Scott,

First off, I definitely do use ProTools, yes, and find it extremely accessible! 
 This said, I've played with Logic Pro X, and can simply say this.  People 
clame that it's totally accessible, and works better than ProTools.  I'd like 
to say they're wrong bigtime on this, and oh, believe you me!  Oh baby! is it 
tempting for me to do so, but I won't.  Mainly because that's very subjective.  
What I think is not very usable may be totally! usable to someone else.  I can 
tell you this though.  And this I do! refuse to argue.  Logic is incredibly 
confusing and very tedious with achieving certain tasks.  Not to mention it is 
very unlogical, no pun intended, in how you do a lot of things, such as 
editting, etc.

I know some people who would swear that Amadeus Pro is all you need.  I 
definitely disagree with this.  Though it may be great for low level editting, 
maybe for some basic podcasting, etc, it never will amount to what PT ever 
could do.  I'm sorry, but I'll stick to that until proven otherwise.  I'm not 
saying it's not a good app, but you won't get PT quality, just beware.

A lot of people say, Well, I'm not spending 700 bucks for ProTools, plus 
possibly another 49 for the ILok.  Firstly, let me say that most copies anymore 
these days come with the ILok included, so there.  49 you are less in debt.  
What I say to these people though who argue it's too expensive is, OK, how 
serious are you about taking your music or audio production in general, to the 
next level?

Well, I wanna do it, but...

OK, then do it, and quit barking about it!  No one ever said success was free, 
nor didn't take some work/effort.

Trust me, me saving up to buy ProTools wasn't easy, but oh, God dang it was it 
worth it!

Reaper even can be used over on the mac if you want a cheaper solution.  Now, 
that said, it's not going to be as good as using it with Osara over on the 
Windows side in my opinion.  You don't have the extra extensions, so... you do 
have access to the console though, so if nothing else, you could use the CLI 
console part of Reaper, sorry, I'm drawing a blank on what exactly they call it.

As for synths, the Creative Air stuff that comes bundled with ProTools is 
freaking breath taking!  Combine that with the samples you get through Alcony, 
with Logic, etc. and you got yourself a killer! set of sounds.  Look at the 
DB33 Hamond B3 modeler that comes stock with ProTools.  That dang thing even 
has virtual drawbars within the plugin window, all of which are totally 
accessible with Voiceover.

If you want a really really great piano sample, then there is always Synthogy 
Ivory.  I own the entire set of pianos.  Every one of them, not a single one 
missing.

After talking to Synthogy, I even got them to create presets for ProTools for 
the Itallian Grands 2 set.  If anyone needs them, just let me know, and I'll 
zippem up.  The other presets are freely available on

http://www.protoolswithspeech.com

Session drummer, and Adictive Drums are somewhat doable, although the samples 
within XPand2 are really darn good!

As for hardware, I'm using a Roland RP401R Rosewood digital piano.  This thing 
has all 3 peddles just like normal, plus is USB midi ready.  The only, and I do 
literally! mean the only! only! only! thing I don't like about this unit is the 
fact that with it being a digital piano initially, therefore the emphesis being 
on the piano more than it being a keyboard, there is no pitch bend wheel.  So 
for things like saxes, flutes, etc. it can be a little hard.  Also for guitar 
samples, most of the time, I'd just play them outright with a real guitar, but 
if I had to do it via midi, it obviously won't work if I have to bend a string.

Try playing the lead part of Wonderful Tonight by Erick Clapton with no pitch 
bend dial.  Yeah, tell me how that works for ya.  LOL!  It kind a don't.

I thought about getting a Yamaha Motif.  I know tons of people in the blind 
community who use 'em, some even in combination with the mac, and love it.  I 
can't really comment there.  I don't have upwards of 4 grand to spend on one.  
Now, if any of you all just wanna Fedex me one freely? Then be my guest!  LOL!  
Just kidding wit ya!

I think at the end of the day, it really just depends on what you want to do 
music wise, or audio production wise.  For some, ProTools inevitably would be 
way overkill.  For others like you and I, it may be absolutely perfect.

Heck.  I hear even Audasity is somewhat usable on the mac, but, bweh... don't! 
even begin! to get me started with that!  We'll just leave it to say that both 
on Windows, and! on the mac, Audasity and I are worst enemies.  LOL!

Anyway, I hope this somewhat helps.
---
Christopher Gilland
JAWS Certified, 2016.
Training Instructor.

[email protected]
Phone: (704) 256-8010.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Scott Granados 
  To: [email protected] 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 8:13 PM
  Subject: music gear and accessibility was Re: Question about DJay for OSX


  So hopefully this is on topic enough that Mark will permit the topic.


  I’m very interested in the music side of the discussions here.  Chris, I know 
you’re an accomplished protools user and it sounds like a fair bit of other 
applications.  It seems like others also are very involved.  What’s the current 
state of accessibility in the music space?  I know protools is quite accessible 
what about other applications?  Is turbo synth still a thing?  How about on the 
hardware side?  Are any of the samplers or dedicated keyboards / music work 
stations including accessibility features?  To give folks an idea of where I’m 
coming from my last exposure was my own collection of Roland Samplers, Akai 
Samplers and Other vintage synths like a DX7 and some old moog gear.  I had to 
memorize all the button presses and menus / sub menus by key press.
  The last major hardware I worked on was a Synclavier post pro SD with the 96 
voice poly option, the synclavier full keyboard and a Mac 2FX I believe it was 
that ran the outboard software.  All sorts of other dated options like a worm 
drive and tape backup.  I also worked with several versions of the Fairlight 
CMI and MFX.  The Fairlight was great because while it was hugely graphical all 
the operations were done with numbered pages and very defined keystrokes on a 
dedicated terminal.  So you’d get immediate audio feedback with keystrokes.  
All these methods were clumsy at best with the exception of the CMI.  The 
Synclavier for example had 101 buttons on the front panel along with a full 
CRT, 88 velocity keys and real B52 bomber switches.  (actual aircraft hardware) 
So the gear was complex and required a lot of memorization to use, especially 
difficult when high.:)


  So if I wanted to build a studio today around the Mac what would you include? 
 Would you bother including outboard hardware any more or can it all be done in 
software?  If others don’t mind could we start a thread on the state of music 
gear especially Apple focused and make specific suggestions?


  I’m very interested, hope others are.


  Thanks


  Scott
    

    On May 18, 2016, at 5:53 PM, Jonathan Candler <[email protected]> wrote:


    I believe it's CMD + shift + M. I don't remember off the top of my head 
sense I use my board for everything from Djay.




    On 5/18/2016 2:47 PM, Christopher-Mark Gilland wrote:

      Does anyone by chance know the keystroke in DJay for the mac to toggle 
on/off my microphone?  I see the checkbox, but surely there has to be an easier 
way than vo+right arrowing all the way down there and hitting VO+Space.  Yes, I 
know that I could set up a hotspot, and I may wind up just doing that, but I 
could swear I remember their being a shortcut key to do this.  Do we have any 
DJay users on here who may know?

      Chris.
      -- 
      The following information is important for all members of the Mac 
Visionaries list.
       
      If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or 
if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or 
moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.
       
      Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara 
Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected]
       
      The archives for this list can be searched at:
      http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
      --- 
      You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"MacVisionaries" group.
      To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
email to [email protected].
      To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
      Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
      For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.





    -- 
    The following information is important for all members of the Mac 
Visionaries list.
     
    If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if 
you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or 
moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.
     
    Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara 
Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected]
     
    The archives for this list can be searched at:
    http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
    --- 
    You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"MacVisionaries" group.
    To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
email to [email protected].
    To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
    Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
    For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.




  -- 
  The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries 
list.
   
  If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if 
you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or 
moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.
   
  Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara 
Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected]
   
  The archives for this list can be searched at:
  http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
  --- 
  You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"MacVisionaries" group.
  To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
email to [email protected].
  To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
  Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
  For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

-- 
The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries 
list.

If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you 
feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or 
moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.

Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn 
- you can reach Cara at [email protected]

The archives for this list can be searched at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
--- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"MacVisionaries" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Reply via email to