Audio Pizza: Recent Episodes
Garth Humphreys, Jordie Howell
By and for the Blind, audio reviews and tutorials on the things we're passionate about. Assistive tech from Apple's Mac & iOS to reviews on the latest bespoke devices from @iBlindTech, @TheBlurredNerd and @TheDarkKayaker.
This episode of Audio Pizza covers Apple's recent price increases across several devices, early impressions of the iOS 27 developer beta , and hands-on testing of Apple Intelligence and Siri. The hosts also discuss FlowType, a new accessible typing keyboard, and share several examples of using AI coding tools to build accessible alternatives to mainstream software, including Stream Deck, WhatsApp, and audio mixer controls.
Shaun's out (family duties — respect), but the show must go on. Scott's freezing in England, Garth's freezing in Australian winter, and Brett is apparently suffering terribly in 80-degree Maui. Someone had to do it. This episode is a deep, accessible-first breakdown of Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote — what actually matters for blind and low-vision users, what Apple is quietly admitting about its AI strategy, and the surprising things that get us excited.
Tim Cook is out, a blind guy navigated Vegas solo with AI glasses and a very optimistic attitude about public bathrooms, and VoiceOver is still doing that thing. Kayaker reports back from Battle Bots in Las Vegas with a full rundown of the apps that made the trip work — and the ones that almost got him eaten by a fake puddle. Sean and Garth chime in with the usual mix of enthusiasm, skepticism, and righteous fury at in-app advertising.
Kayaker updates us with his feedback from this years CSUN conference, focusing on navigation tools.
Independence doesn't mean doing everything yourself — it means having the choice to live life on your own terms. Kayaker, Sean, and Garth unpack what independence actually means for blind people, tackling everything from GPS apps and Be My Eyes to the awkward reality of asking for help in coffee shops.
The gang returns for 2026 with CES chat, and predictions that will age like milk! What's inside: Kayaker freezes in New England; Sean freezes in the original England; Garth refuses to stop being sunny Steven Scott drops in from Double Tap and immediately turns "a quick chat" into "a feature-length film" AirPods Pro 3 praise, ear-tip rage, and the haunting tale of the "dog-processed" AirPods The Lightsaber Cane: brilliant, ridiculous, heavier than normal, and only sometimes practical "Does this confuse the public?" Spoiler: the public is already confused Keychron keyboards, accessibility quirks, and a CES announcement of a concrete keyboard (because why not) HP's keyboard-with-a-computer concept: Robot future: great in factories, questionable in living rooms, nightmare fuel for kids' toys AI glasses talk: open ecosystems, camera access, LiDAR dreams, and "Meta, please stop resetting" Braille label printer news: useful… if the app isn't a disaster 2026 predictions: Siri overhaul (again), Google wearables rising, AI hype deflating, and general tech chaos Overall, CES + accessibility + Star Wars + keyboards + mild existential dread. Exactly what you came for.
We're delighted to return with another Christmas audio drama. This time we're revisiting Dr Seuss's classic The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and giving it an accessibility twist. We truly appreciate all those who lent their voices to make this possible. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year from the Audio Pizza team!
In this holiday edition of Audio Pizza, Kayaker, Sean and Garth dive into what Sean saw at Sight Village London. They chat through new low-vision and blindness tech including the Angel Eye document reader, Luna night-vision glasses for RP, and HumanWare's upcoming BrailleNote Evolve Windows notetaker. Sean also gets hands-on with the ultra-light Svárovský cane, and shares updated impressions of the Glide autonomous mobility device. To top it off, Kayaker unveils an MIT-built "Uber car finder" iPhone app, available via TestFlight, that helps blind users locate the right vehicle in busy pickup areas.
Join the test flight for Thing Finder here.
Audio Pizza's annual holiday gift guide is back, with Sean, Garth and Kayaker trading banter, bad weather reports and actually decent present ideas. They compare Meta smart glasses with newer AI-first options, talk through why Apple's AirPods Pro 3 and Apple Watch remain go-to tech gifts, and get surprisingly passionate about good iPhone cases, light-up white canes, and properly sharp kitchen knives. Garth throws in tactile Hanayama puzzles and UV-printed tactile photos as great options for blind and low-vision friends, and the trio round things out with a defence of gift cards, a detour into accessible jigsaws, and a spirited argument about cutting up food and eating with your hands.
This month, the globe spins faster than Sean’s excuses for not reading the manual as the Audio Pizza crew—Kayaker, Garth, and Shaun—check in from around the world with special guest Brett Halle and a surprise cameo from Jordie, freshly armed with a shiny new iPhone 17 Pro. The gang dives deep into Apple’s latest event—iPhones, Watches, AirPods, and a healthy sprinkle of sarcasm. • Shaun: Still refusing to upgrade because “thinness is overrated.” • Garth: Tempted by the Air, but only if it gets a second speaker. • Brett: Drops insider-level knowledge bombs about RAM, LiDAR, and AI headroom. • Jordie: Loves her 17 Pro, mainly because it can describe her baby’s outfit on command. Expect passionate debates about whether LiDAR is life-changing or just expensive potential, why every blind person’s favourite phrase is “depends how you use it,” and how battery life is the new religion. Shaun leads the charge on the Meta event, which somehow excited him more than Apple’s. The crew covers: • New Meta Ray-Bans and Oakleys with better cameras and longer battery life. • The wild new neural wristband that reads muscle signals so you can air-type like a Jedi. • Seeing AI and Be My Eyes coming to the glasses—accessibility in your face. • And of course, Kayaker’s existential crisis over whether using Meta violates his privacy vows. Last month’s cliffhanger returns: Shaun still can’t back up his iPhone. Cue a group intervention featuring Garth’s step-by-step fix, Brett’s “pay the 99 cents” wisdom, and a gentle reminder that losing your phone is worse than losing your morals to Meta. Got opinions? Email sgk@theblind.ninja and earn bonus points if you tell Garth he’s wrong.
After a four-year hiatus, we’re delighted to welcome you back to the Words Words Words podcast. Along with a couple of featured words from Douglas Adams' wonderful book "The meaning of Liff", this episode includes a listener-contributed word, Battersea Park. Thanks Sally for sending it through. If you have any ideas to contribute, please get in touch.
Battersea Park (verb) - The act of assaulting a poorly parked car, by a blind person with their white cane. Whilst neither recommended nor encouraged, this can relieve ones frustration when suddenly coming across a car which has been left casually across a path, or somewhere else it should not have been.
You can find earlier episodes in this series here.
In this episode of Audio Pizza, Shaun, Garth, and Kayaker try on the future—AI-powered smart glasses that promise to help us blind folk find our way without walking into quite so many lamp posts. After that, they swap specs for security, digging into the iOS settings that can keep your iPhone safer than a squirrel guarding its last nut. And remember: if you must steal an iPhone… Shaun’s is apparently the one to go for.
Fun and games? Not exactly. In this edition of Audio Pizza, Shaun, Garth, and Kayaker try to talk about what they do for fun and games… only to reveal they’re not all that fun and don’t actually play that many games. But what they lack in actual gameplay, they make up for with quick banter, questionable opinions, and spirited chats about entertainment, video games, blind sports, and the occasional board game.
The elite Audio Pizza team digs deep into close to 100 sessions from Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, but they were unavailable, so Shaun, Garth and Kayaker fill in at the last minute.
The crew also digs into a host's question about the best accessible network attached storage options for your home. Best of all, you'll not want to miss the intro spoof, ok you might want to miss it, but give it a listen anyway.
We won't bury the lead, Garth is back! Yes, he's tired, but what else is new? Well, Garth, Shaun and Kayaker will tell you all about Global Accessibility Awareness Day and the key take aways from Apple. And, we respond to a listener's question regarding what we do when we get our new phones.
Shaun and Kayaker have a candid talk with Sally, a Person Centered Counselor, who holds a Masters in Counseling about mental health with blindness and vision loss. The threesome shares some personal stories with a bit of humor and how they try to cope with blindness each day, and sometimes fail.
Links for your reference: American Council of the Blind, ACB ACB Peer Support and mentoring National Federation of the Blind, NFB Foundation for Fighting Blindness Mental Health Resource Center Wellbeing Services at Guide Dogs Victoria our-services/wellbeing-services
Kayaker, Shaun, Garth and Kayaker talk about the latest Apple product announcements including the new MacBook Air M4. Listener feedback offers additional AI tips using your own special files. But the biggest news is our very own Shaun travelled to the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference and offers his insights about what he found on the exhibit hall floor including his latest impressions with the Glide.
Kayaker, Garth, and Shaun crush Kayaker’s opinion on the need for free blind utility apps, but everyone seems to be against the subscription model. And the gang discusses the latest AI news and how it might help the blind AI app world.
Shaun, Garth, and Kayaker are back discussing news from the Consumer Electronics Show - everything from Barbie robots, shocking spoons to AI supercomputers . You’ll learn who was on the nice and naughty list over the holidays and hear the predictions for 2025 (aka things that, if predicted, are guaranteed not to happen). Oh, and you’ll learn more than you ever wanted about aftershave.
Shaun, Garth, Kayaker and friends perverse a Dickens classic tale for your holiday enjoyment. Consider this episode as the equivalent of the ugly Christmas sweater— it’s so over the top, you can only smile with holiday cheer. Merry Christmas from us to you.
From Our Home to Yours Christmas Magic by Jordie Howell and Andhika Patrick
On this months episode we look at customising your iPhone and discuss some of the new features brought to us by iOS 18. There are many ways to improve your experience using voice over on iOS and we take a deep dive in to some of our favorite options.
On this Reaproducer episode of Audio Pizza, I will go over the basic workflow I use when recording and editing a podcast.
Recording Typically, we use Zoom to connect with each other but then make our own local recordings of our ends. This way, we have good, pristine copies ready for editing. On the Mac, I use Audio Hijack or Reaper to do the recording.
Once I have each of the individual files from the participants, I rename them with short filenames to cut down screen reader verbosity when navigating the project. I save a Reaper project and paste the files straight into the blank project, ready for editing.
Project Settings To make navigating the audio easier for this type of editing, in the View menu, I change the Time unit for ruler to Minutes and Seconds, and Press Option+Return to access project settings, to adjust the tempo to 60, and time signature to 60 over 4.
This may not make a lot of sense musically; however, it is useful for navigating by minutes with Page Up and Page Down, and seconds with Command+Page Up and Page Down.
These can then be set as default project settings if you wish and it will also then retain your choice for the time ruler.
Normalising After pasting the files into their own tracks in the project, I select all the items by first selecting one item, and then extending the selection with Command+A to all the items. I use Shift+U to bring up the SWS/BR - Normalize loudness dialog. This gives me the option to normalise each item to my preferred starting value of –23 LUFS. It is a good idea to add a limiter to your master track at this point, as it’s possible that some parts of the recording will be coming in above 0 dB and clipping.
Item: Auto trim/split items (remove silence) Control+Accent will bring up this dialog. As the name suggests, it works on the items rather than the tracks and will split each selected item based upon the content of the item. Where the level is above the set threshold, in this case, where the particular person is talking, it will leave an item, and anywhere where the level falls below the threshold, it will remove an item. So in those locations on the track where the level was below, the track will be empty. In effect, if set correctly, it will split before and after each passage of speech and remove the rest.
This has some significant benefits and can speed up the editing process. You can now quickly navigate to particular parts of the audio and make the desired change on that item. This might be adjusting the volume of a phrase, removing a section, or shifting around the content of the podcast.
However, it’s important that your original files have a nice low noise floor, as when the quiet sections are removed, there is complete silence on that track. This can be disconcerting for the listener if there’s too much noise in the sections when the person is speaking and this cuts in and out.
Basic Editing You can navigate to an item to be removed with Command+Left/Right Arrows, and delete, or cut and paste it to another location with Command+X and Command+V. Keep in mind your current ripple state: off, or all tracks. Usually, you would not want to use the ripple per track option as you are likely to make subsequent content go out of sync.
If a particular item is too loud or too quiet, it can be quickly adjusted with Command+Up/Down Arrow. This will adjust the particular take within the item by 1 dB.
Trimming Left or Right Edge of Item to Edit Cursor One quick way of cutting off the end of an item is to use the action found on Control+Shift+Period — Item edit: Trim right edge of item to edit cursor. Typically, you could split the end of the item off, select that item, and delete it. However, if you place your cursor in the same location you would have made the split, and trim the right edge to that point, you’ve accomplished the same thing with one keystroke.
This can be used to extend an item as well. Place the edit cursor after the selected item, and again hit the same command, and it will grow back that edge to this point. Of course, the same works for the beginning of an item, using the Trim left edge to edit cursor command. You can either cut the beginning off or grow it back depending upon where you place your cursor compared to the selected item. Another benefit of using this method is that it does not matter how you have ripple set. Had you used the split and delete method, it would be prudent to first check your ripple state to avoid unintended consequences.
Custom Actions If you find yourself performing sequences of actions commonly, you may wish to create custom actions that will allow you to perform the actions with one keystroke.
I found that I was often setting the end of a time selection, jumping back a bit and then playing, skipping the time selection to preview the edit. This is one of the custom actions I demo along with a couple more. To create a custom action, go into the actions list with F4, click the New action button, then select New custom action. You are then able to add a series of actions to create your own custom action. If you have actions in the wrong order, you can move them in the list with Command+Up/Down Arrows. After completing this, you can add a keystroke to the action to have quick access to it whilst editing.
Adding Intro Music and Volume Automation If you wish to add some music to the intro of your podcast once you have finished the editing of the vocal tracks, just paste the file in on its own track with ripple turned on for all tracks. This will insert the music and keep all the other tracks in sync. If the music is to come in under the vocal tracks, have ripple turned off, or check out the podcast to see a quick method of moving everything around.
Command+Option+V will show the volume envelope for the selected track, and then Option+L to arm that envelope. You can then add points with Shift+E and adjust the values with Numpad 2 and 8, or Command+Shift+E to add and edit a point.
Fading an item out from the edit cursor is another quick way of dealing with your music.
Final Levelling and Rendering If you’re wanting to have chapter markers in the podcast, insert standard named project markers with the syntax CHAP=Name of chapter. Use Shift+M to add and name the markers. When it comes to rendering, in the dialog tick the Metadata checkbox, and the MP3 will have chapters included with the supplied names.
There are a number of different tools to check levels and loudness within Reaper. One good option is the action Calculate loudness of master mix within time selection via dry run render. This will give an accurate representation of the final integrated loudness figure, along with the peak value, and other loudness stats.
We also have the Peak Watcher, on Option+W, this can provide integrated loudness levels along with true peak throughout the editing process, however it’s not covered on this podcast.
To adjust your levels, again you have a lot of options at different parts of the signal chain. One is to select all the items on the track with Command+Option+A and then adjust with Command+Arrows. Or you can adjust the actual track volume with Option+Arrows, or Option+Shift+Arrows. If you have folders for the vocal tracks, this can be a good place to turn up or down the overall volume before it gets to the master track where you have a limiter.
Press Command+Option+R to render out your final file with your desired settings. Typically for podcasts, for maximum compatibility, MP3 is still recommended, even though we now have better lossy formats. An integrated LUFS value near –16 dB is a generally accepted standard.
List of Actions Used * Option+Return - Open Project Settings * Command+A - Select all items/tracks/envelope points (depending on focus) * Shift+U - SWS/BR: Normalize loudness of selected items/tracks… * Shift+Home - Custom: Select from cursor to start of project * Control+Accent - Item: Auto trim/split items (remove silence) * Command+Shift+P - OSARA: Report ripple editing mode * Option+Shift+P - Options: Cycle ripple editing mode * Control+Shift+Comma - Item edit: Trim left edge of item to edit cursor * Control+Shift+Period - Item edit: Trim right edge of item to edit cursor * Shift+A - Xenakios/SWS: Select items under edit cursor on selected tracks * Command+Option+A - Item: Select all items in track * Command+Up/Down - Xenakios/SWS: Nudge active take volume up/down * Option+Up/Down - Track: Nudge track volume up/down * Option+Shift+Up/Down - Xenakios/SWS: Nudge volume of selected tracks up/down * Left Parenthesis - Time selection: Set start point * Right Parenthesis - Time selection: Set end point * Option+Space - Transport: Play (skip time selection) * Option+Left/Right Parenthesis - Time selection: Nudge left edge left or right * Command+Left/Right Parenthesis - Time selection: Nudge right edge left or right * Slash - Scrub: Toggle looped-segment scrub at edit cursor * Command+L - Editing.RPP * Command+Option+V - OSARA: Toggle track/take volume envelope visibility (depending on focus) * Option+L - OSARA: Select next track/take envelope (depending on focus) * Shift+E - Envelope: Insert new point at current position (remove nearby points) * Option+Shift+E - Envelope: Add/edit envelope point value at cursor * Numpad 2 - Item edit: Move items/envelope points down one track/a bit * Numpad 8 -
Clearly an un-caffeinated cranky Kayaker, an uncharacteristically calm Shaun and a chilled whisky-sipping Garth discuss the pros and cons of specialised blind technology versus everyday devices.
Kayaker gives his opinion on the Victor Reader Trek against a iPhone 8 without a cell phone plan. Garth goes off on the prices on software features for braille devices, all while Shaun holds the fort down.
Don’t forget to email your opinions to Garth (g@theblind.ninja), Shaun (s@theblind.ninja) and/or Kayaker (k@theblind.ninja).
Scot reports on the people and politics, but mostly the tech from NFB's 2024 conference.
NIIRA
Glide
NOA
BrailleDoodle
Scott, Shaun, and Garth are thrilled to welcome former Apple Executive Brett Halle to dive into the exciting highlights of WWDC 2024. In a surprising twist, Shaun makes a sudden exit from his shed just as the team delves into the potential impact of Apple's groundbreaking announcements.
Scott, Shaun, and Garth are joined today by to talk everything Audio Description. Nef is Workflow Manager: Quality and Inclusion for ( ( You can make contact with Nef and get involved in advocating for Audio Description at the following links:
After more then 12 months in the wilderness we're back, to go travelling. Shaun, Kayaker and Garth are joined by Jordie to discuss their recent travels around the world. After knowing each other for around 12 years, they have finally met in person, which was weirdly normal.
WE discuss the good and the bad of travelling when you're blind and share some of the tips and tricks we've discovered on our journeys.
PRM Assist is a useful app for booking airport assistance.
Apple dropped a bunch of great products in there last two events, however this doesn't stop a Voice-Over rant. And if you're desperate for a Christmas gift recommendation, this just might be the episode for you.
Welcome back to another episode inspired by Douglas Adams book, The Meaning of Liff. We share one of Douglas's words, and create one of our own. In both, an under utilised place name is married with a concept or situation needing a name..
Exmouth: Noun. The excuse or co-conspirator, you have ready in order to extract yourself from an unwanted conversation at a party or other public gathering. "Christine, if you see me stuck talking to Bob tonight, , can you be my exmouth? Rescue me please, you know how he can go on!"
Welcome back to another episode inspired by Douglas Adams book, The Meaning of Liff. We share one of Douglas's words, and create one of our own. In both, an under utilised place name is married with a concept or situation needing a name..
Exmouth: Noun. The excuse or co-conspirator, you have ready in order to extract yourself from an unwanted conversation at a party or other public gathering. "Christine, if you see me stuck talking to Bob tonight, , can you be my exmouth? Rescue me please, you know how he can go on!"
Welcome back to another episode inspired by the hilarious book by Douglas Adams - The Meaning of Liff. We share one of Douglas's words, and create one of our own. In both, an under utilised place name is married with a concept or situation needing a name..
Werribee: Noun. The sense of frustration experienced by a blind person when trying to eat a meal which contains peas, or similar difficult to catch food types. After five minutes of tediously scraping my fork around the plate, I finally succumbed to my Werribee and used my fingers to get the last of the peas and corn.
Rooty Hill: Noun. A trip hazard or uneven section of a concrete path caused by the lifting of sections due to tree roots growing under the path. These are most often found in established leafy suburbs, although can be seen anywhere humans have attempted to concrete over nature.
It is speculated that a Rooty Hill is natures attempt to bring mankind closer to Mother Earth. This is achieved by tripping them over so they land face first on the ground. The white cane user has a distinct advantage over a guide dog handler in finding a Rooty Hill prior to it causing an unceremonious return to Earth.
Please contact Garth or Jordie if you have any suggestions for inclusion in upcoming episodes.
Chittering: Noun. The momentary feeling of confusion and dismay when you realise that the person to whom you've responded heartily to hearing them call "Hello", was not actually speaking to you. There has been a substantial increase in the prevalence of Chittering for all since mobile phones became common however for blindies, it is a risk we run whenever answering a "hello", where our name was not used in the initial greeting.
Please contact Garth or Jordie if you have any suggestions for inclusion in upcoming
Welcome back to another episode inspired by the Douglas Adams book "The Meaning of Liff", where we share one of Douglas's words, and create one of our own. We marry a place name with a concept or situation we find ourselves in as blind people.
Dirranbandi: Noun. The hair tie or other band, which you attach to your door handle in a hotel, to help you return to the correct room
Hunters Hill, noun, Searching for a dropped object by A: using a swimming motion on the floor, or B: rolling methodically covering as much floor as possible to locate it.
Welcome to a new series inspired by the Douglas Adams book The Meaning of Liff. In this book Douglas matches place names with concepts which have no name, creating an amusing dictionary of terms, some of which are bound to resinate.
As blind people, we come across situations that are unique to our community, which also have no name, but again, I'm sure you'll resinate with some of them.
In this series we attempt to find names for some of these blindy situations, and share some of our favourites from the Meaning of Liff.
Aramac, noun. When lost in a shopping centre, the Aramac is the store who's aroma tells you where you are.
email: garth@audio.pizza
We have a quick look at Apples new AirTags and Steven tells us a truly concerning story about a stranger he found in his computer.
These hand crafted chimes make a wonderful gift for a birthday, or for a loved one for whom the perfect Christmas gift is hard to find. Choose fromAir, Water, Earth, Fire, or perhaps all four.
Hey, I added chapters, don't expect show notes as well. But really, thanks for listening.
We take a look at what's all over the news, well at least our news feeds, Apple's new MacBook Air, and get side tracked on a few other techie topics.
You can help Jordie with her Holman Prize pitch by going to her Youtube video and clicking like Thank-you so much for your support with this.
Rationale My dream is to record a CD featuring works by blind composers, Australian composers, and works that are more familiar. I plan to travel to my pianist Penny Cashman in Adelaide for rehearsals, to the UK later in the year for coachings with specialists in the classical music field, and to record the finished product in Melbourne at Move Records studios. Feature works include First Person Feminine by Ian Cooper who was blind, and mentored me as a young singer. Also a work called Normality by Dindy Vaughan who wrote the work as a commission for soprano, flute, violin and piano. It challenges the concept of “what is normal” in a humourous way. I also plan to record works by Spanish composer Rodrigo who was also blind, and other familiar composers such as Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Duparc. This CD will be a showcase of repertoire to share my voice with a much wider audience. I love to sing works that tell a story. This is a chance to collaborate with Penny and other musicians to express these concepts. I also hope to use this album as a vehicle to audition for conductors and increase my profile as a professional singer.
Bio Music is my first love. I also love animals and have worked with three beautiful labrador guide dogs and relish the freedom of movement they bring. Technology is another passion for me and I like to keep abreast with new developments in braille and audio devices. I am a Choral Scholar with Christ Church South Yarra. Other singing endeavours are finalist in the International Competition for Blind and Partially Sighted Musicians in Prague, the 2012 recipient of the Maroondah Singers Memorial Scholarship and a finalist in the 2013 Australian National Liederfest. I also play piano and teach music, braille music and singing to both young children and adults. Alongside my singing, I work as a music transcriber and music teacher. I have chaired the Australian Braille authority for four years, and work with the International Council on English Braille as chair of the music braille committee.
Merry Christmas folks. Support OSARA development by buying the Christmas Everywhere album. Take a listen to Komiti’s This Is My Time on Apple Music or search KOMITI on your favourite platform.
We welcome back Derek to show us what he achieved with the work and lurk. Ed Murrow before and after clean up is spectacular. Satauna tells us about the most accessible appointment setting service she has found and Garth takes us briefly through the workflow of putting together an episode of Tarts.
Links:
Lanes Audio
You Can Book Me
Audio Hijack
Reaper
On this episode we are joined by Derek Lane and discuss an idea he and Scott had to improve their propensity to getting stuff done. Will it work?
The Audio Pizza team are joined by Brett Halle to discuss the details of Apple's WWDC2019. Brett offers a unique insight in to some of the implications of the wide ranging announcements at this years conference.
Finally another session of TART has arrived after much machinations. Scott explains why he was having so much trouble with his podcast editing goals and his success with Wolf Garden. There’s updates on all our goals, and Scott starts sticky practice. This has nothing to do with his sticky fingers after eating his birthday cake.
The usual crew along with a special guest star takes an ever darkening look at life with Retinitis Pigmentosa, with their usual insightful, witty and heart warming perspectives.
Ok, yeah, they are just chatting and laughing about walking into poles, but they do cover some topics that might make you feel that you are not alone with all the literal headaches of RP.
For more information on RP, check out the Foundation for Fighting Blindness at
https://blindness.org/
Making a Record with Matt (Four Nights in Heaven) or , 4 N.I.H. as the cool kids say and we learn how Satauna lands her work.
Circus (the song you heard in this episode) has an animation video on YouTube
Fancy buying a copy? It’s on all the stores, or you can pick what to pay here:
The band are on Facebook. This is where Scott is currently testing the water with less traditional content to see what works, so expect some fairly funny stuff and many epic fails:
If you really really want to (actually, make that “have to”) you can write to TMH using band@themarianahollow.com and one of them will probably remember to check it eventually.
The mix engineer on the album was DANIEL BERGSTRAND of DUGOUT Productions
Still got that ear worm stuck in your head? Check out Inner Sanctum on Youtube
Inner Sanctum Entertainment on Facebook
Subscribe to the TART feed for outtakes and the uncensored session.
Well, it's another predictions show. I know you've probably heard enough of them, but if you want to know what's really going to happen, bunker down.
Matt explains his obsession with high hats, Scott has so many reasons and Satauna, well she’s as lovely as usual, but still no Windows on her Mac.
Rivo was originally designed by Mobience to assist people who are blind or visually impaired to use smartphones easily, quickly, and precisely. Mobience have teamed up with Braillist to design and develop Rivo 2 as an ideal and indispensable accessory. Th
On this fateful episode, we see the demise into insanity of the former host, Garth. Clearly the stress of Christmas has got to him, and so have the co-hosts. Thankfully, there is light at Christmas time in the form of Satauna, who joins the crew and bring
Scott has some good news to share, yes, we were surprised as well, and Matt's made some progress with OBS. The others attempt to ignore their goals, however we start exploring Satauna's workflow with brail for getting her voice-over work done.
The latest Apple event brought some exciting new products, as usual though, there's some 'buts', and some of them are like the prices, large'. Shaun's butt though is the biggest and not featured in this episode.
It's time to get your listening ears on, cause here comes the second session with the TARTs. Scott is slowly coming around to headphones and Matt is creating some scary good erotic fiction. Satauna and Garth do a reasonable job of pretending that their fails are actually successes. Want to get in touch? feedback@theaudioroundtable.com
Introducing the first Session of a new show on Audio Pizza, The Audio Round Table. Kid friendly sessions of TART will continue to appear on Audio Pizza however if you want to subscribe separately to The Audio Round Table, here's the RSS and Apple Podcasts links.
New sessions will come out first on the direct feed but you may occasionally need to put up with Scott's and Matt's potty mouthes.
One runs their mouth for a living, and another helps people look like they love their job. Someone thinks their old band sucks and that they should tell them exactly why, and the other one just wants to be regular. Welcome to the TARTs.
Watch Hail Spraytan by Anova Skyward on Youtube
Kayaker walks through his trials and tribulations caused by a lack of caffeine. Thankfully he makes peace with his new Latisima Touch and once again can start the day the way the caffeine gods intended.
Your monthly glimpse into the livelihoods and minds of Satauna (a pro voiceover artist), Matt (a studio owner), Scott (a capricious procrastinator), and, well, Garth.
In this episode, Shaun, Garth and Scott are joined by Tim to talk about their experiences with AIRA and the new Horizon glasses.
On this episode we cover the recent filtering of the Info Wars podcasts and take a quick look at the Unpacked event by Samsung.
Forget the reality cooking shows, you too can cook like a pro sous vide style! Sous Vide style means cooking food in a vacuum sealed plastic bag while in a precision-controlled temperature water bath. Sous Vide is a low and slow method of cooking, similar
This Episode starts with a discussion of the new MacBook Pros released recently by Apple, however than gets into some rather controversial discussion around some of the weirder blindness products available.
In a recent OSARA update, support has been improved for context menus on Windows, and added to the Mac. Additional context menus are available for envelopes and automation points, reporting state has been improved and these are also available on the Mac. As there is no applications key on the standard Mac keyboard, bindings have been added to Control+1 for the first context menu, this is equivalent to pressing the app key on Windows. The second and third context menus that are available on Windows with Control+AppKey and Alt+AppKey are available with the Mac's Control+2, and Control+3. If you are using a keyboard on your Mac that has an AppKey than this will work in the same way it would on Windows. It is important to note that moving forward, OSARA requires Reaper 5.92 and above. I also wanted to point out that since the latest updates to the OSARA key map, the ForwardSlash key has been left with no assignments bound and the plan is to try and keep it this way, so that users have the ability to add their own bindings without them being over written by future updates.
This session steps through doing basic automation of track volume, pan and effect parameters in Reaper with OSARA. View the full article at http://reaproducer.com
During a recent update to OSARA, the key map has been updated, and upgraded. There are a number of new key assignments , and rearrangements to existing keystrokes. These are outlined below.
Once you install the new key map, turn on shortcut help with F12 and explore the U, G, dash and equals, keys with the various modifiers and you will find the majority of the changes, however there are some others. Go to The ReaProducer site
As a blind person, it can be extremely difficult, firstly just to get where your going and in some cases, the last ten yards can be the hardest part of the journey. In this episode we look at some of the strategies and reflect on our experiences with this problem. We discuss various apps, and equipment that can be used, including Aira, BlindSquare, GuideDogs, Bluetooth tags, and the good old basic cry for help which is sometimes the best solution, whether we want to ask or not.
Use this link to Get a free month of Aira
https://aira.io/plans?referral=b7dd9
In this episode Tim, Shaun and Kayaker try to beat Garth into submition with respect to his ownership of smart speakers?
In this session I take a look at measuring and normalising to a LUFS value in Reaper. The first part of the episode covers what LUFS actually represents and how it is calculated. I start with discussing what Peak and RMS represent and how they are measure
In this episode I introduce and go through the process of customising settings for the Mini Guide.
The Mini Guide is a handheld ultrasonic mobility aid which is to be used in conjunction with a white cane or guide dog. it uses two sonar sensors to provide tactile and/or audio feedback to the user.
The guide has a number of distances or ranges to which it can be set from 0.5 metres through 8 metres. If there are no objects in the field of view of the device inside the set range, the guide provides no feedback, however it will start to vibrate once there is an object detected within the chosen range. It will vibrate faster and faster as the object comes closer, giving the user extremely useful information about the environment they are moving through.
The Mini Guide fits in the palm of your hand and is approximately 3, by 1.5, by 1 inch.
Some use cases include:
* Keeping an appropriate distance behind someone in a queue or line of people in a shopping centre.
* Scanning for head height obstacles when used with a white cane or guide dog
* Finding or counting doorways or shop entrances whilst walking down an isle
* Used with a white cane, excellent for finding and avoiding obstacles prior to touching them with the cane
* Used by it's self in environments you know well like your office or home to avoid other people
These are just a few of the ways the device can be used, it is very versatile and users can customise it so that it gives them valuable feedback for their particular situation.
To find out more about the device and where it may be available in your area I recommend contacting your local blindness support organisation. You can also check out the below link:
http://www.lssproducts.com/product/Miniguide-Mobility-Aid/other-canes-and-accessories
In this Round of Audio Pizza, we cover the weeks Tech News from an accessibility point of view. Blind blokes BS'ing about Tech.
The Nudge/set items dialog is another extremely useful feature within Reaper. You can open it with N.
As the name suggests, it allows you to either nudge the position of an item or set it to a specific location. Nudging the position is extremely useful however you can do far more than this. For example, you can nudge the right trim set the position of an item, or duplicate an item a specific number of times placing each item on a beat, or every second.
There are a number of combo boxes within the dialog. Firstly, you can choose to either Nudge or Set. Nudging moves the selected parameter relative to it’s current location, and set will move the parameter to a specific location.
The second combo box lets you choose what you are moving. Choices include, position, left or right trim, end position, left edge, duplicate, or media contents.
The item position is the most straight forward, and is exactly as it sounds, the position of the item on the track in it’s current state.
If you choose the left or right trim, you are saying you want to change where the left or right edge of the item starts. It is the same as growing or shrinking the edge of an item. So, nudging the right trim right by one second makes the item one second longer.
Another option is setting the position of the end point or right edge of the item. So if you need an item to finish at a precise location in your project, than this is an easy way to achieve it.
Rather than moving the item you can move the position of the edit cursor, either nudging by a certain amount or setting it to a specific position.
The dialog also allows for very precise positioning of your chosen boundary/item edge. A combo box gives access to seconds, milliseconds, measures and beats, along with samples and frames. There is also a button that will return the current position of the edit cursor to the text field.
For more details check out the podcast and explore the dialog in Reaper.
Thanks go to Justin MacLeod @SkyCladSound https://twitter.com/SkycladSound for this session.
The SWS ReaConsole
Basic Usage Use Option+C on Mac, or Alt+C on Windows to open the console. Type the command and press Enter to commit the command, leaving the console open for another command. You can also press Command+Enter to commit and close the window, which is Control+Return on Windows. Escape will close the console without performing the command.
A ReaConsole command can have up to three parts.
Firstly, the command, which is a letter that denotes what is to be done. eg M for mute or V to set the volume. ,
Than,, an optional text string to specify which tracks are to be adjusted. This can be the track numbers, and/or the track names where * is a wild card. Eg. 2,4–6, which would specify tracks 2, 4, 5, and 6. Or, voc* which would specify any tracks that started with the letters “Voc”.
The final part is the parameter value where relevant. Eg, dB of volume change or in the case of mute, not relevant.
If no tracks are specified in the command, the function will be performed on the currently selected tracks.
Additional Syntax You can just use a space to separate the track selection from the parameter value, however if you need to be more specific, you can use a semicolon when necessary. One example is where you are renaming a track, you may have multiple words in the text to select the track and than need to use a semicolon to designate where the new track name is to start.
For the toggle commands, using lower case will toggle the current state, prefix with a dash will force to off, prefix with a plus to force on for the selected/specified tracks, leaving the other tracks at their current state. An upper case command letter will force on for only the selected/specified tracks and off for all other tracks.
If you place an exclamation mark, after the command, the action will be performed on the unselected tracks, as though you have inverted the selection.
If you follow the track specifier with a slash, than the command will also be performed on any child tracks, that is tracks within the folder specified.
List of ReaConsole Commands * v Trim volume * V Set volume * p Trim pan * P Set pan * s Select * o Solo * a Arm * m Mute * h Phase * f Enable Effect (Bypass) * n Name Selected Tracks to * b Name Selected Track with prefix * z Name Selected Track with suffix * c Change colour on Selected Tracks * i Set input on Selected Tracks * l Set # channels on Selected Tracks * x Add effect to selected tracks * ! Add action marker at edit cursor * / Send local OSC message
Links Official ReaConsole Documentation Derek Lane CAVI Audio Giveaway
Join Shaun and Garth for a brief look at whats going on in the world of accessible tech, and tech in general.
This tutorial takes you through the process of creating a custom action in Reaper. Custom actions allow you to improve your productivity by combining multiple actions in to one.
This weeks Audio Pizza is brought to us thanks to Hugo. He actually recorded it last year, but to ensure we don’t make the mistake of being seen as too professional, we decided to leave the recording in a DropBox folder for a month or two, then pull it out and dust it off.
Of course, we all know it is Shaun’s fault, but no ones pointing fingers, mostly because we can’t see well enough to know which way to point. But if we could, and if Hugo sobered up for long enough, we’d all definitely blame Shaun.
So what is it about? Well you’ve probably already started listening and know it’s about the iOS app Instacart. It seems pretty cool but it’s not available in Australia so how cool can it be really?
If you’re in the US or somewhere else that the app is available, than check it out, otherwise forget it.
Probably the only reason you’re reading these show notes is to see if we put a link to the app in them. Well, yes we did but whether or not the link is clickable is dependant on your podcast app of choice. In any case, heres the link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instacart/id545599256?mt=8
This quick update is to let you know of a few changes I've made to the podcast. It has been split into two feeds, one fore the Reaper Tutorials and the main feed for everything. So in Apple Podcasts or your app of choice, search for Audio Pizza to hear al
In this first look at Apples new HomePod, I take a look at the setup process, go over some of the functionality and give my initial thoughts and opinions. Is this device for you?
The Audio Pizza Team take a look back at their predictions for 2017, and discover they have know idea what they were talking about. Given the appalling success rate, they try again for 2018.
The Audio Pizza team finally get back together just in time for Black Friday with all their picks and recommendations of just what gifts & gadgets you should be hunting down in the sales.
Happy shopping.
Useful Links.
Join Shauns Amazon Echo fan club by getting your hands on one of these great voice assistants here.
Kayaker’s copper Braille embossed dog tags along with other great Braille embossed jewellery and identification tags for all genders and ages can be found at Elegant Insights Braille Creations.
Garths Lightning to 3.5mm headphone adapter & his beloved Apple Air Pods can be found in the Apple Store, along with Shauns old faithful Apple Earpods
The TrackR bluetooth tag finder that can be used to find items via your iPhone or android can be found at The TrackR website.
You can find more information on the Mini Guide here.
If you, like Shaun, want to turn your home into your own personal lighthouse, check out the Tradfri Smart Lights from Ikea.
The ultimate Star Wars toy, er, I mean art sculpture of light sabers can be found at Ultra Sabers.
Relax with Garth and the Bose QC35 Series 2 noise cancelling headphones.
Kayaker’s favorite USB battery charger is the Jackery Bolt 6000 available from Amazon.
Shaun really can't get enough of voice assistants. If you're the same check out the Google Home range here.
Hugo takes us on the journey of setting up his new iPhone X, and discovers some of the gestures needed now the home button is gone.
This tutorial is courtesy of Dani Montalvo @charadani and covers the process of setting up a side-chain in Reaper on Windows. For further info please check out the article on the Reaper Accessibility Wiki https://reaperaccessibility.com/index.php/Sidechai
This tutorial goes through the Render, and the Consolidate/Export tracks dialogs. You can bring up the Render dialog through the File menu or by pressing Control+Alt+R (Win), Command+Option+R (Mac), and access the consolidate dialog through the File menu. I also introduce the shortcuts to fade in or out an item.
Rendering Projects and Tracks There are a number of parameters that can be set within the Render dialog which include: * File Name * Sample rate * Location * File Type to be Rendered * Parameters that pertain to the selected file type * Resample mode. If you have components of your project at various different sample rates, when they are rendered to the new file, this option lets you set the quality of this resampling. * The boundaries of what is to be rendered. In the Bounce option, you can choose from the entire Project, which is the default. A time selection, so make a time selection in the project and than choose this option to have only that portion rendered out. There are also options for Project regions and the ability to define a custom time range from within the render dialog.
* Master, or selected tracks. . The Bounce pop up lets you set what is rendered. You can choose from a number of options. By default the master track is rendered, so the mix down of all your tracks that are sent through the master, what you actually hear by default when you play your project. It also gives you the option to choose only specific tracks and render them out as separate files, known as stems. To do this, select the tracks within your project you want to have as stems. Then open the render dialog and under Source, pick, Stems -selected tracks. This will create separate files for each track you selected. Note these are stems and as such will include the result of any track effects that have been applied.
Once you’ve set the render options to your liking, you can render out the project, or add the render to a queue for later rendering.
Consolidate/Export tracks The Consolidate/Export tracks dialog, Within the File menu is another option that gives much of the same functionality however it is designed to consolidate or export out the individual tracks rather than the master mix. As noted above in the render section, you can render stems through the render dialog with track effects included. Many of the options for picking what is to be exported are the same in the Consolidate/Export Tracks dialog. You can pick the whole project, or a part/time selection as well as which tracks to consolidate. However the track effects, and track Volumes, etc, are not included. It will create single files for each track that are copies of the source media for the track, or the active take. There is also an option to have silent sections on tracks ignored. So if you have a track that has two sections with audio, and a period of silence in between, a separate file will be created for each part of the track with audio, rather than one single file that includes the silence. This is suitable if your using the files within the existing project, however may not be the best solution if you’re sharing the files.
The dialog is very useful for cleaning up a project. It allows you to update the files referenced by your project with the newly created files. If you have a track with various file types and names, you can consolidate this to a single file for each track. This is however a destructive process.
Relevant Keyboard Shortcuts Cmd+Opt+R File: Render project to disk… Opt+R File: Render project, using the most recent render settings, with a new target file name… Cmd+Opt+Shift+A File: Add project to render queue, using the most recent render settings Cmd+Opt+Q File: Open render queue * Cmd+Opt+I Item: Fade items in to cursor * Cmd+Opt+O Item: Fade items out from cursor *
This Episode is a look at the Render and Consolidate/Export Dialogs in Reaper with Osara.
Setting up a side chain in reaper is relatively straight forward. First what is a side chain? There’s many situations in which a side chain could be useful, and I will show one example today. In essence, a side chain is where you use the output of one track to control the effects on another track. The example I’ll go through is where you want to have your background music on one track automatically lowered in volume, or ducked, when there is speech on another track. So for example your podcast intro music is ducked when you start speaking. As usual I’ll demo this on the Mac, however you can follow the same process on windows. Before we start there’s a couple of other concepts to cover, and the first part of the tutorial is some revision of concepts already covered in this series. This includes a little on recording, editing with items, and the impact of your ripple setting. The tutorial also briefly introduces a couple of the available ways to normalise audio within reaper.
So let’s look at the basic way audio flows through reaper in a simple default setup. Whether the source is your Microphone or a file you’ve inserted on a track, the source will have an inherent volume as it comes in and goes on to the track. You can adjust the volume of the file or add input effects as it comes in and goes on the track. Once it hits the track you can also add effects and adjust the volume/pan of the track. The audio is then routed on to the Master track along with other tracks in the project. Once again you can adjust volume/pan, and add effects at this stage. It is the output of the master track that you then hear through your hardware outputs and what is printed to any file that your render. You can set up sends or receives which are basically just sending the audio from one track to another track before it reaches the master track. So for example, audio from a number of vocal tracks could be sent to a track that has a reverb instantiated on it. In this way, rather than setting up multiple copies of a reverb on multiple tracks, one copy of the reverb can be set up and the audio of a number of tracks can be affected by it. The audio that is on the original track can be optionally sent to the master track or not, depending on the specific requirements. In the side chain we will be setting up in this tutorial, we will be sending the audio from our vocal track to the music track. We will still want the vocal track to go straight to the master track so we can hear it. The copy that is sent to the music track will not be heard in the master however it will be used to compress the volume of the music, or in other words, to duck the music. We have a track with music, and a track with a voice over. To set up the side chain, go to the music track and press “I”. This will bring up the routing for the track. First step is to change the music track from a standard 2 channel stereo track to a 4 channel track. Next setup a receive from the vocal track to the music track. Next, set the destination of the send from the vocal track to the third and fourth tracks of the music tracks. You will then have a copy of the audio from the vocal track being sent to the music track, however instead of being mixed with the first and second channels, it will be received on the third and fourth channels, and won’t be actually heard in the output of the track. In this way it can influence effects that are applied to the music track even though it won’t be heard there. Now, we can add a compressor to our music track. In this tutorial, we are using the included compressor, Reacomp. Set the detector input of Reacomp to aux 3/4. This means that it will compress the audio on the music track, but instead of being triggered by the music, it will be triggered by the audio on the aux channels, that is the vocal we sent to channels three and four. Finally, we need to set up the compressor suitably to compress the music enough to hear the voice over. Set the ratio to a suitable value, at least 4/1 or higher, in the demo I set it to 6/1. You can use the precomp and attack parameters to affect how quickly the audio is ducked and the release parameter to affect how quickly the audio returns to it’s original volume once the voice over stops. The lower you set the threshold, the quieter the music will be while it is being compressed. We have now set up a side chain to duck our music while speaking. This may seem fairly complex at first, however understanding the concepts covered will help with lots of task you might want to undertake in Reaper, or any professional DAW
Keyboard Shortcuts * Shift+PageUp/PageDown SWS: Nudge active take volume up/Down * Shift+N Item properties: Normalize multiple items to common gain * Command+Shift+N Item properties: Normalize items * I Track: View I/O for current track
Join Shaun, Garth and Kayaker in this latest Audio Pizza roundtable discussion as concern grows over Garths out of control domain name habit. Is an intervention the answer?
Shaun then goes on to discuss the recent iPhone 8 leaks concerning the fate of the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Can Apple really be ready to retire your finger in favour of your face?
Kayaker then tells us of his recent trips to New York and Las Vegas, and just how well his Aira glasses performed. Sir Patrick Stewart and Levar Burton seemed to be impressed anyway.
Finally, Garth tells us why he's so excited by the Tesla Model 3. With his deposit down he predicts that Model 3 will be the tipping point, the start of the smart electric car as a serious option for the masses.
This tutorial looks at adding effects to tracks or items. It briefly covers the EQ and Compressor included in Reaper.
In this episode I take a look into some of the project settings and the save dialog. I show how to set a project such that when you move by bar, or measure, you will move by a minute, and when you move by beat, you'll move by a given number of seconds. This is a useful way of navigating projects which are not musical in nature, since there is no native keystrokes for this.
If you set the tempo to 60, and the time signature to 60/4, each measure will be a minute long, and each beat will be a second. If you keep the tempo at the same value as the first number in the time signature, you will move by a minute each measure. Reducing these two numbers will increase the length of a beat. So 30, 30/4 will give 1 min per measure and 2 seconds per beat, and 15, 15/4 will give 4 seconds per beat and keep the bar at a minute. Changing the ratio of the tempo to the first number of the time signature will adjust the length of a measure. 60, 30/4 will give 30 second measures and 1 second beats. Once you understand the maths, you will be able to set this up however you like, or just have a play and find something that works for you.
I also show how to set up your project so that any files recorded into the project are conveniently placed into a sub folder in the project folder. This is done by accessing the media tab and providing a folder name in the path to save media files.
Within the project settings, you can also set the default recording format for files recorded into that project.
Prior to looking at the save dialog, I show how to optionally import a collection of files either consecutively on one track or such that the files all start at the same time on individual tracks.
Also covered briefly is the process of rearranging the order of your tracks within a project.
Looking at the save dialog, along with the standard settings of location and name, I cover the options that specify the creation of a sub folder, and the options available for moving the actual files associated with a project into that folder. On Windows, you will need to use your screen reader's, screen review mode to make these selections. On the Mac, the check boxes are presented to VoiceOver.
####Keyboard Shortcuts
* Option+Enter File: Project settings...
* Command+S File: Save project
* Command+Option+S File: Save project as...
This is Audio Pizza’s open letter to Tim Cook podcast where we discuss the accessibility issues of MacOS, iOS, and the Apple Watch, and ask Tim to listen and react to the unique problems faced by the VoiceOver community. Dear Tim, Thank you, as a compan
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 dec
This Reaper Tutorial looks at picking the default recording input from your interface. How to select a different input, and of course how to record.
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.
Keyboard Shortcuts
CmD+Opt+Shift+P or Cmd+F12 Open OSARA Preferences
CMD+T insert and name track
Cmd+I Insert media files...
Space Play/Stop
Ctrl+Space Play/Pause
Cmd+Shift+J Report edit/play cursor position Measures and Beats
Cmd+Shift+J, J Report edit/play cursor position Time
Cmd+Home Go to start of project
Cmd+End Go to end of project
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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...
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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. Episode Links: KNFB Reader RNIB Tech Talk Audioboom Page
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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
Downloads Reaper
NVAccess OSARA
SWS Extension
CAVI Training
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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. Episode Links: Samsung Galaxy S8. Turkish Crime Family Hackers. Windows 10 Creators Edition. Google Home. Ikea Smart Lights. RNIB Tech Talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5HKtKaJtGI
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Following on from our last roundtable where we discussed everything accessible media, in this episode Shaun interviews Kevin Shaw, President and CEO of Tell Me TV. Tell Me TV is the only video streaming service offering 100% audio described content. In this interview Kevin tells us just what the service offers and how it works, how the attitude of studios has changed towards audio description and how you can try the service using our discount code.
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http://traffic.libsyn.com/iblindtech/AP-005-TalkingMedia.mp3 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. Episode Links: Netflix. TIVO Screen Reader. Tell Me TV. The 100% Audio Described Video Streaming Service. Blindy TV. Disney Movies Anywhere App. Audible. National Library Service (US) RNIB Overdrive Talking Books Service. RNIB Newsagents. The Podcast Engineering Show. Life After Blindness Podcast.
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Welcome back to another roundtable, welcoming in 2017. We discuss some of the things to come out of CES, including AIPoly 2, Alexa everywhere, Faraday Future's electric car and the new chip from AMD. Our holiday gifts rate a mention, who doesn't love chocolate oranges! We finish the show by putting our reputations on the line with our predictions for 2017. Enjoy!
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http://traffic.libsyn.com/iblindtech/AP003-AirPods.mp3 Download or Play In this post I give my initial impressions on the new AirPods from Apple. I go through the functionality and features from the perspective of a Voice Over user.
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Another slice of Audio Pizza is served up with the wonderful Cara Quinn joining us. her day time jobs include being an iOS developer, Model, and Musician, but what struck us most about Cara was her kindness and passion for making a difference in the world. We discuss the general topic of coding in Apple’s Xcode and more specifically her work with LookTell. We also talk about some of the well known email lists Cara owns such as Macvisionaries and viphone.
Episode Links @ModelCara on Twitter LookTell MacVisionaries VIPhone
Welcome to Audio Pizza, and our first roundtable. Shaun and Garth are joined by The Dark Kayaker, someone who knows what he’s talking about, this is actually a nice change. We jump into Apple’s recent MacBook Pro event and discuss the implications of the new touch bar enabled Macs, the new TV app and Apple’s new Accessibility website. http://www.apple.com/accessibility/
It’s time again to meet with the folk from Project Starfish. You can listen to prior episodes I’ve done with them if you’re not familiar with them. We catch up about some of what has happened since last we spoke and introduce a new promotion they have running with Blind Fold Games to introduce the Blindfold Racer Championship 2016. Please visit blindfold games.org for more information. Get yourself signed up as soon as possible as the championship starts on October 1.
This episode looks at how to record with the Mac app Amadeus Pro. I take a detailed look at the recording dialog and cover
* How to pause and resume recording
* How to adjust recording levels
* how to accessibly meter the recording level to ensure the best possible recording
* How to drop and name markers during recording for easy access when editing
* How to listen or monitor what is being recorded
Enjoy!
This episode is a look at the iOS App PCalc. It is a wonderfully accessible, powerful and efficient calculator for your iOS device that not only presents a full featured app but also an interface in your notification centre and on the Apple Watch. The app store description of the full version is below, however a free lite version is also available. Try the free version from which you can update just the specific components you need, or grab the full version of the app.
App Store Description PCalc is the powerful choice for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, or indeed anybody looking for a feature rich calculator. It includes an optional RPN mode and multi-line display, a choice of button layouts, an extensive set of unit conversions and constants, a paper tape, multiple undo and redo, engineering and scientific notation, as well as support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations. Includes an Apple Watch app, so you can calculate on your wrist!
The developer James Thomson has done a fantastic job with the usability of the app and has also recently brought it to the Apple TV.
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Tripmode is a Mac app that allows you to control the data that your Mac uses whilst it’s connected to a mobile hotspot, or for that matter, any specific WiFi network. This episode takes a quick look at the app and discusses some of the benefits it will afford you.
Thanks go to Allison Sheridan of the Nosillacast Mac Podcast for highlighting the app, and bringing to my attention. Hope you enjoy the episode, and the app.
LetterPad is a free and accessible iOS word game that offers an Apple Watch app.
App Store Description LetterPad gives you 9 letters. Your task? Find the hidden words relating to the puzzle topic! * Work your way through over 200 puzzles * Create and share your own puzzles to stump your friends * New community made puzzles added regularly * Apple Watch support lets you play right on your wrist!
Click here to learn more and download the app.
This is an episode of the Aussie Mac Zone podcast which I regularly participate in. It is a weekly news show, and covers mainstream Apple stories from an Aussie point of view. If you’re interested in subscribing click here
Although Kayaker's cove could be described as a quaint, warm inlet with calm lapping waves, the ocean can be a dark, violent place with giant rogue waves and swashbucklers and pirates just over the horizon. As is the sea, so goes technology.
Every week there are new stories of data breaches and new security exploits putting your data at risk. You will never be safe. But don't go off the grid yet or pull that boat into dry dock. There are easy things you can do to help reduce your exposure on the high-tech seas, so let's get started! Here's my top ten security tips and best practices list for you.
- Don't Run as Admin
They still call it a personal computer, and many of us still think of it that way. It's my computer, so why would I have more than one account set up on it? Well, that's probably your biggest security risk, and it started from the moment you booted your Mac for the very first time and it asked you to create a username and password. That initial account has what is called admin level privileges and has the potential to tweak just about every file on your computer. Any application you run will have admin privileges, and thus any application you run can change about anything on your system. A malicious piece of software would love to have that chance. I always recommend two accounts on your Mac, one that is your admin account that you set up when you first set up a new Mac, and then a standard account, which is your main account you use every day. I use the user MacAdmin as my admin account, and kayaker as my main account. You would set this up by going to System Preferences, Users and Groups. From there, you should see the Users table and ideally you want to see that you have an account with admin privileges and another with standard privileges. The way you can tell which is which is in the user account info section, where you should find a checkbox that says something like Allow this user to administer this computer. There has to be at least one account that has this ability. If you only have an account with admin privileges, you need to correct the situation. To do this, create a new account called MacAdmin and give it the ability to administer the computer. Then, go to your personal account name and remove your main account's ability to administer the computer by unchecking the checkbox.
So what does this mean for your day-to-day life? Not much. If you ever are prompted with a dialog to enter admin credentials, instead of just typing your password, you instead need to enter the MacAdmin username and the MacAdmin password. That's about it. This simple step has now prevented what we call an escalation of privileges attack, one of the most common attack vectors for malware. 2. Time to Give Up Your 1234 Password used everywhere
If you keep the key to your treasure chest on top of the chest, well, I'm certain Captain Jack will thank you. You are only as safe as your passwords. This is the weakest link in any security system. So you need to make it strong. In fact, you can google “most common passwords” and get a list. Your password better not be on it. So, how do you make a password strong? I suggest that whatever you use, it not be in a dictionary, or in the script of any Star Trek or Star Wars movie. Mixing numbers and symbols in is always a good thing. I also suggest you make it at least 12 characters long.
Now that you have a strong password, make sure you use it for one purpose. If you have another account, use a different strong password. Hope you just didn't make your admin password the same as your main user password just now. A sad but true fact is that Web developers are lazy. Anyone who stores your password should be saving not the password, but a hash of your password. And I won't go geeky technical here, but in general, a hash cannot be used to figure out your actual password. It is just like what Apple does with your touch ID info: they hash your fingerprint and save the hash, not the fingerprint. Unfortunately, you have no insight as to how any site you visit saves your credentials. So, if bad guys steal data from your favourite gossip site, and that site saved your password as text, and that's the password you use all over the Web, well, there goes your bank account balance.
I know, I know, you have passwords for every site out there. How on earth can you keep track? There are some great applications out there to help you manage all your credentials. I personally use 1Password by Agile Bits. It's cross platform and secure. Despite the recent news of data being potentially compromised from LastPass, that's another good option. LastPass keeps your data very secure and even if bad guys had their entire database, it's so heavily encrypted that it would be impossible to crack it in your lifetime and that of your great-great-great-grandkids' lifetime as well. 3. I m the Key Master, are you using the Gatekeeper?
It doesn't take a ghost to haunt your computer with malware. You can accidentally run an app that installs a demon of a daemon onto your Mac. Fortunately, MacOS has a security feature called Gatekeeper that will warn you if it thinks you might be running an app that you shouldn't. You can find Gatekeeper in the General tab of the Security and Privacy System Preference pane. There, you will find a radio button to complete the sentence: Allow only downloaded apps from, and suggest you use the second radio button, from the app store and identified developers. This is the default setting. But even if you want to run an app that Gatekeeper doesn't know about, fear not. You can easily override the warning by right clicking on the app and choosing open, and then confirming you want to open it on the next dialog box. 4. News Flash: Don't Use Flash
This is an easy one. Never never never install Flash on your Mac or PC. That's it. Flash is probably the single largest attack vector of virus and malware out there today. And you can get infected by just visiting any site that uses an ad service that has an infected ad. Bang. Your computer is now compromised. Did I mention to never never never use Flash? But if there is a site that needs Flash that your life depends on, use the Chrome browser and make certain you've done everything else on this list to help mitigate potential damage. Did I mention to never never never use Flash? 5. Disable Opening of Safe Files
Safari tries to be helpful and will automatically open safe files. Sorry, there is simply no such thing. A clever JPEG file can infect your computer; a clever PDF file can infect your computer. There is no such thing as a safe file. So go to your Safari preferences and uncheck "Open safe files after downloading." This will mean you will have to go to your downloads folder to open files you have downloaded, but it also means you won't accidentally download and run a maliciously crafted "safe" file from a bad guy. 6. Disable Auto Login
You don't sail off the coast of Somalia with a sign that says we will pay ransoms; nor should you make it easy for someone to steal your data. If you turn on your Mac and are brought right to your desktop without having to enter your username and password, you're giving anyone easy physical access to your computer. It's just like leaving your house keys hanging in the lock of your front door. It's easy to fix this in System Preferences, Security and Privacy, General tab. Make certain that your settings are not set to auto login. In earlier versions of MacOS X, this option was found in the Users and Groups or Accounts System Preference pane in the login options section. 7. Don't Click That Link!
This is analogous to don't call me, I'll call you. The majority of malware infections are done by phishing attempts. These are e-mails or pop-ups asking you to click on something or install something that will take you to a fraudulent website where bad things will happen. Never click on a link in an e‑mail or click on a pop-up from a browser that asks you to update something. The simple rule is that if you did not initiate the contact, then don't click on any link, even from your mother. But if you signed up for something like a new account from a particular site, and they send you a confirmation e‑mail in the time frame of your interaction with that site maybe asking you to verify your e‑mail by clicking on a link, then that's probably OK since you initiated the contact. If you are uncertain about the validity of an e‑mail, then go to the website not by clicking on the link in the e‑mail, but by typing the address in your browser directly. And don't forget to look for that https protocol, not just http. That S is for ‘securer.’ 8. Certificates and the Price of Free WIFI
Public WIFI access points are just that: public. Be very careful about sending or doing anything critical over them. This goes for hotels and coffee shops. The risk here is about man in the middle attacks. If you can join a WIFI network, then a bad guy can join a WIFI network. If a bad guy can join, then a bad guy can see all traffic, and if he can see all traffic, he can spoof an extenuation of the network and force you to connect to his computer as your access point. He can then see any nonsecure traffic leaving your machine, and could possibly trick you into letting him see encrypted traffic as well, by issuing you a non-validated certificate. I could do a whole podcast on certificates, but for now, think of certificates as ways to encrypt your data and verify the identity of the website you are connecting to. If you ever see a dialog saying your browser cannot verify the identity or validity of a certificate, do not click Continue or OK if you are using a public access point or are connecting to an important website. The exception to this rule is if you are connecting to a small or personal website. These certificates are often just used for encryption and are what we call self-signed certificates. I have a self-signed certificate for my domain because certificates cost a lot of money to get, and I'm only interested in using it for encryption. Just be very, very mindful of any certificate warning you receive from your browser. 9. Those Three Security Questions Aren't
The advent of security questions was to solve one problem only: too many support calls about a forgotten password. It's not about security. Besides, your Facebook page and Google could probably give a bad guy all the answers he needs to take over your account, so don't let it happen. Those answers may be required to set up an account, but you need not be truthful. Make your answers as random as your passwords. Use your password manager to store your answers. Don't make it easy for social engineering to steal your identity. 10. Stay Up-to-Date
This may be obvious, but make sure the software you run is up-to-date. That goes for your Mac OS version as well as your apps. If exploits are discovered and then fixed, you need to update to get that fix. But if you are not using the built-in software update mechanism or the app store, just be careful about how you get your updates by making sure you are going to the developer's site directly.
We want to tell you about a petite young lady, Alexa, who recently came ashore at Kayaker’s Cove. You may have heard the Echo of her voice already. However, if you’re still on the fence, and not sure if you should invite her in to your own life, take a listen to Kayaker’s experiences.
Along with the device, Amazon makes available an iOS app. The app is not completely accessible however you can certainly use it to get your new Echo connected and ready to respond to your every whim, well at least some of them.
On this episode I take an introductory look at the iOS app Voice Dream Mail. This app is free and from within you can purchase a subscription to unlock further features. Read on to see what the developer has to say about the app…
App Store Description Voice Dream Mail works by speech and touch, so you can efficiently go through your email inbox without having to use your eyes. How It Works The app reads your email out loud using text-to-speech. You control it using the entire screen of your iPhone or iPad as a touchpad. For example, swipe right anywhere to advance to the next email, and swipe down to trash. Why It's Efficient Once you learn the handful of gestures, you will be able to triage your inbox very quickly. You know what to do with most emails after hearing the sender and subject. Because all commands can interrupt reading, it only takes a few seconds to handle each email. Plus, you can gradually increase speech rate: most people can listen at a higher speed than they can read visually.
Check out the app on the App Store to learn more and download.
I had the pleasure of talking to Subs and Amanda from the Project Starfish team. This is the second time I’ve had the opportunity to interview them and both times I’ve been personally inspired by the project and members.
Project Starfish is an inclusive, professional, experiential, learning platform. And if you want to know what that means or how they help blind and vision impaired people gain the skills and experiences required for work in the contemporary business world, take a listen to the show.
Get in touch with the Project here..
Following up on my demo of the Shortcuts Keyboard App the developer has offered to drop the price to free again on March 3. If you haven’t already taken the opportunity to pick up the app, then I recommend grabbing it. If 3 March 2015 is history when you’re reading this and the price is back to it’s normal price , then pick it up anyway, it’s worth it.
You can visit Shortcuts Keyboard on the App Store to find out more about the app and get the app.
I speak to Tom Dekker from iHabilitation Canada in this show. Tom tells us about the release of his latest tactile diagram book and gives us some insight on why he first started creating these fantastic resources for blind and low vision users of iOS devices. We also discuss the companion videos that have been created to use in conjunction with the book. The videos are freely available from Tom’s site by clicking here.
Other topics touched on in the show include The benefits of using the SpeedDots screen protectors, and Tom’s upcoming potential collaborations with Fedora Outlier and Blind Alive.
In this episode I take a look at the iOS app Shortcuts Keyboard.
An extremely useful third party keyboard for iOS 8.
App Store Description
Shortcuts Keyboard is a keyboard that allows you to add text based shortcuts to use in your favourite apps. It's great for quickly sharing an address of the party you're going to, your email address, and so much more! – Add your own text-based shortcuts – Works in your other apps such as Messages, email, and facebook messenger! Create shortcuts for quick access to sharing your email address, directions to your house, helpful information, or quick status updates such as, "Hey, I'm on my way, I'll be there soon!" or "There's a party tonight at 1 infinite loop around 7pm, think you can make it?"
Visit Shortcuts Keyboard on the App Store to read more and get the app.