Exclusive Preview: Ambrosia Software's WireTap Studio

[MacRumors]

MacRumors has been given the opportunity to provide an exclusive preview of an unreleased and unannounced application from Ambrosia Software called WireTap Studio, due for first release later this month.

While WireTap Studio shares a name with WireTap Pro, it is an entirely new application with a broader range and appeal. The major feature of the original WireTap Pro application was the ability to selectively record audio from any Mac application and save it to a variety of formats. Uses ranged from recording Internet radio to ripping audio from DVDs. WireTap Studio promises to provide a more complete solution with tools to record, edit and manage your audio. A few standout features should make it particularly compelling for both amateurs and professionals who distribute audio over the Internet.

As a preview, we are simply touching on the major features of the application, and this shouldn't be seen as a review. I do think that the most compelling feature is the patent pending LivePreview™ technology, so if you read nothing else you should at least watch the video below. Beyond that, lossless editing and lossless format selection are also very attractive features.

Read Rest of Article and Watch Video

[arn]

To calm the suspicious, this is not an advertisement, and we receive no direct financial gain for this content. Instead, it's to expand a little bit of our content in a meaningful and appropriate way.

You can direct general content feedback to this feedback thread, but please keep this news thread on-topic. Any off-topic posts there will be deleted.

This thread is for discussion of the preview of WireTap Studio article.

[Abstract]

I once used WireTap to record Jack Johnson's KFOG radio concert. Awesome and free. Then I think they started charging for it, and it became less awesome since I only had one type of use for it, and they took away the "free" part of it.

[BKKbill]

So if I understand this correctly if you can hear it on your mac wiretap will let it be saved in different formats. If so bring it on. I don't think $19.00 is to high a price too pay for this.

[Ja Di ksw]

This is very impressive, I've always wanted something like this for recording songs off of internet radio. Granted, not enough to look on my own , so it may be out there with other programs, but this looks like it's very easy to use, and that Live Preview and the Lossless options are awesome!

[BlueRevolution]

[admin edit: General feedback copied to feedback thread]

As far as the post itself goes, the app sounds exactly like a combination of Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack and Fission. I don't see anything featured there that sell it over the two, but then the screenshots are hardly a complete picture of the app. I have no particular loyalty to Rogue Amoeba, but then I have to admit I dislike Ambrosia. I have tried out their shareware apps from time to time, but none of them have remained on my hard drive let alone merited purchase.

I do appreciate Snapz Pro, though. It is a well-designed app and as such seems to have found an excellent niche. The only problem is, it's a very expensive niche. There is no way I would spend $70 on a piece of software for video screenshots - $30, maybe.

I apologize for my bluntness and tendency to rant about the company. I do appreciate that Ambrosia's developer is an active member of the community and will read this, and I assure you my comments are not personal. Put it that based on my past experience with the company I don't have high hopes for this app, but the screenshots look moderately promising and I look forward to trying out a demo. And I would suggest that you price it below the $50 price point of Rogue Amoeba's Fission/Audio Hijack combo deal - most of Ambrosia's products, as touched on by Abstract, are rather overpriced.

[/wordy rant]

[randyharris]

I'd like to hear about comparisons, pro's and con's with WireTap & AudioHiJack.

Originally Posted by BlueRevolution

I do appreciate Snapz Pro, though. It is a well-designed app and as such seems to have found an excellent niche. The only problem is, it's a very expensive niche. There is no way I would spend $70 on a piece of software for video screenshots - $30, maybe.

Check out iShowU, it's similar to SnapzPro and is right around $30. Great Application.

[doobi18]

guys, just get audiohijack.

its freeware


it captures amazing sound quality from any specific app on your mac or any input

[hooch]

So, how well will this work with converting audio on youtube music videos? There are some songs that I really like on youtube that aren't released yet. I used zamzar to convert the files to audio but the quality obviously turned out to be a lot worse. Would this be a better way to convert youtube to audio?

[randyharris]

Originally Posted by doobi18

guys, just get audiohijack.

its freeware


it captures amazing sound quality from any specific app on your mac or any input

Are you talking about Audio HiJack from Roque Amoeba? It's $16, not free. And the Pro version is $32. Details here.

[Ja Di ksw]

Originally Posted by doobi18

guys, just get audiohijack.

its freeware

It is? versiontracker has it listed as shareware with a price.

[arn]

Originally Posted by hooch

So, how well will this work with converting audio on youtube music videos? There are some songs that I really like on youtube that aren't released yet. I used zamzar to convert the files to audio but the quality obviously turned out to be a lot worse. Would this be a better way to convert youtube to audio?

Both Audio Hijack or Wiretap Pro would do what you want better than any conversion tools, and as noted above, both are shareware and available right now.

arn

[mashinhead]

i've been using wiretap pro for years and it is a great app. i paid for it. So my question is how does this affect WTP users? Do i have to purchase this app too? or is there and upgrade option?

[moki]

Originally Posted by BlueRevolution

[admin edit: General feedback copied to feedback thread]

As far as the post itself goes, the app sounds exactly like a combination of Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack and Fission. I don't see anything featured there that sell it over the two, but then the screenshots are hardly a complete picture of the app.

Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. WireTap Studio is far, far more than just AudioHijack + Fission. We do things in a way you've never seen before, and I believe you'll be suitably impressed when it is released.

Originally Posted by randyharris

Check out iShowU, it's similar to SnapzPro and is right around $30. Great Application.

IShowU is a nice application, but it doesn't do everything Snapz Pro X does (and its cursor support is a show stopper for most people)... and its performance suffers because it does the encode while it is doing the capture.

Download 'em both and try 'em both out!

Originally Posted by mashinhead

i've been using wiretap pro for years and it is a great app. i paid for it. So my question is how does this affect WTP users? Do i have to purchase this app too? or is there and upgrade option?

There will be a great upgrade discount for registered users of WireTap Pro, no worries.

Originally Posted by randyharris

I'd like to hear about comparisons, pro's and con's with WireTap & AudioHiJack.

I'd suggest waiting until WireTap Studio is released, and then trying them both for yourself. We're extremely happy to have people try our software before they buy it, and compare the feature set to other products that are on the market.

I believe it will be a no-brainer choice to go with WireTap Studio, but then I'm ridiculously bias.

[Zygon Gambit]

Originally Posted by moki

Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. WireTap Studio is far, far more than just AudioHijack + Fission. We do things in a way you've never seen before, and I believe you'll be suitably impressed when it is released.

As an owner of AudioHijack (Pro) and Fission - what would make me want to get this new app? What does it offer that those applications don't?

[flir67]

just get audio hijack like others have said, its basically free, you can record a full 10 minutes from any app,movie,or audio source from a mac.

even youtube videos and soundtracks...

figure it out ......

[slackpacker]

Waahh Waahh wahh it costs money ..what is $20 bucks going to break the bank. Lets be constructive here.

[moki]

Originally Posted by Zygon Gambit

As an owner of AudioHijack (Pro) and Fission - what would make me want to get this new app? What does it offer that those applications don't?

Well, as a quick example, you can't do anything like this with AHP/Fission.

Notice what's going on... we're previewing audio from iTunes (this is our LivePreview technology we've filed patents on), hearing what it sounds like compressed before it's ever recorded, then changing the compression on the fly (we could even change the compressor, from AAC to mp3 if we wanted to), adding a few effects on the fly, and then recording it at a very low quality.

Then we decide "Crap, those effects sound bad, and we really need it to sound better than the quality we recorded it at." So in the editor, we just turn off the effects we recorded with, and then boost up the quality. And there it is.

Granted, we changed this immediately after recording it, but you could come back 3 months later and do the same thing. Never have to re-record audio again!

Some other things you can do in WireTap Studio (that you cannot do with the Audio Hijack/Fission combo) that might interest you: crop losslessly -- normalize in realtime -- play with the format/compressor on the fly -- losslessly delete audio -- losslessly silence audio -- and of course the LivePreview feature is pretty cool.

And yes, there's more... just a taste.

[arn]

Originally Posted by slackpacker

Waahh Waahh wahh it costs money ..what is $20 bucks going to break the bank. Lets be constructive here.

I think people are also missing the point to a degree.

Seems people are getting hung up on the record-audio portion of it. Let's be clear. Record audio from any application has existed for a while. As mentioned multiple times, Audio Hijack and WireTap Pro both do it and have done it for a while.

Now if you are just looking to rip an occasion song off a DVD or something, you're set, use those applications.

For people who need more, take of look at this app, and the video which I thought was very cool.

arn

[pamon]

great writeup and one of the more entertaining demo's i've seen with sound qualities. thanks MRF

[illitrate23]

must say, i've been a fan of Ambrosia shareware for many years. admittedly, it may be a bit more expensive than the competition but i feel that's compensated by the fact that generally you get to try out the complete app beforehand without restrictions. and their interfaces are always very intuitive, very mac. and they work, mostly, without fail.

i've been using WireTap Pro for years, not regularly but intermittently from time to time, and have been very happy. However, gotta say that it think the extra feature of the wave editor means i might end up using WireTap Stuido far more regularly - if it's a quicker process to edit the audio than it is in Quicktime (can't zoom into the waveform) or GarageBand (takes time to open and import and then export)

[k2director]

This is all great stuff, but how about an update to Snap Pro X? I'd love to be able to save a screen shot to any folder AFTER I've taken the shot, instead of having to remember to set the destination beforehand.

[moki]

Originally Posted by k2director

This is all great stuff, but how about an update to Snap Pro X? I'd love to be able to save a screen shot to any folder AFTER I've taken the shot, instead of having to remember to set the destination beforehand.

We are absolutely working on that as well. Many of the paradigms that you see in WireTap Studio will also appear in new versions of Snapz.

[Geordiekeith]

Well I have always been impressed by Ambrosia products ever since getting over my addiction to Maelstrom many years ago, but the "high" pricing has put me off more recent products. However I would be ready to abandon Audio Hijack for Wire Tap Studio if there was also the facility to work/convert from with other formats such as FLAC and OGG. I currently use Toast to do those.
Any hint of the pricing Andrew?

[Exodemia]

Ambrosia make some great products, the only product I've used by them is Snapz Pro X and it's really good!