Welcome to a brand new series focusing on music creation on the Mac and iPhone platform.

As you know, here at TUAW, we are crazy about anything Apple. We just love it! But, dear reader, this is not the be all and end all of our hearts. For many, if not all of us, music is a great passion of ours too. So, when these two worlds collide, naturally, it's a beautiful thing.

Recently, you may have seen a few posts on TUAW covering iPhone apps such as FourTrack and Noise.io or Soundboard for the Mac. Well, in this series, we are going to be singing a similar tune but taking a bit more of an in-depth look, or, if you will, taking things a semi-tone down (OK, enough with the music word play).

What exactly can you expect from this (fortnightly) series? If you're a home studio enthusiast (or a singer-songwriter trying to make ends meet) there will be tips, tricks and how-tos from Garageband all the way to Logic Studio and everything in between. Reviews on some of the latest and greatest music creation software and hardware for the Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch as well as, every now and then, a bit of inspiration for those rainy days.

But don't fret (oops!) if you can't hold a tune. For those less musically inclined we know you still need a soundtrack for the holiday you had with Granny last year and she wants to share the photo's on a DVD with some 'hip and happening' music in the background - we've got your back.

Stay tuned and leave a comment if you have any bright ideas for what you'd like to see covered in this new series.

Remember that time you were on tour with The B-52's and had a great idea for a song, but there was no recording equipment to be found? Oh wait, that was The 88. Well anyway, The 88 recently recorded their latest single with nothing but an iPhone and the Sonoma Wire Works Four Track application, according to The Loop.

The 88 recorded the song, Love is the Thing, with a few tricks: to make sure the drums didn't overpower the iPhone speaker, they covered the drums with a sheet and uses brushes instead of drumsticks to deaden the sound. Four Track records at 16 bits and 44.1 kHz and can make unlimited-length tracks. The band recorded 14 separate tracks, including various guitars, vocals, and effects, and combined them on a Mac for the final mix.

The band documented the process in more detail on their website. The song sounds great quality-wise and is now available in the iTunes Store for $0.99, and Four Track is in the App Store for $9.99.

In today's New York Times, Tim Arango tells a story of a heated conversation between Sony Music's Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and Steve Jobs on Christmas Eve -- one that "ricocheted around the music industry."

Apparently, before the announcement at Macworld, all the labels except Sony had agreed to a new pricing deal. Sony wanted the new pricing to take effect immediately after the announcement, but Jobs wanted a longer rollout. After the phone call, according to the Times, Sony agreed to the longer waiting period.

During this time, Jobs was allegedly on medical leave, recuperating at home from his much-publicized illness. Arango notes that Jobs' point-man on music industry relations, Eddie Cue, and Apple's entire staff "do their best to follow Mr. Jobs's style in their own negotiating." That is to say: Hardball.

Music executives, according to an unnamed source, are afraid of angering Apple, as Apple can single-handedly remove a label's catalog from the iTunes store, angering the label's customers. At the same time, Apple can claim that their hands were tied, the decision wasn't theirs, and that all the ire should be directed at the music industry. Such a thing hasn't happened -- yet -- but the threat is there, and real.

The labels, on the other hand, feel like they brought Apple back from the dead, blessing the company with content.

Even so, David Card of Forrester Research offered an interesting coda to the story: "if it weren't for Apple, God knows how bad the music industry would be," he said.

[Via 9-to-5 Mac.]

Four audio recording apps? Sure, why not? Voice note apps make a lot of sense if you are the type of on-the-go person fond of talking to yourself. Luckily there are plenty of choices, and I'll break down the functionality of four that I've been monkeying around with. Each app records from the iPhone mic (and I'm sure they record on the new iPod touches, but I don't have one for testing), each app allows some method to send the resulting audio files to your desktop machine, and each app offers some method for managing the recordings. As you'll see, none are perfect, but each may be suited to a particular type of user. To record the samples I used the same text, read into the built-in iPhone (1st gen) microphone. The apps above, from left to right: VoiceNotes, iDicto, Recorder and Record.

Recorder
Cost: $.99

Recording:
This was one of the first apps I purchased, and it was an early entry on the store. When you start Recorder you'll see a large red rectangle that allows you to quickly start recording. The large button is easy to hit with one hand, and on-screen meters give you a sense of how strong your recording is. Each recording is automatically named with "Memo" plus a number, similar to how screenshots work on your Mac.

Playback:
Recordings aren't great quality, but they are on par with every other app I tested: you won't be bootlegging concerts, but you can clearly hear yourself, even on the iPhone's speakers. A simple playback bar appears when you start playing the audio (just above the Record button), making it easy to move around in the audio sample.

Sync:
WiFi sync uses a browser upload model, similar to iDicto. A nice, big screen appears with a URL you type into your browser. Once you type that in you get a simple interface to download each recording. Those recordings go wherever you've got downloads set to go. You may also email recordings, but as all these apps point out, that's tricky. Apple doesn't really allow attachments, and file size limits would bog this down. I show how it works in the gallery: you are sent a URL in email where the file really lives. Files are saved as AIFF, which is a plus.

Bottom line:
Out of all the apps I tested so far, I think Recorder provides the best value overall. Super simple interface, best sync method, and the quality of recordings was on par with the rest. At $.99 it is priced to move, and should suit most needs.

That said, each of the other apps may have something you're looking for, so read on...



The gallery walks you through almost every screen in every app plus the desktop sync side.

There are dozens of little niceties in Leopard: like how Front Row now lives on my iBook (sans remote) and allows me to operate the thing as a sort of thin-client media jukebox (courtesy a Mac mini server). Or how Font Book now prints books of your fonts (especially nice for those non-techies). With the 300+ new features, I still have yet to fully explore this thing, but I'm certainly starting to believe this is the Mac OS Apple really wanted to deliver a few years back. There's no doubt in my mind this is a big turning point for the platform, and I really believe user adoption in 2008 will be unprecedented as a result.

Following is a list of features and specific "cool things" I think you can point out if you are trying to explain to a friend why they should upgrade.

For the record, I installed Leopard on a 1.24 GHz iBook G4, and it runs beautifully, which in itself is a selling point.

1. Finally, a Record button for your actions
Automator now has a UI recorder. Anyone who remembers the good old days of macro recorders before OS 8 will look at this and sigh, but I, for one, welcome my new robot overlord. Automator is finally useful for mortals with UI recording. Oh sure, it isn't perfect, but it really beats trying to explain just the concept of Automator to the average human. Never mind the metaphors and the workflow within Automator itself -- eyes will glaze over. UI recording is absolute heaven when you do a lot of drudge work, like contracts, filling, prepping photos, etc.

2. Mail gets GTD fever
If power users turn up their noses at Stationary in Mail, point out how they can now put their notes, to-do's and RSS into Mail. I haven't really set all this up as I'd like yet (the iBook isn't my primary work machine), but my unfettered hatred of Mail.app is somewhat lessened now by the fact that it is starting to behave like a "real" email client. The notes and to-do's are icing on the cake, but also very important if you like to get things done and stay organized. A few smart folders and you have a truly powerful system. Still, it is disappointing to see Apple take half a decade to figure out the whole "archive mailbox" thing, but pobody's nerfect I guess.

3. Web clipping makes Dashboard relevant again
My wife quit using Dashboard long ago. It simply served no purpose for her. But web clipping, baked right in to Safari? That had her mildly interested. Tracking the top 3 Twitters, or whatever the top story on Perez or TMZ happens to be with a keystroke is a selling point for folks who aren't using RSS. The only downside is that you need a pretty big screen if you want more than a couple of pages to appear.

4. Shared drives finally "just work" and Shared Screens work with other OS'es
Granted, there have been issues with networking in Leopard, but seeing shared Macs in my sidebar? That's pretty sweet. In previous versions of OS X you had to click on Network, now it just shows up. Is a few clicks a big deal? Well, for the average user, yes, this is a big deal. The average user doesn't like to explore. They can be timid, and frankly, don't necessarily know (or care) what the Network thing even is. Displaying networked components directly in Finder will greatly increase the probability that users will at least see everything. It has already saved me time when trying to reconnect and move things around my home LAN. For me, the real fun was seeing how VNC "just worked" when I was able to access my Mac mini (which was already running as a VNC server) via Screen Sharing. Even though the mini runs Tiger, and despite a slightly wonky connection, overall it was super easy to set-up. Think about it another way: average users don't want to run a third-party application like Chicken of the VNC. Average users don't necessarily trust those apps (thank you, Bonzi Buddy) and it is a lot easier to remotely control a machine if the functionality is built into the OS. Oh, and did I mention you can share screens with Linux? I finally have a use for that old Dell laptop and my Ubuntu CD!

It's time to check in again on the Slingbox's journey to Mac OS X, as Dave Zatz pinged us with some more details and a purty picture he took off one of the new Slingbox AV models at Best Buy. Turns out there are going to be three new models - Tuner, AV and Pro. Tuner ($150) goes the bare bones route for regular cable or antenna, AV ($180)can interact with a set top box, and Pro ($250) is the One to Rule Them All™ with support for multiple feeds and that hot new 'HD' thing the internets keep talking about.

The interesting thing, as you can see, is that these new models list support for Mac OS X (as well as Symbian) right on the box, but as we learned a couple weeks ago, the company is still in the middle of a private beta of their SlingPlayer software for the Mac - nothing is public yet. So for now, it sounds like they're cranking out these boxes without actually having any way for John Doe Mac user to work with them, though after an update over on Dave Zatz's original story, we might have a public beta of the software very soon.

If any of you rush out to grab one of these, feel free to let us know if there are some wires mixed here and Mac OS X software actually is shipping in the box.

Elgato has released a fairly significant update to their EyeTV software that adds a Front Row-like menu UI for interacting with live TV, shows you've recorded and the program guide. Other sites are calling this 'Front Row integration', but I thought that was slightly misleading, as 'integration' simply means the top-level menu in this new version (pictured) has an option to start Front Row; nothing more. In fact, from glancing at the instructions in their 776 KB ReadMe file (link) about the update, it looks like this new version actually takes over the default Front Row keyboard shortcut of cmd + esc, forcing you to go through their menu if what you actually want is Front Row - though I could be wrong (btw, here's a tip Elgato: compress your PSD files to a JPEG or PNG before slapping them in a ReadMe).

Other updates include support for two USB sticks from Hauppauge, exporting to Windows Media (as long as you've purchased the proper Flip4Mac QuickTime plugin), as well as a general export speed increase of 33%, and up to 500% depending on the source and exported format.

This update is a Universal Binary, free to registered users of EyeTV 2.x and should be available from the app's own 'Check for Updates' menu.

Call Recorder from Ecamm Network is a Skype plugin that allows you to record your calls (interviews, podcasts, etc.) as two-track AAC files for that perfect 'edited for your blackmailing pleasure' effect (calls can also be converted to MP3 for the AAC-haters in the audience). A recent version update also brings the ability to save voicemails as quicktime movies.

Call Recorder is a Universal Binary and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9, as well as Skype for Mac v1.4 or higher. A demo is available, while a license costs $14.95. As of this writing, Ecamm Network is offering a sale price of $12.95.

Airfoil and Audio Hijack Pro, the slick Mac OS X audio broadcasting and recording (respectively) software from Rogue Amoeba, have just been updated with a handy new feature: minimize to menubar. It's a new preference that (you guessed it) will allow these apps to minimize into the menubar, with some features still accessible without having the entire app open on your desktop. Rogue Amoeba has provided a demonstration video to show off this small but functional new feature.

Gawker, the clever app for recording, sharing and combining time-lapse movies, has been updated to version 0.70 with some unique features. It is now compatible with non-iSight cameras, including even DV cameras, and can record from up to four cameras simultaneously (when you consider the power of using other cameras through Bonjour, this gets pretty interesting). The ability to capture desktops as well as a countdown timer have also been added.

Gawker is an open source project and available from its home at SourceForge.

iShowU is a versatile utility from shinywhitebox for recording video captures of your display (including any audio). Users have quite a bit of control over what exactly is recorded and how, including specifying a capture size and format, as well as 'mouse capture' and 'follow mouse' modes of recording. Check out iShowU's features page for the full rundown.

While iShowU is in its 1.x beta mode, it's free, as the dev has "no intention of releasing a half baked product that works only on Thursdays, and then, only if you are holding the mouse juuust right." Once it goes commercial, shinywhitebox is aiming for a $40-$80 price point, so why not grab a demo before they hit the big leagues?

RadioLover allows you to easily record streaming internet radio stations (not just from iTunes) into MP3 format for listening to later or on your favorite portable music player (It's like TiVo for internet radio!). Songs can be automatically tagged with relevant metadata like artist, station, etc., you can schedule shows to be recorded and even record multiple streams at a time. Other features include support for drag and drop, international streams and even Shoutcast streams.

RadioLover is Universal. A demo is available that cuts off recording after 30 minutes, and a license will cost you $15.

The New York Post is reporting that the record companies "might be on the verge" of finally throwing in the towel on the fight for variable pricing in the iTMS. The labels are reportedly pulling out all the stops, with some executives even telling the Post that they are considering allowing their label's deal to simply run out so they could pull their catalog from the store.

With neither side backing down, and the subscription model not even an option in Jobs' eyes, it sounds like things might get interesting soon as every label's contract is due for renewal within the next couple of months. Oddly, the Post forgot to mention that, even with the current iTMS flat-rate $.99/song model, the labels are already raking in far more cash with each song and album sold than with traditional CDs.

While Engadget sounds like they're clamoring for an iTMS subscription model that revokes your entire library the moment you decide to cancel service, I have to say I'm hopeful that Jobs can successfully stick it to the labels and make them deal with a pricing model that actual *gasp* favors consumers. Stay tuned for more iTMS drama as it unfolds.