Hi to all members, new or long-time to Mac Visionaries: I wanted to take a second to intraduce myself in general to the rest of you. Some of you, I've heard on Podcasts, voice wise at least, and I've even talked to some of you throughout the years in several online forms, Skype being the latest method. To start off with, I live in a small town called Prescott, located in the awesome state of Arizona. I'm 24 years old-and in just s few short months, on May 23, I'll be turning 25, so that should be pretty awesome!
I've grown up computer technology wise first starting with jAWS for DOS in the second grade, and even what I suspect in the first grade as an Apple two E machine, though i never used any speech technology or screen-readers back then, and always had sighted help. Windows, as years whent on, later became the primary platform, and for specific screen readers like Serotek's System Access that I pay a monthly subscription for, I'll generally use Windows (though more and more often on a VM in VMware fusion,) for that kind of purpose. Finally, as of June 2011 I finally had something I could sel on BlindBargains to a Technology Specialest who wanted this Alva Braille Display I wasn't using, and with the money I earned I was able to pick up the MacBookPro for $1,366 on Amazon. I got my macbOok Pro, 13 intch, Core I7, 2.7GHZ, 4GB RAM, 500GB internal hard-drive, Super DVD drive, with Lion already the default oS as no dVD shipped, back in November, 08, 2011. One of my friends who is a member of this list, was actually around for the unboxing on Skype, a rather fun thing to experience. At first, I thought that maybe I'd use it for a lot of the things I kno some folks have, being a listener of both the MacCessibility roundTablePodcast, and of the ScreenlessSwitchers podcast, just to name a few, and of course a lot of the Mac podcasts that mike has done on BlindCoolTech being some of the things that got my mind finally made up. Now we get into some of the real background stuff that I'm sure you folks will be interested in. I've been a pianest for over 11 years, I first got myf irst little keyboard when I was like 4 or 5. Over the years I got better stuff, until I finally was able with some help from one of my teachers down in tucson, to get what i had most wanted..the yamaha P85, 88 key waited-keys keyboard, with the coolest thing that at the time I couldn't take advantage of, MIDI ports. Finally, just a week or two back, I purchased on recommendations from a new skype friend I've made in south Affrica, The EMU-XMIDI1X1 USB MIDI interface cable, and began to try, and record with the already isntalled iLife11 GarageBand application. I enjoy the quality of the garageBand instruments, but then I quickly found out some things about the program. First, I need a way to export the raw MIDI instructions as a MID (Dot Mid) file, prefered MIDI type one, but in garageband itself after my firend and i did some looking around, we concluded that this is not possible. Sure, you can export stuff to MP3, etc, but you cannot export the actual MIDI data. Also, the ability to edit the MIDI data for mistakes, etc, doesn't seem to be possible, within the GarageBand editor is a "Scrol Area" that appears to not be accessible entirely to VoiceOver. So, I next began looking around for something else I could use that of course has software instruments (and not cruddy ones, at that.) I had considered logicPro, because I can actually afford that within my extremely tight budget that I have to work with, but found a post from this group that prompted me to subscribe Don't recall the names of the two posters off hand..sorry about that. But anyhow, two people posted to some thread, one poster considering logicProNine, and the other poster a former musician I believe explained that ProTools is far more accessible to VoiceOver, and that Apple must reright LogicPro entirely, or something and to go with ProTools. So I started looking around at ProTools on places like Sweetwater, only to discover that basicly as things stand I'll never be able to save up enough money, not even in a five month basis to afford ProTools, at least not any time soon,and no, my budget is not likely to change in the coming year. At the moment, I'm having to go back and forth between using a free Windows app called QWS (Quick Windows Sequencer), and an old version of CakewalkPro Audio Nine that has loads of accessibility problems, not to mention crappy quality software instruments. I'd like to do what my friend in South Affrica does for a living-that is do backtracks for companies as a living, because he's made plenty of money doing this. I would like to do nothing else-I wouldn't be happy with any other type of job, no matter what it's money amount may be, and I know myself better than most professional councilors who have worked with me on jobs, etc. I've also been told flat out that VR will not help those who wish to work out of the home, and a home-based recoding studio would for sure qualify. At the moment, I don't have the money necessary for any type of extra school/college, so thus, I would never qualify for the Avid student discounts on ProTools. I'm curious what thoughts you folks have on this list, especailly any blind musicians, who have had to deal with start-up costs, perhaps been in a situation where not a single resource that i know of exists in my local community for stuff like this, and so on who might be able to provide me with some advice to solving at the moment, what seems to be a blow of impossibility to the dreamjob I'd love to do the most with my life? As I said, This is what I'd want to do the most. I have no interest in doing anything else, no other type of job would bring me the happyness I get more than sitting down at my keyboard, and probably with the help of ProTools/MIDI, I'll then be able to do what I'd like to do-that is do the backtracks thing I discussed, and also I have a goal to produce an album at some point of my own creation. I've attempted to setup a donation fund for young musician types like myself, though I have little hope that this will do any good, even though I do think it would be nice for folks everywhere to have ProTools for the Mac, regardless of country, etc. It's just that i've had little success with any online based donations, even before the general ecanomic stuff in 2008. So my hopes aren't super high, though I'm still holding out a small chance. If you folks are interested in a sample of my tracks composed with the clunkey Windows tools then exported to garage Band, a few links are below: DoWhatYouBelieveInDoing extended acoustic twelve string steal guitar instrumental track: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2433426/DoWhatYouBelieveInDoing.mp3 Hear is a song I put together for my friend Drew, who is another musician, though he doesn't own a Mac, Drew Rocks: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2433426/DrewRocks.mp3 All of these were composed using QWs on the YamahaP-85 keyboard, and then the MIDI instructions were simply put into GarageBand, both are unedited however, as the feature set in QWS is limited. Oh, before I forget, a song I composed when I was annoied at not being able to Afford ProTools and seriously considering qwitting Piano playing entirely thus completely so fed up with MIDI in general, MIDI is Blah: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2433426/MIDIIsBlah.mp3 If you're interested in cehcking out the donation fund I've started (with 139 days remaining before I consider that a lost effort): https://www.wepay.com/donations/91142 My Facebook Page if you're interested in checking that out in general is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TheBlindIndipendentMusiciansStartupFund/301682143224869 I don't mind publicly giving out my Skype ID, considering that most of my extended family that i've developed over the last four-five years is all online: skypedude1234 Twitter: keithint1234 Thanks folks! Any advice, is much appreciated. I hope you folks find the tracks I have provided to be interested-and welcome any comments on them specificly that you may wish to give, anyone is welcome to comment, even if your not a musician for say on the tracks. Take care, and I look forward to hearing from you folks!Happy saturday to everyone, and God bless. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
