Burning CDs

Dear Mr. Robertson...Your article was full of good tips, however, how do you create your own music CD from a source other than a CD? For example, I've got several cassettes (analog) of original music that I would like to covert to AIFF and burn to CD. Is there an inexpensive software for the Mac that will convert an analog music file to a CD music file? I know Phillips makes a stand alone CD burner that wil convert, on the fly, any analog or digital music source to AIFF, but that unit is around $600.00! Help.....

Jay Keiler jay.keiler@ci.seattle.wa.us

Converting non-digital sources isn't hard at all, Jay. Check out this month's "Makings CDs, Part III" for the lowdown.

PC CD-ROMs

Nice work on the CD burning article.

Having just purchased a new Sony Spressa FireWire CD/RW, I found it interesting and informative. By the way, I don't use Toast; instead the Sony drive is bundled with Charismac's "Discribe" software, which is a reasonable alternative to the very popular Adaptec s/w.

But I have one question:

One of the things that I haven't been able to do, or figure out, is how to get PC/MAC CDs copied from my G4.

Basically, I'll take a CD that has both PC and Mac files (like Bryce 4, for example), and copy it. When it's finished, the Mac files mount (show up) on the G4. Everything's fine.

But when I put that same CD into the PC, the PC files don't show up. I'm wondering whether this is just something that can't be overcome, or whether I can actually do what I'm trying to do.

Can you do that on yours?

NOTE: I have been able to get Mac files copied to a CD (after making it "hybrid") so that they show up on the PC, but those files originated on the Mac. In this case, they were Photoshop image files, and were created on the Mac. I burned a CD with those images, and they work fine on the PC. No problem. But again, those files were "mounting" fine on the Mac, and showed up in the Finder (as opposed to native PC files, which don't show up on a hybrid CD).

See what I mean?

Comments?
Richard Thorp rickt@netgate.net

I haven't used the Discribe software, Richard, but I would forgo trying to make copies using a file-by-file method, because there's a better way. Using Toast, I would simply do a SCSI copy, which copies everything from one CD to another, including all files and formatting data. Regardless of original format, SCSI copy creates a new CD to be a replica of the parent, whether it's Mac, PC, or hybrid. Check to see if Discribe has a command or a menu with a similar cloning option.

Hope this helps.

More CD-R

You don't mention anything about capturing audio from analog media. MP3 and CDs are both readily accessible on the computer already. What is the best way to capture audio from your phonograph or radio? Can you just plug your stereo output into the Mac's audio input? What application is necessary? I'm sure that many would like to know how to convert their LPs to CDs.

Gary E. Later later@nwlink.com

Gary, I think you'll also find answers to your excellent questions in "Makings CDs, Part III" in this issue.

CD-R Deals

CompUSA recently had an ad for "your choice" of a 50-Pack CD-R media, or 30 pack 8X Printable CD-R media or a 25 Pack of 4x CD-RW Media for $29.99

So the RW media is only twice as expensive as CD-R. One problem with CD-RW media is that some earlier CD-ROM drives can't read the media.

Also CompUSA had an internal IDE CD-RW (4x 2x 8x) for $99. I saw an ad somewhere for an Accer internal CD-RW for $79.

John Metzger john_metzger@worldnet.att.net

John,
But the question remains: did you get one? Those are some GREAT deals. I did find, though, that the 50-pack of blank CDs at CompUSA doesn't include jewel cases, which is something to consider when you're thinking of buying media.

John replied:

I have a Sony Spressa CD-RW drive with a USB interface. It's works on both my Sony VAIO R522DS (which has a firewire connector too!) and my iMac (which doesn't have a firewire connector :( One problem with using it on the PC was that one has to turn off Auto-Insertion Notification in order for the CD writing software to work (not hang the system). HotBurn is what I've got for the PC and Discribe for the Mac. They work OK but not as good as Toast (from what I've heard, so I'll be buying Toast one day...)

Usually the 50pks don't come with jewel cases. I'd prefer to not have the jewel cases, they take too much room. Just the little envelopes are fine with me.

The basic drive mechanisms are coming down in price rapidly, to the point where more and more systems will ship with the CD-RW in place of the CD-ROM.

Also the RW is gettting cheap enough to just use it for everything, unless you've got a small run of disks to duplicate (small software publishers). $.80 for R v. $1.25 for RW... I suspect the media prices will get closer over time. The only other draw back to RW media is it can't be read on as many existing drives as R media can.

Anyway, it's getting better. An iMac with a CD-RW instead of the CD-ROM would be great.

This fall some companies will be shipping a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. Can read DVD and write CD-R and CD-RW. That drive will be a little expensive at first... but it will probably cost less than a real DVD-RW drive.

John Metzger john_metzger@worldnet.att.net

Cruisin' on Route MP3

I just read your article "The Beginner's Guide to Making CDs", #53 Sept. '99, and I thought it was great. It brought back memories of my experience with making my own CDs. I was one of the first to buy a CD-R and it was the coolest thing, being able to make my own music collections.

After awhile I soon discovered MP3s. I was blown away. Here I was, able to make huge collections of music without it sounding like an old AM radio. I had a CD player in my car and started having visions of combining the two. I had racks of custom CDs that I could play at my computer but I wanted to listen to them while I was driving. A friend of mine got a 6 disk CD changer and I thought that I could settle for that. But I still wanted it all.

I started looking around the web for other people who had built a car mp3 player and found a few. One of the first ones I came across was:

http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~altman/mp3mobile

Great stuff but a little too complicated and expensive for my tastes. And then I found a guy who uses an old Perfoma 6290CD, booting from a cd with his mp3s. http://mp3car.dorm.org

Cool setup, plus it uses a mac, a big plus. But I wanted more storage for music. And then I came across:

http://cajun.current.nu

This was what I was looking for. It uses Linux so I had to learn a foreign OS, which didn't turn out so bad as I thought is would. BTW, after fooling around with this project I now have a Linux server to act as a file and print server for my computers at home. Anyway, I finally have it completed and shoe-horned it into my '71 Datsun 240z. Total cost was around $300. Much cheaper than the CD changers I was looking at. Plus with a 10 gig HD I don't think I'll ever fill this monster up with music.

Thanks

Xavier Xavier7913@aol.com

Thanks, Xavier. I see a day, not far away, when car audio and computers merge. Where you will be able to easily load up 20GB of MP3s in your car stereo and have all your music at your fingertips via a controller and display on the player. This is truly the new car audio revolution. (In fact, all the technologies to do this are already here; we're just waiting for the first brave carmaker to take the plunge. Actually, I can't see why they're waiting, as whoever does it will make a LOT of money.)

Search and Rescue

Congratulations on an excellent mag. I haven't got your latest one yet so forgive me if you've already reviewed this.

I never had much success with those keystroke recording things, because I make lots of mistakes and use backspace a lot, so retrieved work lokoddo likkee thhiss usually. I gave up and resolved to save often. This policy worked well, so when I found a shareware program called 'search and rescue' on an archive site somewhere I just looked at it, noted that it could perhaps recover unsaved data and bunged it in my 'new' folder to be sorted out 'later'.

Recently I was talking to someone while HTMLing a text file, and accidentally hit 'don't save' after closing. All gone! I remembered search and rescue and went to have a look. It reads your RAM and produces text you can copy and paste. All you do is type in a string you can remember and it searches for that. My document was able to be reconstituted in two segments.

Well, there is good documentation with it, it seems very stable and presentation is good. I think it is well worth putting a review in your mag for it. The documentation says it can even recover stuff after a crash and restart. Autosave can be a real pain sometimes, and I don't use it. It's shareware, and free to students. http://www.kagi.com/tjriley

All the best and thanks for all the useful info I've had from you. Andy

Thanks, Andy, for the info about Search and Rescue. I'll be sure to check it out!

A Bunch of iBook feedback!

Last month, as I sent out the email to our subscribers that our October issue was all ready for downloading, I asked a few questions.

First, did anyone out there receive a new iBook yet, and if so, would they share their initial thoughts with me. I also shared the news that I had ordered a PowerBook, the G3 400MHz version to be precise. It has arrived, and I will be writing about it soon.

I also decided that, due to the fact I'm now using a cable modem, I can afford to send out the actual issue to people via email, rather than simply giving you the download directions. That offer is still open: if you want My Mac delivered to your email box every month, please let me know (remember to specify either the DOCMaker or PDF version).

Thanks to everyone who wrote in. Here are some of the replies I received.
Tim

I have a new tangerine iBook. I received it on Monday September 27, 1999. This was much faster than I expected. I must tell you, with no reservation, that I am in love with it! It is fast and sassy. It is light, stays charged for an incredible amount of time, is lightning fast, easy to set up, and has posed no difficulties whatsoever.

Initially, I wanted to upgrade the RAM ASAP because it comes with only 32 meg, but I have been astonished by its abilities with only this amount. I still intend to upgrade, for no other reason than I want to, but as far as I can tell it is not necessary at all. The reason that I didn't order it with more is because I know that this process delays the the order. I wanted my iBook as soon as they could send it to me.

I am also simply amazed by the airport technology. It is the greatest thing that they have added to computers since the CD ROM. It is hard for people to believe that my little iBook will do all that it will. They just can't believe that if it's not big and stationary that it is fast and friendly. In addition, the screen is wonderful. The graphics when playing games are outstanding. The movements are smooth and quick. Well, I could go on and on about all of the wonderful attributes of the iBook, but I must go.

Thanks,
Liz Celania ecelania@aea14.k12.ia.us

Thanks, Liz. And as fast as your iBook may seem right now, it will seem and perform much better with more RAM. Adding additional RAM is, in fact, about the single best upgrade for any Macintosh. More RAM will make a Mac faster, more convenient (can have more than one application running at one time) and much more stable. True, RAM prices have risen considerably lately, but it's still a good investment.

Hey! Thanks for a great zine! Would love to have it sent directly each month and text only would also be acceptable. After all, it's really the text and valuable info I'm after. Bought a 300 MHz G3 Powerbook a couple of months ago and it's awesome! The screen is HUGE, BRIGHT and clean as a whistle. It's quicker than quick (considering that I moved up from a poky 540C that served me well for years) and has performed nearly perfectly so far. Now if only I could resolve the apparent conflict I'm having trying to connect my HP Deskwriter 600 printer.....

Please e-mail me and let me know if it will be possible to have My Mac sent directly, I'd really appreciate it. Keep up the great work and thanks again!

NAiello123@aol.com

My Mac is on its way. In fact, you should have had this issue mailed directly to you :-)

Received an iBook yesterday: terrific ergonomics and feel - no bugs yet but it does not come bundled with Microsoft Office so be prepared to purchase Word, etc. Also, no System 9 so same goes there. Great screen - keyboard gets some getting used to . They are way behind on orders and stacking up backorders so newbies better be patient. More as I use it....

SBrezzo@aol.com

Needing help with My Mac

Dear Sir:
How long does an issue of My Mac stay on the computer? How long does it take to download it? What do I do if I want to read it on line? What is the difference between the two web sites?

Maybe I am too late to read the last issue. I told my computer to save it to the desktop (didn't know to just read it) and nothing happened.

Thank you.
MPelLove@aol.com

After you visit our website, there's a section on the main page where people can download the current issue (previous issues are also available in our archives.) Simply click on your choice of format and the issue will automatically download to your hard drive. Once it's on your drive, that issue of My Mac will stay on your computer until you delete it.

Download times depend on your connection speed. On a 56K modem, it takes about two and a half minutes. A cable modem will take about 20 seconds, if that.

If you want to read My Mac online, simply go to www.mymac.com and read away. At this time, there is only one website, not two.

Perhaps you would prefer to have the current issue sent to you directly via email. If this is the case, please let me know.

Greetings from South Africa

First off I want to thank you for a great publication.

I really enjoy reading the product reviews and articles by real people who do not always have the newest and fastest Mac. Thanks for remembering that there are us out here who think a beige Mac is still a good piece of hardware.

Another great feature is that I do not have to worry about the Post Office losing my copy. But I have had a problem the last three or four months. Every time I download the .Doc version using Netscape 4,4.5 & now 4.6 it will not open, but if I download it using iCab it works fine. Yes, I do have stuffit expander 5.1.2 just thought I would let you know.

Jeff Blanton jblanton@iafrica.com Cape Town, South Africa

Jeff, thanks for your letter and your support. We're sorry to hear about the downloading problem you've been experiencing, but since we haven't had anyone else mention a similar anomaly, we're at a loss to explain it. Please let us know if it persists, or if you found out what was causing it.

The PowerBook Office

Please put me on the list to receive My Mac in PDF format by email.

As for the Powerbook G3 400, I have been using one since June. It has completely replaced my desktop G3 200 mhz. My only irritations are the transfer of fingerprint oils to the screen, where you have to clean it off with a damp cloth and my need to purchase an ADB mouse to bring the ease of use back to that of the desktop Mac.

I am an attorney as well as a Mac consultant and now operate my whole business from the Powerbook.

Paul Frederiksen maclaw@uswest.net

Mac Emulator Extraordinaire

I've been getting the DOCMaker version via e-mail for years.

I would be interested in a text only version. I read the DOCMaker version on my HP Unix machine using MAE = Macintosh Application Environment. I won't be able to take MAE with me to my next contract, even though I paid for it (long story) and I may not have good access to any Mac, so it would be either the PDF or text version for me. Text I can read in e-mail and it's smaller, and I don't really need the images (if I do I can get to the WWW version), so, these are the reasons for my preferences.

Sincerely,
Dr. John Nixon

Thanks, John! The response to my inquiry has been an eye opener, and yours was no exception.

I would be interested to hear more of the MAE = Macintosh Application Environment, as I think most of our readers would be...

So John wrote back:

It's no longer supported by Apple, but I'll tell you about it anyway. For Sun (Solaris) and Hewlett Packard (HP-UX) machines MAE emulated the MacOS (System 7.5.3 under a 68040 with no FPU---like one of the LC's I seem to recall) in a GUI window. The desktop filled the window and you could browse the "native" OS file system using Mac conventions. Also, as long as the application didn't require later MacOS or an FPU, or couldn't be tricked with a software FPU, you could run all your fave programs like Word, Netscape, GraphicConverter, ClarisWorks, whatever. The integration of the two OSes was seamless and a source of constant amazement to me: you could double click in MAE on a Unix file and have it fire up the associated application, say emacs, in a Unix window. You could cut and paste in either direction. You could mount Mac CD's (and floppies I think, but I don't have a drive) in MAE from the drives on your Unix box. Way cool.

It was around for ages, and cost me $500 (Australian) 2.5 years ago, after which the price was halved, then the product was abandoned! Pity, as many people (who I knew about from the now defunct Apple run mailing list---there was also an Apple web site) used it on their Unix machines to lever Macs into Unix and PeeCee dominated workplaces. Now some will have to abandon the MacOS because they would never be allowed to buy the _hardware_ but snuck (sneaked?) the _OS_ in the backdoor by this manner. The really cool thing to my mind was I could browse my University AppleTalk network and I didn't even have a Mac! You have to see it to believe it.

People associated with the mailing list could tell you more of the history associated and also what uses they had for MAE. If my next contract has a HP I may be able to reload from the CD and, after scanning the mailing list archive to work out how I can get it to happen, use the "key" to "unlock" my registered copy. Otherwise I have a useless CD and paid quite a bit for each year of use I got out of it, seeing as I really purchased MAE to make it easier to get Mac stuff of the 'net while at work for my ancient IIcx at home, or to unravel file formats between Mac, Unix, and PeeCee (the grant paying my wage bought a PeeCee, which I use as little as possible and it still crashes every week, guaranteed!).

Enough of the soapbox...

In short, MAE was "Steved", I hate PeeCees, and my work is 99.99% on Unix machines, but, think the Mac is _the_ computer for _everyone_. Oh yeah, I lust after a G4 as well! Go Apple! :-)

Sincerely,

Dr. John Nixon