As I prepare to interview AEMMP Record’s favorite band, Big Science, about their recording process and techniques, I feel compelled to share a story about my own recent troubles with Apple’s wonderful recording software suite, Logic Studio.
As a user of Logic Express for some time, I was super excited this fall to upgrade to the new Logic Studio. Just finishing work on a self-recorded EP, I purchased the software hoping to capture the last tracks in higher quality. In perfect synchronicity, the day I bought the software, a DVD of a terrible movie got stuck in my optical drive.
After trying every trick in the book to remove the disc I reluctantly handed over my iMac to the “Geniuses” at the Mac Store. Ten days later I received my working computer with a brand new drive and rushed home to install the software.
Upon inserting the disc and clicking install I was informed by that I would need to upgrade to OS X 10.6, more commonly known as Snow Leopard, in order to run Logic. Blurg! Why hadn’t the 15 Mac employees I talked to mentioned this?!
No matter. I was going to wait for a later version of Snow Leopard before upgrading, but why not? After all, my EP awaited. However, after purchasing Snow Leopard and installing it on my computer, I was confronted with a new and more serious problem: My Firewire drive no longer functioned!
At first I thought it was a problem with my audio interface (a PreSonus FP10). Maybe I needed to reinstall the drivers? Nope, there aren’t any. Then I checked my external harddrive… nothing. After much searching I found that I was not alone. A large number of SL users were experiencing the similar problems with external hard drives, HD Cameras, and anything else that connects via firewire.
But wait, there was an upgrade to 10.6.1 awaiting me, surely this would solve all my problems. And it did… for about 20 minutes. So the search continued. Returning back to the Apple support forum I learned how to “Zap the PRAM,” another termporary solution.
So lets recap:
1) I need Logic to finish my album
2) I need Snow Leopard to use Logic
3) Snow Leopard kills my firewire, making Logic useless to me.
4) EP not finished, $300 poorer.
So far Apple has refused to weigh in on the problem, or even acknowledge it, leaving all affected to hope and wait for another upgrade to solve our problems. Apple, please help. A brief “we’re working on it” would go a long way.
I’ve been so busy waiting in lines to do almost anything to even think about jumping on here and writing up a blog, however in between the lines for writstbands to get in the show, lines to get in the show with a wristband, lines to get free food, lines for picking up sxsw, lines for getting not free food, and lines to check into hotel I seem to have found a minute to try and explain just how overwhelming/fantastic this whole experience is.
What better way to decompress from your dysfunctional family’s Thanksgiving dinner than to spend this Saturday with