[Ti] AAC vs MP3 (slightly OT)

[b]

Tarik Bilgin paused, thought it over, and spoke thusly:

>>USB Audio cards are 'Pro", the firewire thing is about hard drives 
>>and running hardware that connects to the Mac, also. Every major 
>>[i.e. 'pro'] recording, audio signal treatment application out 
>>there will use USB. You want a card that has 24/96 capability
>
>what's 24/96?

24 bit/ 96kHz resolution at the top end. A 'Pro' spec, in other words.

>
>>to take advantage of the Mac's [including, certainly, the 
>>Ti-Books], amazing built-in audio capabilities.
>
>actually flipper I've seen some audio boxes in the 1k to $10K market 
>that just use Firewire instead of USB, and combine some other pro 
>features like multiple inputs and output, mixing and gain controls 
>etc etc.

These FireWire or USB boxes turn up on eBay all the time. There's a 
huge home recording market out there. A lot of the folks are just 
like us, they pick up the latest thing in quests for zero latency, 
multiple devices with as-close-to-simultaneous 'clocking', etc. So, 
the older boxes go on the market constantly.

It is easy to find MOTU's 828 box for $100 or less, and it is 
sufficient to record Grammy-Award winning material, period. But, 
where semi-pro, and pro studios are concerned, the 'sky's the limit' 
in audio processing gear. Because we can get away with all-software 
solutions [with amazing results on G4 Macs], the only real 'hardware' 
needed is a single analog/digital line level converter to bring 
signal into the Mac. The rest can be done with Peak, or Spark, and a 
few VST plugins [for signal treatment.

The semi-pro 'boxes' simply make it easier to import/export the 
material, and then, if one is using synthesis, higher level 
'treatment', etc...MIDI becomes handy. Thus the proliferation of 
basic models with 2 in/out Audio, and 4 to 6 in/out MIDI.

Things have come a long ways in ten years. A friend and i recorded 
and mastered an LP that was nominated for a Juno [Canadian grammy] on 
an old Trident console. But the real work was done by my old Mac SE, 
a pair of Scully reel-to-reel 8-track decks, a SMPTE time code 
generator, Vision software [for sequencing], a couple of Akai 
samplers, etc. Today, all of that can be done, internally, with 
affordable software, AND a simple in/out interface to the Mastering 
decks.

Apple's own site is a good place to start when looking into what's 
possible with the Macintosh and Sound.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technologies/audio.html

~flipper