My Favorite Technology

In an effort to more easily tell people about the hardware and apps I use, I have consolidated them here.

Read this blog post to see an overview of everything on my desk: What’s On My Desk?

Studio Gear

Focusrite Scarlet 6i6 Audio Interface

Buy here. This thing is reasonably priced and rock-solid reliable. The number of inputs it has is enough for most of my needs. If you need even less channels, I recommend the cheaper, and equally reliable, Scarlet Solo Studio.

AKG P420 Condenser Microphone

200 dollars isn’t that much more than what you pay for a Blue Snowball or similar podcasting mic. The added quality of the AKG P420 far exceeds the difference in price.

Audio Technica Studio Headphones

My model isn’t sold anymore but this model is made by the same company and is in the same price range. They are perfect for my needs.

Roland Octopad

Great for entering MIDI with sticks, simulating drums, triggering live digital sounds, and general noodling. Check it out here.

Logitech C920

Simple and easy webcam. 1080p HD video calls with a privacy shutter. I use it for virtual lessons, meetings, live-streaming, and more. It is my primary camera for my desktop studio computer.

Elago Stream Deck

I use the Stream Deck to automate things on my computer. It can change the camera output on Zoom calls, run Keyboard Maestro automations, open files, play audio samples, and perform actions in music notation software that usually takes numerous clicks.

Microkorg

This synthesizer is too advanced for my own good. But it’s fun, and doubles as a MIDI controller.

Ableton Push 2

I am only just scratching the surface with this powerful device by learning to control everything in Ableton Live directly from it. There is huge potential here, inside and outside of Ableton and I am just getting started.

Computing Devices

iPhone 13 Pro

What is there to say? This phone is great. The amazing camera was a perfect investment for taking photos of my newborn.

iPad Pro 12.9 inch with Magic Keyboard Folio and Apple Pencil 2

This device is increasingly becoming my main computer. Its central role is during band rehearsal, where I use it to view seating charts, scores, lesson plans, and project the daily agenda on to the screen. I also use it as a digital white board. iPadOS has most of the same apps I use on the Mac with syncing data, so I can take it from classroom to classroom and rarely think about whether or not my latest work will be in front of me.

MacBook Pro 14” With M1 Max Chip

Now that Apple has fixed the keyboards on their MacBook Pro line, I can finally recommend it again. My model still has the old keyboard but it is still serving me well after many years. I use a lot of the same software on my Mac that I do on my iPad, with the exception of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Dorico which I only work with on the Mac.

Mac mini

This machine lives in my percussion studio. I use it for basic calendar and note taking while working with students. It is also my podcast machine and recording studio device as it has my audio interface and microphone permanently plugged in.

I run a lot of server based applications and utilities on this machine. I use Plex to host video and audio files that I watch from my other devices. I run Homebridge, Home Assistant, and Harmony Bridge servers to trick certain home automation devices in my home to work with Apple Home that don’t have official support. And I use Hazel which looks at files across my cloud drives and performs actions on them such as moving, tagging, and renaming.

Apple Watch Series 6

My watch is great for displaying a lot of information at once. I use the Infograph face to see alarms, todos, timer, weather, water intake, activity, and my next appointment all at once.

Apple TV

The Apple TV is my primary home entertainment device. I stream everything from Netflix, to HBO, to Digital Concert Hall, to Plex on this device. It is great for casual gaming too. My favorite feature is Up Next in the TV app which rounds up all the shows I watch across every streaming service so I can see the latest episode of all my favorite shows in one place.

AirPods Pro

I use these everywhere that it is socially acceptable! I leave one in my right ear to have instant access to Siri by saying the phrase “Hey Siri.”

HomePod

We have various HomePods and Sonos speakers throughout the house that we can send the audio of our devices to. But my favorite feature is the utility of being able to tell Siri to read my my calendar, send messages, and control our house by shouting “Hey Siri” into the air.

Apps

General Productivity

Spark Mail - Snoozing, smart filtering, and reminders are just a few of the features that make me use Spark on all my devices.

Messages

OmniFocus - My task manager. My life runs on this app.

Drafts - Everything I type on my devices starts in Drafts as text. Drafts allows me to press buttons that perform actions on that text and send it to other apps.

Fantastical - My calendar app. Magically turns phrases like “lunch with Susan tomorrow at 1 pm Appointments calendar” into events.

1Password - My family manages and shares all our passwords here.

Apple Music - This is where I manage my music library and stream new tunes.

Overcast - Preferred podcast client.

Reeder - I subscribe to all of my favorite blogs and websites in Reeder using the Feedbin service.

Kindle - I read books here.

Slack - It’s not text. It’s not email. It’s something better. My music team uses Slack for communication and collaboration.

Tweetbot - Twitter client. Amazing design. Shows me the Tweets of the people I follow in the order that I follow them.

Apollo - Superior Reddit client. I wouldn’t use Reddit any other way.

Apple Notes - My preferred way to reference documents, store clips of text, and more.

Due - My favorite app for reminding myself to do things at specific times.

Day One - Beautiful journaling app.

MindNode - I create intuitive and beautiful mind maps with this.

AnyList - I use this to share and manage grocery lists with my family.

OmniOutliner - Great outlining app. I make all of my lesson plans and draft all of my presentations in it.

iWork - I make most of my documents in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Ulysses - Amazing writing app. I draft all of my blog posts, lesson plans, and emails here first.

GoodNotes - Hand written note app for iPad. Most of my paperless workflow is based around this app.

Scanbot - This is the app I use to scan documents, particularly my music library, into my computer.

Cardhop - Superior contact manager that works with natural language input. Type “444-343-1498 John Johnson” and it will either create a new contact with that information or update an existing contact card with a matching name.

Squarespace - I made this very site and my school music website (www.emmsmusic.org) with Squarespace.

Libsyn - This is where I host my podcast, Music Ed Tech Talk.

Music and Teaching

forScore - The app I use to manage all of my scores, sheet music, method books, and musical PDFs.

Tonal Energy - The most incredible metronome and tuner in existence.

Dorico - This is the professional music notation editor I use on the Mac, and now iPad!

Ferrite - My favorite DAW for iOS. I produce my podcast in this app.

FileMaker - I developed my music curriculum and track all student data and progress in a FileMaker relational database.

Anytune - My preferred app for slowing down, speeding up, and changing the key of songs on my devices.

Tempo - My second favorite metronome app for iOS.

iReal Pro - Play along app for jazz improvisation.

Polyrhythms - Teaching app for polyrhythms.

Voice Memos - I do most of my lesson and band recording into this app on iOS. The files are smartly labeled based on my calendar event (which is the title of my band class) and then sync over iCloud to my Mac, where I can easily listen to them.

Logic - This is my preferred DAW on Mac. I produce most of my music and podcasts in it.

Digital Concert Hall - Berlin Philharmonic on demand concerts. Excellent and engaging production.

IDAGIO - Amazing classical music streaming service with crazy metadata and filtering tools in the search.

Sheet Music Scanner - Most of these apps for scanning music don’t work but this is the best one I have used by far.

Final Cut Pro - Whenever I produce video, it happens in Final Cut.

StaffPad - My new preferred app for music notation. I handwrite the notation and it magically turns it into professional music notation.

Home Automation

Most of the devices below work with Apple’s HomeKit and Amazon Echo.

Apple Home App - This is where I manage all of my home devices.

ecobee Thermostat - My preferred thermostat.

Philip's Hue - Smart bulbs.

Schlage Sense - Smart door lock.

Nest Protect - Smoke detecors.

Nest Hello - Smart doorbell.

Starling Home Hub - Hub that tricks my Next products into working in the Apple Home app.

iHome smart plugs - My favorite smart plugs.

iRobot - My smart vacuum cleaner.

Logitech Harmony Hub - Allows me to automate my TV.

Logi Circle 2 - Great smart camera.

Netatmo Presence Floodlight and Camera - Another great smart camera.

Amazon Alexa - We have one of these in every room.

Eero - Home mesh networking device.

Lutron Caseta Light Switches - Smart light switches.

Hunter Douglas Smart Blinds - Expensive but amazing.

Honeywell Lyric Alarm System - The best HomeKit alarm system I could find.

Mysa Baseboard Heater Thermostat - The only one on the market that I know of that works with HomeKit.

Onelink Safe and Sound Smoke Detector - Great smoke detectors that double as AirPlay 2 speakers.

Sonos One Speaker - Great AirPlay 2 speakers.

Sonos Move Speaker - Great AirPlay 2 speaker that is also a Bluetooth speaker.

Dyson Pure Hot and Cool Air Purifier - Heats and cools the bedroom while purifying the air.

Health

Health - Apple Health is where I aggregate data from all of the apps below and see it in one place.

Activity - The standard activity tracking app on Apple Watch.

Workouts - The stock Apple Watch workout app.

AutoWake - Wakes me up when I am in my least deep sleep.

AutoSleep - Tracks my sleep when I wear my Apple Watch to bed.

HeartWatch - Amazing heart rate metrics for Apple Watch.

MyFitnessPal - Great calorie counting app and health platform.

Fitbit Aria Smart Scale - Automatically sends my weight to MyFitnessPal and Apple Health.

Medisafe - Best pill tracker.

Streaks - Fantastic habit tracker.

Headspace - Astounding meditation app. I use it almost every day.

WaterMinder - The best water tracking app.

Hidrate Spark - Bluetooth water bottle. Remembers last location used, automatically tracks water intake.

HomeRun - Great Apple Watch companion for automating Apple HomeKit scenes on watch face complications.

Peloton Bike and App - I love the Peloton bike and classes. I particularly appreciate how it fills my Apple Watch rings without even wearing the Apple Watch during my workout.