View Full Version : buying a mac, help with mixmeister
well, if i'm a good enough girl, santa is thinking of getting me a mac for christmas. from what i remember reading, mixmeister is incompatible with a mac...true, or am i dreaming? if so, then what is out there that is compatible? i've been a user for 1 1/2 years, and really can't see going back w/out it, i love it so much....any help on this would be appreciated! happy holidays guys...jmd:)
You can run mixmeister via boot camp or parallels (both are PC emulators that allow you to run PC software on your mac). I haven't done it a lot, but I do have it on my macbook pro.
HTH,
-Jennifer
like2bike
11-26-2007, 10:35 AM
I have a Mac but my husband has a PC at home. I use his PC (or as he would say, I "take over" his PC) when I mix my profiles. Jean since you already have a PC, just keep using that for your mixing. From what I've seen, there really isn't a program for the Mac (yet) that is as good (and inexpensive) as MM.
SpinBob
11-26-2007, 10:42 AM
Actually there's a program called Disco XT, it's only about $70 (it's actually 50 euros) and you can get a demo version at the Apple site, in the downloads section. Hope Santa comes through for you Jean. I've been a Mac user for 25 years and I really love them. I just upgraded to the Leopard OS, you might ask Santa to get you an external HD, if you don't already have one, that way you can make use of Time Machine.
just what i figured, i've got all you great I.T. people giving me advice and i feel like i'm charlie brown listening to his teacher: "wa, wa, wa, wa," is all i hear!!!!:p in a perfect world lori i would be able to keep my pc for my mixmeister mixing, however i have 4 kids who have all their stuff on it and i'm needing my own space. spin bob, have you used the mac compatible mixer, is it as easy to use, what format do your tunes have to be in, will it accept aac, or do you have to convert to mpeg? just trying to figure all this out in my brain. thanks guys? jmd:)
SpinBob
11-26-2007, 11:21 AM
Jean,
I've only played with the demo version and it pulls song in from you iTunes library. I have all my songs as AAC, so you don't have to convert them. The interface is really simple and it has an "auto mix" mode where you import your playlist and it automatically mixes them for you. You can do the mixes in manual mode too and create loops, extend or compress song to specific times or beats per minute. It seems pretty simple. The only song you can't import are the ones you buy from the iTunes store, but if you burn them to a CD and reimport them, you're fine.
like2bike
11-26-2007, 11:22 AM
Hey Bob thanks for that info! I may investigate this too! That way, DH can have his PC all to himself. Great information! :)
SpinBob
11-26-2007, 11:24 AM
I'm happy to be the resident Mac geek. :p Here's the DiscoXT web site. The also have a product called DiscoDJ, which seems similar, but cheaper.
http://www.discosw.net/
Jean,
I've only played with the demo version and it pulls song in from you iTunes library. I have all my songs as AAC, so you don't have to convert them. The interface is really simple and it has an "auto mix" mode where you import your playlist and it automatically mixes them for you. You can do the mixes in manual mode too and create loops, extend or compress song to specific times or beats per minute. It seems pretty simple. The only song you can't import are the ones you buy from the iTunes store, but if you burn them to a CD and reimport them, you're fine.
what's the deal with not being able to directly use itunes purchased songs...wouldn't a mac driven software want this? or am i missing the mark and it's itunes who puts the nix on this? so, i'm confused, you don't have to convert, but you have to reimport, what's the exact difference if it accepts aac tunes, does it still accept the mpeg converts? sorry to be a computer info brain drain, spinbob, thanks for your time and experise here! take care, jmd:)
You can run mixmeister via boot camp or parallels (both are PC emulators that allow you to run PC software on your mac). I haven't done it a lot, but I do have it on my macbook pro.
HTH,
-Jennifer
jennifer, is "bootcamp" or "parallels" an application you download? i've never heard of either. thanks and take care...jmd:)
Jean,
Bootcamp and Parallels are both programs. I believe Bootcamp is free (pretty sure it comes with Leopard, the new OS) and Parallels is sold at the Apple store for about $80 or so.
I haven't tried the program Bob mentioned. A mixing program has been the one weakness of the Mac (and I'm a die-hard, no PCs for me!) I actually chatted with the creators of MM once a the Virgin store in NYC. This was during the dark days for Apple (early 90s) and they said that MM was really a Mac-type app. but it wasn't worth making it for that platform.
Now that things are better in Apple-land, I wish they'd reconsider.
Jean,
Bootcamp and Parallels are both programs. I believe Bootcamp is free (pretty sure it comes with Leopard, the new OS) and Parallels is sold at the Apple store for about $80 or so.
I haven't tried the program Bob mentioned. A mixing program has been the one weakness of the Mac (and I'm a die-hard, no PCs for me!) I actually chatted with the creators of MM once a the Virgin store in NYC. This was during the dark days for Apple (early 90s) and they said that MM was really a Mac-type app. but it wasn't worth making it for that platform.
Now that things are better in Apple-land, I wish they'd reconsider.
maybe now they are too good to bother...i guess in reality most of the world isn't interested in using mixing software, just us exercise djay wanna be's! thanks for clearing all that up for me, so now that my present is only growing in price, it's off to do my mommy chores and earn my keep in santa's good graces! take care...jmd:)
SpinBob
11-26-2007, 07:52 PM
what's the deal with not being able to directly use itunes purchased songs...wouldn't a mac driven software want this? or am i missing the mark and it's itunes who puts the nix on this? so, i'm confused, you don't have to convert, but you have to reimport, what's the exact difference if it accepts aac tunes, does it still accept the mpeg converts? sorry to be a computer info brain drain, spinbob, thanks for your time and experise here! take care, jmd:)The software honors Apple's copy protection format, the songs you buy from the iTunes store are the "protected" AAC format, rather than the ordinary AAC format. If you have a big library of songs bought at the iTunes store, then you will have to spend some time burning CDs. Jennifer is correct, bootcamp comes with the new Leopard OS, you still need to install a Windows OS, but Bootcamp makes the Windows OS work on a Mac.
thanks for all the great info and help. i know i suck more out of this site than i am able to give, i'm always grateful and always humbled! now i'm making my list and checking it twice!!!:pjmd
SpinBob
11-27-2007, 09:16 AM
Lori,
Since you know and use MixMeister, I'd be interested in you evaluation on how DiscoXT compares, in terms of features and how easy it is to use, because they also make a DiscoXT version for the PC and we could be telling all our friends here about a cool new tool.
i tried to download the demo and play last night, but once it downloaded i couldn't open it....has anyone had luck? jmd:)
SpinBob
11-27-2007, 07:43 PM
Did you download the PC version or the Mac version?
megale3
11-27-2007, 07:51 PM
HAve you Mac's tried Audacity yet? http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Meg
SpinBob
11-27-2007, 07:58 PM
No, but I'll check it out.
megale3
11-27-2007, 08:00 PM
No, but I'll check it out.
Comes highly recommended8)
SpinBob
11-27-2007, 11:21 PM
Comes highly recommended8)Yeah, from you. :D Poked around for a while ... the fact that it is a free application is cool
An older Mac that I bought came with an application called Sound Studio which worked similarly to Audacity ... I like that it's kind of techie, but theres more going on with the application than I know what to do with.
One drawback is that the application seems to prefer mp3 files and most of my music is AAC, using Apple's music file compressin format to get the most music on my iPod. Audacity will open an AAC file, but doesn't seem to do anything with it once it's opened. Guess I'll have to resort to reading the documentation. :redface::mad:
like2bike
11-28-2007, 01:01 PM
Been playing around with the demo too. I'm one of those people who hates to read directions (I know, I know, please don't lecture me) and so far the program seems very intuitive (drag and drop, good visuals to aid in knowing what button does what). But unlike Bob, most of my music is already converted into MP3s so I'm not having any problems. Seems like a pretty powerful program. So far, I'm impressed.
SpinBob
11-28-2007, 10:42 PM
Lori were you talking about DiscoXT or Audacity? I was referring to Audacity.
like2bike
11-29-2007, 12:00 PM
Lori were you talking about DiscoXT or Audacity? I was referring to Audacity.
Oops! Sorry Bob! I was talking about DiscoXT. My bad. :oops:
megale3
11-29-2007, 12:09 PM
Guess I'll have to resort to reading the documentation. :redface::mad:
Bob are you the guy that doesn't need the map or assembly dirrections? :D
M
SpinBob
11-29-2007, 11:34 PM
It's that obvious, huh? :redface: I often quote my father who always says, "When all else fails, read the directions."
It's that obvious, huh? :redface: I often quote my father who always says, "When all else fails, read the directions."
My dad says almost the same thing, "when in doubt, read the direction." To which I respond, "but I didn't know I was in doubt." :rolleyes:
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