First time caller," I need help"

[macinwayne]

Hi all, I'm new to this. I've had a mac for years, But this is the first time I wanted and needed to write a program. My friends are in a band and have very little money. They want to input their music into a G4. I want to assemble a interface (Firewire to Pro audio output). Then I'd need to write some sort of program to have the G4 understand it. My questions: What language would work... and... How do I do it?????
I know this is a difficult exercise but any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Wayne

 

[SilentPanda]

Why don't you save yourself the trouble and get Garageband?

If it's your first program it's certainly biting off more than you can chew...

 

[Horrortaxi]

I remember writing a script in BASIC about 20 years ago that made the cursor look like it was doing jumping jacks. That was a very good beginner's project. Writing a program like you've described from scratch--not a good beginner's project.

For recording, try Audacity. Then you'd need something for multitracking I imagine. Garageband wouldn't be a bad choice actually. Other programs are available with limited time demos--30 eays or so. Bias Peak/Deck are a good combination for recording and multitracking. Not dirt cheap, but available on demo.

 

[Redboy]

Try Tracktion

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion/

There is a downloadable demo.

For $80, you can't go wrong. Then go out and buy Computer Music Magazine (another $14 or so) and you'll have a drum machine, a bass synth, and a sampler for VSTi's.

Next, go to http://www.smartelectronix.com/ and check out all of the free plugins from the various developers (the mda stuff is especially cool, IMO).

This should be a good start. You could also try out Cubase SE/LE and some other low-end stuff.

 

[Redboy]

As far as a multi-channel firewire device for recording more than two tracks at a time - good luck building one, because they can be quite expensive. Don't underestimate the importance of good preamps and convertors.