I spend a lot of time transcribing audio, for various reasons. When doing interviews, I usually carry around a portable recorder. That had long been a tape recorder, but lately I’ve been going digital — it tends to cause less problems. Roland’s Edirol R-1 serves perfectly, and I’ve had terrific battery life, no hassles, and fantastic audio quality using its built-in mics, even in some horrible audio environments. While I haven’t done this myself, I know many jazzers spend endless hours transcribing solos. There are also plenty of times when you end up transcribing yourself, playing or humming a spur-of-the-moment musical idea. Often times, I find (especially when composing in a classical idiom) that I have to pay really close attention to musical details, lest I round off part of what made them interesting in the first place.

All of these create the same problem: unlike tape, digital is touch to speed up or slow down. There are various specialty tools for transcription. The Mac-only Transcriva, which I bought and used for a time, is even designed specifically for transcribing text from audio.

Somehow, though, I found all these tools to be overkill. I wanted something dead-simple, lightweight, and always available. And I wanted to easily pop into other tools, like Sibelius for notation (or a pen and paper, for that matter), or apps like TextMate or NeoOffice for words.

Then I happened to dig around in Apple’s QuickTime Player.

Steve Jobs, with some help from John Mayer, hits
the stage on the first day of Macworld. CDM's NAMM/Macworld reporter
Lee Sherman was in
the audience to give us the scoop. (Update: originally the article said GarageBand 2 lacks MIDI import. The article should have said MIDI export. MIDI import has been added, but export is sadly still lacking unless you upgrade to Logic Express/Pro.)

Saying that the "digital music era is well upon us," Steve Jobs gave
the Mac faithful what they came for with a number of new products
designed to appeal to music consumers and producers alike, in his
annual Macworld Expo keynote address.

GarageBand 2, introduced as part of the $79 iLife '05 suite, with the
onstage help of Grammy award-winner John Mayer, brings real-time
mult-track recording up to 8 tracks, real-time music notation, and
automatic pitch correction to the entry-level music program. A new Jam
Pack, sold separately for US$99 brings a collection of orchestral instruments and
loops to the software, including a much improved grand piano. Still
missing is long-awaited MIDI export. iLife '05 will be available on
January 22.

QuickTime 7, which ships as part of the Tiger release of OS X in the
first half of year will include full support for surround sound.
(read more)