[MPA] Mac Setup advice needed to WoW in-laws.

[Charles Turner]

On Nov 3, 2003, at 7:30 AM, Mac Pro Audio List wrote:

> He's a Mac user, and wants to get a new setup (as not to monopolize 
> the home system)  and would like to be able to include music from his 
> collection: (CD's, 45's, LP's, 78's and tape).   He would need to be 
> able to add his commentary and leave space for advertisements.   Then 
> the whole show would need to be able to be reviewed,  modified and 
> then saved in a method to get it to the radio station.

For my classical music radio show I often take in my own music, 
sometimes on audio CDs I've made, and sometimes on MP3 CDs. I use 
iTunes to create both audio and MP3 CDs; I also have Toast.

For recording and editing audio (under OSX these days) my main setup is 
a MOTU 828 and Audiodesk-II. However I have also experimented with 
using an inexpensive iMic

     <http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/>

to connect a mic and other external audio devices, recording into 
Spark/ME which is free

     <http://www.tcelectronic.com/SparkME>

or into Sound Studio which is inexpensive

     <http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/>.

Either of these programs should be able to handle the recording/editing 
tasks that you describe. So all he needs is any new Mac (whatever he 
likes, they all come with iTunes, USB, and CD burners), an iMic, and 
e.g. Sound Studio. I've lost track of whether any Macs come with an 
audio-in these days, removing the need for an iMic or the like. The new 
G5 has optical audio I/O I think.

I've run into a couple of radio station 'gotchas'. One of the CD 
players at the radio station has trouble reading home-made burned CDs. 
This is a not for profit low budget radio station so a more up scale 
station probably has newer equipment and this wouldn't be a problem.

If I take in MP3 files they have to be played back on a PC which is 
setup to feed its sound card audio out into the studio's audio console. 
File names can be a problem for the PC. Length is a consideration as is 
sensitivity to a few special characters. I've run into this when making 
MP3 CDs using Toast (although Toast can warn about non-ISO compatible 
file names when it encounters them). Fortunately iTunes apparently 
knows how to create an "MP3 CD" that is compatible with Win PCs and 
presumably also with MP3 capable CD/DVD players. I haven't had any more 
PC playback problems since I started creating the MP3 CDs using iTunes.

-ct