click at that spot,, all of this by
attaching that function to a hotkey on the keyboard. Using this
program, we can now use many plugins which make Midi with Sonar so
dynamic. We can use various soft synths such as Dymension Pro,,
Session drummer and SFZ; we can use effects such as the suite of
Sonitus plugins including reverb, chorus, EQ and Compressors Etc. We
can also use some instruments and audio effects which are not part of
Sonar directly but are developed by other developers, where users of
Sonar have spotted up those plugins for us and made them accessible
because of Hot Spot Clicker. So that's the deal with music production
accessibility under Windows.
On the other hand, Pro Tools under Mac is now becoming accessible. The
mac has its very own built-in screen-reader by the way, called Voice
over. In manipulating the Mac operating system and other applications
under the Mac, I'm told it is very intuitive. However the programmers
at ProTools are trying to make pro tools accessible to Voice Over,
part by part. Thus far, while it is becoming more accessible very
quickly, it is still very quirky. Not only that, they are far from
successful at getting Audio FX plugins and soft synth plugins to read
in Voice over, and as you must know as a producer, those are what we
need access to which make the difference between the average home
audio enthusiast and the professional studio engineer. Apparently the
reason for the lacking in Pro Tools is that many of the older Pro
Tools plugins were programmed in a language not understandable by
Voice over, so that Voice Over will only see a blank interface in some
cases.
So, While you can make basic music with ProTools and use limited
effects, your ability to tweek to your liking is very limited. And of
course the quirkiness of Pro tools accessibility will slow you down
and reduce creativity by forcing more attention to getting around the
applications, at least at this stage of their accessibility development.
The Mac also comes with a standard program called Garage Band, which
also allows you to record your tracks, but it uses the standard midi
implementation but having some great sounds, which comes built-in, and
again, while it is more accessible, is also very entry-level, with not
much scope of using different soft synths, audio effects, Etc.
Having said that, I must admit that Apple is really speeding ahead
with their focus on accessibility, as compared to former years.
However, More than this, I must mention, is that what the Mac gives us
as part of their operating system in terms of accessibility via Voice
Over, and what they give us in their operating system in terms of
music multi-track layering software by way of Garage Band, is far,
far, far, far superior to what the Windows people give us from
Microsoft in their operating systems on both fronts. Windows gives us
Narrator, which is the most hopeless screen-reader ever developed, and
they give us no multi-track recording software. Therefore, for the
new blind muso who just wants to get started, where all the basic
tools are included in one place, the Mac is probably the way to go.
They are far behind at the moment when it comes to the serious audio
production accessibility tools in Pro Tools and especially the various
instruments and effects plugins , but at the speed they are moving
forward, I do not think it will take too long before they eventually
catch up and even over take us in Windows.
Of course, one could argue that Pro tools is the industry standards,
and while some blind producers have taken the adventurous plunge, many
of us prefer to stick with maximum accessibility to more effects and
instruments, which, after all, is what we need to use to make our music.
For me personally, the day will come when I will move over to Mac,
Voice over and Pro Tools, once I have heard convincing reviews that it
is on power with what we have now in Windows, thanks to JSonar, Hot
Spot Clicker, and all these great people who make each plugin
accessible by getting sighted help and spotting them up for us under
Windows.
But I think that day when Pro Tools will catch up is far away enough
that I need not start holding my breath just yet. Remember that under
Windows we have years ahead in mature accessibility development under
Sonar and HSC, so the comparison must take that into account.
It's your call, really, whether to take the plunge to the Mac side now
or later. The advantage of doing it now, is that you can start on
your long learning curve, so that by the time things improve with Mac
Audio Plugin accessibility and Pro Tools, you should be right in the
swing of things by that time.
Finally, would be Nice to hear other views also, don't just take my
opinion, as I am a Sonar user at the moment and have only heard great
things about Mac and how things are coming along with accessibility on
that front. I haven't played with it for myself.
If anyone wants to discuss this further, you can talk to me on Skype.
I will not be able to entertain further E-mail writing because of time
limitations on my side. My Skype username is ykhandoo. Full name
"Yamuna Jivana dasa". So let's talk instead. If you ad me as a
contact on Skype, please mention "Audio Production Accessibility" in
the "add a contact" request, so that I can recognize who is requesting
me to add them. I am usually available to talk between 6 AM and 2 PM
GMT while at work.
Kind regards,
Yamuna Jivana dasa
----- Original Message -----
*From:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*To:* JSonar -- JAWS Scripts for Sonar list
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Friday, July 22, 2011 6:54 PM
*Subject:* [Jsonar] Windows or mac?
Our next purchase, after we actually purchase monitors that work
and don't pop and hiss, is a new computer. Darrell is all about
mac this and mac that. He says mac is best. Can I use sonar with
mac? Are macs blind friendly? I tried to tell him that I didn't
think mac would work well with sonar. He isn't really believing
me. I'm afraid it would end up being an accessibility issue. If
both of us are going to use a computer that's mostly for music...
wouldn't it make sense to have something that both of us can use?
So remind me again why it's better to have a desktop? Is it a
hard drive issue? Would I still be using a audio interface like m
audio to plug into everything? What is the difference between a
computer designed for music and one that isn't? The bad thing is
that I'd also have to get speakers and a monitor to clutter up my
already crowded table.
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