Apple Audio Editing post-iTunes? Other iApps?

[iapple]

What are people's views on an Audio Editing Program by Apple or even a MIDI/Notation program, and perhaps some extended hardware functionality on the iPod to support it. (i.e. a Firewire good quality mic, recording software etc.) or some other periferal for good Audio recording on Macs that don't have mic ports.

I know a lot of people are satisfied with iTunes 2, and the way to ORGANIZE music, but I wondered about people that want to actually CREATE/RECORD/EDIT music. I compose some, and play the cello, and I thought Apple could do a great job of some easy-to-use interface that consumers could deal with.

They did a great job in iMovie to CREATE movies, and I wondered if I was the only one interested in an iTunes "Pro" version.

What are your views? What other iApps would like to see, or where would you want to extend or change?

I'm pretty pleased with iMovie 2, havn't tried iDVD 2, but I get the idea (They've gotta enable users without a "Superdrive" to use it! The TiBook can easily burn a DVD in terms of the CPU specs if it had a external drive, but iDVD doesn't support it.) Perhaps they could sell an external "Superdrive" that Powerbook/iBook users could use that iDVD 2 would support.

Tell me your opinions, and I think the iApps are an important part of Apple's strategy right now...

 

[Beej]

Hmmm, how about an option like:

I am very satisfied with iTunes 2. It is an MP3 player and organiser, and it does both very well. I would also like to see Apple make sound editing software.

Cuz if that option was there, I'd pick it.

I think iTunes is great, and a sound editing app will be in a different genre of software.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Apple would greatly benefit by making an iApp that did non linear audio editing like FCP, but without the video. Hell, they could just pare FCP down, add some more options in audio and package it as iAudio. As a plugin to iTunes, well, I don't think that would work as well. Keep iTunes as the player/organizer, and have a separate editor. You're not exactly going to want to keep lists of sound effects to play through and listen to for any length of time.

 

[Ifeelbloated]

You know, I have a lot of friends who are musicians and they would kill for a relatively cheap way to edit music tracks on their computer. All of them have computers, but PC unfortunately. The market potential is massive. I'm surprised Apple hasn't pursued some course of action in this. Making editing digital video easy for the masses is cool but what about all the people who love making music? A decent sound editing setup costs thousands, why not make it cost a couple hundred? Ka ching, Ka ching, huh Apple?

 

[MacKenzie999]

Audio

I'd be satisfied if Apple hadn't yanked the audio-in jack from my g4 466.

 

[iapple]

Re: Audio

Originally posted by MacKenzie999
I'd be satisfied if Apple hadn't yanked the audio-in jack from my g4 466.

Yeah, why did apple stop having audio-in jacks?? I thought it was pretty useful, although not the best quality... I think a little attachment to a firewire/usb port or to the iPod that would record and support analog-in would be cool, maybe for $150 or so, add an audio editor for another 50, (iAudio) and a $200 package for people who are interested in making their own music and recording.

 

[iapple]

Re: Audio

Originally posted by MacKenzie999
I'd be satisfied if Apple hadn't yanked the audio-in jack from my g4 466.

Yeah, why did apple stop having audio-in jacks?? I thought it was pretty useful, although not the best quality... I think a little attachment to a firewire/usb port or to the iPod that would record and support analog-in would be cool, maybe for $150 or so, add an audio editor for another 50, (iAudio) and a $200 package for people who are interested in making their own music and recording. I wonder why they havn't persued this area before... I'm sure there is demand.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Re: Audio

Originally posted by MacKenzie999
I'd be satisfied if Apple hadn't yanked the audio-in jack from my g4 466.

I've had to use my digital video camera to get audio in. Its a little cumbersome, but I do all my DV work in FCP, so its not that big of a deal. A better solution is definitely possible, I hope it happens.

 

[Ifeelbloated]

I guess Apple figured that most people don't use that microphone in-jack. For those who do there's still USB peripherals.Why put it in when you can easily attach a USB device for the same purpose? Maybe that was one of the cost cutting measures. Streamline the machine as much as possible yet still keep it very expandable for those powerusers.

 

[alex_ant]

Re: Re: Audio

Originally posted by iapple
Yeah, why did apple stop having audio-in jacks?? I thought it was pretty useful, although not the best quality... I think a little attachment to a firewire/usb port or to the iPod that would record and support analog-in would be cool, maybe for $150 or so, add an audio editor for another 50, (iAudio) and a $200 package for people who are interested in making their own music and recording.

Griffin makes the iMic, an audio input that plugs into the USB port. I'm not sure of the exact cost, but I think it's $30-$40.

Alex

 

[Here&There]

Originally posted by Ifeelbloated
You know, I have a lot of friends who are musicians and they would kill for a relatively cheap way to edit music tracks on their computer. All of them have computers, but PC unfortunately. The market potential is massive.

Um, Macs are quite the standatrd in the music industry. There are lots of great programs (like pro tools, peak, logic, rebirth, qbase etc..) but yes they can be expensive.. But you can always get the free version of pro tools , which is something like FCP for music, ( http://www.protools.com ) and it is very functional and good... There is no excuse to use a PC if you're into music my dear...

 

[Dunepilot]

Macs are the recording industry standard

.... but I'm often finding these days that you can do the things you can do on a music Mac much cheaper on a Wintel machine.

It's not a transition I'll ever personally make, but a good friend of mine uses his new Athlon very successfully as a recording and composing machine, and is able to use so many more free/shareware VST synths than are available for the Mac.

Also, audio-in solutions tend to be a lot cheaper - the Soundblaster range is far more mature for Windows, with a wider choice of products (though apparently the drivers are far from spectacular).

When it came to me finding a means of getting audio in to my powerbook the only choice was to go for a Roland UA-30 USB audio box. It's wasn't cheap for what it does, but it'll last me until I get a new Mac and can afford to buy a MOTU 828 firewire audio solution (when will that be? ).

Anyway, just thought I'd mention also that the audio-in jack isn't really that much use on those Macs that had it for any serious audio use - you can't input sound from it into Logic Audio as far as I'm aware, given that there are no ASIO drivers for the internal sound jacks.

{back to topic}. I would also love to see an easy-to-use audio editing application with basic compressors and EQ built in. I'm also sure Apple could push the USB music keyboards like the Roland PC-300 in some sort of music-maker's bundle. Alternatively, if they wanted to be trendy, they could do the same with the USB MP3 DJ-turntables that have just been released (mac drivers pending) at .http://eks.fi/

 

[Vector]

Audio Editing

I posted this in another board about iApps

I do not think that Apple will come out with a Pro Audio app anytime soon. A while back they had a problem with Apple, an entirely different company which deals with music and audio. I believe Apple, the audio company, sued and both parties came to some sort of settlement whereas Apple Computer cannot make software allowing the editing of music or sound. Simplesound did not fall under this because of its very limited uses.

I heard that this is why the alert sound is called "sosumi" so sue me, but I am not sure.

Also iTunes was not in contradiction to this settlement since it only allows the conversion and storage of music and not the editing.

However, I could be wrong as I only have confirmation from secondary sources.

 

[Buggy]

I am very satisfied with iTunes.

But I also want an audio editting program. I use FCP and really would like something simpler when laying down audio tracks or recording. Free protools is good but again much more complicated then needed for 90% of what I do.

Even though I work most in FCP, I still find myself in iMovie once and awhile for a quick edit.

 

[ear2ear]

Why are so many people willing to pay for FCP and yet expect a free audio editing program?

ProTools Free is still the best bet though. Its only real limitation is 8 tracks, which should be fine if you're just putting sound to video. If it isn't, buy the Digidesign Mbox for $500 and that gets you PT LE (24 tracks), digirack plugins, audio I/O, digital I/O and 2 focusrite preamps.

While I love apple's iapps, I prefer the no-nonsense look and feel of ProTools when its time to work. I'm curious as to how PT will look when the OSX version comes out this fall.

 

[iapple]

Well...

Looking at the Poll results, it seems there is not much demand for an audio editing app like ProTools from Apple. People might want a simple audio editing feature in iTunes, but not go so far as to want a pro quality audio editing software from apple. That's basically what I think, although I feel we need "something" from Apple (like DVD studio pro or FCP3) to really pull in audio people into the Mac platform. Yes, the video part seems great both in the iApps, and the Pro App sections, but in terms of Audio, it seems a little weak.

I wonder how iTunes3 will be like...

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Re: Well...

Originally posted by iapple
Looking at the Poll results, it seems there is not much demand for an audio editing app like ProTools from Apple.

These polls should only be looked at as interesting, they're not very accurate. Only people interested in voting vote. You'd need to do a more unbiased approach to get a true feeling of what's needed.

 

[ilikeiBook]

Re: Audio

Originally posted by MacKenzie999
I'd be satisfied if Apple hadn't yanked the audio-in jack from my g4 466.

Get A Griffin iMic, it only costs $34.99 and gives you an audio input and extra output port. I have one and it works really well!

 

[Buggy]

I am still pissed that they pulled out the audio jack. I have an iMic and it works but why did I have to pay extra and have to wait for it to come. Right out of the box I should have been able to input audio... hell FCP just added vioce over features and I had to wait for delivery of third party hardware.

Even iMovie is ready to take in a Mic...but not plug for a Mic????

Inaddition... You can not set the input gain from within OSX.. they ditched that control out of the sound panel!!! Doesn't 'sound' like they want us to put audio into a computer.

They are treating audio like they treat networking... great promisses...but when it comes to the details the forget some peices.


(re: networking... OSX can not network into NT without major problems... even though they promised it would... they are also not in a hurry to fix this even though hundreds have informed them of the problem...1 year and waiting)

 

[King Cobra]

iTunes is not bad at all, an excellent mp3 player.

However, I do have some songs which I sometimes want to censor. So what I do is load them in iMovie multiple times and crop them around the profanity.

I think that since Apple has already come out with Final Cut PRO for video and DVD Studio PRO for DVD, Apple should come out with Instrument Tuner Pro.

You saw it here first!

And for pictures, Picture Perfect Pro would do nice and would have ALL the benefits of Photoshop 7 and more.
________________

In the time it takes to read this message, an Apple computer will already have performed 15 billion float-point operations more than a consumer PC.

 

[Taft]

Re: Macs are the recording industry standard

Originally posted by Dunepilot
.... but I'm often finding these days that you can do the things you can do on a music Mac much cheaper on a Wintel machine.

It's not a transition I'll ever personally make, but a good friend of mine uses his new Athlon very successfully as a recording and composing machine, and is able to use so many more free/shareware VST synths than are available for the Mac.

I don't know about that...

You can record stuff pretty cheap on the Mac and still have a lot of options. I did it with my music. Unfortunately all of those options aren't yet available for OS X. I'm still waiting for that...

As for VST, is your friend using VST plugins?? If so, there are *tons* available for the Mac and many of them are free/shareware. If I'm not mistaken, the format is the same and you can use them on either OS.

The Mac is still a rockin' platform to record on. Now they just need to get their arses in gear with OS X.

Matthew

 

[Dunepilot]

VST plugins

Taft, I think I'm right in saying that the format IS different. There are lots of VST plugins & instruments that won't work/don't exist for the Mac, being Windows-only.

there are a decent number of VST plugin effects for MacOS, but the actual number of instruments you can get for free is far less than that available for Windows (and I think this may be because windows users are more used to getting something for nothing in some areas - I mean, how many people do you know who have legal copies of Windows? Only a couple of my friends have Macs, whereas there are hundreds of Windows users here at University, and therefore the possibility of finding someone with the pirate software you need is much higher in the Windows world).

I realise that piracy is a sub-issue, but I can tell you now that I could get a windows recording desktop with a powerful-enough soundcard and pirate versions of Logic Audio, Sibelius etc very easily and very cheaply. This availability of cheap/free stuff seems to extend to VST instruments also. I haven't found a nice, usable synth for free at all yet for MacOS, and I've done a lot of trawling, but there are lots that friends using Windows play about with.

Ultimately I'd never record on anything other than my Mac, but I think the fact that Macs are used in most studios is due to their hardware-software stability and dependability, and such users are willing to pay a lot of money for additional hardware and software to get their recording jobs done. For the bedroom studio you can get the job done very cheaply with a Windows machone. I wish it weren't the case, but in my experience, it is.

 

[guv]

audio editing software from apple would be plain n darn groovy!! as long as its inexpensive (or free), epecaly since most of the good stuff cost over 100 bucks! ie peak...

 

[iapple]

Apple should concentrate on AUDIO too!!

I think Apple is putting too much effort in the Video section, and not so much in the Pro-Audio!! They have FCP, DVD studio pro, Cinema tools, iMovie, and NOTHING for audio, except iTunes. This seems rediculous, 'cause I know there is the demand.
Audio should be concentrated on, since it is one of the Mac's stronger market areas.

In Japan, Macs are probably used most in
DTP. QuarkXPress, some studios use FCP, but Mac Audio systems are becoming less.

WE NEED A KILLER APP/perhaps hardware FROM APPLE for AUDIO!!