Switch is a sound audio conversion software for both Windows and Mac platforms (it is possible to run it with Unix). The app can be as simple as drag and drop or as fancy as command line automation (allows up to 32000 files to be converted in one batch). It works with almost all audio formats. MP3 encoder supports constant or variable bit rates from 8 to 320kbps with optional error correction and stereo modes. WAV encoder supports sample rates between 6000 and 196000Hz in PCM as well as a number of other audio codecs. Prices start at $39.

If you are music novice like me, creating a soundtrack in Garageband is much easier than Final Cut Studio's Soundtrack. They can share the same loops but creating music is much simpler on the Garageband side. Of course, Soundtrack is much better at mixing audio and interacting with Final Cut Pro. MacProVideo.com has released new video tutorials for Mastering GarageBand. Veteran audio producer & educator Paul Garay shows production techniques, important DSP (effects) tips, and time-saving mix-trick. GarageBand 101: Mastering GarageBand is priced at US$39.50. Currently, if you use MacMinute's coupon code: GBReleaseSF, you will receive an additional discount of 10% off.

Also: Final Cut Pro Tutorials, Motion Tutorials, DVD Studio Pro Tutorials

OK west coast readers, here's more fun for you. On November 16th at 7:00pm, SmartSound Software will present "Do-It-Yourself Music Scoring for Independent Filmmakers" as part of the "Works on a Mac" series. Philip Hodgetts, production/post production guru and Digital Production Buzz host, will present the session at the Apple Store Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA. Hodgetts will demonstrate how to score films in Final Cut Pro using SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 4 and that feature-I-love called Mood Mapping. The session is free and if I wasn't 1600+ miles away I would so be there.

Look at this little bugger. It's the TetraMic by Core Sound and it looks more like a medical instrument than a microphone. The mic contains 4 capsules arranged in a tetrahedral pattern that picks up sound in the Ambisonic format (I don't know what I just said either). You can place this mic in front of a subject and record 4 channels of audio and later decode those channels to playback in any format including mono, stereo, 5.1, 7.1 and more. I'm obviously no audio expert, but this is very cool.

A lot of people commented on my rant on Adobe and Soundbooth. Some believed Adobe was being lazy or misguided and others felt Adobe was doing the right thing because it was too hard to develop for two processors. I had planned on writing to John Gruber of Daring Fireball, hoping he could explain all of these coding issues to someone like me who isn't a developer.

Incredibly, Gruber addressed this very issue in a recent post. And like he always does, his post is full of reasonable answers, questions and thoughts. He even talks to the developers of Fission on how hard it is to create audio software. Like me, Gruber finds it hard to believe some of the technical excuses some of the Adobe developers have stated. But he does also say that this isn't as simple as some of Adobe's critics have stated because Adobe is writing code without Xcode, Apple's software developing platform.

I still believe Adobe can bring Soundbooth to PPC platform without too much trouble. Paul Kafasis (Rogue Amoeba Software) states "We all had PowerPC code that got rewritten and it's not that hard, it's just time-consuming. Rogue Amoeba has six people, and we managed to port from one platform to another. Adobe has almost 6,000 people and they can't pull it off?"

Adobe's claim that PPC is a dead platform also makes no sense since they are developing Lightroom as Universal Binaries. And like Soundbooth, Lightroom is in beta. So there is still plenty of questions that remain. I believe Adobe is being extremely arrogant with Mac users, they are taking us for granted.

Also read: Implications of Adobe's Intel-Only Soundbooth

This story has been flying all over the internet since BoingBoing broke the story. Apple's iMovie can transfer iTunes tracks to regular .wav files but to take each file, import and then export it was a little too much for people. So now, Seidai Software has created a new free software, FairGame, that uses Applescript to break iTunes DRM by passing it through the iMovie converting engine. No need to open iMovie, just select your tracks and convert. I am figuring the next version of iMovie will have a "new" feature that will break this but for now this is as good as it gets.

Some of you commented to my Soundbooth post saying Adobe has no plans to support Macs equipped with PowerPC's (PPC) and because you are right, I rant. One of Adobe's Bloggers claim because Soundbooth is a new application and PPC users should not complain because they had nothing to begin with. The logic basically boils down to: if you didn't have it then, you won't want it now and should not be bothered if others can use it but you. Beggars can't be choosers. And you PPC users are the beggars. Following with this logic, you Mactel users should not bother trying out this software or bother to offer suggestions because, you know, you had nothing to begin with.

Adobe is claiming Apple is treating PPC as a dead platform. If this is true, shame on Apple. They will have swindled its customer base because during the transition to Intel they claimed the opposite. Again, if this is true, all the people who bought PPC Macs in the transition should be reimbursed. But even more than that, this is a dumb move by Adobe. There are millions of users on PPC. Why abandon the present for the future with a new app, it has no customer base to rely upon, a small pack of Mactel users to act as foot soldiers for the app. I hope Soundbooth fails. I hope Soundbooth gathers no foothold within the Mac community because they choose to abandon users like me.

Sheila says it best: "No development from Adobe for the PowerPC anymore. But power users of Adobe's flagship product, Photoshop, can't upgrade from the PowerPC platform because Adobe is taking their sweet time going universal. Users were told early on they would have to wait until the 'next normal product cycle' (which is probably still months away). So go buy the Intel Mac for their new products, but don't get rid of your old PowerPC until they are good and ready to provide the update professionals really need."

I believe Adobe is just being cheap. Working on making their apps compatible costs money. They can place the blame elsewhere but in my book, they are responsible for they choose to abandon a large group of users. I am getting so tired of Adobe's policies in regards to compatibility, this Soundbooth issue indicates how little they are willing to stretch themselves to satisfy their customer base. This is the first time I have heard of a Mac developer chosing to abandon PPC users. The day will come when this will surely happen but the time isn't now. Adobe can do it now because they can, they will just wait you out till you are forced to upgrade. I hope they pay for such arrogance.

Adobe released Soundbooth yesterday and I could not use it because currently it is only compatible with Intel Macs. But over at Create Digital Music, an audio related blog, they have taken an in-depth first look at the new audio software. The writer, Peter Kirn, is a big fan of Adobe's Audition (PC only) and Soundbooth is supposed to be the simpler version of that software. He believes Soundbooth can stand out because "Already in this beta, Soundbooth includes video import capability and markers. What's so great about that? Try XML export to Flash cues you can use in a Flash file. Adobe says you can use cues to trigger animations. Flash integration could also let animators use Soundbooth as their recording tool for animation." Good read so check it out. I can't wait for Adobe to release a Power PC compatible version because I have been tired of Soundtrack for a while and Soundbooth looks good.

I found a great little primer about digital audio over on the O'Reilly Digital Media website. This is not a tutorial related to a specific software package, but an overview of basic audio editing techniques. Once you read through it, jump over to the article on Killer Interviewing Tips for Podcasters, Part 2, and you can get into more detail about editing audio files (the author uses Audacity). While this article is geared toward editing a podcast, the information applies to vocal editing in general. Good stuff if you are new to audio.

While a new audio app replacing a program that hasn't changed significantly in six years isn't always big news, to me the more notable news was the fact that Adobe chose to release the beta of Soundbooth for both Mac and Windows platforms. Ever since Final Cut Pro started showing up Premiere, many industry pundits started speculating Apple was going to become a vertically integrated platform for media. Adobe then followed suit by dropping Mac support for Premiere. The release of Motion, and to a lesser extent Shake, had some worried that Apple aficionados would lose After Effects as well. Fortunately, to this point, that hasn't been the case.

The friendly/tense Apple/Adobe relationship got a whole lot more interesting after the release of Apreture, which some (including myself) looked at as a direct challenge to Adobe to come up with more interesting interfaces, and more efficient application programming. Apreture could scroll through thousands of RAW images without any noticeable loading time. Adobe took the challenge and released a beta of Lightroom, which is still in beta.

Now with Soundbooth, could Adobe make an attempt to break into Apple's vertical integration attempts. Could Soundbooth + a new version of Premiere featuring Serious Magic integration + After Effects and Photoshop mount a competition to the Apple production bundle? I think Premiere is the weak link in that scenario, but who knows... maybe some a shot of Serious Magic is all Premiere needs. What do you think? Would you buy an Adobe suite OVER Apple's suite? Or more specifically, what would it take for you to buy one over the other?

UPDATE: I was just informed by some folks that Audition will stick around, and continue to be Windows only. Soundbooth is supposed to be a single track editor, whereas Audition will continue in the multi-track editor of choice. That makes Adobe weak in comparison to Soundtrack Pro, but still attractive none-the-less.

Adobe released a new sound application today for Macs called Soundbooth. The application sounds pretty sweet, "...in the spirit of Sound Edit 16 and Cool Edit 2000, Adobe Soundbooth gives creative professionals the tools they need to quickly clean up, customize, or create new sounds and to create customized music soundtracks for their projects." The download is free and will continue to be free till 02/28/07 when the current build will expire. Royalty free music is available on the Soundbooth Technology page. I was hoping to play with it a little but it is only compatible on Intel-based Macs. Seriously, how is this possible? Aargh. Maybe one of you with Intel Macs can report on this.

UPDATE by Randall: Sounds like Soundbooth is meant to replace Audition, and is squarely targeted at video editors. Comparable to Soundtrack, Soundbooth isn't for people in bands or otherwise doing a large amount of live recording. Soundbooth feels a lot like Audition, but Adobe wants to standardize the interface so it feels more like other Adobe Production Studio apps. Windows and Mac versions are available for download starting today.

Audio is 70% of video, or some variation of that phrase. Bottom line, if the audio sucks you will lose your audience. DVcreators.net has posted an article explaining a few audio basics, plus a few tips on how to get better sound. There are a few product plugs scattered throughout, but you'll find some good tips too.

The Samson Zoom H4 Handy Digital Recorder is a palm-sized field recorder with several appealing features, and a doubly attractive price tag: a mere $300. Key features include:

• Four track recording capabilities
• Two combination 1/4 inch jack / XLR balanced inputs
• Phantom power
• Two internal condensor microphones capable of 24bit/96khz uncompressed audip, or MP3 format audio up to 320kpbs
• Direct audio interface for recording to PC

The specs look really nice, however, actual reviews of this thing seem to be nonexistant for the moment. Neo-Fight.tv does have a product overview video here, though. This could be a great solution for low budget-ers, especially since similar products range in the thousands of dollars. Be sure to check out the PDF manual on Samson's official product page for more details, and if you have any more information on this sucker, let us know.

(via Photoethnography.com)

Here's a little nugget you may not know about. I didn't, but then again, I'm new to all this Mac stuff (hi, my name is Sheila, and I'm a switcher). Fission is an audio editior that works with mono and stereo MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless and AIFF audio, enabling you to instantly trim and split files without losing quality. There's some discussion using real-world examples here, which is where I first found out about this software. You can try it for free, buy it for $32. I plan on giving it a try. Any Fission users out there?

One of the things that seperates good editors from amateurs (besides resisting the urge to use every single transition and effect in your toolbox) is the attention to the relationship between video and sound. Cutting on the beat of music enhances the impact of the edit as well as setting a pace. The psychological impact of an edit timed evenly between beats creates a sense of stability and calmness while irregular cutting results in confusion and a feeling of chaos. This article gives some tips for synching your edit including tapping the marker key to the beat during playback.