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Handy Mac apps

Do you use this in any musical contexts? Looks very interesting.

Yeah..., but take this with a grain of salt as I've been working as a technical sound designer on the new Halo game for the past year so I haven't done much music lately. Still like to check out the forum here on occasion though.

I use KM for things that Nuendo (my DAW of choice) can't do on its own with the built-in macro system. And I use it a TON with Pro Tools to make life easier. I did post a video a while ago about using KM to 'build' a template and roughly balance it for me.



This program goes sooooo deep. You can create macros with all kinds of logic, if/then statements, have it look at pixel values, images, user prompts, input fields, pausing macros (this is huge), etc. The video above is old and I actually made a newer 'template builder' but never posted a video on it as I got an iMac pro last year. The newer builder is way more 'automatic' and doesn't require me to name anything really, and allows me to set default reverb values, and no longer uses VEPro.

Keyboard Maestro in combination with a Stream Deck is pure bliss.
 
Yeah..., but take this with a grain of salt as I've been working as a technical sound designer on the new Halo game for the past year so I haven't done much music lately. Still like to check out the forum here on occasion though.

I use KM for things that Nuendo (my DAW of choice) can't do on its own with the built-in macro system. And I use it a TON with Pro Tools to make life easier. I did post a video a while ago about using KM to 'build' a template and roughly balance it for me.

Wow! That was amazing. Thanks for sharing.
And it's only $36!

I can relate to the iPad thing, I spent a ton of time building metapad / lemur templates only to barely use them. I prefer keyboard shortcuts or real buttons!
 
Thanks!! I've been deep in video game/developer land lately but would love to start posting short/quick tutorials on this kind of stuff. I absolutely love tools that are easy to use and have a specific function. I get all inspired to make a video, and then realize I should also do things like... go outside. On a side note, learning how to skate again at 41 is super fun, and slightly painful.lol
 
When hourly Time Machine backups annoy me, I install Time Machine Editor to set a custom schedule.

I use Witch to create a customized task switcher I find a lot better than the default command-tab (I link it to command-`).

I use Spectacle to create keyboard shortcuts that maximize windows, tile them left/right, etc. It's no longer maintained, but I understand that there are alternatives out there. I find it indispensable, especially with larger monitors.

I wish there was an app that killed the transitions when switching desktops. It used to be a command line option that Apple sought fit to get rid of a few years back. Too me weeks to get used to the animation. I map desktops to command-1 through command-0 and always put the same apps on the same desktop. It becomes muscle memory to switch to what I want and I spend a lot less time command-tab and command-`ing.
 
Thanks!! I've been deep in video game/developer land lately but would love to start posting short/quick tutorials on this kind of stuff. I absolutely love tools that are easy to use and have a specific function. I get all inspired to make a video, and then realize I should also do things like... go outside. On a side note, learning how to skate again at 41 is super fun, and slightly painful.lol

By all means go outside..you only live once!
Just please do one more video before you break your arm or something :P

I just got keyboard maestro, guess I won't be going outside anytime soon!
 
MidiKeys.

Probably common knowledge, but a simple floating keyboard app for when you don't have a midi keyboard handy.

 
Just reporting back on my keyboard maestro adventure, first I cannot believe I didn't know about it until recently, all those wasted years!

One of the most repetitive tasks of my day is exporting cues and putting in the timecode and various other naming conventions per project.

I set up a KM macro that is project aware, grabs the timecode, inserts it into the filename, creates the naming structure relevant to the project and then all I have to do is type a name for the cue and it exports! On a bit of a nerd high here ;)
 
Yeah..., but take this with a grain of salt as I've been working as a technical sound designer on the new Halo game for the past year so I haven't done much music lately. Still like to check out the forum here on occasion though.

I use KM for things that Nuendo (my DAW of choice) can't do on its own with the built-in macro system. And I use it a TON with Pro Tools to make life easier. I did post a video a while ago about using KM to 'build' a template and roughly balance it for me.



This program goes sooooo deep. You can create macros with all kinds of logic, if/then statements, have it look at pixel values, images, user prompts, input fields, pausing macros (this is huge), etc. The video above is old and I actually made a newer 'template builder' but never posted a video on it as I got an iMac pro last year. The newer builder is way more 'automatic' and doesn't require me to name anything really, and allows me to set default reverb values, and no longer uses VEPro.

Keyboard Maestro in combination with a Stream Deck is pure bliss.

Hi @benmrx, this is an excellent video and workflow. Is there any chance you could share this macro(s) to study how you made it? I’ve developed a bad case of RSI and anything to lessen hand movement I’m all about. Thanks!
 
Hi @benmrx, this is an excellent video and workflow. Is there any chance you could share this macro(s) to study how you made it? I’ve developed a bad case of RSI and anything to lessen hand movement I’m all about. Thanks!
I'll have to look into how to properly export this as it's a collection of macros that I haven't used in quite a while now. There's also some personal info in there as I had the macro send me a text when it was done. This was with the latest version of the template builder which works differently than the one in the video. The main difference was I moved away from VEP and went to a disabled template. I'm also using Nuendo now instead of Cubase so chances are I would have to rebuild it again to work.

No promises :)
 
I'll have to look into how to properly export this as it's a collection of macros that I haven't used in quite a while now. There's also some personal info in there as I had the macro send me a text when it was done. This was with the latest version of the template builder which works differently than the one in the video. The main difference was I moved away from VEP and went to a disabled template. I'm also using Nuendo now instead of Cubase so chances are I would have to rebuild it again to work.

No promises :)
If it's too much trouble, then don't worry about it. I'm new to Keyboard Maestro and didn't know it would be a lot of work to export. I'll just watch your video a few times and try to replicate it.

Thanks!
 
Samplism Lite:
Just found this handy little freebie yesterday... You can database/organize and search up to 50,000 samples in the free version.

Pretty sure I'm going to pick up the full version, ($60). Gonna put the free version through its paces this weekend for an upcoming trailer project, if it does most things AudioFinder does without the quirks I'm in!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/samplism-lite/id1006401965?mt=12
Speaking of which.. While quirky and not perfect, AudioFinder is a great resource if you have insanely huge collections of samples... (It won't read encrypted files like ncw, ewi, etc FYI... but any typical format including rex, appleloop, CAF, etc is supported.)

If you have hundreds of thousands of wave/aif files it can make your time hunting a hell of a lot shorter....) You can index entire drives, index folders, make playlists for projects or sound categories, etc... You'll find samples you didn't even know you have. (Really!) You can even audition samples pitched up or down in semitones, octaves, etc. (Use this all the time for sound design.) It has a boat load of features if not familiar...

I'll update this thread after some time with Samplism to see if its a viable replacement... That said, at $70 AF's well worth it, quirks and all...


I have both, and Samplism is much better. It is no effort on your part to categorize everything, and fast. I remember spending a lot of time with AF which I had for well over 10 years.
 
Two that I really like are Magnet and Audio Swift:

1. Magnet Window Management

2. Audio Swift

Magnet lets you drag windows to different sides/corners/top/bottom to resize windows.

Audio Swift allows for varied uses of the trackpad. It is an awesome thing to have on my MBP for when a keyboard is not handy.
 
I have both, and Samplism is much better. It is no effort on your part to categorize everything, and fast. I remember spending a lot of time with AF which I had for well over 10 years.
I hear that. I demoed Samplism recently, definitely really good. I wasn't keen about some of the auto-categorization and the the way it lumped things into trees by default. Also AF's crafty little tools like Template Folders (which maybe is possible in Samplism?) make AF pretty awesome in its own way. Being able to spit out a group of pre-categorized nested folders I'm going to use in more than one place is a massive time saver. Saving them as a template for recreating them later as needed is something I'd miss too if Samplism doesn't have that.

Also now that they finally released AF 6 I think we'll see AF start to bring some new stuff to the table... The AI classification's pretty bang on but a bit on the slow side for the moment. They just released it though so it's pretty safe to assume it'll get a lot faster in the coming months... We'll see... Also the way he integrated it is very different... I immediately see how being able to spit out a pre-categorized spreadsheet of all of your sample's categories appeals to sample developers, sound designers, etc.

Samplism's definitely on the radar... Waiting to see how AF 6 develops.
 
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For anyone that uses corrective room EQ, Sonarworks or similar, I can recommend SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba (fantastic name for a company by the way). It facilitates the use of AU plugins outside of the DAW on any app that outputs audio.
 
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