I recently bought a Macbook computer to replace my Windows 10 computer which died. My church is in the “dark ages” and still records our sermons on CDs; I use Audacity to edit the files before I add them to our church website.
After wasting a lot of time searching for a CD ripping program which works with a Mac, I found out that I didn’t need one. I found that the Mac computer automatically reads the file on the audio CD into the Apple AIFF format. This allows Audacity to see the file and import it into a project. However, the Tutorial - How to Import CD - Audacity Manual says:
If you import CD tracks into Audacity from Finder and save them as a Project, the CD must be present next time you open the Project, unless you set Audacity to make a copy of the data. To do this choose Audacity > Preferences: Import / Export and where it says “When importing audio files”, check the radio button: Copy uncompressed files into the project (safer) (default setting).
I am using Audacity version 3.5.1 and do not see this setting. The manual doesn’t show it anywhere on the page for Import/Export Preferences. Has it been removed and kept as the default and only setting and the Tutorial was not updated? Or am I just not finding the setting? https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/import_export_preferences.html
I imported my first file this way last night but to be on the safe side I saved it as a wav file like I was used to doing when I used a separate program for ripping the CD in Windows. I didn’t have time to begin the editing, anyway. However, I want to make sure I don’t lose anything when I start working on the next one. Will I be ok if I just import the audio from the CD into Audacity and then just do a “save as” and name the project whatever I want to name it? Or do I still need to find this setting first and make sure it is marked correctly?
It is usually not the Mac (you did not mention the macOS version) which is importing your recording, it is the Music app. And you can choose in it’s settings in which format your import is - AIFF, WAV, even MP3. The music/sermon files are usually stored in your Music library - and you can use them from there within Audacity. No need to have your CD present while editing.
Windows “prefers” WAV files, as Macs prefer AIFF. No needfor any conversion etc.
You may confuse the “save” command in Audacity with the “export” command. Save just saves all your project data, so that you can continue editing etc - but it does not “save” any useable sound. You need to export your music/sermon to get something useful.
When they record the sermon, they probably have (one or more) sound files before they burn the CD. Why can’t they give you these files? Then you could avoid to extract them from the CD.
Yes, many apologies - it is certainly the Manual that was out of date in that regard, It was many years ago and many versions of Audacity ago the we removed the ability to reference external uncompressed files without actually importing them.
My only excuse, as the Manual’s primary editor, is that I am mainly a Widows person and thus I overlooked that Mac advice.
I have just corrected the alpha Manual for the upcoming 3.6.2 release (I can’t updated released Manuals, sorry) to remove that spurious advice note.
They have a very old analog sound system; they don’t have any computer files to give me. I think they record it directly to a CD. I asked if there was a way they could put the file on a USB drive, but they didn’t have a way to convert it. They are all volunteers and not professional sound people - and I’m not a pro, either; I just learn Audacity by trial and error and reading the “help” files when needed. Some tools I don’t understand and can’t use, but I do what I can to improve the quality.
So this means I’m good with doing the imports and can just save directly to an Audacity project and won’t need the CD again? Just making sure! Thank you!
(I just wish I’d known a lot sooner that there was no need for a “ripping” program to take the place of CDEX, since CDEX was not available for Mac. I searched and searched for a decent program before I found out that I didn’t need one for the Mac. If anyone is considering switching from one platform to the other, it’s not particularly easy! Google has been my good friend! The first day I got the Mac I had to even Google how to turn it off! Now if I could just find a good free photo editing program to replace Photoshop Express, which is also not available for Mac…)
Ok, that makes sense! The long post from mac-christian was getting me slightly confused! I’m neither a trained I/T person nor a trained sound engineer. I know I have some aptitude for this, though, and just do the best I can. Thank you!
Well, a good idea would be to find a Mac user group in your area, or to subscribe to a Mac-related mailing list or web forum. If you understand German, I can give you some ideas where to go.
Photoshop Express was availble for the Mac before Adobe decided to switch to a subscription scheme for their products.
Look at the Affinity suite for the Mac from Serif.com. It is not free, but very affordable. And they seem to offer a 50% discount until August 15 on their website.
No, I don’t understand German at all. I’m in the US. Apple had said they would provide a training session, but I haven’t had time to schedule anything. I think I have probably already figured out most of the basics. I took a 6-day vacation around the 4th of July weekend and between that and getting everything set up on my Mac - and also my aunt is in the hospital seriously ill - I’ve been behind on the sermons for the website ever since. I’m also behind on some other things I need to do.
I had to order accessories for the Mac - so I had to go to Amazon and look through a bunch of their stuff to find out what I needed. I had to order an external drive from Carbonite to get my files back. Their backup program is not compatible across platforms, so I needed to copy the actual files instead of downloading the compressed backup program. It wasn’t feasible to download that many files from the internet. The external drive they sent didn’t have cables for a Mac - the ports are different. So I had to wait until I ordered and received my accessories so I could transfer the files. The drive now has to be returned to them or I’ll have to pay a lot of money - even after already paying for them to send out the drive! So I’ve got to get that shipped out next week!
There are just a lot of little things that need to be done when setting up a new computer, and it also a learning curve when switching from Windows to Mac. When I think of something else I need to know how to do, I am sure I’ll figure it out when I Google it. I also know a couple of people who have a Mac so if Google doesn’t help I can ask them. However, they probably don’t use their computer for the exact same things I do, so I’m better off just using Google. And I can also call Apple support for help.
My next two projects for setting up the Mac are to get my files organized and to get my printer working. I just dumped the files from the Carbonite drive into one folder, so I need to move them around and organize them the way I want on the Mac. I previously got the printer connected and the Mac says a document is printed, but I go to the printer and nothing printed. So I need to look on the printer company’s website and see if they have any other software that will work with the Mac. The printer is very old, but it still worked and I don’t print very much. But printers are cheap, so I can buy a newer one if necessary. Just a bunch of extra stuff to do!
Well, this discussion now goes away from Audacity to general questions about how to use / set up / etc a Mac. But no problem for me.
organize Files
I think you already had some structure on your Windows computer. The Mac is more or less the same:
It has a “Documents” section where all your normal files go in.
it has a “Music” section where all your music files go in.
it has a “Movies” section where all your movies go in
it has an “Images” section where all your photos go in
it has a “Downloads” section where all your downloaded files should be before you move them anywhere else
it has a “Desktop” section where all files on your desktop are stored
and, of course, it has an “Applications” section where all your programs should reside
If your Windows computer was not completely broken, you could have used the “Migration Assistant” of your new Mac during setup to transfer all your files and folders. But now I think this does not help much…
Printer
What model of printer and how is it connected? Via WiFi to your router, or via Ethernet to your router, or via USB directly to your computer? You need to go to “Systems Settings → Printers and Scanners” to set it up properly. If the printer is not “vintage”, your Mac should see it and setup should be nearly “automagically”.
There’s actually an advantage to that (or a solid state recorder). With a computer there is a LOT more that can go wrong and you usually don’t know there was a problem until it’s too late.
And the CD recorder is probably easier to use. I assume you just pop-in a blank CD and hit Record.
Thank you. Yes, I am aware of the built-in folders on the Mac. I may or may not want to organize everything that way. The Carbonite backup kept a lot of the structure of the Windows file organization. I have to be careful with the photos and make sure they stay separate from the iPhone photos which automatically back up to iCloud. The old Downloads folder from Windows looks like it has a lot of junk in it, so it just needs to be cleaned out. I will probably move the old documents to the new Documents folder - but I may need to use a sub-folder because the Mac may not be able to open some of the really old Windows files - or if it will open them it may not be able to edit them if I need to make changes.
Before Christmas, I’ll need to find the best way to re-set-up my mailing labels again - I had been using a very old version of Microsoft Office that came with an old PC and I had installed it into the Windows 10 laptop. Excel worked for the address list and Word could create the labels. I had tried Libre Office and also another free program but they didn’t print the labels correctly. Maybe Numbers and Pages will work on the Mac. I’ll figure that out later - it’s still a few months before Christmas. LOL
Unfortunately, the Windows 10 laptop got stuck in a loop trying to “repair” the hard drive and would not boot. I called a local computer repair shop but the guy said he thought the hard drive was really gone. I didn’t have a boot disk and didn’t bother to try to create one. I decided using the Carbonite backup files would be my best bet. If the boot disk didn’t work, it would have just been more wasted time.
The printer is a very old HP Deskjet - I think the model number is 3050. I think I bought it in 2011. It’s wireless. The Mac recognized the computer and installed Apple’s generic drivers. When the printer is turned on and connected to WiFi and I try to print a document, the printer shows up in the list. I can select it, and the Mac says the document is printing. However, when I go to the room where the printer is connected, nothing has printed. Apple had previously told me that if my printer did not work, that I may be able to find better drivers from HP’s website. So I need to look there first. I think there is also some trouble-shooting that I can do. I have spare ink, so I would hate to throw it out; it cost almost as much as a new printer.
Thank you for trying to help. I think all of my issues are specific to my situation. I will muddle through and eventually get it figured out. At least I’ve always been good at figuring things out with technology and computers. That’s why my very old Windows 7 laptop is still working! Although it is a bit fragile, I was able to use it as a backup until the Mac came. I also used it to rip the CDs from the church until I got the external CD drive from Amazon this week. I was able to copy the files through my WiFi from the Windows 7 laptop to the Mac.
I probably would have made a good I/T person if Windows had been around back when I was in college. As it was, I didn’t want to study complicated programming languages such as COBOL or Fortran, which was all that was around way back when!
The Photos app doesn’t do the type of editing I want to do. It’s very basic, like the Windows photo app. Photoshop Express had features which were more advanced yet still easy to use. It was free - it’s not the same thing as the expensive actual Photoshop program - but I had some amazing results from it! I’m sure I will find something, even if I have to eventually buy a program. Thank you.
One of my other hobbies is underwater photography. For that I used Photoshop Express for the first few yeas but more recently I have moved to using Adobe’s LightRoom. This is a subscription service (costs me £10 per month) but for me is well worth it as it has some excellent editing facilities.
Copy uncompressed files into the project (safer) (default setting).
Now if I could just find a good free photo editing program to replace Photoshop Express, which is also not available for Mac…)
I’m neither a trained I/T person nor a trained sound engineer. I know I have some aptitude for this, though, and just do the best I can. Thank you!