[G4] How do I record audio on OSX?

[Alex]

On Wednesday, Mar 24, 2004, at 08:35 Canada/Eastern, Richard Bright 
wrote:

> [...] Apparently, you and I have the same PowerMac, FoggyMac.. there 
> is no built-in sound input on this machine unfortunately (Apple really 
> dropped the ball on this one)... you need to either get a sound card 
> (I have an MAudio 410 PCI that I scrounged from an older machine) or a 
> USB device such as Griffin Tech's iMic:
> www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/
> which works quite well I'm told.

That's almost accurate. There is no _analogue_ sound input on the 
Quicksilver (and several other Macs). These models expect digital sound 
input through the USB port. Whether this was done so that Apple could 
shave a couple of dimes from the price of a Mac, or because it expected 
everybody to go digital in short order, is a matter for debate. (The 
fact that Apple never made any USB recording device or sound interface 
suggests the former.) See Apple KB article ID 31379.

The solutions are those suggested by Richard -- either a suitable PCI 
sound card, or a USB sound interface device. The iMic is a popular one; 
further suggestions may be found at 
<http://guide.apple.com/uscategories/music.lasso> by searching for the 
appropriate hardware. (One could use a USB mic directly, but presumably 
the original poster is not interested in voice recording.)

> As for recording the sound to your drive you have several options. I 
> use Sound Studio and it has been a real workhorse for me:
> www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/ [...]

Unlike Windows, Mac OS X doesn't come with bundled recording software. 
(Actually, strictly speaking that's not quite true. You can record 
audio in -- of all things -- iMovie; but it's not a practical 
solution.) A third-party audio recording and editing programme is 
required. Sound Studio is a good example; others are Audacity 
(freeware) <http://audacity.sourceforge.net/>, Amadeus II (shareware) 
<http://www.hairersoft.com/>, or, if you have money to burn, Peak 
<http://www.bias-inc.com/>. And, or course, there's also CD Spin 
Doctor, which is bundled with Toast.

f