barryvan

Author: Barry van Oudtshoorn

  • Key MacOS software

    I recently started at Wonde, and for the first time I’m now using a MacBook as my daily driver. The experience is fairly mundane — it’s just a computer! But there are a few tweaks and adjustments that I’ve made to make it more comfortable for myself. This post is more a reference for my future self than a set of explicit recommendations.

    I’ll doubtless add more apps to this list as I go forward!

    AltTab.app

    Gives you a Windows-like alt–tab experience — that is, the ability to tab through windows, not just applications.

    CopyClip.app

    Clipboard history. I’m surprised that this isn’t baked into the OS!

    Karabiner.app

    Probably the most significant workhorse app that I’ve installed. Allows you to remap individual keys, or pull down (or build) more complex adjustments. I use it to make changes like cmd–backspace deleting a word (rather than a line), home and end actually working, and various other Windows-like shortcuts. It’s particularly useful when you’re using an external (Windows) keyboard.

    I find myself reaching for the config on this app almost daily at present — normally when I use a muscle-memory keyboard shortcut that doesn’t quite do the right thing (like cmd–left or cmd–right moving in lines, not words — something I found while writing this post!).

    Pock.app

    Allows you to move the dock into the touchbar. (Yep, I’m using the only MacBook Pro still with a touchbar!). This lets you free up more desktop space.

    Rectangle.app

    Gives you about 60% of the functionality of Aero snap in Windows. Unfortunately it doesn’t let you resize windows that are side-by-side simultaneously, and it doesn’t include the Win11 22H2 placement functionality, but it’s still an absolute necessity. I really would love for Apple to copy Windows directly here!

    Vanilla.app

    With all these hundreds of “fixer” apps, you end up with a menubar full of cruft. Vanilla lets you hide icons in the menubar (like the system tray in Windows!). The free version needs to be manually set to open on login, and doesn’t automatically re-hide, but it’s still really key.

    Out of the box positive things

    There are some great little features out-of-the-box on the Mac. In no particular order:

    • It’s great that you can add background blur to the camera at a system level (although I’d love a higher resolution camera!).
    • I appreciate being able to choose microphone voice-focussing modes at a system level.
    • When moving the mouse across displays, even unmatched non-retina ones, the cursor never “disappears” from one and reappears on another. This is a (super minor) niggle that’s been around forever on Windows.
    • It’s fast! The M2 processor really does fly. I’ve not noticed any slowdowns or significant issues, and the machine I’m using only has 8GB of RAM. (Yes, really!)
    • The speakers are great. Really great. Surprisingly great, especially for Meet and Zoom calls.

  • Autumn Heart

    Autumn Heart

    This is really my first track with actual singing. 😱 (Yes, that’s what I look like when I sing…)

    I wrote this song to explore depression and anxiety. When you have a depressive episode, it feels like a pit you’ll never be able to climb out of — even though you know from past experience that it will pass. It helps to have someone who’s always on your side, no matter what.

    For more places to listen, try your favourite streaming service, or check out https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/barryvan/autumn-heart.

  • Light comes down

    Light comes down

    This was a fun little piece to write! It started out as I was playing with building out a drum rhythm, and then grew from there into a semi-breakbeat type of hybrid piece. I mixed to mono and applied a pretty aggressive bandpass filter at the start so that when it opens up, it opens all the way up.

    Let me know what you think!

  • More music on Bandcamp!

    I haven’t updated my Bandcamp page in several years… But that’s just changed! I’ve uploaded music from the last year or so there. So now you can download it in super-high fidelity, store it on your hard drive, record it to tape for your Walkman sessions… The sky’s the limit!

  • Deep River dreaming

    Deep River dreaming

    I’ve written a few times about heading down to Western Australia’s “Great Southern” region. There’s a small bush-shack we stay at. It’s on a property surrounded by national parks, and is far from the highway. It has such a beautiful diversity of ecosystems — coastal scrub, rainforest, majestic karri forests, peppermint tree groves… It’s an incredibly calming place.

    The pieces in this album all capture something about that place. Most were written there, in fact! There’s something about being in nature that just gives me a chance to pause, and to actually process things. There’s more space, and there’s less pressure to run from doing this to doing that to doing something else.

    I’d describe this album as “ambient”, but there are really multiple styles together. Several of the pieces combine sounds taken from the forests with acoustic and digital sounds. My hope is that these pieces will give you the chance to feel the chaos of life slow down, if only for a moment.

    As always, you can listen wherever you stream your music.

  • Dusk

    Dusk

    Another piece written while I was in WA’s Great Southern region! As I was writing this piece, the evening chorus of kookaburras started up, blending in with the music. And they fitted so well that I felt compelled to keep them in — after all, their staccato laughing fits in well with a rhythmical, glitchy drop.

    This song is intentionally harmonically simple — it really does just stick to the most basic primary chords. I wanted to write something which was optimistic, and joyful, and fun — so nice primary colours, and big open power chords and bouncy lines. And, of course, a whole lot of playing with that mod wheel for vibrato on the lead! I also had fun with the intro — applying a really tight EQ to the intro so that the whole thing sounds fuller and bigger when the song really kicks off.

    Listen wherever you get your stream on. 😉

    Oh, and this piece also introduces a new little “barryvan” logo which I think I like… It’s kinda like a backwards quaver (eighth note) and has some nice forward momentum. Plus it feels a little bit retro futuristic. At least in my opinion. 😝

  • Phlogiston

    Phlogiston

    Back in 2011, I wrote a track called “Conflagration” — a moody EDM track with lots of classical orchestration, built around an ascending baseline figure. Then in 2012, I reworked it into “Contraflagration”, which slowed things down a bit but cranked up the distortion — and, although built around the same basic baseline, reworked the harmony.

    Now in 2021, I’ve reworked it again into a funkier, semi-disco piece that increases the harmonic complexity whilst making the track a little bit more silly and fun.

    And now they’re here together for your listening pleasure wherever you get your stream on. 😉

  • Alone again

    Alone again

    My family and I have been heading down to the south-west of Western Australia for holidays quite frequently; we have a cabin out in the bush near Walpole. I’ve found that heading down there has really helped me to increase the amount of music that I’m writing — something about the place helps me to slow down enough.

    This is one of the first pieces that I wrote down there. I actively wanted to write a more video-game style electronic piece which incorporated a decent amount of swing. I also leaned a bit on my fondness for bitcrushing, which gives sounds a lovely crispy, crunchy texture.

    Find it wherever you get your stream on!

  • Book review: The long way to a small, angry planet – Becky Chambers

    Book review: The long way to a small, angry planet – Becky Chambers

    On the back of a review by Terence Eden (who somehow manages to blog every day about a wide range of interesting things!), I picked up Becky Chambers’ debut novel. I wasn’t sure entirely what to expect of the book, but having read the first one, I’m now well into the third book in the series.

    The book is marked as sci-fi, but it’s probably better considered speculative philosophical fiction. Yes, there are your typical space fantasy elements — amazing aliens! fancy technology! space war! — but it seems to me that the book is more interested in exploring the interpersonal dynamics and providing analogies for acceptance of diversity, particularly in relation to gender. In the space fantasy milieu, Chambers has crafted aliens with non-discrete genders — and then just made this a completely normal part of the world for her characters. In other words, she has — at least in this regard! — built a utopian world.

    There is some fun sci-fi stuff in the novel, too. I enjoyed the considerations of whether an AGI, being sentient, is therefore alive, and should be apportioned the same rights and freedoms as any other sentient being. (Chambers dives into this a lot more in the sequel).

    There are distinct elements of Alan Dean Foster’s worldbuilding, and elements of The Expanse in here too — but this novel does stand on its own merits. It’s not a heavy read, but it’s also not something to just skim over. Worth a read!

  • Waltz

    Waltz

    I wrote this piece in active contrast with a lot of the other pieces I’ve written over the past while. It’s a small chamber piece that meanders through what is effectively a theme and variations. The arpeggiated piano line is contrasted with the broader viola and cello lines, which weave in and out of each other.

    I wanted to try something a bit different (for me, at least!) by switching the melodic aspects of the piano from the right hand to the left; this results in a repeated ostinato phrase in the right hand while the left hand outlines the richer harmonic and melodic figures.

    In writing this piece, I really just wanted to write something which would give me a sense of space and openness.

    Find it wherever you get your stream on — here are all the streaming links.

  • Exhale

    Exhale

    Probably one of the most down-the-line dance tracks I’ve written in a while! There are still a few unusual elements in there, though. This is the first track that I’ve really used MassiveX on — and I like the results!

    Available now on SoundCloud, and arriving soon on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and everywhere else.

  • Liminal: Four new tracks

    Liminal: Four new tracks

    I’ve just released four new tracks to tickle your earballs! They mix a lo-fi retro vibe with more modern instrumentation and sounds.

    Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music, YouTube… wherever you like to listen. 😉

    …or just use the embedded YouTube player below!