Two niggling problems solved

[chamelion]

Thanks Shoosh.

Geoff

[blue]

I was doing a little satire - just an imitation of someone with a hair trigger response to words that sound the same but aren't.

Ah, missed that. It is a bit funny, though, how some completely innocent words don't sound quite so innocent anymore.

[blue]

It's not that serious man••¦Relax.

Relaxed. Just thought it was amusing, because you did kinda sound serious.

[jloeb]

Getting back on topic here...
Wiretap Studio can also be used to master and mix CD's, and can utilize any of your AU plugins. I don't know much about either app, frankly, but I was very impressed with what Wiretap Studio can do now.
Shooshie

Solely to do justice to Audio Hijack Pro:

The current version of Audio Hijack Pro comes with Instant Hijack, Soundflower and other small applets that *do* enable restartless hijacking and total system output highjacking. Audio Hijack has been able to use AU format plugins for years now. Yes, it also has autodetect start triggering and scheduling. As pointed out above, $18 more gets you lossless mp3 editing.

If what Wiretap adds to this is CD burning, well, DP6 will be able to do that in-house.

Look, I like Ambrosia a lot (spent many, many hours with their games when i was a callow youth ). But to me, if you're a DP user those prices do seem a little bit high given the competitors currently on the market and given that DP already imports mp3s to 24 bit aiff if you like, incorporates a full-functioned wave editor and will soon incorporate CD mastering capabilities. Just my 2cents. Your mileage may definitely vary.

[Shooshie]

Price; scmice! Wiretap Studio is one cool app. I just like it. Other companies are allowed to make their apps as cool as they wish and charge as little as they want. It doesn't matter; it does not change how cool Wiretap is. Maybe we should have a thread on Audio Hijack as well. But I think this thread ought to devote itself fully to the many wonders and capabilities of Wiretap Studio, since that's what Geoff started telling us about. I admit that I balked a little at the price, but the nice thing about it is that you get to do a lot for free, and you can wait to fully enable Wiretap Studio on that day when you finally realize that you really need all that it does.

By the way, I was in error about burning to CD. I don't know where I got that idea, but probably misinterpreted one of the icons in the "destination" window. I was in a hurry the day I downloaded it and used it.

It comes bundled with some "Camel" plugins - Camelspace, Camelphatt, or something like that. Many people report that these plugins are among their favorites, and since they are AU plugins, I suppose you get to use them with other apps. I think one is fully registered; the others are demos. Usage of Wiretap Studio is very transparent. No need for Soundflower to make it work. It's exceptionally well-done. I like it much better than Ambrosia's Snapz Pro video capture app, which is a little too rigid and inflexible for my tastes. I think Ambrosia has definitely learned a thing or two about capture interfaces over the years, as this one is really nice.

Kudos to Ambrosia for getting it right! Wiretap Studio is a first-rate audio capture app that goes far beyond its humble roots, clear to production and mastering of playlists. (While Wiretap doesn't burn to CD, you can burn your playlist to CD in the Finder) You have to admit that it's nice to have other, simpler options than DP to use for quick-and-dirty audio production, creating voice-overs for demos, movies, and such, in addition to capturing what's coming out of your Mac.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

Some Screenshots:

The Editor:


The Library (note that you can send your file to various destinations)


Wiretap plugins (AU)


Wiretap Controls


Preferences Window

[bOing]

Hey, guys. This thread was meant to be about sharing. Geoff

Chamelion, thank you for the audio app info. If I had it, I'd share it too.

As for "niggling", you have done nothing wrong. It's our ancestors' fault that we have to tip toe around language these days. Ideally, hatred is what we must remove from this world, not mere words. Then it won't matter what we say, because we know the intention is to communicate, not to mutilate.

But as you have seen, we're all walking on thin ice. I just took the opportunity to look down.

[OortNYC]

Can you blend 2 stereo signals in WireTap with level control?

[newrigel]

I use Audio Hijack pro because I can just instantly hijack DP and record what I'm hearing... I don't want to add anything... I'll do that within DP that way I don't have an extra step of garbage in there...
I really don't like doing any other steps to DP's output because that's where the crap gets in!
I can't wait to get DP 6 and just burn a disk right from DP... that way there is no more steps in the process (I hope DP uses a really good dithering algo) so that might help my situation!
I have Peak Pro 5 and the conversion sounds better to me than anything else (that I have anyway) because I have mixed down projects that sound awesome in DP then the stage from DP to the next application seems to do strange things to the sound... it gets frustrating!
I'm doing some work with a guitarist and he sent me the OMF of his Sonar project and I get a killer mix and balance on my end and as soon as I convert it to wave (he has a PC) it changes the amplitude and a few other things that him and I have to battle out... It just that on my end it's GREAT but he'll burn a CD (it's most likely his windows media) and get distortion etc...
Anyone with some insight here?
Oh yeah... I can't bounce to disk because the Liquid Mix causes delays on the auxillary busses so that's USELESS now..

[jloeb]

(Wiretap) comes bundled with some "Camel" plugins - Camelspace, Camelphatt, or something like that.

Although that would more than explain the price difference if true since those plugins are $85 each, as far as i'm able to tell it's not accurate.

According to Camel's website, Wiretap comes with CamelCrusher, which is a free (quite good) coloring compressor.

The Live Preview compression is a nifty feature, if not really an enormous timesaver.

I'm doing some work with a guitarist and he sent me the OMF of his Sonar project and I get a killer mix and balance on my end and as soon as I convert it to wave (he has a PC) it changes the amplitude and a few other things that him and I have to battle out... It just that on my end it's GREAT but he'll burn a CD (it's most likely his windows media) and get distortion etc... Anyone with some insight here?

Are you using identical playback and monitoring systems? If not, that's far more likely to be the cause of the differences in balance you hear than any downsampling issue. No mix, even the very best, sounds identical on different systems, although the best mixes will have a perceived consistency across different systems.

On the other hand, if he's getting distortion at his end, he's either introducing gain at his end, or, his CD playback system's DAC is resulting in intersample peaks. For the latter problem, see and download:
http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/X-ISM.html
It's a free plugin.
Also, I assume that you are mixing with your mixdown and recording faders at 0dB and your last (dithering) plugin output set at -0.2dB? As a general rule, maybe mix slightly less hot.

[Shooshie]

Can you blend 2 stereo signals in WireTap with level control?

Yes, you can blend signals from any two sources on your Mac. Level control is on playback, as it is with DP and most other DAWs. Input levels are simply the levels of your sources. Levels are controlled by manipulating the wave-forms in the edit window.

Here is a screenshot of levels in action. The two stereo tracks are controlled by the handles on either end of the window. You can see the wave-form for each track in slightly different colors. The percentages for each track are shown near their controls.

Wiretap Levels:



By the way, for editing, Wiretap can zoom out to the wavelength level.
Wiretap zoom showing levels of both tracks, selected at zero crossings for cropping to create a loop:


Nicely done, eh?

Shooshie

[OortNYC]

Thanks for the detailed answer.

[zed]

WARNING WARNING WARNING

Irrespective of whether Audio Hijack Pro is cheaper or whether WireTapPro has more features, the MOST important factor that should dictate your decision is whether or not it will work on your system.

Many users have have found that WireTapPro will NOT work properly on their systems, and the WireTap developers have admitted that the product does not work with all audio input devices (and MOTU 2408 mkIII seems to be one of them). Perhaps it is an issue of drivers or even OS version you are running. The important thing is to double check, when you are using WireTapPro if it will capture from your DP mix ALL of the following signals:

(1) internal VI MIDI
(2) internal audio
(3) external module MIDI
(4) live audio signals

If not all these signals are being recorded onto your WireTap track, then it is probably NOT doing what you need it to do. I would recommend downloading the demos for both products and seeing which one suits your needs best.

No question WireTapPro comes in a sexier package, and I wish I could use it, but it just plain wouldn't work for me. Make sure it works for you.

[Shooshie]

Easy enough. Download the demo and try it.

So far, it works on my 1296, 2408 mkII, and 896, as well as all the audio channels and internal ports within OSX.

Shooshie

[OortNYC]

I downloaded the demo to give it a try. I chose DP in the first input menu but I cannot get an audio signal into Wiretap. Is there anything special I need to do?

Thanks -

D -