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Just got a new toy.

bassmonkey

bassmonkey

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
Messages
908
Location
Perth, Australia
24 inch iMac, 2.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive.

Decided it was time to upgrade from my 6 year old iMac so took the plunge.

Very impressed. Loads of cool features. Loads of stuff I will never use, loads of stuff I will never realise was even there.

The in-built video camera is great, looks like I'm going to need to get a youtube account to spread the Bongo gospel! :D

Garageband looks interesting. Anyone got a link to a decent online tutorial?
 
Kristopher

Kristopher

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
751
Location
Tempe, AZ
My girlfriend wants a Mac laptop for Christmas. I haven't used a Mac since 8th grade.

How much did yours cost BassMonkey?
 
T-bone

T-bone

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
1,274
Both of my kids would like a Mac laptop, too. Yeeoouch, when you add up two of em, plus accidental breakage insurance, and lojack, I think I could buy a BFR.

Dang kids :rolleyes:

tbone
 
bassmonkey

bassmonkey

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
Messages
908
Location
Perth, Australia
Colin said:
Brian, takes some pics....
Click to expand...


greenimac.jpg
:rolleyes: FFS!

;)
 
StevieStingray

StevieStingray

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
51
Location
Toronto, Canada
Up until recently, I actually used Garageband for practicing!

I'd create a track using a "Real instrument" and plug my EBMM into the line-in. They've got some bass "modeling" amps, which are OK.

I'd usually run it alongside a 3rd party app, called the "Amazing Slowdowner", or use some of the drum loops in Garageband to play along with

I didn't get much more into it than that, though, and I was hoping it would be more of a band-in-box [the actual software], which it isn't.

The only problem was the lag. Plugging an instrument directly into the line-in of a computer is less than ideal, and sometimes the lag was so bad, I had to restart both the of aforementioned apps to rectify it.

Since then, I got the StealthPlug, which goes from 1/4" to USB, so there's no noticeable lag. It's got arguably better modeling [and is definitely more tweakable], AND it has a phrase trainer built-in, therefore no need for the Amazing Slowdowner, though the latter does sound better when adjusting pitch/tempo. And the Stealthplug is very affordable too. And it doesn't have to mean you stop using Garageband - you can use it as the input interface to address the lag issue

Anyway, this thread isn't about the Stealthplug. It's about how awesome Macs are, and the great Jobs [heehee] Apple has done in the past few years.

Congrats on the new machine!
 
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W

WillPlay4Food

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
405
Location
Connect-The-Dot
Quicktime can also speed up / slow down audio as well as pitch-shift so there's no need to buy any extra software. WMP (at least the XP version or later) can do this too.
 
StevieStingray

StevieStingray

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
51
Location
Toronto, Canada
yes, Quicktime does a decent job. And if you don't need to slow the tempo or change the pitch a lot, it's arguable why you'd pay $$$ for it

i'm not gonna turn this into a commercial, so i'll just say a few things about the "other software". It has several algorithms to choose from to battle that "garbled" sound when changing pitch/speed

furthermore, it let's you set loop points so you can slow down and repeat just the section you need to practice

finally, ALL controls are mapped to keyboard buttons, so there's no need to reach for a mouse for ANY operation

as the band member responsible for drawing charts, I find it invaluable. a lot of the time, i don't even invoke the pitch/tempo features, but set loop points ALL the time so i can chart the changes, etc. SO much better than grabbing a mouse, "rewinding", missing it by even a second, waiting for the section I need to come around again, then doing that 10 times till I've figured it out and charted it... then do it all over again for the next trouble spot.

for me, it's one of those pieces of software I'd pay double or more for... and there aren't too many of those IMO
 
W

WillPlay4Food

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Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
405
Location
Connect-The-Dot
Dude, I wasn't trying to bash StealthPlug at all. It sounds like a great product and if I didn't already have a setup I was happy with I'd definitely be looking at this or the M-Audio equivalent (both were mentioned in a thread here a couple months ago). I was just pointing out that QT / WMP can do this so people don't blow money on Amazing Slow Downer or other similar products when they most likely already have software installed that can do the same basic function.
 
StevieStingray

StevieStingray

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
51
Location
Toronto, Canada
not at all... I hope it didn't sound like I was getting my back up against the wall.

In fact, it sounds like we're really both just trying to help fellow members by raising awareness of either (i) functionality they already have (ii) where to get extra functionality if they want it

I didn't mean to offend anyone and I certainly did not want take this thread in this direction. My apologies to bassmonkey and WillPlay4Food
 
Eggman

Eggman

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
1,440
Location
Centennial, CO
Nice rig, Doc. I am thinking about getting the same thing.....I getting sick of PCs. Just had to buy another desktop PC and a server for my office.
 
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