The Flicker Blog and Podcast

(clearly I think there will be more)

Cycling into work yesterday, I was considering experiences gained from the last two weekends - it’s been the first time I’ve really seriously used OSX for music production.
It’s definitely more stable, and a pleasure to run several audio apps simultaneously, all sharing the same audio hardware.

However, I really, really loathe the new ‘improved’ finder in 10.2.8. My working method involves lots and lots of navigating very deep folder structures both to save and locate many files, instrument settings, samples etc. I’ve witnessed much questioning of the relevance of the desktop metaphor in relation to today’s computing experience - and for the first time, I’ve started to question the notion of files and folders myself.

I’m not blaming Apple for this necessarily - Logic (largely out of functional necessity) points to specific locations for certain file types, just as I (for equally good reason) prefer to keep them elsewhere. The result - everytime I wish to save or open a new file, I’m being forced to navigate a slow, clunky interface that requires me to scroll horizontally and vertically in order to navigate from one ‘end’ of my system to another. I’m not being pedantic here in refusing to follow the file structure necessitated by Logic. In order to backup projects, which frequently run to hundreds of Mb, it makes sense to group all the files used by a project together. The default behavior of keeping all files in the application folder would make backups an error prone, and time consuming task.

Not that it was perfect, but in OS9 I could navigate a file system far more quickly by double clicking through folders. Obviously, with this model, you’re required to know where you’re going, but I’m not convinced that that this is so big an issue (guess I’m biased towards the ‘organised’ user). Currently, in order to give the user more information, they are being forced to do more work. The depth of content within the window grows with every click. As an increasing number of files and folders are shown, the user inevitably has to scroll to get to their destination.

As we move towards working methods that involve the use of many files (some of which are shared by other projects) the issue of quick, easy file navigation becomes increasingly complicated.
I tend to organise folders by what object type they contain, or the project they relate to. In so doing, it’s inevitable that with the current tools, I am frequently required to ‘run’ up and down very lengthy corridors.

Maybe the new, faster G5 and the improved finder of Panther will make me feel differently. Guess I can hope!

I guess it was kind of inevitable. After two weekends of heavy boozing and music making, both myself and Gaz appear to have run out of steam. Yesterday went really well, and we worked well into the night, drinking heavily and enjoying the productivity.

We both took a day off work today so that we could attempt to finish ‘Key Dumb.’ We’re both knackered and hungover, and unfortunately, the roll we were on yesterday seems to have halted. Progress has been made, but if I’m honest, I think we need to leave the track well alone for a few days to regain some objectivity.

It’s always frustrating when we can’t complete a track in the time we’ve set ourselves, but nonetheless, it’s still a good start. I promised to send Gary LaCosta (of KGBeats in Chicago) a CD of the new material after this weekend. I’m still going to do this (having decided that Gaz and myself get too close to what we’re doing, and that we should seek input from interested parties).

Just as I don’t feel today that the track is quite there, in a week’s time, I might love it - who knows? In the meantime, a CD is traveling across the Atlantic and is now completely out of my hands!