[comp.sys.mac] Short review of MacRecorder, by Farallon

EE2Y@CRNLVAX5.BITNET (02/09/88)

For those wondering what ever happened to SoundCap, the sound digitizer, it has
been bought out by Impulse; it is now called Sound Wave.  I borrowed a friend's
SoundWave equipment once, and was quite impressed.  It was fun to play with.

But 2 days ago, the computer store in which I work received a copy of Mac
Recorder, by Farallon.  It is superior to Sound Wave.  You must see it to
believe it. It includes a microphone, into which you can plug a line in (which
you'd use to record from your stereo).  Also, they give you a cable to hook up
the Mac to external speakers.  And, of course, the sound editing software
(SoundEdit) is included. You get an appplication and 2 HyperCard stacks.  You
can do AMAZING things with Sound Edit, the music editor.  Add echos, change to
backwards, adjust envelopes, flange it, change the pitch, etc.  It samples
sounds at 4 speeds: 5, 7.5, 11 and 22 KHz.

The HyperCard stacks allow you to record and playback sounds, and then paste
them into any of your stacks.

Other features: It has a 4-channel mixer, which will mix up to 4 tracks into
one.  If you have a Mac II and 2 of these pups, you can record in stereo.  Or
on any Mac, you can record each channel separately, and mix them to achieve
true stereo (which could only be played back on a Mac II.)  And it uses color
on a Mac II.

MacRecorder lists for $200.  I can ship anyone (with Visa/MC) a new copy for
$150.  Let me know if you're interested or have more questions.

Brian Campbell
Cornell Univ.
ee2y@crnlvax5.ccs.cornell.edu

rusty@velveeta (rusty wright) (02/09/88)

One of the things about the Mac II that I find very fun/amusing is the
ability to change the sysbeep.  If you look in the magazine Keyboard
you will see advertisements for CD disks that are nothing but
individual sounds suitable for recording on a sampling keyboard or drum
machine.  For example, it has someone bowing every note on a cello,
violin, etc., another one is a collection of percussion instruments and
from the write up in this month's Keyboard they have a good selection
of exotic percussion instruments on it.  I don't remember the names of
the companies but there are at least 3 different ones selling these
CD's.

I wish that someone would take MacRecorder and make a bunch of
interesting sysbeeps with these CD's.  The good part is that there
isn't any copyright on the CD's, the bad part is that the the cheapest
one is $50 (it's a narrow market and it probably cost a bit to hire the
musicians to do such boring stuff).

--------------------------------------
	rusty c. wright
	rusty@weyl.berkeley.edu ucbvax!weyl!rusty

jlc@atux01.UUCP (J. Collymore) (02/11/88)

In article <8802081838.AA18733@jade.berkeley.edu>, EE2Y@CRNLVAX5.BITNET writes:
> For those wondering what ever happened to SoundCap, the sound digitizer, it has
> been bought out by Impulse; it is now called Sound Wave.  I borrowed a friend's
> SoundWave equipment once, and was quite impressed.  It was fun to play with.
> 
> But 2 days ago, the computer store in which I work received a copy of Mac
> Recorder, by Farallon.  It is superior to Sound Wave.  You must see it to
> believe it. It includes a microphone, into which you can plug a line in (which
> you'd use to record from your stereo).  Also, they give you a cable to hook up
> the Mac to external speakers.


You can also (if you go to Radio Shack for the proper cable adaptor) do as I
did and hook your synthesizer into the line. input of the Macrecorder mike.
To do this, you will need a "Y" type cable with a single 1/4" jack at one end,
and 2 male RCA phono jacks at the other (if you want to use the cable that comes
with the recorder).  OR you can just get a cable with a 1/4" phone jack at one
end, and a male mini-phone jack at the other to go into the "line" port of the
MacRecorder microphone.

I've done this and put in my renditions of "Born in the USA," J.S. Bach's
Prelude in C Major #1 from Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and
L.V. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", all from my KORG DW-8000 synthesizer.  It's
a lot of fun!

Try it sometime.


						Jim Collymore

jlc@atux01.UUCP (J. Collymore) (02/11/88)

In article <642@atux01.UUCP>, jlc@atux01.UUCP (J. Collymore) writes:
> 
> You can also (if you go to Radio Shack for the proper cable adaptor) do as I
> did and hook your synthesizer into the line input of the Macrecorder mike.
> To do this, you will need a "Y" type cable with a single 1/4" jack at one end,
> and 2 male RCA phono jacks at the other (if you want to use the cable that comes
> with the recorder).

Correction:  you will need two FEMALE RCA phono jacks at the other end of the
cable, NOT males.
 
 						Jim Collymore