From our Readers . . .

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We take the time to answer the little questions that sometimes slip through the cracks of day to day coverage of Macs & Music. Questions from our readers are one of the best ways for us to know what direction to go with our coverage. Remember, the only stupid question is the one left unasked. "Hi there, I know quite a bit about digital audio, unfortunately I know nothing about midi and how it works and or relates to digital audio on the mac. I didn't really see any sort of rudimentary explanations on your page about what you can do with midi and what software and hardware you need to do it. I was wondering if you can point me in the direction of some information about how I can set up my mac to do midi and what I can do with it." You make a good point. We seem to spend so much time catching up with the "latest thing" that we tend to ignore primers. MIDI is a relatively easy thing to make happen on your Mac. The only hardware you really need is a serial/MIDI interface and some kind of MIDI controller and/or sound source. MIDIMan makes a fine MIDI interface with a serial port, one MIDI in and three MIDI outs. This adapter/interface usually sells for about $40 or $50 (US) and features a convenient pass through switch for your printer (the printer port is the most common used for MIDI adapters). A budget model Casio or Yamaha MIDI personal keyboard would suffice as both controller and sound source. On the higher priced side, both Alesis and Korg have models of keyboards that have built in Mac/Win serial ports that eliminate the need for a serial/MIDI adapter. Must have software includes Opcode OMS (free download) and some kind of software that implements MIDI. Controllers can also be in the form of drum pads, guitar or bass MIDI controllers, etc. Also, once you have a MIDI adapter, there are a few studio like controllers with features such as 8 to 16 faders, LCD read out, many buttons and a jog wheel -- all of which are software assignable. Of note in this category are products from Keyfax and Peavey (we are working on a link list for these devices, but if you have MacOS 8.5 or better, use Sherlock to find references to 'MIDI controllers'). How does this work for you? I can't say as I don't know what you've got going now (system, config., software, etc.). Assuming you have a Mac with a serial port and already have the processing power and memory to do digital audio, all you need is the right software or to know how the MIDI implementation works in the software you have. For instance, If you're using StudioVision, Digital Performer, CubaseVST, AudioLogic or many of the other integrated studio applications, the ability to use MIDI as virtual audio tracks and control tracks is there. The studio MIDI controllers I mentioned can be used to automate complex mixes of both digital audio and MIDI channel parameters by recording a "track" in real time as you mix. Very useful to automate pans and subtle EQ changes as well as fades and muting that one 'ugly' bit at the end of a take. The Macs built in Quicktme support includes a MIDI GM set of sounds that you can control from your ext. controller. As far as sampling & synth software goes, one really great sampling package is BitHeadz Unity DS-1. It's got gobs of samples and can import many sound file formats plus you can sample from your Mac's sound in and use Unity's processing in many very creative ways. I've used Unity in both stand alone mode, as well as inside CubaseVST & Digital Performer and it works great. It needs a lot of memory from your system and the more sounds you load on, the more it taxes your processor. I can make it run fairly well on a 180Mhz. 604e, but it really likes a 233Mhz. G3 or better. Even though BitHeadz is an advertiser, honestly, they've got the coolest software synth & sampler stuff for the Mac. "Hello, I've saving up to buy the B/W 450mhz G3. Keyboard mag did a review on the 400mhz, and the guy was able to get unity ds1, retro as1, and a couple of tracks of audio with plugins all running at the same time. Id like to do the same, but have been considering a PC system, as macs cost so much. I probably wont go PC, but can you tell me why I shouldn't? What makes the G3 so much better for audio than a blazing PC for a cheaper price?" All of the reasons the Mac is generally better than a PC for creative purposes apply to making music & sound. Primarily, the avg. amount of time spent fixing unknown bugs & glitches is dramatically reduced on the MacOS over any second rate hack job like Wondoze. That's just my opinion and personal experience. We aren't in the business of slamming products or platforms here at MacRocks.com, in fact both wintel and Mac have their advantages and draw backs. Over the long haul the investment in the higher cost Apple machines is outweighed by the lower cost of long term support or down time during important projects. Another important thing to remember about the G3 processor stacks up better to tests than their rivals on the pee cee side. Independent benchmark testing consistently rates G3 processors of lesser clock speeds at or better than 'faster' PII & PIII's. That is to say, you're getting more speed for the $$$. Also the PowerPC RISC architecture makes for a smaller, cooler and less voltage consuming chip over what Intel has to offer. With the expectation the iMac may see revisions this year that include DVD, Altavec, FireWire, larger monitors & faster processors up to 400 Mhz., and with prices expected to stay in the sub-$2k range, the iMac is becoming competitive in price to wintel counterparts. Sure, there's a lot of evangelism in this response -- what would you expect from MacRocks.com?!?

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