In the recording studio, producers and engineers listen to their mixes through many different types of speakers, hoping to find a happy place where the music sounds the best it can, in as many listening situations as possible. For many home studios (like mine, for instance) space and budgetary limitations can make this difficult.
KRK KNS-8400 monitoring headphones
Folks wanting to mix on the road, or after the kids go to bed, face even greater challenges and generally rely solely on their headphones. Many headphones, however are designed to deliver pleasing sound—not necessarily accurate sound. When looking for a set of reference monitors, either headphone or powered speakers, you really want something offering a wide, natural frequency response to help expose—not cover up—the true sound of your recordings.
Extensis has announced Universal Type Server 3, an upgrade to its server-based font management software. This new release, which features updated font reporting technology, is designed to help companies oversee their font usage while guarding against the font misuse and license infringements that can lead to lawsuits. The product underscores the fact that font license agreements are just as strict as software licenses, and that companies can be sued—and incur heavy penalties—for font license violations.
“Our customers are hearing more and more about font compliance vulnerabilities and looking for a reliable way to protect themselves,” said Chris Meyer, senior product manager at Extensis. “They need to track, and in some cases lock down, font usage across the organization. Universal Type Server 3 ensures companies are safeguarded, while still fostering the creative process.”
Universal Type Server 3 lets organizations distribute licensed fonts to an entire work group, keep unlicensed, so-called "rogue” fonts out of the workflow, track font usage, alert administrators when font use exceeds licensing, and maintain font compliance across all systems.
The updates, which bring both applications to version 9.1.4, primarily serve to add compatibility with projects created in GarageBand for iPad; in addition, a bunch of small issues with performance, stability, 64-bit, automation, audio editing, control surface support, and preferences have been addressed. If you’re inclined to know what specifically was addressed, you can read the full release notes for Logic Express and Logic Pro on Apple’s Website.
To install the updates—which come in at 138.74MB for Logic Express and 192.48MB for Logic Pro—you can fire up Software Update or head over to Apple’s Support Website. The updates require OS X 10.5.8 or later.
Getting your prints to match what you see on your monitor is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face when dealing with digital art or photography. This article explains how you can use printer- and paper-specific instructions—called profiles—to achieve more accurate results.
The first step, however, is to understand the different ways in which color is produced by monitors and printers. Once you understand that, the whole “color-matching” problem starts to make a lot more sense.
The printing industry is a curious mix of old and new—a world rich with history that harks back hundreds of years, but relies on technology that changes and improves all the time.
The bad part is that dealing with the challenges presented by a print job—from business cards to posters—can be difficult, particularly if you have never worked with a print shop before and don’t have the budget to contract a professional to handle the process for you.
The good part is that you probably have all the tools you need to produce excellent printed materials already installed on your Mac, so the real trick in establishing a successful relationship with your print provider is to know what questions to ask. For example, does your chosen vendor accept online jobs? Is your job in a format that your printer can handle? Have you chosen the right paper for the job? Do you have a preference for digital or offset printing for your job?
Corel has released Painter 12, a new version of the company’s flagship painting software. The upgrade features new brushes and art tools, customizable workspaces, and a performance boost.
“Our Painter community has always been the driving force behind our development priorities," said Andy Church, Painter's product manager. "Our goal is to consistently provide our artists with powerful tools that enable them to expand and express their creative visions and to achieve the most stunning and realistic results possible. Our artists provide the inspiration and Painter provides the power, freedom, and control, unmatched in any other creative environment."
If you consider yourself creative, you've likely considered designing a fancy signature line for your e-mail messages. It's a terrific opportunity to express a bit of your personality without requiring any additional work when composing your message—and without adding extra file size to your e-mail. (Your recipients will appreciate that!) Plus, it makes the e-mail more distinctive, acting almost as a business card, if your recipient wants to print it out.
The trick is to know a little about how e-mail works in general, and how to use text formatting to express your identity.
E-mail was originally a text-only medium, and some older e-mail programs have limited ability to display pictures, colors, or even specific fonts. In addition, some users have their e-mail client set to display e-mail as text-only. And by text only, I mean black, 12-point type in one standard font from their operating system.
