Topic: Mac USERS! (soundcard/Peak LE/bit torrent questions)

[carrington]

All right guys.  Here's the scoop.  I want to finally start transferring some of my DATs to my Mac (Power G4 running OS 10.2..  Here arfe my questions:

1)  What type of soundcard do I need to purchase in order to digitally import the audio from DAT to mac?

2)  Is Peak LE the best/good software to use for dithering, resampling, adding fades, adding track breaks, etc?

3)  Once this is accomplished how hard is it to generate a bittorrent?  All the instructions I've ever seen deal with pc's and not Mac. 

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Thanks,
Carrington

[RRobar]

Carrington check you PM.

I forgot to mention using tomato to see a torrent. There is a pretty long explanation in the archive section about seeding BT using a mac.

[scb]

1. try 10.3 instead of 10.2

2. try spark instead of peak

[wbrisette]

2. try spark instead of peak

Of course you have to put up with a bizarre interface. (My one and only beef with Spark was their attempt at an interface... yuck. Makes no sense from a human interface standpoint).

If you decide to use spark and put up with the interface issues, it can't be beat for the price (free). Peak or Peak LE is a great option as well and I prefer it (and it's interface) for two track audio.

For audio cards, there are a whole host of options now available. Since I use Digital Performer, I've stuck with MOTUs hardware, but I previously used Emagic's auidiowerks card and it worked fine in Mac OS 8 & 9. Can't comment on Mac OS X and these aren't made anymore since Apple bought Emagic. But there are enough other options out there now that it's tought to figure out what card to buy.

Wayne

Wayne

[Mic D]

Carrington, PM/call me if you need help. I use a Mac.

Kevin

[scb]

2. try spark instead of peak

Of course you have to put up with a bizarre interface. (My one and only beef with Spark was their attempt at an interface... yuck. Makes no sense from a human interface standpoint).

If you decide to use spark and put up with the interface issues, it can't be beat for the price (free). Peak or Peak LE is a great option as well and I prefer it (and it's interface) for two track audio.

For audio cards, there are a whole host of options now available. Since I use Digital Performer, I've stuck with MOTUs hardware, but I previously used Emagic's auidiowerks card and it worked fine in Mac OS 8 & 9. Can't comment on Mac OS X and these aren't made anymore since Apple bought Emagic. But there are enough other options out there now that it's tought to figure out what card to buy.

Wayne

Wayne

i never found spark's interface to be bad.  i started not knowing how to do a thing and i think i figured most of it out

and digital performer works with non motu-hardware, right?  i've used it with other stuff...

[John Kelly]

Spark is by far the best two track editor in X.  Peak is just awful...

[Chris K]

i prefer the peak interface much better than spark, and i think spark has a much higher learning curve than peak.

outside of peak's support and maybe the 2gig file limitation (no sdII or wav64), what is it you guys dont like about peak?

 

[scb]

bugs, bugs, more bugs, and horrible customer service

i posted to a peak list about some specific bugs that i could reproduce every time.  i wasn't the only one who encountered the bugs either.   but i was told by steve berkley (the B in BIAS, makers of peak, is Berkley) that i was only causing trouble on his list by making up lies about his product

of course, a month later he released a patch targeting the specific problem i was having...

[taktheride]

can someone link to the Spark website?  (no luck searching google, first time ever)

I found the TC works site, it says its discontinued, any third party music sites still host the image?
Still looking....

[carrington]

what about sound studio 2?  i downloaded that and it seems to have a very user friendly interface.  i checked out spark and have no clue where to  even begin.
thanks for the input,
c.

oh scott- quick xACT question...when i minimize the window and bring it back up it won't let me decode files...says something like internalerror yadayada.  any insight?

[Chris K]

sound studio 2 is good. i like the split at track markers option. its cheap and worth it. many swear by it.

fwiw, i use a couple audiophile 2496 in my mac without issues. decent drivers and stable

[scb]

what about sound studio 2?  i downloaded that and it seems to have a very user friendly interface.  i checked out spark and have no clue where to  even begin.
thanks for the input,
c.

oh scott- quick xACT question...when i minimize the window and bring it back up it won't let me decode files...says something like internalerror yadayada.  any insight?

to be honest, i've never minimized the app. i usually use it and quit, or hit apple-H to hide (hey john kelly i said APPLE instead of COMMAND....hehe)

i'll check it out though.  it might be a dumb interface thing where it loses track of something when minimized

[carrington]

sound studio 2 is good. i like the split at track markers option. its cheap and worth it. many swear by it.

fwiw, i use a couple audiophile 2496 in my mac without issues. decent drivers and stable

yeah, i just ordered an audiophile 2496 card for my G4.  so once that arrives i guess i'll be all set.  thanks for the tips guys.
late,
c.

[John Kelly]

bugs, bugs, more bugs, and horrible customer service

i posted to a peak list about some specific bugs that i could reproduce every time.  i wasn't the only one who encountered the bugs either.   but i was told by steve berkley (the B in BIAS, makers of peak, is Berkley) that i was only causing trouble on his list by making up lies about his product

of course, a month later he released a patch targeting the specific problem i was having...

What he said and on top of that they still have a 2 gig limit.  The fact that it remains in Peak 4 is just asinine. 

(hey john kelly i said APPLE instead of COMMAND....hehe)

As long as you're comfortable knowing that you're wrong, it's alright with me.

[brianp]

Sound Studio is awesome and *real* simple, great for 2-track editing and real similar to Peak without all the buggy issues. Spark is nice as well, but overkill for me and I dont like the interface at all. I do use Spark over Sound Studio for resampling though.

[greenone]

Yeah - Sound Studio is REALLY slow for processing but I don't do too much other than fades and track splitting. Occasionally I'll normalize and read a few novels in the meantime but I tend not to do shit if I don't know what I'm doing...

[wbrisette]

What he said and on top of that they still have a 2 gig limit.  The fact that it remains in Peak 4 is just asinine. 

Well, I understand why they leave it there, and it really does suck for us, but it also makes sense. Right now none of the standards are written to except anything larger than 2 GB. The Wave64 isn't a true standard, it is one vendor making up a way to get around the problem. Of course this means that their standard isn't going to work everywhere, and that's what Steve wants to prevent with Peak. Again, we don't have to agree with him, but he has stated multiple times that when the standards committees come out with a standard that supports more than 2 GB, so will he. Until then, he isn't changing his application.

The problem is we're all starting to use devices which can write more than 2 GB at a time.

Wayne

[John Kelly]

What he said and on top of that they still have a 2 gig limit.  The fact that it remains in Peak 4 is just asinine. 

Well, I understand why they leave it there, and it really does suck for us, but it also makes sense. Right now none of the standards are written to except anything larger than 2 GB. The Wave64 isn't a true standard, it is one vendor making up a way to get around the problem. Of course this means that their standard isn't going to work everywhere, and that's what Steve wants to prevent with Peak. Again, we don't have to agree with him, but he has stated multiple times that when the standards committees come out with a standard that supports more than 2 GB, so will he. Until then, he isn't changing his application.

The problem is we're all starting to use devices which can write more than 2 GB at a time.

Wayne

What's wrong with SDII extended?

[RRobar]

what about sound studio 2?  i downloaded that and it seems to have a very user friendly interface.  i checked out spark and have no clue where to  even begin.
thanks for the input,
c.

oh scott- quick xACT question...when i minimize the window and bring it back up it won't let me decode files...says something like internalerror yadayada.  any insight?

to be honest, i've never minimized the app. i usually use it and quit, or hit apple-H to hide (hey john kelly i said APPLE instead of COMMAND....hehe)

i'll check it out though.  it might be a dumb interface thing where it loses track of something when minimized

I minimize it all the time when decoding. Never had any issues. Maybe a problem with Jaguar? I'm running Panther.

[rocksuitcase]

FWIW,
I have used PEAK VSTwith OS9.x for 4 years with very little problems and excellent customer support.  I still haven't upgraded to OSX for a variety of reasons, but it sounds as if I will have to change programs when I do.
There are a few strange things I guess I have gotten used to, but is has down all I needed it for.  that said, I do not record to laptop and do not store 24/96 files.

[taktheride]

does anyone have a dmg of the free version of spark?  I can't find it anywhere....?