|
Phat Tracks on Your Mac: Part 2 So, you read Phat Tracks on Your Mac: Part 1 and had a thirst for something even more fulfilling and came back for something more to fulfill your music thirsts? This article should take you beyond the simple, and sometimes limited shareware software, that you can get for free, and up a level. Beware: You might have to get a summer job to pay for some of this stuff. After you believe you've reached the outer limits of what you can do with the shareware program Melody assistant, it's time to move up another step. That next step up seems to be Harmony Assistant, Melody's older and more capable brother. On top of all the Melody options, it brings harmonizing, drum sequences and MIDI input capabilities, enabling one to quickly create hi-quality music. If you're really moved to record your own music, Harmony can record a digital audio track at the same time. This means that you can then record your voice with the microphone while you play on keyboard... pretty neat. Harmony Assistant is now at version 7.0.1, and you can order the CD off the Myriad Online Web site for the modest sum of $65. To make the most out of your software, you can visit several Mac music sites. Here are a few of them. Mac Shareware Music Machine: This site has tons of mac music shareware neatly catalogued for you to download. Mac Music.org: Lot's of links to mac music Web sites. MacRocks is your source for info, news, and reviews about making music with a Macintosh! USB, MIDI, FireWire, mLAN, and more! You might also want to check out Apple's Creative site at http://www.apple.com/creative. It has some inspiring stories, tips, and gear pertaining to musical macs. I found this to be one of the most useful sites. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, you've finally finished composing your masterpieces of pop, hip-hop, rock, or classical. However, you're not satisfied with the output of that puny little modified RCA cable. What can you do? Buy a CD Burner of course. I have no specific suggestions, but if you're only going to be using it every once in awhile to record music, you shouldn't go for the top of the line. You can probably get a low-end one for around $200 that will suit your needs perfectly. You're friends will be amazed at how that cd-quality music blasting through the stereo is actually your creation. If you still need more power, some other things you might buy are a mixer (about $200-300, but you can get a nice used one for significantly less), a MIDI keyboard, an amplifier, better speakers, and if you really have the dough, a new PowerMac G4. Good luck! Jordan Streiff
|