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Collin Donnell

Collin Donnell

@collin.social

760 followers 210 following 1.2K posts

Freelance software developer from Portland Oregon. Specializing in iOS and Ruby on Rails. Blogger 🖋️ https://collin.blog Film photographer 📸 https://collin.photo Songwriter 🎸 https://collin.band #ruby #rubyonrails #swift #iosdev #filmphotography

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Collin Donnell @collin.social · 20h

I think a lot about how between Bell Labs and Xerox PARC, these two places basically invented the world we live in today. C, OOP, UNIX, GUIs. Some other acronyms. It's nuts.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 1d

Yesterday I had an issue where nothing showed clipping while recording, but then did on playback. It turns out there's something called intersample clipping.

Since a sample is just a point in time that software connects to turn into a wave, you can have audio where none of the samples are clipped,

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 2d

I was proud of myself for making progress recording my EP today. It's a goal I've had for a long time. Then I got really sad. My dad is why I got into music, but because I waited too long, he won't ever see me finish and won't hear it.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 2d

Recorded six takes of guitar for this song for the two tracks I need. Unless I screwed something up in the same place more than five times without noticing, this should give me what I need for editing later.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 2d

I like how easy Logic makes it for you to group things, so I can have a Guitar bus sending to my Instruments bus. The only thing is that if you didn't know what it was actually doing when it sets up busses and sends for you, it could all seem a big magical I think.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 2d

Here's the basic layout I'm working with in Logic Pro. As I add more categories of things, I'll create summing stacks (busses) for those, as well with their own send tracks for global fx. This is a fairly good translation of how I'd set things up on a console, although it looks a lot different.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 3d

I'm excited to see how adding some different instrumentation behind my normally pretty sparse acoustic songs sound. I'm thinking some synth pads or arpeggios could be neat.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 3d

I've been playing this song for well over a year. Until I tried to record it today I never realized how much time I was spending in it just hanging out on the same chords. I cut those parts out or in half and the song moves a lot better now.

Reposted by Collin Donnell

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 4d

Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo!

I know how hard you worked for this.

Red Trump-style graphic with images of Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo.

At the top it says, "I'm going to pick [Cuomo]." - Donald Trump, 60 Minutes Interview, 11-2-25

Then beneath it

TRUMP ENDORSES CUOMO

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 4d

I've got microphones set up and my guitar restrung. Going to try and lay down tracks for an EP this week. Wish me luck.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 4d

The thing that seems to be helping me the most in learning chess is just before every move asking "is this a blunder?" and then also asking the same after my opponents moves.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 4d

My wish is that we could all always assume everybody has good intentions and work together. The problem is that sometimes it's hard to make that assumption and you need to protect yourself.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 4d

Everyone sees things from their own perspective. It's important to remember we're all making a lot of assumptions about other people's motivations and why they act how they do.

I really do try and approach people with kindness and empathy, even if from where they are, it might look different.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 4d

It's pretty unbelievable Logic Pro 11 still doesn't have ARA support, considering how important it is to a lot of professional recording workflows.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 6d

If you don't wanna give him a gun, maybe some kind of less-lethal weapon from Wakanda? Tony had repulsors he carried around when he wasn't in the Ironman suit. Sam almost gets killed a couple of times because he has no way to defend himself aside from hand to hand combat.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 6d

I watched Captain America: Brave New World. Not nearly as bad as I expected. A middle of the road Marvel movie. However, I kept asking myself "why isn't Sam strapped?" When he's out of the suit he's totally unarmed and keeps finding situations where it would've been useful to be carrying a sidearm.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 6d

Which I have done, although not in a while, so this isn't totally theoretical 😂

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 7d

Messaged my doctor to see if I could get some Ambien. My sleep has been messed up since my dad died to the point where I'm not going to sleep until 5-7 am some days and then waking up way too late.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 7d

I remember when getting into a real Pro Tools HD system started at $12,000. A Logic Pro license was $1000 and required a dongle. It also required a PhD to use effectively. I don't feel that old, but I guess I was around just early enough to witness that.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 7d

Part of what made it easier was also that pre-GCD, a lot of apps were effectively threaded. You might wait for a network request and get called back via a delegate, but generally, your code ran on the main thread. Apps were also doing simpler things back then.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 7d

In some ways, making iOS apps is easier than ever. In others, less so. Different parts of the system use different patterns now. Before, if you mastered the target/action, delegate, and notification patterns, you kind of knew the whole system. Maybe throw responder chain and MVC in there too.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 8d

Getting visa work references together is actually slightly challenging. Startups tend to shut down, people move a lot, and they want someone who still works at the company. For example, I don't think anyone I worked with eight years ago at Sonos is still there.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 8d

Getting visa work references together is actually slightly challenging. Startups tend to shut down, people move a lot, and they want someone who still works at the company. For example, I don't think anyone I worked with eight years ago at Sonos is still there.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 8d

Generalized anxiety hitting hard today.

Collin Donnell @collin.social · 8d

Yeah! I like my Apollo.