Akai EWI-USB Experience...... on a Mac

This post is more about computer than music. Call this my endorsement of Mac if you will. So I wrote about setting up my Akai EWI-USB on PC 1.5 years ago. Basically it worked out of the box but not that well (sound came out too late with the standard audio driver so I needed to download and installed ASIO4ALL) And to play an additional audio track from the computer (usually a backing track) I will have to use another sound card (like an external USB one) so the audio will come out from 2 different outputs, which I can live with but not ideal.

When I got my Macbook Air, this is one of the first peripherals I tried. Basically it worked out of the box. Really, no delay and additional driver/sound card is not necessary. It can play my backing track at the same time.

No wonder artists and musicians like Mac (We already knew many software developers like Mac 'coz it's running a flavor of Unix under the cover)

2016 Ten Best Music Books

This is the list according to the Rolling Stone Magazine. Too bad I am not interested in any of them, except maybe Slim Harpo, the blues singer and harp player. He is among one of the influences of the Rolling Stones (band) whose latest release this year is a blues cover album, which I enjoy quite a bit.

Opera: L'Amour de Loin

自從上次聽完紅樓夢，已有一排無聽歌劇，幸好本地古典電台每逢週六中午會播放紐約大都會歌劇院演出的曲目，這天開車南下辦事途中聽到播出芬蘭作曲家Kaija Saariaho的作品L’Amour de Loin（英文解作Love from Afar, 我姑且譯為遙遠的他:) 和紅樓夢一樣這首算是當代作品，首演於2000年薩爾斯堡音樂節，今個月則是首次在大都會演出，好評如潮，似乎被三位女士搶了不少鏡頭，除了作曲家Saariaho，還有指揮家Susanna Mälkki及也是Susanna的女主角女高音Philips；「男子組」方面要提提黎巴嫩填詞人Amin Maalouf，本劇完整歌詞（法文原文及英文譯本）可見於此網站。對我來講本劇有以下特色：

1. 角色數目極少。基本上只有遊吟詩人王子，他素未謀面卻慕名愛上的遙遠公主，穿梭兩者的朝聖者（女中高音），及一眾市民（合唱團）
2. 敲擊樂被大量及出色地運用。
3. 以法文唱出的詞。我從少就被灌輸一種想法：法文是唱歌劇最好聽的語言，更甚於意大利文，亦當然勝於「岩岩巉巉」的德語；故事背景卻是中東！

不妨試試一邊聽(Spotify link)一邊讀歌詞，相當過癮。