Author Topic: What's your favorite Mac audio software? (Read 5145 times)

checht · « **on:** July 25, 2004, 04:55:42 PM »

Aloha,

I'm not too overjoyed with my current set of software tools, and wondering what everyone else is using

I use Peak 4.1 to slice and dice, but it's such a hog that I've migrated to Audio Recorder for transfers and live recordings. Fewer dropouts when the cpu meter is on 18% rather than 98%

Anyway, what solutions have you all found, and what machines are you running them on?

Mahalos

John Kelly · « **Reply #1 on:** July 25, 2004, 08:03:40 PM »

Spark XL 2.82 on an iBook 700 running OS X 10.3.4

MattD · « **Reply #2 on:** July 25, 2004, 09:43:03 PM »

Proprietary software or Spark XL 2.8.2 on a Powerbook G3 400 running OSX 10.3.2

Chris K · « **Reply #3 on:** July 25, 2004, 09:56:53 PM »

macamp_lite to play flacs and shn's

for recording/transfering/mastering i use either peak le 4.11 or sound studio on g4 466 digital audio tower

greenone · « **Reply #4 on:** July 26, 2004, 10:54:28 AM »

I'll put in a vote for Felt Tip Sound Studio - felttip.com. I've run it on my G4/400 as early as OS 9.2 and as recently as 10.3.4, and also on my dual-USB iBook, no problems. I use it for recording, transfer and splitting...nice little program.

scb · « **Reply #5 on:** July 26, 2004, 07:21:40 PM »

spark is nice. i hate peak...

checht · « **Reply #6 on:** July 26, 2004, 09:48:34 PM »

yeah, there's sooo much to hate!
I'm maxing my cpu at 16/48, and need to work with 24/96. The machine would probably start smoking.

Looks like Spark is proving most capable. But isn't Spark discontinued by TC? I couldn't find it on their site.

Does anyone have a link for buying Spark?

Thanks

John Kelly · « **Reply #7 on:** July 27, 2004, 11:59:07 AM »

You don't want to buy Spark. Since the company no longer supports it, I see no problems in obtaining a "demo" copy.

Sound Studio is pretty sweet as well.

RRobar · « **Reply #8 on:** July 27, 2004, 01:00:43 PM »

Sound Studio is pretty nice. It came with my iBook so I treid it out and it works pretty easily.

checht · « **Reply #9 on:** July 27, 2004, 04:39:33 PM »

Quote from: John Kelly not Kelley on July 27, 2004, 11:59:07 AM

You don't want to buy Spark. Since the company no longer supports it, I see no problems in obtaining a "demo" copy.

Ah ha! That would be why it was hard to find.

Anybody able to help with a "demo"? I'd much appreciate it.

Thanks, Chris

tonyvt · « **Reply #10 on:** July 28, 2004, 02:39:21 PM »

I have been using SoundStudio with my iBook g4/800 12" since November and highly
recommend it.
Just got back from Camp Creek and recorded the entire festival and had no problems.
I believe that they still might have a trial version available, check it out at http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/

greenone · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2004, 03:05:59 PM »

Their trial period is VERY cool, too - I think it's 30 days, but non-consecutive...so if you use it once, let it sit for a month, then use it again, that's two days on the 30-day trial. And even if you buy it, it's like $40. Supposedly does 24-bit as well though that was just added in the latest beta so it's probably not stable yet.

--Dave

John Kelly · « **Reply #12 on:** July 28, 2004, 04:20:09 PM »

14 days, but yeah, very cool of felt tip to have it work that way.

heath · « **Reply #13 on:** July 28, 2004, 04:27:21 PM »

I'm a ProTools guy...Use it on my G4 Tower (dual 450) running osx (10.3.something)

On occassion, I have been known to use Peak as well.

At work it's all about Nuendo.

For anyone plaaning on doing project studio work, I say go Protools or Nuendo. They can't be beat, IMO. If you're just slicing and dicing aiffs, peak, sound studio, etc are just fine

nic · « **Reply #14 on:** July 28, 2004, 04:45:42 PM »

Digital Performer.
haven't used DP4(OSX only), but I love DP3(OS9 only)

heath · « **Reply #15 on:** July 28, 2004, 04:52:16 PM »

Quote from: luvean on July 28, 2004, 04:45:42 PM

Digital Performer.
haven't used DP4(OSX only), but I love DP3(OS9 only)

the few times I've run performer, I've really enjoyed it. Just not a regular user, that's all...

John Kelly · « **Reply #16 on:** July 28, 2004, 04:52:45 PM »

Peak sucks.

kennedy · « **Reply #17 on:** July 28, 2004, 07:44:55 PM »

i agree that peak sucks, i gave it a chance, i ended up using these to om my g4:
sound studio for 16/48 and spark xl for 24/48

heath · « **Reply #18 on:** July 28, 2004, 08:35:27 PM »

what do you guys dislike about peak? not that I'm a fluffer or anything but the times i have had to use it, it didn't seem to be that bad. It did exactly waht it was supposed to do for me...

John Kelly · « **Reply #19 on:** July 28, 2004, 10:25:40 PM »

Have you tried loading a file bigger than 2 gigs?

MattD · « **Reply #20 on:** July 28, 2004, 10:41:38 PM »

I have never been successful doing anything that I wanted to with peak: open file - fails, drop markers - fails, recording - fails and crashes ...

scb · « **Reply #21 on:** July 29, 2004, 12:14:19 AM »

>>what do you guys dislike about peak? not that I'm a fluffer or anything but the times i have had to use it, it didn't seem to be that bad. It did exactly waht it was supposed to do for me...<<

i don't like peak because Steve Berkley (head of BIAS, who makes peak. the B in BIAS is Berkley) lied to me for months about a bug we discovered and claimed it didn't exist. then he tried to blame me and claim i was just trying to cause trouble on his list by asking for help. months later they released a patch for a newly discovered bug, which just happened to be what i ws talking about months before

this had to do with USB recording (which never worked right for me, and apparently still doesn't). But i've found it to crash and generally not work as advertised

checht · « **Reply #22 on:** July 29, 2004, 12:39:56 AM »

For me, the biggest issue with Peak 4.1 is that its such a cpu hog. Earlier versions crashed merrily, after messing with your files. Not such a problem anymore, but the way it uses resources is obscene.

Peak is all aqua'd out, and probably does all its graphics through calls to the API, the way Apple wants. This creates huge demand on resources, making it less than certain that real-time application demands will always be met.

In other words, with Peak I get way too many drop outs on DAT transfers.