It might not be obvious for the uninitiated how to install and use any of these free synthesizer plugins. At least if you are not a professional musician and have no sophisticated music software installed. If you are e.g stuck with GarageBand, Apple seems to have tried to hide installed audio units as much as at all possible. I hope this visual walk-through might help. Most plugins comes with an installer of some sort, so you do not usually need to know exactly where to copy stuff on your system. Let us assume you have already installed the plugin, and are starting from scratch with a new GarageBand project:

1. Start GarageBand, create a new project using e.g a Piano as your instrument. Any software instrument will do.

2. You have some panes on the right side of the screen, the “Browse” pane will be the one initially active, but you will not find your instrument there, although that would have been the only logical place to put it.

3. Instead select the “Edit” pane.

4. Press the popup menu where your current instrument is selected (“Piano” in this case).

5. Find your installed AU modules at the end of that list, and select the synth you want.

6. Your synth is now the active instrument! But how to bring it up??? Press the button to the left of the popup menu, just below where it says “Sound Generator”.

7. Voila! (I have no idea why they have to make it this difficult)

The plugin mentioned below is not the only free synthesizer plugin, this page list some of the best.

A newer version of the Tyrell N6 linked to below can be found here.

If you are into the sound of good old-fashioned analogue synthesizers, check this out. Pretty cool stuff! You can try it out on e.g any Mac just using GarageBand. For more info and download link , see http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2011/04/06/tyrell-n6-released/.

Fancy hiking to Mt Kerkis on your own? Perhaps not… Not for me anyway. If you want to go check out this site, it will be a safer option.

In Norway lovers of aquavit can now welcome this clean and delicate product from the Faroe Islands. As everyone can see it is an unmatured aquavit and as such it is good with various seafood.

The Gozo page has been expanded with a 2013 section.

See http://www.islandwalking.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/109.

Many of us, me included, need some purpose to our walking. I have kept myself busy for an additional ten years after I was already bored with walking in Oslo by using the handbook for “Kjentmannsmerket“. What to do next? The obvious answer is of course Geocaching which has become extremely popular the last few years. There is also another less known (and more geeky) answer: Playing Ingress. I have not started on this myself (at least not yet), but it is a possibility to get your @ss moving and at least get to know your own home town better.

Some more information can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEUWItbkQ58tbLEFP6lA1PtnPk48jDBr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAExyzJPPHA&list=PLDEUWItbkQ5_z4i_FBLfjEGOz9uyFZE4c

For everyone interested in Snooker: I found this great database over all snooker results and statistics at http://www.cuetracker.net. E.g see the very interesting Head-to-Head page at http://www.cuetracker.net/pages/h2h.php.