I have this iMac that has been little used and a PC with reliability problems. And, since OSX has come out I've decided to move to Mac and get on OSX.

Anyway, here is my goal: record a 44.1 or 48.0 khz digital audio stereo file (DAT) into the iMac. The source deck has both AES/EBU (XLR 3pin) and digital coaxial (spdif) interfaces for playback. The playback will be mostly at 48.0 khz so resampling will be required to master the file to CDR for redbook standard.

I see the iMac has both USB and Firewire and I am not sure of the best way to get the digital file into the iMac; does it also have PCI capability and would that be a better way to do it? I found one product from Edirol that will accept a standard Toslink and digital coaxial input and output to a USB port and it is for a Mac.

I also will require software that can perform the following tasks:

resample from 48 to 44.1 khz;
insert start ID's, song names, and the usual stuff to make a CDR truly useable
correct any level imbalance in the digital domain
work with audience noise
fade in/out

that would be the bare bones requirements. Basically, I have a bunch of DATs from Dead, Zero, Kimock, and other bands that I want to move to CDR so I can get more use out of the library. I have a PC loaded with Soundforge and an appropriate high end card but the PC is not reliable at this time and I wish to focus my energies on the Macintosh and OSX these days.

All input is appreciated. The iMac in question is an early 800mhz, 40gb hard disk, CDR (no superdrive) model with 256kb of ram. It has the early version of OSX and we are going to upgrade to the latest version of OSX as I've been told 10.3 should be out soon. Should we wait for 10.3 or buy 10.2 at 79 bux from Macwarehouse?

Regards,

Carl

Yes, any of the Edirol interfaces (UA-5 in particular) would serve you well - spdif/TOSlink I/O, connected to your iMac via USB, easy transfer from your DAT machine. Worked for me.

Does Toast With Jam (roxio.com) allow resampling? I'm not sure, but it does all the rest of the Red Book stuff. So does Emagic's Waveburner Pro, but you'd have to boot into OS 9 to use that, as no OS X version exists yet. Around £250. Good program, though.

In fact, that would do everything you need, so if you can stick working in OS 9 for a bit while Emagic get it together with an OS X update, that's my tip. On the other hand, TWJ only costs around £100 and you get BIAS Peak LE bundled with it for audio editing. I like 'em both.

Rick,
Thanks for the information. I got an email from the Peak people and they said the Peak LE product, which is less than 100 US, will do everything (inc resampling) that I require.

Now, before I buy any more hardware and adapters I will see what I can pick up a used G4 Power Mac for prior to putting any more money into this not very expandable iMac (it is my girlfriend's).

Thanks,
Carl

Peak is my favourite. Kind of like sound forge, I suppose

I don't know if there's a difference between the Peak LE that BIAS sell and the Peak LE you get bundled free with Toast WIth Jam, but if there isn't and you're spending $100 you might as well get the Toast version. I know one limitation with the bundled version is that it'll only deal with 16-bit files, so maybe that's what you pay BIAS for.

To be honest, I actually prefer Sound Studio 2.0 for audio file editing. You can't use VST FX with it like Peak, but I like it's approach to editing otherwise.

Sound studio sure does most of the common tasks and it's a lot cheaper than Peak. Peak's strength comes from the very wide range of treatments and other advanced features that make it interesting to me.