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Things I Can't Live Without #2

Here at ACDN we take pride in having high production values. This is a fancy way of saying that we try to do everything as well as humanly possible within the limits of our skills and tools. Recording a mixtape is only one of the phases in producing a new episode. To make the recording sound as good as possible some post-processing, also known as mastering is often required. For this purpose we use Freeverse's Sound Studio.

Sound Studio is a textbook example how a DAW-software should be. Every step of the production process from recording, audio processing, metadata editing and file compression is wrapped into a lightweight and user friendly interface. Due to patent issues Sound Studio can't save files in MP3-format out of the box, but that functionality can be added by installing the LAME framework. To quote a phrase, Sound Studio just works. Like most nice things in life it's not free, but definitely worth every penny.

Speaking of things that are worth the money, most people think I'm out of my mind when I casually mention having paid 150€ for a backpack. Well, the Axio Urban hardpack isn't your grandma's laptop bag. Fortunately I haven't had to put mine to a test yet, but its polycarbonate shell is designed to withstand high velocity impacts like one would experience in, say, a motorcycle accident.

I commute to office almost every working day, so I travel by train about 45000 kilometers a year - incidentally that's more than the diameter of Earth. Since I always carry my MacBook Pro with me, it's important to have not only adequate protection but ergonomic carrying apparatus as well. Axio also doubles as a my gig pack - it's a perfect fit for a laptop, audio interface, headphones and assortment of cables. Potential buyers be aware; carrying a futuristic hardpack like Axio exponentially increases the amount of gawking and prying questions from random bystanders. I guess that's the price one has to pay for looking cool.

From all things cool to more geekier topics. I already mentioned Coda, the Swiss army knife of web development, in my prior blog entry. However, there's one thing Coda doesn't do and that's database management. For this purpose I've found that Sequel Pro suits my needs perfectly. Aside all the usual DBMS stuff, it can do all kinds of nifty tricks like SSH-tunneling. Best of all, it's open source which means it won't cost you a dime.