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There's at least one Garageband specific controller that I know of - it's the M-Audio iControl. And I don't use Apple stuff or follow gear stories particularly closely, so I dunno much about it other than that it exists :)

http://aes.harmony-central.com/119AES/Content/Sony /PR/PCM-D1.html

it looks incredibly cool too.

m-audio has a cheaper thing

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack24 96-main.html

I agree. When MD first came out I lusted after one. I never got one because I really did not have a pressing need for one. I don't know if they MD - iPod comparison is a good one. They are really made for different things. A better comparison would be to the flash based and hard drive based pro recorders. Like These:

http://aes.harmony-central.com/119AES/Content/Sony /PR/PCM-D1.html

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack24 96-main.html

It would be nice to get 5.1 out for movies...

I'm actually researching this now. The Apple DVD Player is 5.1 compatible. I don't know if the signal out of the Mac is surround sound compatible though. However, there are a few devices you can get to help with this:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main .html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/SonicaTheate r-main.html
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave /

The FireWave (the last one) looks like the best bet to me. I might be buying one soon.

It would be nice to get 5.1 out for movies...

I'm actually researching this now. The Apple DVD Player is 5.1 compatible. I don't know if the signal out of the Mac is surround sound compatible though. However, there are a few devices you can get to help with this:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main .html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/SonicaTheate r-main.html
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave /

The FireWave (the last one) looks like the best bet to me. I might be buying one soon.

You will also need a hardware solution, but some software for video that would be a good start for others perhaps would be one of these apps (if you're using OS X or winxp):

Both written by a VJ, Kiritan Flux:

mietzplayer v.1.5 - videoplayer, that plays two movies synchronously on two monitors. Mac OS X and Windows XP

jallajalla v.1.0 - videoplayer for use on two or more computers to frame-synchronously play video files - master and slaves, network required - Mac OS X and Windows XP

Going to use these for my band's onstage video stuff. I don't know how many channels of video they'll do, but on the audio side, you probably want something like a M-Audio Firewire 1814 or something.

(from the spec page: 'The FireWire 18/14 is an 18-in, 14-out audio interface complete with ADAT Lightpipe for multi-channel communication with other digital devices. It features 8 x 4 analog I/O at up to 24-bit/96kHz, and boasts 192kHz on the first two inputs and all four outputs. Channels 1 and 2 also include high-quality microphone/instrument preamps. S/PDIF optical digital I/O provides 2-channel PCM, as well as pass-through of surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS material. Flexible internal mixing allows input and output routing, including an aux bus for effects send or monitor mix. A front-panel momentary switch allows DJ-style headphone auditioning between two assignable sources. Other features include two headphone amplifiers, assignable level controller, S/PDIF coaxial/optical digital I/O, 1 x 1 MIDI I/O, and BNC word clock connectors for synchronization to other digital devices.')

Nope. Handheld DAT's have been around for a while. And now this:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack24 96-main.html

And this:

http://www.core-sound.com/pdaudio_system/1.php

My M-Audio Revolution 5.1 sounds much, much, much better than my SB Live and my mobo's built-in nforce2 Soundstorm at playing music in both Linux and 'doze, which I do more than play games (in 'doze). But then again I much prefer the Soundstorm for games.

Most, if not all reviews I read say the Revo sounds better than Audigy 2. ... maybe most do though?

Monarch has a quality reputation, but I have a few problems with that system. In order to build a true screamer, I think some component changeouts and modifications are in order.

Motherboard:
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html This motherboard supports dual opterons, so you can stick in there 2 dual core opterons. Using processor affinity you could balance load across processors (I am not sure if you can use processor affinity per core - if anyone can answer that, I'd appreciate it.

Ramdrive
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=24 80&p=1 These things are mainstream now (for those that lusted for years after the highend $10k+ ramdrives).

Soundcard
Creative Soundblaster based sound cards have had buggy drivers for as long as I can remember. Lets get some turtle beach in there, or better yet, some lower end audiophile hardware http://www.m-audio.com/index.php

Paltry amount of Ram
2 GB is like the lowest amount of ram I'd use for a highend performance system. 4 GB - 8 GB is more like the appropriate number. When I am running WoW, VLC, Thunderbird, Firefox, Gimp, TS, and Eric3 all at once. I want them all to be fast and responsive as if I had only one application running.

We need a DAQ that is 16-bit or better, with a sampling rate no less than 100 kHz. Oh, and it has to have two input channels.

Hmm, well, these days there are boards that do that that are a dime a dozen. Namely, pro audio cards. The newest generation of cards does 192 kHz sampling rate at 24-bit resolution, and I've never seen a card that has fewer than two input channels. For example, just pulling something off the top of my head, the M-AUDIO Audiophile 192. The list price for this card is $200. Street price might be closer to $180. There are tons of other similar cards available, and some of them even have Linux drivers if that's a direction you are interested in going (and if you want to do the research).

The nice thing about these cards is that since they're pro, they even have differential inputs for common mode noise rejection, if you need that. Of course, the big down side is that whatever you have that's driving these inputs has to be able to drive something that looks like an audio input. I have no idea what kind of circuit you've got going in your lab, what kind of voltage range it has, what kind of impedence it expects, and all that.

Also, of course, these cards don't have a software framework that comes with them that's set up for experimentation. You're going to have to open the device and read the audio data out of it. That might be fine if all you care about is data collection and you aren't doing anything else on the computer (like analyzing the data and using it to control things) at the same time. But if your needs are more complex, then that's probably not the road you want to go down.

Spend an extra $100 for this and get digital out. What, you think they should charge everybody extra money for something only 1% of their customers will ever use?

I'm looking for a good solution and maybe you've found one.

It really depends what and where you're recording, now doesn't it? If you're making a cheap home studio, a laptop with a decent interface and a couple condenser mics will do it. If you're recording concert bootlegs, you probably want a DAT recorder and a couple high-end dynamic mics if you can't get a feed from the mixing board.

This man speaks the truth.

Most M-Audio cards work with Linux ALSA and JACK. If you just want some decent audio output you can buy the Audiophile 24/96 for less than $100 at the store. It has SPDIF out as well.

The Mia card by Echo works as well.

RME has soundcards that work well with Linux too. They will get you some higher quality at a price.

Your analogy is a bit warped.

Everyone knows that professional digital audio gear uses AES/EBU is balanced and uses 110-ohm shielded twisted pair, while consumer gear uses SP/DIF over 75-ohm coax or TOSlink plastic fiber.

And, oddly enough, the adapter to go between AES/EBU and SP/DIF costs about $200.

HTH. HAND. ;)

The lack of digital audio on the mac mini is pretty easily solved. My suggested solution is the M-Audio Transit, but there are numerous other USB soundcards which work just fine on the mac.

The big problem for me is the lack of a gigabit ethernet adaptor in the mini. Not a problem if you're not intending to move large video files around your network, but my intention with my hometheater PC is to be able to serve MP3s and MPEG4 to any PC on my gigabit backbone.

The lack of gigabit on the mini is almost unexcusable. I've got a mini, ordered on launch day, and I love it to death... but i'd pay +$100 for gigabit on it at this point...

It's worth noting that the next model up from the 2496 is the Audiophile 192.

If you want to go down the SPDIF optical out > external DAC route, take a look at M-Audio's SuperDAC 2496

It's worth noting that the next model up from the 2496 is the Audiophile 192.

If you want to go down the SPDIF optical out > external DAC route, take a look at M-Audio's SuperDAC 2496

Here's one way.... Get a small computer, big harddrive.

Get an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (~$100) and maybe a right-angle PCI adapter to fit it into your little BTX box or whatever. Load your OS of choice. You've already got plans for the rest - that way should be just fine. Rip your stuff onto the drive (encode with FLAC), hook it up to an amplifier, and you're all set.

The 2496 has already got RCA IN/OUT and Digital connectors (read the specifics on compatibility and what you can and cannot use at the same time) making hookup easy. It will also record at impressive rates and resolutions (playback too if you've got fancy hi-res sources). You can find drivers for most of the following at OSS (these are commercial drivers that run ~$50 for the most common OSs that include free tech support and upgrades for 2 years).

* Linux (x86, Alpha, PowerPC)
* VxWorks (Tornado)
* LynxOS (x86, PowerPC)
* SCO Open Server
* SCO UnixWare
* Solaris (x86, Sparc)
* IBM AIX
* FreeBSD
* BSD/OS
* OpenBSD
* NetBSD
* HP-UX

You could buy a mixer and some mics to do some high quality recordings too. (I've picked up a 10 channel Yamaha mixer [MG10/2] w/ 4 mic inputs (phantom capable) for $99 and a Samson CO2 matched pair of small condensers for ~$120 at Sam Ash to do recordings with a setup very similar to that above and it worked quite well.) No experience with the OSS drivers but they seem to be responsive to email inquirys about specifics and have a free trial available.

I dream of a portable custom BSD based solution that has easy controls (serial keypad and LCD - "real" buttons and switches), could be setup for automated recordings, has a builtin mixer, microphone inputs (phantom powered for my dream large condenser pair), and speaker/headphone driver, AND is powerful enough to run baudline for use in the field. Background processes could compress material as I was recording (incremental, selectively, to be sure you could grab the entire recording - even if your quality had to suffer - but you'd get the highest possible of any given event). The network interface could stream audio at selectable bitrates (.ogg peeling) OR amplify a stream like an internet radio station. AND it could do my laundry for me and fit in a backpack. If anybody else would be interesed in something like this please contact me and I'd love to collaborate. [ bricoleur !AT! 80d !DOT! org ]

i have been on the brink of buying some mini-itx componants to do this and create a small, fannless machine for the front room that can be bolted under a table. the forever pending release of better and smaller boards by VIA has kept me from acting. my quesiton is whats the diffrence between the 5.1 sound from a VIA board like this.. http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia_MII_spec.j sp?motherboardId=202 and a PCI card like the ones from AVID .. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Revolution51 -main.html

While I understand your point about built-in functionality being preferable, there are USB digital audio 'dongles' available which aren't too expensive and are also fairly small. I am going to be adding one of the following to my Mac mini (if it ever gets here - jeesh).

Edirol UA-1x

M-Audio Transit

Hope this helps.

That's why you buy a rack tray, mount it, skip 4U above it, and set your GameCube on top of the tray. The rest of the width of the tray is ample storage space for your GameCube controllers and games.

1) then buy a PowerMac- you're not in the market for a Mac mini if you want to change your video card, and besides, if you were setting up a gaming rig, you wouldn't get a PC with a Celeron, would you? You shouldn't get a Macintosh with a G4, either, if processor-intensive stuff is what you'll be doing. Macintosh users into cutting-edge games buy dual G5 PowerMacs. PC users into cutting-edge games don't buy $500 computers, they buy $900 graphics cards!

2) Your statement that no Macintosh has upgradeable sound is simply not true. You just need a PowerMac.

Actually, you _can_ buy a sound card for your PowerMac. One ( with surround sound support ) is reviewed in this past December's MacWorld magazine.

I'm not sure if this is the one, but a quick google search turned up this M-Audio surround sound card.

Personally, I'd probably prefer a Firewire external device, but you _can_ get a sound card for the PowerMac.

although my one problem with the Mac Mini as a media center is the lack of digital audio output. An M-Audio Sonica should take care of that...

Or an M-Audio Transit.

Apple seem to agree :-).

Check this out.

Oh, and I found that link here.

Just look at the Accessories page, for the M-Audio-Transit AC3/DTS TOSlink adaptor.

And, it's also an input!

I was confused by that exclusion as well. But I really think they were just trying to make the box as cheaply as possible and realized most users would not need 5.1, so they could let it be a separate device.

I think it's a shame that there's no digital audio output . . . There probably are USB-addon solutions to this problem though

M-Audio Transit

M-Audio Sonica Theater which I see retailing for about $85.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage USB which goes for $29 and seems to need a better driver to pull DTS sound on a Mac.

So that should do it. :-)

The even have it listed on the Mac mini accessories page http://www.apple.com.au/macmini/accessories.html

Called the M-Audio Transit http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main .html it provides digital audio out and analog audio out for less than $100. Time to put your money where your mouth is?

I just bought a used Pod XT off eBay PodXT ...it has midi in/out. Could the m-audio products like this firewire interface be used hooked to the mac mini for input of guitar...etc.? I'm a noob guitarist..and very noob to how midi and computer capture works...but, if this would work...would be a neat setup.

Are you kidding? Right on the accessories page http://www.apple.com/macmini/accessories.html is the link to a $100 Optical digital out and in! http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main .html
People who want/need better audio options can buy the accessories they need.

• use line in: iMic
• get a video card with TV out for HTPC use: get the optional S-video/composite video out
• get optical audio out so i can watch DVDs in surround sound: Sonica Theater (also supplies a line in)
• cheaply add wireless or bluetooth: get any cheap USB bluetooth/wireless adapter you want
• add any PCI cards i like: got me there I suppose
• install a TV tuner card in it: get something from El Gato instead

Shall I go on?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main .html

The audio quality isn't going to be fantastic, it only has a line-out, which is okay for most. If you're really concerned, you can purchase something like the M-Audio Sonica or one of their Firewire Audio interfaces.

Also you can get one of these to do Dolby/DTS/other 5.1 audio out.

Try this: m-audio

For $100, you can have a USB->optical link. Personally, I'm glad they didn't include the optical link. Makes it cheaper for the 95% of the market that doesn't want or need it.

No 5.1 surround........

You'll have to pick up a USB surround sound device.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/SonicaTheate r-main-1.html

That will set you back another $120

Really? The mouse requires more movement than the keyboard but the mouse is definitely a step forwards in terms of UI. Sure, CLI hackers can do a lot more with a keyboard but the mouse has helped bring computers to the masses.

A UI shouldn't be judged on how much the user has to move but on how intuitive it is. I move a lot more with my evolution but it's much more intuitive (and infinitely faster) than working with a mouse on Reason.

M-Audio Transit

Knock yourself out. There are a lot of excellent-sounding audio devices availible for PCs, internal and external... it's really silly to write off an entire computer architecture because X or Y manufacturer shipped with a crappy DAC.

Heh :) I can't see this... the Busker on the street with his gameboy out trying to grab people's loose change.

I'll stick with my laptop, Audiophile USB my Oxygen 8 (where's the link?) and Reason.

On the other hand, there are a number of differences in what they install. Get both, and dual-boot.

I recorded an album on my iBook with a TASCAM US-122, and found that Apple's loops just aren't good enough. They sound clear, but they're just not that interesting. So, I got M-Audio's These Drums Are Loud, and it really added a lot to my drum section (I don't have the space for a drum kit). Anyway, that's just a tip. I'd avoid the new Jam Packs without a lot of reviews and maybe some sample clips. Of course, if you want more than drums, that's another story.

Wow, I sure hope AC was not replying to me there. All I was saying, is that there are going to be too many people that look at one of the factors, the bitrate and ignore the codec being used.

I use a Solaris workstation most of the time, so i'm not a typical Apple response. As for any form of compression, I recently got one of these and MP3/AAC/whatever delivered to a few thousand $'s worth of amp and speakers over a fibre optic cable just sounds crappy.

On another note, I recently saw another sound designer use an Archos unit to record a grand piano. I provided the mics and mixer, he preferred to use his own recorder rather than my MD.

Maybe id could stick it to them in an unsubtle manner. Sell an "Audio Special" with (say) an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 included. Add specific features to the game that aren't supported by the Creative version. Make it audibly better.

As another poster posted, there are better soundcard companies out there, so why not support them? Let the weekend geeks know about the better alternatives and maybe we'll see Creative get their ass into gear and produce better products with less drama.

It's not terribly common, but the ports are used in some devices, for example the M-Audio Transit. The copper contacts are on the side of the jack, while the end of the jack has an LED to send out the optical signal. You can either use a cable that has a 3.5" connector on it, or an adapter like this to hook a regular Toslink cable up to it. I don't see any technical reason you couldn't use it for both analog and optical at the same time, if you could make a cable that made both fit into the jack at the same time.

MAudio

You're probably thinking about Audiophile 2496, or maybe even the Delta 1010LT.
Still, the "big" Delta 1010 (not the LT) is perhaps better, since it has balanced analog. But it's more expensive (about $600).

An lcd

A remote control

Anything from M-Audio! - MIDI interface, keyboard, a (real) audio interface...

microcontroller --> endless possibilities....

flash drive, or a flash card reader

usb drive enclosure - harddrive, CD-R...

Looks like a nice card.

Should I be worried about the fact that the manufacturer apparently can't count? Maybe I'm posting too late, but does that connector look like it's a 15-pin to you?