Streaming Music with the Chromebook

A must in my work space is a way to stream music.  It is the compliment to much writing and website management.

Over the years, I have used a little bit of everything with my Mac--iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, TuneIn, and Amazon--I have been using the Chrome browser on y Mac since its beginning.

I can truthfully say that I never used Google Play that much. After all, how many streaming sites do you need through the day?

With the new Chromebook, I made a decision to give it a full test.

First step, I uploaded some of my music from iTunes to Google play using the Music Manager program.  It was a simple download and an easy process that works behind the scenes.

I discovered just how much music I have in the Cloud, so I downloaded a dozen albums to my Mac, activated Music Manager and uploaded those albums to Google Play.

I got what I wanted transferred easily, and began playing my own music without a glitch.

Google Play also has streaming radio channels that are quite eclectic, and much like Pandora, will play a mixture of music similar to the artist that you choose.

The app figured out quickly what I listen to based on my own music, and gave me a dozen choices to choose from (James Taylor Radio, Lyle Lovett Radio, Jackson Brown Radio, etc.)

I can easily find another genre if I choose. So far, I like the selections of Google Play better than Pandora, but sometimes I wish I had the choice to listen to whole albums like I do on Spotify.

Best of all, I have access to the other apps that I use regularly- Pandora and Spotify.

With my Chromebook docked with the external monitor and a cheap sound system plugged into the audio out n the monitor, I am getting excellent audio that rivals anything that came out of the Mac.

Summary- The Chromebook does an excellent job of streaming music, Google Play is an excellent and inexpensive option for listening to music. I can use all of the other music apps just as easily. I am at work and surrounded by music that I love. Enough said.

USB Equipment Test- Behringer Mixing Board

This test of the Chromebook came about because today is my regular radio show (Connect).

The regular set-up is a MacBook connected to a Behringer digital mixing board through a USB cord.  I use a high quality Behringer condenser microphone with XLR connection to the mixer.

After I finished my show, I still had all of the equipment out, so I decided to run a quick test.

I have to admit that it floored me when I plugged in the Behringer mixer to the USB port of the Chromebook, it automatically connected and was recognized by the system.

On more than one occasion, I have plugged that same mixer into my MacBook, or another PC, and it was not recognized.  I would have to go into System Preferences and reassign the channels, and in some cases I would need to restart a Windows machine to get it to recognize a new USB device.

The Chromebook gets high marks for the simple and easy connection.  I don't expect it with every USB device that I plug in, but this was a significant finding.

I then ran a little test of the microphone and board with the Beautiful Audio Editor app and found excellent sound quality and a richer, bolder sound than the built-in microphone.

In the future, when I create podcasts and the like with the Chromebook, I will use the USB mixer and get a little better quality.

Below you can hear the difference between this week's test with Monday's test:


So, successful test. More insights to come with future testing.

Audio Editing

One of the things that I do in my work- edit audio clips for podcasts and other media productions.

I have a couple of tools on my Mac that are standard tools--a piece of freeware called Audacity, and Adobe Audition.  (Not to mention that Garage Band comes with the Mac OS)

I have been using Audacity for years, and like the ease of use, and the ability to quickly edit a piece of audio.

I have only been using Audition for about 18 months.  It is one of the best tools out there, and I have not used all of the options available to me. It is more than I need for my use (and I would never pay the price to personally own it).

So, the experiment had me looking for apps that could help me edit audio.  I ran across the Beautiful Audio Editor App over the weekend and thought I would try it out.

The first tests were conclusive-it can be done.

Was the recording capability as good as my current set-up in the office? No.

Was it easy to use? Yes.  Even someone who has never edited audio before could earn it in a few minutes.

Were there many options for editing? Not a huge amount, but adequate for a simple project.

Was it worth the price? Yep, free is good.

So, here's a first project that I tried in the app (and then I uploaded it to my Spreaker account so that I could post the widget below):


What do you think?