My relationship with music has changed many times over the years, from all-consuming passion to utter boredom to fond nostalgia and everything in between. In recent months, after a long period of disdain for the bulk of current popular music, my interest in and enjoyment of pop has been rejuvenated. Now I listen to music all the time while working on my iMac. The Apple CD Audio Player (an Apple Menu item) does an admirable job of playing audio CDs, and the CDStrip module (also by Apple and included with recent versions of the Mac OS) gives convenient access to CD playback functions via the Control Strip. At my Editor's suggestion, I went looking for shareware and freeware to extend the Mac's ability to play audio CDs — along the way, I also found some cool new ways to bring music to my desktop.
 
And Through The Wire
 
NetCD
Whenever Apple leaves a gap in a set of features, other third-party developers rush in to fill that niche, and the CD Audio Player is no exception. When you insert an audio CD into your CD-ROM drive, the music plays, but the tracks of the CD are listed generically (Track 1, Track 2, etc.). Wouldn't it be great if you could have the CD automatically show its name and the name of each song?
That's where CDDB comes in. Servers running the CD Data Base maintain a current listing of just about every CD available (it's fun to try to stump it with obscurities). My favorite CDDB client is NetCD by Toby W. Rush, an audio player made with REALbasic. NetCD automatically connects to the CDDB server of your choice, downloads the song title information and displays it for you. NetCD (v.1.5, Oct 98, 944 K) is extremely cool freeware available from http://macinsearch.com/users/tobyrush/software.html .
 
D.I.Y.
 
CD MacEdit
If for some reason (unfathomable to me) you'd rather enter a CD's track information manually, CD MacEdit lets you do this, plus a whole lot more. Also built with REALbasic, CD MacEdit (v.1.5.1, Oct '98, 891 K) by Erick Tejkowski stores all of the relevant information about your entire CD collection, which you can then export to a text file. Imported PICT files can serve as CD covers, which can then be printed out.
CD MacEdit is $10 shareware and you can download it from http://members.macconnect.com/~mercyme/purplee.shtml .
 
Shock The Monkey
 
ShockBox
An application with great potential, Lance Endres' ShockBox (v.1.0.2, Oct '98, 3037 K) turns the Internet into your own private jukebox. If you have a reasonably fast connection, ShockBox (made with Macromedia's Shockwave) can retrieve music from CDs available on ShockBox servers, and with Shockwave's streaming capabilities, the playback is nearly instantaneous. You can also store CD-quality music on your hard drive because the files are highly compressed. The available music is still fairly limited, but ShockBox is freeware and it's a very cool idea. To check it out, visit http://ShockBox.base.org/ .
 
Shaking The MP3
 
MacAMP
@soft's MacAMP (v.1.0b6, Sep '98, 837 K) is the Macintosh version of the popular WinAMP (which itself stems from the Unix AMP). Both utilities play MPEG Layer 3 audio files, which are high-quality and highly compressed. Many websites are now offering MP3s of up-and-coming unsigned artists — my current fave is a techno tune called "Trust No One," which is based on "The X-Files" theme and includes sampled dialogue from the show. Had it not been for MacAMP, I probably never would have heard this great tune!
MacAMP is currently available as an unsupported beta, so you can use it for free at your own risk. Surf to http://www.macamp.com/ to find the latest version.
 
'Warehouse Trivia Contest
Continuing the musical theme, the prizes for this month's contest are five copies of Minuet by John Brochu. Minuet is a control strip module for controlling audio CD playback, and it's part of John's PopupCD (a new version of which is due soon – we'll be looking at PopupCD in an upcoming 'Warehouse).
With "Contest" in the subject line, email your answers to brian@applewizards.net .
Incidentally, the reason I ask you to put "Contest" in the subject is that I use a Claris Emailer mail action to check the subject line of every incoming email, and if it contains the word "Contest," the email is automatically routed to the "Contest Entries" folder. Mail actions are yet another reason to love Claris Emailer!
The Five Apple Wizards Questions for January 1999
1. True or false: Steve Jobs has dated Joan Baez.
2. What were the rock festivals sponsored by Steve Wozniak called?
3. Who is currently the AppleScript product manager?
4. In what year was System 7 introduced?
5. Should Microsoft be carved up like a Butterball turkey? Explain.
The number of entries in the 'Warehouse trivia contest was markedly up for November — thank you to everyone who entered, and keep it up! These five people won copies of Norbert Doerner's CDFinder: Eric Blair, Ryan C. Reinhart, Dierk Seeburg (who holds the record for most 'Warehouse trivia contests), David Shapiro, and Benjamin Kalchik. Remember, you don't have to know all the answers (but it certainly helps)!
