Fri, 07 Mar 2008 WireTap Studio Review

There aren’t many things the Mac’s architecture gives us to complain about – but Mac musicians have one grumble. PCs come with sound cards that have multiple inputs and outputs, individually configurable using Windows’ built-in control panel or driver-specific tools.

Most Macs have just one input and a headphone socket. Lucky MacBook owners have a built in mic socket too. Selecting and isolating individual sound sources is difficult without specialist software – and that’s where WireTap Studio comes in.

With WireTap Studio, you can select and record any source on your computer – including individual applications or system inputs. This new version has a completely overhauled interface, much- improved recording tools and a new LivePreview mode that allows you to hear audio as it will sound with software compression, before you record it.

The basics first, though. The uncluttered interface allows you to choose any audio source on your Mac – whether hardware or application. So, if you’ve plugged a microphone into the line-in, you’ll be able to select that. You might also select the sound being routed through an application such as Skype, to record phone interviews or podcasts.

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paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

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WireTap gives you access to Apple’s core sound filters, which include compression, EQ and effects tools. These can be applied in real time to audio so you can hear how your recording will turn out. In this respect, WireTap is similar to Audio Hijack Pro.

The main advantage of WireTap is that it also has built-in editing features for applying filters in post-production, trimming files and rudimentary mixing.