Mac QT and music hardware probs

Hopefully, the WWDC will lead to better software for the Mac,
not only from 3rd parties but from Apple itself. The announcement of
new computers with faster chips would help but after all these years
it is astounding that QuickTime still can't playback MIDI files that
are above a certain level of complexity - mainly with pedal, sustain
and rapid note events that pile up in the QT synthesizer and overload
it until it just stops. This has been endlessly discussed here, in
Apple discussions (where posts have been deleted by Apple, not unlike
the missing discussions of USB modem problems with early versions of
OS X 10.4) at Mac Music and elsewhere. But, Apple has still not made
QT a better product in this regard. Or is the problem that the
processing power of the Mac still is not up to the PC?
The only way to make pro music on a Mac is with an intel Mac Pro
that has a pro soundcard and sufficient memory or to use a lower end
intel Mac with external USB playback hardware. Sad, but true, that
Windows software and low-end and lower cost PC's give the user the
capacity to create and playback pro music and do it much better than
low-end Macs. I know, I tried it. A G4 PPC Mac is good for
lightweight MIDI and it handles MP3 fine - the same is true for
low-end intel Macs.

But download these .zip MIDI files (virus scanned OK but please always
scan downloaded files if you need to) and try to play them with your
Mac and truthfully post your results here. If yu're a Maccie who can
see or hear no evil when it comes to Apple, don't bother reading on.
but, if you can be objective, and, preferably, if you use both Mac and
PCs - give it a try and see what happens. They playback fine on any
PC with a reasonable amount of processor power, most sound synths
(including QT that has been set in preferences to General MIDI and to
the PC sound card or other synth instead of Quick Time synth) a good
soundcard, or even onboard audio that has enough processor and memory
to handle it. You can check the CSMA archives. The last time this
was done, every user had a different story - those who were honest
said the files stopped playing with QT on Macs.

This is not a free ad for my non-commercial website. But, since it is
a free site, if I just put up the links to the file, you will get
directed to an ad page for the server. So go to the home page

http://lamplightmus.topcities.com/

and page down to the downloads listed under Jazz and Blues MIDI files

left click on the links to

Stomp (Live Piano Improvisation)
Pennies from Heaven (piano solo)

or page down further to classica music MIDI

Echoes Return, Symphony No. 1 (orchestra), 2nd movement


Any of these files will demonstrate the problem.



I've been to Apple stores and tried these files out on all the Macs
and without a pro sound card you get the same results - QT was not
made for MIDI, at least not pro MIDI. Apple is going where the money
is - MP3, video, iPhone - you get the picture. So, since I found some
new software that I'd like to try that only runs on PC, I'm back on my
PC laptop at least for part of the time. In Apple's favor, the new
intel Macs are great processing power and speed improvements over
older PPC machines and there is no doubt that many, myself included,
prefer Mac for video, photos and graphics work. It does all the basic
productivity software fine as well - my big beef with Apple and Macs
is the lack of low-end support for high-end MIDI and music work. You
have to pay the bucks for Mac Pro and a lot of new hardware and
software (Finale, Sibelius) if you want to get it right. With Windows
and PC you can do it a lot cheaper.




























--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

bj wrote:
[...]
> The only way to make pro music on a Mac is with an intel Mac Pro
> that has a pro soundcard and sufficient memory or to use a lower end
> intel Mac with external USB playback hardware.

Say it isn't so!

Look, bedroom rockers will always find a way. Otherwise, they call it
"pro" for a reason.