http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/index.htmlHot News!endaphna@daphna.caCopyright 2006 Daphne Kalfon2007-08-06T14:05:29-07:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:10:58 -0700daphna@daphna.caHome2007-08-06T14:05:29-07:00http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/51823590c09cc2da4549fdcd13f29941-5.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/51823590c09cc2da4549fdcd13f29941-5.html#unique-entry-id-51. Daphne. Let's start from the very beginning. When did you start using Macs and Apple products and why?

I started using a Mac in 1997 when my husband Richard put together my first home studio. Of course after using both PCs and Macs, he made sure that I would be using a Mac for my music creation work! At that time, my focus was writing music scores for 3D animation projects and for some independent films.

Which was your first Mac?

A Power Mac 7500.

2. Did you already use this first Mac to make music?

Well, it was my first time using a Mac, and my first time using a computer to create music. Prior to that I used PCs but that had been only for office types of jobs. I am thankful for a PC for one reason however: a few years before that first Mac, I tried to create music with a friend’s PC. For this purpose I had bought Cubase Lite but the manual was so bad that I couldn’t understand what it was talking about (probably one of those early German to English translations!) but at least having purchased that program allowed me to later get a rather large discount on the new version of Cubase for the Mac.

3. Now let's move forward. How about the song you wrote, I Love my Mac.
How this thing started and how it became famous in Apple World?

Soon after GarageBand was first released, I joined on online community of GarageBand users called macjams (www.macjams.com). One day while browsing around on macjams I noticed an announcement about a song contest. It stated that the contest was being put on by the macCompanion Magazine, and that the contest was to write a love song about your Mac computer.
I felt it would be really easy to write such a song, and after a few tries I created the song “I Love My Mac”. My song was awarded first prize which was a 250 GB external hard drive, something which I actually needed, so I was quite happy about that.
For the first year and a half following that, I had the song on the macjams website, along with my growing repertoire of songs. Then, again while browsing macjams one day, I read that MacAddict Magazine has a CD-ROM with their magazine, and that I could submit “I Love My Mac” for consideration for this CD-ROM.
Some months later I received a positive response, and “I Love My Mac” was included on the December 2005 CD-ROM with the magazine. Although I already had a certain number of fans, I feel that this really helped to spread the word about “I Love My Mac” in a way that would not otherwise have been possible, so I am thankful to MacAddict for that.
I started to hear from people all over the world, and most of them were extremely happy and excited about this song. Many of them asked me where they could buy the song, and this is when I realized I should put it in the iTunes Music Stores.

4. About the versions in different languages. How this happened?

This happened in the early days when the song was still just on the macjams website. I was contacted by a woman in Switzerland, Antonia Lutz, and she told me that she loved the song so much that she wanted to translate and sing it in German. At first I thought this rather strange, but then after she sent me her recording, I realized it would be a great idea to get the fans involved in this way and have more translations into as many languages as possible. I felt this would be a wonderful way to turn the song into a very large collaboration, and to give the opportunity for Mac fans to take part in something which up until that time, I don’t believe had ever existed: an official anthem for Mac lovers.
Antonia’s German version was placed on macjams as well. When my English version eventually made its way into the iTunes Music Stores however, I felt that the song had grown enough in popularity that it needed its own official website, which would include background information about the song, the different language versions, the lyrics and a guestbook.
Soon after the German recording, I received a recording in Swedish from Ingemar Ragnemalm, himself a well-known computer programmer especially during the 1990’s, and I also received a remix, created by composer/producer Tim Janssens of Belgium. Then, through a well-coordinated collaborative effort, a completely new Japanese version was born and also placed in the iTunes Music Stores.
More recently, an Italian recording was done by Marco Amore, a fan in Italy.
I also have translations of the song in French, Spanish and Dutch, but I need to find some vocalists for those, preferably living in the corresponding countries where these languages are spoken.

5. Do you allow me to make a portuguese version just for fun?
I'm a drummer, so don't be scared with my singing.
:-)

Of course. I am happy to receive recordings from as many people as possible, from wherever they happen to live. I find this whole process very new and exciting each time.

6. How did you managed to put the song in the iTunes Store?
Just want to tell you that I bough it.

First of all, thanks for buying my song : ) I really appreciate all the support I have received from the fans of the song. By telling their friends, playing the song on their podcasts, talking about it in blogs etc., they have really helped spread the word, and for that I am extremely appreciative.
As for how I placed the song in the iTunes Stores, that was once again thanks to my affiliation with macjams. At the time I was trying to figure out how I was going to put the song in the iTunes Music Stores, I read on the macjams site that one of the more active members was starting a record label (in the US). I decided to contact him to see if he would be interested in trying to place “I Love My Mac” in the iTunes Music Stores and his response was basically “yes”.
Just prior to that I had heard from a fan that she was going to be attending MacWorld in San Francisco and would like to play my song before her presentations, so the record label was able to push the song through a little sooner than normal, so that it would be in the iTunes Stores in time for MacWorld 2006.

7. Can you explain us how and why do you use Macs to make music nowadays. What is the beneficial of music making on a Mac, if there's any?

I have only ever used a Mac to make music. I feel that Macs are less problematic, more intuitive and user-friendly, and basically allow for higher levels of productivity and enjoyment of use as a result.
When I first started making music on a Mac, and then for the next few years, I used Cubase. However, when GarageBand became available, I pretty much switched over completely to GarageBand. I think it’s a wonderful piece of software for both complete beginners as well as professionals. It always works, and when I want to capture an idea or work extra fast, it never lets me down. For notation software, I have used Finale and Sibelius.
My studio setup is quite simple. I have a dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5, Alesis QS8 keyboard, MOTU 828 interface, NAD stereo integrated amp, Energy speakers and a Studio Projects C1 microphone.

8. What are you doing now professionally?

I am a songwriter and music composer. I write both the music and lyrics, arrange, orchestrate, produce and record my work. In addition to that I do all my own marketing and correspondence. And when I have a little bit of time leftover, I write new music. 

9. Finally, do you expect a brand new Garage Band in Leopard?

I don’t know about brand new. I quite like it the way it is, but of course there is always room for some improvements here and there. My hope is simply that it continues to be as easy to use as it always has been.

What would you like to see in the next Garage Band version?

I’d like to be able to copy and paste volume and pan control points between tracks and later on in the same track. Also it would be nice to be able to enter actual values myself for volume, pan or whatever. I’d also like to be able to add more than two user designated audio plug-ins per track as well as be able to mute parts individually instead of having to apply mute to the whole track.

Thanks a lot Daphne and congratulation for your success.

Thank you! For more information about “I Love My Mac”, visit the official website at www.ilovemymacthesong.com
My main website for all my other music is at www.daphna.ca
]]>daphna@daphna.caHome2007-01-15T22:56:38-08:00http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/496a43d511f1545fc9505043bb54a889-4.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/496a43d511f1545fc9505043bb54a889-4.html#unique-entry-id-4
Victor Cajiao invited me on the show to talk about my music and music on the Mac. He is also a seasoned musician as well as a Mac geek (actually switched to Mac about a year and a half ago as of this podcast date). It was really good to talk with him about our common passion. During the show, he featured a couple of the pieces I have at www.daphna.ca: “Lolly” and “A Perfect Morning.” Great choices.

Typical Mac User homepage:

http://typicalmacuser.com/

Direct link to the show of January 15th, 2007:

]]>daphna@daphna.caHome2007-01-07T18:25:23-08:00http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/50b4f5f67d1c0e7359fd74d4210956b8-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/50b4f5f67d1c0e7359fd74d4210956b8-3.html#unique-entry-id-3 AppleMacPunk

Kale Feelhaver, who like myself is also a staff writer with the macCompanion Magazine, invited me on the show to talk about how I create my music and about how “I Love My Mac” was born. It was fun meeting him via Skype as well as Ron and Mike who are also part of the AMP team.

Here's the direct link

http://www.applemacpunk.com/podcast/

or simply go to the iTunes Store podcast section, do a search with “AppleMacPunk” and select episode 21, January 7th, 2007.]]>daphna@daphna.caHome2006-08-01T18:16:56-07:00http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/5a0a1cda7d6109b70e41f0e990412db2-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/5a0a1cda7d6109b70e41f0e990412db2-2.html#unique-entry-id-2

this time, with Phillip Zannini at the MacNation. As with my interview on the MyMac podcast with Tim and Chad, this interview with Phillip was a lot of fun. We discussed all kinds of stuff about my music, the creative process and more.

The audio from the interview is divided into two parts. Here are the links:


Part I - MacNation Podcast 0072-B, August 1 2006:

Part II - MacNation Podcast 0073, August 13th, 2006:]]>daphna@daphna.caHome2006-04-20T18:10:53-07:00http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/d694958a8eb18e8871bda4993f177528-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/d694958a8eb18e8871bda4993f177528-1.html#unique-entry-id-1
If you’d like to tune in, here's the podcast # and link:

MyMac podcast # 78

]]>daphna@daphna.caHome2005-12-23T18:03:44-08:00http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/cddd4eacd51159a9ff6aa750f2d8e230-0.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.ilovemymacthesong.com/page23/files/cddd4eacd51159a9ff6aa750f2d8e230-0.html#unique-entry-id-0 http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=2172]]>