Use an iPod or Other Digital Music Player

Apple’s iPod is a unique combination of excellent design and faultless functionality. In its sleek plastic and metal case is a hard disk, ranging from 5 to 40GB (at press time, 40GB is the largest model available), which stores your digital music files and lets you listen to them on the move.

The iPod is designed to interface seamlessly with iTunes. In fact, to update your music on your iPod, just plug it into your Mac’s FireWire port and launch iTunes (if it doesn’t launch automatically when you plug in your iPod), and your music transfers automatically. To turn off automatic transfer and manually manage your music, select your iPod in the source list, and then click the iPod Options button at the bottom of the iTunes window.

You can choose from the iPod Preferences window whether you want all songs and playlists updated automatically, or only selected items updated. You can also choose to manually manage songs and playlists.

To use any other digital music player with iTunes, connect your device to your Mac, either via a USB cable or a FireWire cable. It should display in the Source column of the iTunes window. To copy files to it, just drag the files onto the player’s icon.

Note

Not all digital music players are compatible with Audible.com audio books. See www.audible.com for information on which players work with its audio books.

Many digital music players offer preferences, and these are usually accessible by clicking a button at the bottom right of the iTunes window; this button looks similar to the iPod button shown in the preceding illustration.

For more on using your digital music device or iPod, see its documentation.

Voices from the Community—Macs and Music Software

One of the greatest advancements in software for musicians is the rise of the virtual music studio. You can now run a variety of programs simultaneously on your computer instead of having to fill an entire room with racks of expensive gear. I run two main programs for recording music on my Mac, as well as a variety of plug-ins for making my work more polished.

The granddaddy of audio/MIDI recording programs, and the prime tool I recommend to beginners, is Digidesign ProTools. I've used it to record my songs and my friends' bands, and to develop audio for multimedia presentations. ProTools provides a simple and intuitive graphic environment for recording and mixing with only two screens: Edit and Mix. From the Edit screen, one can see multiple channels of audio simultaneously, and perform timing and pitch fixes. This includes cutting and pasting audio with the very same selection tools as one would use in a graphics program. From the mix screen, one can assign buses and apply effects, as well as monitor the output for any signals that go “into the red,” causing distortion. This makes it easier to find and fix your mistakes. And if you need help, any files you record on a “host-based” ProTools system can be transferred to a professional studio and mastered in their $10,000+ ProTools HD system.

If you need to work with music notation or virtual instruments, a better choice is Emagic Logic—a product Apple thought was so important that they bought the company. It's far more flexible than ProTools, and has a steeper learning curve. I prefer to use Logic for songwriting, because it has several virtual instruments and effects built in. For instance, to get the feel of a jazz trio, I can use the EXS24 sampler to play real-sounding drums against the EVP88 Rhodes electric piano emulation and a bassline I've recorded from my Ibanez. And using the built-in reverb and compression, I can make it sound like I'm in a small club or a large hall, and not my bedroom studio. Unlike its competitors, Logic also can host a growing number of plug-ins in Apple's OSX Audio Units format.

—Jeff Sepeta, a Mac user since March 1984, currently runs a computer consulting firm, specializing in the needs of small businesses and entrepreneurs. He is currently on the board of directors for The Rest of Us, Chicago's oldest MUG, and runs a Music/MIDI SIG for the Northwest of Us, the largest MUG in the Midwest. For more info on his home studio, including a Logic tutorial and a guide to virtual instruments that run on the Mac, check out www.lo-res.com.