As always, you may get lucky … I updated my MacBook and nothing has happened ye– hey, what’s that burning smell?

For any readers complaining when we cover this stuff instead of actual, you know, music — I feel you. The idea, though, is to cover it here so you can actually focus on making music. And, yo, Apple, Microsoft, developers: computers are complex, these things happen … and we really wouldn’t complain if you did more testing. Hooray for stability. It could always be better.

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. Hit Window > Show A/V Controls (or cmd-K — ctrl-K on Windows), and you’ll find some nice, simple tools for playing back the audio. You don’t even need to purchase QuickTime Pro to unlock the functionality. (I’ll save that rant for another day.) Playback speed is a pitch-independent speed control. It’s great to slow down interviews without making the interviewee sound like Darth Vader (though they do quickly start to sound stoned). It only runs 1/2x – 3x, but the usable range is about 1/2x – 3x anyway. (Otherwise, digital starts to distort so much as to become unusable — and I find even our own ears start to get confused about the patterns they’re trying to pick up. 3/4x actually turns out to be a nice balance.)

The Jog Shuttle is also handy — more so than the standard transport controls on QT Player itself, because it operates more like a tape jog, perfect for navigating the sound file. My only major gripe is that each time you adjust the Playback Speed, the width of the player resets, so you can’t make the player wider to more easily shuttle through the file. Other than that, though, I’m perfectly happy — and you can’t beat free. (By the way, if you’re wondering about the screenshot, and you’re aesthetically obsessive like me, install Uno on the Mac. You’ll never go back to brushed aluminum again. Yuck.)

Got a favorite transcription technique? Let us know.

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)

Having sold a staggering 4,500,000 iPods in the holiday quarter, Apple
launched its next salvo in the digital music wars by introducing its
first flash-memory based iPod. The iPod Shuffle, which sidesteps the
problem of finding songs on a small screen by eliminating the screen
entirely is "smaller than most packs of gum" and can be worn around the
neck on a lanyard. A new autofill feature in iTunes will automatically
build a playlist and fill the iPod Shuffle up to capacity. It has a USB
2 port and battery life up to 12 hours.

It is available in two models; one with 512MB (120 songs) for $99 and
one with 1GB (240 songs) for $149. It is available starting today. -Lee Sherman

For more on the news from Macworld, see:
GarageBand 2 Revealed, Audio Interface MIA