With WWDC 2017 just a couple of days away, the Audio Pizza team get together to discuss the various rumours regarding what may be announced at Apples much anticipated event. Shauns lack of funds underlie his disintrest in anything Macbook, while Garth declares a fetish for function keys. Will Apple give a glimpse at the iPhone 8s new design if the much rumoured 10.5" iPad is revealed at WWDC?
Finally just how bad is Siri and can it be improved if given it’s own new shiny home in the form of the Siri Speaker? Garth seems to think it can’t be much worse then what he’s heard of the Amazon Echo.
In this episode I cover the basics of editing using items, and the three different ripple modes. A number of other actions are briefly covered as well, such as cut copy and paste, adjusting track pan, soloing a track, and duplicating a track.
Keystrokes
A Custom: Select and split item under edit or play cursor
Command+C Edit: Copy items/tracks/envelope points (depending on * focus) ignoring time selection
Command+X Edit: Cut items/tracks/envelope points (depending on focus) ignoring time selection
Command+V Item: Paste items/tracks
D Track: Duplicate tracks
Option+Left or Right Arrows Track: Nudge track pan left or right
F6 Track: Solo/unsolo tracks
F5 Track: Mute/unmute tracks
Option+P Options: Cycle ripple editing mode
Option+Shift+P OSARA: Report ripple editing mode
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if you’re following these tutorials along on the Mac, make sure you get the latest build of OSARA and update your key map.
In this third of a series of beginner tutorials, we finally get a bit of editing done using time selections. The context sensitive nature of Reaper is discussed along with some further navigational and editing techniques. These include selecting and moving between items, scrubbing, moving by beats or measures, making and refining time selections, previewing your edit and the implications of your zoom factor.
Keyboard Shortcuts Mentioned
Left Arrow View: Move cursor left one pixel
Right Arrow View: Move cursor right one pixel
Command+Left Arrow Item navigation: Select and move to previous item
Command+Right Arrow Item navigation: Select and move to next item
Page Up Move edit cursor back one measure
Page Down Move edit cursor forward one measure
Command+Page Up Move edit cursor back one beat
Command+Page Down Move edit cursor forward one beat
Delete OSARA: Remove items/tracks/contents of time selection/markers/envelope points (depending on focus)
[ Time selection: Set start point
] Time selection: Set end point
Option+[ Time selection: Nudge left edge left
Option+] Time selection: Nudge left edge right
Command+[ Time selection: Nudge right edge left
Command+] Time selection: Nudge right edge right
Option+Space Transport: Play (skip time selection)
Shift+Home Custom: Select from cursor to start of project
Shift+End Custom: Select from cursor to end of project
Option+Shift+- or NumPad- View: Zoom out horizontal
Option+Shift+= or NumPad +View: Zoom in horizontal
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This tutorial gives a basic overview of the conversion between the windows key map and the Mac key map. It covers the hierarchy of a Reaper project. How to add a track, and insert an audio file on it. There’s also a quick run down of the OSARA configuration dialog. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions for things to cover in future tutorials.
Join Garth in his very early morning coffee as he hosts this latest episode of Audio Pizza. Kayakker returns to give us his opinions, advice and tips on online security issues. Oh, and Shaun gets shot in the first 30 seconds.
First up for discussion is Trumps repeal of U S Broadband privacy rules, meaning that your internet provider is again free to sell your details, such as browsing history, to other companies. This story has been big news everywhere but is there really anything to worry about? Kayakker then goes on to tell us just how secure http and VPN can help.
Next, we discuss phishing and password best practice. How do you know if that email from your bank, Paypal or Amazon etc is real or fake and should you ever click on the link they send? Short answer to the latter is No. Kayakker shares his story on how easy it is to get fooled.
To finish up this episode full of great sensible advice, we admit that, like lots of other people, we tend not to follow our own advice when it comes to passwords. Using the same password for multiple sites or not changing passwords regularly are things we are all guilty off. Hey, we never said we were perfect…
KNFB Reader on mobile devices has proven itself to be one of the most reliable and convenient ways of reading printed text. With a easy to use user interface specifically designed for use by the visually impaired and fast document processing, the promise of truely useful Optical Character Recognition was finally delivered.
Now, KNFB Reader has come to Windows 10 but with Windows 10s shaky start when it comes to accessibility can KNFB Reader stand proud with it’s iOS and Android cousins? Lets find out.
This audio was originally created for the RNIB Tech Talk show on RNIB Connect Radio. If you enjoy it why not check out the Tech Talk show. Search for RNIB Tech Talk in your favourite podcast app.
In this Episode I’d like to give you a very brief introduction to the DAW, Reaper. It is an extremely powerful multi track audio editor that is cross platform, working on Mac and Windows. I will be concentrating on the Mac version however most of what is covered is also applicable to Windows.
You can find download links at the end of this post for Reaper and OSARA. Reaper is the application and OSARA is a plugin created by NVAccess which makes it more accessible – OSARA: Open Source Accessibility for the REAPER Application. I would also recommend installing an additional plugin called SWS which expands the functionality and usability of Reaper, link also below.
Whether you are on Windows or Mac, you will want to install all three, Reaper, OSARA, and SWS. To quickly check you have OSARA installed, hit the up or down arrow once you’ve opened Reaper, if VO reports “No Tracks” then your good to go.
Okay, so all installed? Cool, lets go. You can use VoiceOver to explore the interface, however almost everything you’ll need is available with keyboard shortcuts.
When you start Reaper for the first time, it will prompt you to set an audio device, go ahead and do this. If you don’t do this initially, you can access the preferences by pressing Cmd+P, and going to Devices in the tree view. Whilst in Preferences, I’d recommend going into Paths and setting a location for peak files to be saved.
Shortcut Help
F12 will toggle on and off keyboard shortcut help. This is an invaluable tool both when your new to Reaper or even when you’ve been using it for a while. When toggled on, Voice Over will report the action that is bound to whatever key/s you press. I recommend making liberal use of it.
The Actions List
Pressing F4 will bring up the Actions List. You’ll be placed into a search field that lets you filter the thousands of actions down to the one you’re looking for. Once you’ve done this, you can see the shortcut, or shortcuts that are assigned to it. If there’s not currently an action assigned, you can also add the shortcut from this dialog. The Import/Export button will allow you to import a another key map over your existing one, or save your own key map for a back up, or to share with others.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Command+P Preferences
F12 Shortcut Help
F4 Show Action List
Shift+F1 Help: Mouse modifier keys and action shortcuts
In this episode of Audio Pizza, Shaun and Garth are joined by special guest Steven Scott from the RNIB Tech Talk show to discuss whats new in the world of tech.
Starting off with the release of Samsungs new flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 & S8Plus, we talk about our experiences with Android and is it time we gave it another chance? It’s a beautiful phone but can it compete with the great accessibility on iOS? Then, just when you thought your files where safe, we discuss the story of the Turkish Crime Family. A hacking group that claims to have access to 500 million iCloud accounts. With the ability to access personal photos and files and remotely wipe Macs and iPhones, should we be worried?
In other news, Windows 10 Creators Edition will be launched on April 11th, and with it comes support for braille in Narrator and the ability to use Narrator during installation. Also Google Home will be released in the UK on the 6th of April but can it compete with the ever popular Amazon Alexa? And more importantly, can we get through the entire podcast with out triggering our favourite Amazon assistant? Remaining in the theme of smart homes, Steven tells us about a new range of smart lighting from Ikea. With a lower price the the Phillip Hue bulbs will we be rushing out to buy them or sit at home in the dark like Garth?
We finish the podcast with the hilarious / nightmarish story of Jessie Newton and his poop painting robot vacuum.
In the utterly professional manner you’ve come to expect from the Audio Pizza team, we discuss the options available when it comes to accessible media.
While Kayaker hosts and tries to remember his own name, Shaun discusses everything video. With Netflix being the only mainstream video on demand service that offers anything close to a reasonable amount of audio described content, we see just what other options are out there including the audio only Blindy TV and the new 100% audio described streaming service Tell Me TV. Also just why is there so little choice when it comes to accessible televisions and set top boxes, and could the perfect solution to on tap audio description already exist in the form of a smartphone app?
Next, we move on to books. With the excellent Audible service offering convenient access to the latest audio books but at a price we look at what services are available in the US, UK & Australia that offer audio books for free. Such as RNIB Overdrive, Vision Australia and Baird or even your local library.
To wrap up, we find out what books and shows we’re enjoying at the moment and just why Kayaker loves Game of Thrones so much.
For more information on the Tell Me TV service and to get a discount code check out our interview with Kevin Shaw, President and CEO of Tell Me TV in the next episode of Audio Pizza.