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How did you do that?

I am reading you articles about burning CD's.. great stuff.

An unrelated question: in one of your movies, I can see a windows-like utility which allows you to switch windows and you can see the application you want to switch to.

What is that? I have been waiting for so long for a mac utility like that

Haris Husain
hh303@cs.columbia.edu

The program you're referring to is called "Office Manager," and can be found on the Office 98 CD-ROM from Microsoft. It allows you to switch back and forth between open application using (in my case) Tab and Command keys. I love it and have installed it on all my Macs, and I haven't found a conflict yet. It also gives you a handy menu which you can use to quickly launch applications, much like the Apple menu.

Capturing audio from DVD

I enjoyed your three-part series on "Making CDs." However, I would appreciate one more part to it.

For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how to extract music from DVDs. I haven't invested in any Mac-DVD equipment or software (other than Toast--for CDs) yet. Nor do I have a commercial DVD player for my TV/home theater setup as yet. This is to make sure I won't be spending in vain. That's why I'm writing.

Let me back up a bit first--this situation depicts the type of thing I'd like to doŠ.

I found a couple of music tracks in a movie that's not available on any CD. There was no soundtrack made and the artists involved don't have it available on either of their own labels--probably due to royalty red tape. "Someone To Watch Over Me" has the title theme sung by both Sting and Roberta Flack at the beginning and end of the film. There are some city noises overlaid on the Sting version that would be better removed. I'd like to extract these tracks off of DVD to put them on my own compilation CD.

What would be the best process for doing this? Can newer versions of Toast do this type of extraction? And how difficult would it be to segregate the music from the rest of the ambient and dialog sound? Would I need expensive software, like Adobe Premiere? I'd also like to do fades at the beginning and end of these tracks. I've heard that Toast Jam might be able to help me here. Also, would I need to have a lot more available hard disk space to copy off this type file (versus and audio CD file) from a DVD?

If you decide to do a column covering this topic, could you please send me an email notifying me of its posting.

Thanks in advance,

Al Sherer
asherer@aol.com

Toast won't do it. You will also need a Mac DVD player.

Are both the music and the ambient sounds on just one track? They probably are, which means that unless the album is finally released with separate tracks, you'll have no choice but to live with the unwanted street sounds smothering the vocals.

Until then, here's your best solution without spending a few thousand dollars either at a sound studio or on special software: Follow my advice in Part III and simply record the sound directly into your Mac from an external source. Connect your home pre-amp to your Mac, record it as I described, and use some of the shareware programs out there to clean up the sound as much as possible. It's not an ideal solution, but it's economical, and it's what I'd do if I really wanted to get those tracks. Let me know how it turned out.

Conflicting email

I've been having a lot of problems with Shockwave, even though the good folks at nowonder.com have been trying very hard to help me. Shockwave appears to be installed correctly, but I cannot access the main Shockwave site, www.shockwave.com. (I just get a lot of flickering).

Now, a customer service person at Macromedia informs me that there is some kind of conflict or problem between www.shockwave.com and AOL, which is my ISP. (I use Netscape on top of AOL when trying to access www.shockwave.com) "They're working on it," the person informed me. If that is the case -- if there is a problem which is independent of my computer and my software, shouldn't there be a notice somewhere, perhaps in a Macromedia site, or in a AOL site, or even in My Mac? I've wasted a lot of time trying to solve this problem.

Robert Grunberg
robsual@aol.com

While I can certainly sympathize with your plight, Robert, I must say this is the first time I've heard about this problem with Shockwave and AOL before. I also wish My Mac had the resources to report on all the potential problems Mac users will or could have, but that would be a full time job in and of itself.

My suggestion would be to look into getting a better Internet Service Provider than America Online. AOL is great when someone's first starting out on the Internet, but most users quickly outgrow the limited features and connection speeds AOL provides. As far as I know, AOL's still using 56k modems for dialup service. You may want to check with your local cable company and see if they offer cable modem service, which is well worth the investment in speed and ease of use.

CD-R

I found your archived article (Oct. '99) on recording CD's to be very helpful. Just after reading it, I recorded my first music CD without a hitch (Creedence Clearwater Revival).

Thanks much!
Scott J. Little

You're welcome much! I wanted people to know it's not only easy, but also a lot of fun to create their own custom CDs. I'm glad you found the article helpful.

I just came across this site today and I wanted to let you know that I really like your writing style. It's informative with that necessary addition of sarcasm! I'm looking for a review (more current than 9/98) of CD-RW drives. Any suggestions?

Robin Faye
rjfaye@yahoo.com

Thanks for the kind words, Robin. I love it when people notice the prerequisite amount of sarcasm I use in my writing. I think it comes from watching too much George Carlin...

As for CD burners, I have only used a few, and strangely they have all been LaCie models. I got the one on my desk from Small Dog Electronics, one of our sponsors. It's worked great and I've had no problems at all. I suggest you click over to Macbuy.com and check out some of their comparisons. Just be sure you get one with CD-RW, which is well worth the extra $100 they cost.

Wanted: Writing for new users!

Hi again, well I don't know enough about Macintoshes to give you any good ideas. However, as an amateur and with the revival of the Mac shouldn't someone be writing articles aimed at the beginners, articles with lots of useful tips that would help our Macs run smooth, tips on good software that would just make them ticking over like I know they can, maybe recommend good software packages. Things you guys take for granted but we have yet to learn.

I often buy a copy of Macworld but mostly the articles are above my head and budget we don't all have G3's and G4's, some of us have to muddle through with old computers. I have three daughters that I have started on the Mac highway but would I love them to be able to learn more about keeping their machines running on all eight cylinders and people like you can help, just remember your roots and how it was when you first started. We are in a minority and find it hard to get good information from many stores. Thanks.

Mike
Mike4puy@aol.com

We're on the same wavelength, Mike, because I've just started a column called "Basic Training" in which I do just that. I would also suggest you take a look at our online archives and check out back issues for the "Starting Line," where you can find loads of great stuff for beginning Macintosh users like your daughters.

If your machines are older models, I would steer you towards Dan Knight's Low End Mac www.lowendmac.com. The site is a true resource and a great place for people with vintage Macs to get important information and tips. He covers all the non-current models, and you won't go wrong with Dan and the Low End!