Change the background colour of UITableViewCell

In one of the IOS apps I am currently working on I been using a table view controller to display information for a core data database.  I was wanting to change the background colour of the UITableCell depending on a boolean variable in my manged objects.

Originally I tried setting this in the UITableView delegate method

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

After I quick test I realised that because the UITableViewCell is effectively recycled (de-cued and used again) this approach was not going to work.

After a little more reading I found the UITableView delegate method

-(void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

This is what you need to use if you want to change a cell that is displaying a specific row (index path) in your table.

Here is an example of the code I used in my app:

 

-(void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    MonkeyManagedObject *monkey = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    
    
    if ([monkey.hasBanana isEqualToNumber:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]] ) {
        
        cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
        
        
        
    } else {
        
        
        cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];        
    }
    
    
    
    
    
    
}

In my code I am using a NSFetchedResultsController to populate my table view also because the Boolean type in a managed object is actually an NSNumber you need to use the NSNumber class method:

[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]

Recent TV commercial sound design work

Over the last year or so there has been some great TVC sound design work flowing through the studios at Risksound so I thought that I would post a couple commercials I have worked on recently.

The first commercial was done for the Suzuki Swift R1.  The background atmosphere  was created by using an automated eq to sweep down an audio track that contained white noise. This was then fed through a convolution reverb plug-in using an impulse response of a big metal tank.  The noise for the lights was created by processing two wine glasses clicking together with reverb and reversing the sound.

This second TVC for cars guide was a lot more music and voiceover focused but I still had some fun the sound effects.  I used a lost of whooshes and servo motor sound effects and a recording of wind with the the volume automated on the camera moments to give it a sense of movement.

 

 

View your core data SQLite database

I am currently writing an ios app that uses a medium size pre-populated core data database. Having worked with mysql previously along side php and java I have to say that the way core data is implemented makes it very powerful and great to use for object persistence.
In my app I am opening a plist file as a dictionary and looping through each entry to create the core database within the app.
I am also using a UITableView and a NSFetchedResultsController to display the table in the app which is another strength of core data as it automatically reloads the table when the data changes.
The first time I ran the app and viewed the table some of the objects had the wrong section  headers and also some of the section titles were incorrect.
When I checked the plist files the entires that were showing up incorrectly were fine in the plist file.  In mysql I would have just done a select * to see all the entires in the table to see what the database looked like but wasn’t sure how to do this with core data.

This is what I ended up doing to find the incorrect entities:

I set the SQL debug flag in xcode. In xcode 4 this can be done from the Product menu by selecting “Manage Schemes” and then editing the current scheme you are using. Select the “Run “phase and then select the “Arguments” tab. Here you will see options to set arguments and environment variables. Add the code below as an argument:

-com.apple.CoreData.SQLDebug 1

I then ran my app in the ios simulator which gave me the location of the sql file on my computer. I copied the location (minus the sql file name) and pasted it into the “Go to Folder” field in the “Go” menu of finder then copied the .sql file into my user folder.

I then downloaded SQLite Database Browser which is a free open source SQLite browser (the title is pretty explanatory really) and opened my .sql file and viewed the tables.

I found the entires which were incorrectly entered and fixed them in my .plist file that populates my core data database which in tern fixed the problem with the section headers I was having. All without too many (more) hairs turning grey!

Radio Commercials

Script 1:
Product: Radio Commercials by Sandy Milne

Person 1: Have you heard the radio commericals by Sandy Milne?
Person 2: Sandy Milne? no I didn’t know he produced radio commercials?
Person 1: Yes, Sandy Milne makes great radio commercials.
Person 2: Well I will have to get some of these radio commercials by Sandy Milne then.
Person 1: Great idea, call Sandy Milne on 04blahblahblah or www.sandymilne.com forward slash radio-commercials

Fast voice: offer not valid on weekends or public holidays
Faster voice: LMCT402932323/123/BLAH123

This is pretty much the format of 95% of the radio commercials you hear on the radio so it’s nice when I get to work on things that are a little different. I thought I would upload a some radio commercials I have worked on over the last couple of years starting with these four.

For this commercial I managed to wrangle in all the people in the building and did several overdubs to create a chorus of people. It was great to pull out the Neumann u87s. This one also featured on http://www.bestadsontv.com

1. Salvos-Miss-Out-Radio-Commercial.mp3     

 

This spot for Victoria uni was highly commended at the siren awards.
Part of the challenge of an commercial like this is not only the sound design element but the direction that you give the voice over artist. I found some old episodes of the superman radio show on record on a shelf in the back of Risksound and played as a reference and played it to them before we started.

2. Vic-Uni-Save-The-World.mp3     

This spot was just fun to work on and was a reminder that when working with kids keep recording as you don’t want to miss out on a golden moment.

3. SPC-Fruit-Snacks-Radio-Commercial.mp3     

This was just a fun little sport for Melbourne Airport. I had both VO actors setup in chairs in the studio to simulate a car and had actually got a work colleague to record his kids the day before which was a great help

4. Melbourne-Airport-Radio-2011-.mp3     

Play a random sample Kontakt with scripting

Over the last year or so I have been working on creating a sample based software instrument in Native Instruments’ Kontakt, which has its own scripting language Kontakt Script Processing.  I had to learn the language from scratch but found the KSP reference  pdf  bundled with Kontakt and information on the Kontakt scripting forums at the Native Instruments website great resources.

The instrument I am currently working on is now over 3000 lines of code and I have started dreaming of $EVENT_NOTE variables but one of the first requirements was to trigger a sample from a range of samples randomly. This was pretty easy to do but because it was random it often played the same sample twice in a row. I then added a couple of extra lines to make sure that it didn’t play the same notes twice. I thought I would upload this code as it may prove useful to people who are leaning KSP.  It also shows how to create and call functions and declare variables.

 

on init
       
    {declare variables to hold previous values}
 declare polyphonic $random
 declare $last1 := 0
 declare $last2 := 0

 
 
declare $lastTime := 0
declare polyphonic $velocity := 1
    
    
{Declare keys for Random Triggers ie the note that will trigger the random sample  }
 
declare $key_trigger := 108
   
{declare the range of the samples that will be triggered randomly}    
    
declare $lower_limit := 0
declare $upper_limit := 23    
    
    
{Set key colours}

set_key_color($key_trigger, $KEY_COLOR_RED)     
set_key_color($lower_limit, $KEY_COLOR_GREEN)
set_key_color($upper_limit, $KEY_COLOR_GREEN)   
    
    
end on

{Random sample Function}


function playRandomSample
    
     
            
            $random := (random($lower_limit, $upper_limit))
        
           
        {check to see if the next step has been used in the last two }
                
                while ($random = $last1 or $random = $last2)
               
                $random := (random($lower_limit, $upper_limit))
            
                end while
                
                play_note ($random, $velocity, 0, 0)
  
        
            $last2 := $last1
            $last1 := $random
       
   end function

on note
  if ($EVENT_NOTE = $key_trigger)
      
      $velocity := $EVENT_VELOCITY
      
      call playRandomSample
      
      end if  
    
    
    
    
end on

 

feel free to leave any questions/comments below

 

 

 

Some Short Films 1

I thought I would post a couple of short films I have worked on over the last years or so.
The first two are the full films, the others have not been released online as due to requirements by film festivals. I always enjoy working on projects like these are they provide a lot of sound (and sometime workflow) challenges and it’s great to work on something a bit different.

Kevin is..

The Comedian:

The Comedian from Accidentally Sexy Films on Vimeo.

Little Brother Trailer

Little Brother Trailer from Callum Cooper on Vimeo.

Victoria, George, Edward and Thatcher (excerpt)

Victoria, George, Edward and Thatcher (excerpt) from Callum Cooper on Vimeo.

Chronosync backup when drive plugged in with applescript

Firstly excuse the extremely uncreative title of this post but I have been working all day and my creativity levels are a little on the uncreative side at this stage of the day.
At the studios we have couple of different backup systems running to DLT and LTO tapes plus some offsite drives that we use for disaster recovery. After struggling with massive issues with the latest version of retrospect for mac and the horrible support we decided to move to Chronosync which has been fantastic.
One thing that we wanted to do was automatically run a backup when we connected a particular offsite backup drive. I managed to get this to work by running an applescript in automater whenever a new drive was added using folder actions.

When new drives are added to OSX they are mounted in the /Volumes folder which you can’t normally access in finder. To get around this you can create a symlink in the terminal by typing:

ln -s /Volumes/ ~/vol-link

this will create a link named “vol-link” in your home folder that points to the Volumes folder.

Then open automater in the applications folder and chose “folder action” from the start up screen

On the top you can choose the folder that will perform an action if a file or folder is added to it.
In here choose your vol-link.

Drag across the “Run AppleScript” action form the left and then add the AppleScript code from below

Note that you will have to change the volume names and path of your Chronosync container document and you can modify this script to work with more drives or less.

Save your workflow and that’s it.

We also have our backups stored in an encrypted disk image so have set the last document in the container to eject the image when it’s finished. The script then ejects the drive

Any questions or comments let me know

set VolumeName1 to "OffsiteBackUP1"
set VolumeName2 to "OffsiteBackUP2"

if volumeMounted(VolumeName1) = 1 then
	try
		tell application "ChronoSync"
			activate
			
			open alias "HD RAID:Users:serverhomedir:Documents:Offsite Backup 2.csyn"
			
			tell document 1 to Synchronize
			
			--hold on 'till the sync is complete
			
			repeat while syncStatus of document 1 is not 0
			end repeat
			
			tell document 1 to save
			tell document 1 to close
			
			
			
			
		end tell
	end try
	
	delay (5)
	
	tell application "Finder"
		activate
		eject disk VolumeName1
		
	end tell
	
	
else
	
	if volumeMounted(VolumeName2) = 1 then
		
		
		
		try
			tell application "ChronoSync"
				activate
				
				open alias "HD RAID:Users:serverhomedir:Documents:Chronosync Offsite Scripts:Offsite Backups.csyn"
				
				tell document 1 to Synchronize
				
				--hold on 'till the sync is complete
				repeat while syncStatus of document 1 is not 0
				end repeat
				
				tell document 1 to save
				tell document 1 to close
				
				
				
				
			end tell
		end try
		
		delay (5)
		
		tell application "Finder"
			activate
			eject disk "VolumeName2"
			
		end tell
		
	end if
	
end if

on volumeMounted(VolumeName)
	tell application "Finder"
		if (exists disk VolumeName) then
			return 1
		else
			return 0
		end if
	end tell
end volumeMounted

Audio Conform Calculator Launched

Every now and then I am having to time compress or expand audio I am working on to keep it in sync with the video as it is going to be used in or is going to cinema, comes from overseas and been converted from NTSC to PAL or is shot at a non-standard frame rate, such as 22 frames a second for effect.
Using a plug-in such as Serato pitch and time (which is my favorite) in Pro Tools you can maintain the pitch of the audio while changing the duration to match the video.

Audio Conform Calculator is a simple iPhone App in which you can specify the source and destination frame rates of the the video you are conforming and it will provide you with the percentage and ratio value that the corresponding audio needs to be time expanded or compressed to keep it in sync with the video.

You can view more details of the app from the
Audio Conform Calculator page on this site.

I built this app originally as a desktop java application but decided it was much more useful as an iPhone app.
After coding for a couple of years in Java and PHP I have to say that IOS and the tools provided are a real pleasure to work with. Although there is a bit of a learning curve switching to the model view controller programming paradigm and other IOS quirks I am starting to get my head around a lot of it.

Prepare for Segue in IOS 5

I’ve been working on a few iPhone and iPad apps using IOS 5 and have been watching Paul Hegarty’s iPhone course at Stanford though iTunes U. I recommend watching it for anyone who is interested in IOS development as it’s as fantastic source of information and Paul is a great teacher.

One of the many useful things I found when first delving into the model view controller paradigm was the method that is called just before a Segue to another view controller prepareForSegue:

You can use this to set properties in the view controller you are about to segue to such as the delegate which is very useful.
You just need to set the identity of the segue in Xcode so it can be identified.

Here is a small snippet based on Paul’s example

-(void) prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardPopoverSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
    if ([segue.identifier hasPrefix:@"Next View"]) {
      
        //The segue is to the a View Controller called NextViewController
        (NextViewController *nvc =  (NextViewController  *) segue.destinationViewController;
       
       //Set properties in the view controller - note the views outlets are not set yet
        nvc.stringProperty1 = @"This Is Property 1";
      
         nvc.property2 = @"This Is Property 2";
       //Set self as the delegate
       nvc.delegate = self;
    }
}