Noulakaz
The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.
Just finished watching the last episode of For All Mankind with Christina.
It’s easily one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. The actors and actresses are simply fantastic. The script is extremely well written.
Give For All Mankind a go. It’s available on Apple TV+. I’m sure you’ll love it.
Once upon a time, I didn’t know anything about the concept of the home cinema. I started reading (paper) magazines, most notably Home Cinema Choice which was, at that time, the reference.
In 2001, Home Cinema Choice reviewed the then new Kenwood KRF-V7030D AV Receiver and praised it for its performance and value.
Of course, at that time, it was not possible to purchase one in Mauritius… Fortunately, some time later, my sister-in-law had to go on a business trip to Hong Kong and I asked her to purchase one for us. For many years, she would complain how heavy the Kenwood KRF-V7030D was and how we will in her debt for life :-)
I built my “home cinema” around the Kenwood and I wrote a blog post in 2005 to explain what equipment I had. The Kenwood KRF-V7030D worked great from 2001 to around 2007 until one day when I could not switch it on anymore.
I brought the amplifier to a number of technicians for a diagnostic and to see if it was possible to repair it. None could…
So we purchased another AV Receiver when we were in vacation in Thailand, a Pioneer, which was OK and completely forgot about the Kenwood KRF-V7030D.
Five years later, I stumbled upon a technician who told me he could revive anything. I left the Kenwood KRF-V7030D with him for about four months (with a very low level of expectations) and, lo and behold, he repaired it.
By that time, I had moved to a Yamaha AV receiver (and left the Pioneer with my parents) and I used the Kenwood KRF-V7030D as a stereo amplifier in my bedroom. It worked really great… until one month ago when it stopped working once more. I could switch it on this time but the audio level from my speakers was very low, nearly inaudible. Either there was a problem with the amplifier circuit or the volume circuit.
I called the technician which had revived the amplifer once and he tried and tried and tried… Today, he called me and told me the truth: my amp was dead. A microprocessor which controls the volume is faulty and this component is not made any more.
My Kenwood KRF-V7030D is finally and truly dead this time, 21 years after I bought it.
Thanks for the trip. We had a great time.
The Apple M1 processor, with its ARM64 architecture, was released two years ago and, since then, most Apple computers have transitioned to this processor (or one of its successors). At home, I own an Apple Mac mini with an M1, 16Gb of RAM and 256Gb of storage which I use for everything, especially for music production.
I have many software instruments and effects plugins which I have been purchasing for years now (thanks Christina!) and, fortunately, most of them now have native M1 variants. For the others, I can use them using the Rosetta 2 technology which Apple provides and which runs really well (it’s a x86_64 to ARM64 code translator). Rosetta 2 is, in fact, allowing me to use all my plugins.
But, to be honest, I would love having a 100% ARM64 music production system. At this moment, I do have about 50 plugins which are still not M1 native but here are the few ones I would really love to have in M1 format, either because I use them a lot or I have paid a substantial amount of money for them:
Let me know when they are M1 ready!
PS: On 27 March 2023, all the plugins I mentioned in this post are M1 native. Took only 176 days!
PPS: The only non-M1 plugins I have on my Macmini are now: AIR Music Technology DB-33 (Hammond B3), AIR Music Technology DB-33 FX (Leslie Simulator), AIR Music Technology Hybrid 3, AIR Music Technology Loom II, AIR Music Technology Mini Grand, AIR Music Technology The Riser, AIR Music Technology Vacuum Pro, AIR Music Technology Velvet (Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Clavinet), AIR Music Technology Xpand!2, DS Audio Thorn Solo, Exponential Audio NIMBUS, Exponential Audio R4, Focusrite Red 2 EQ, Focusrite Red 3 Compressor, Green Oak Software Crystal, iZotope BreakTweaker Expanded, iZotope Iris 2, iZotope Trash 2, Kia Move.ment, Lindell Audio PEX-500, Positive Grid BIAS AMP 2 LE, Schoeps Double MS, Soundslates Capsule, Stillwell Audio Bitter and Waldorf Attack. Most have simply been abandoned by the developers and I have excellent alternatives to them.