New Mac Owner - Teach Me Stuff!

[JoeyDonuts]

I bought an iMac this week.

My eMachines POS finally bit the big one. I had just enough time to salvage the important stuff. Needing a replacement, and fully intending on purchasing a Dell, I head off to the local megalotronic retailer to pick up a nice shiny new toy.

When I get there, there are no PCs anywhere to be found. When I asked the staff, I was told the reason they weren't selling was the upcoming Windows 7 upgrade. I told them I needed a computer today and was fully capable of upgrading to Windows 7 on my own. They then told me if they sold me a PC with Vista on it, Microsoft could slap them with a fine. (They were required to not sell anything until they were all upgraded with Windows 7 on the 22nd.)

I skipped over to the shiny iMac section, and took stock of exactly what it is I do with computers. I do photo editing, video work, and music tracking, as well as surfing the web.

Yeah, I bought one. So far I couldn't be happier, although all I've really managed to accomplish so far is twisting my face into horrible contortions with the Photo Booth application.

So! Have any of you recently crossed over to Mac like I have? What sorts of issues did you have in transition?

For you seasoned Mac'ers, are there any tips or advice you can dish out? Cool things you've learned how to do?

Thanks!

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I don't know if you have to give presentations, but if you do, get iWork, which includes KeyNote. KeyNote is so far superior to PowerPoint, that it's not even a fair comparison.

[tesscaline]

Well... I'm not a recent convert, and had no trouble at all switching over. My mother converted not too long ago, and her main issue was expecting to have to do all sorts of things that you don't need to do on a mac. Like install drivers for hardware. And she would get confused when installing things because there were no instructions other than to plug the item in. She kept thinking she had to do more. But you don't. Mac really is plug and play.

Some of the nifty things you can do in Mac:

Drag and drop files into macmail emails to attach them. No more searching through folders to find the file you have open on your desktop, just drag and drop it into the email.
Option+Tab will cycle through your active applications for quick keyboard switching.
Option+M will minimize your current window.
To eject discs, drag the disc icon to the trash bin (or right click on it and pick eject).
Hitting F11 will move all open windows off your desktop, and hitting F11 again will bring them all back.
Hitting F12 will bring up all sorts of fun widgets, which you can add to easily, like weather, clock, calendar, calculator, etc. Hitting F12 again will hide them.

There are half a million (I might not even be exaggerating here) other really neat little things about Macs, but I'm having difficulty remembering them off the top of my head...

[Ducky]

Joey: In the thread on tutorials, do you want to drop a quick reminder note to me and GreNME about mac stuff? I have some tricks up my sleeve with macs.

Also, you should check out lifehacker.com as it has lots of neat apps for all platforms they showcase.

[jimtron]

JD:

If you click on any file, and hit the spacebar, you'll get a preview of it. If it's a video or audio file, you can play it right there without opening any application.

What kind of stuff do you do/want to do? Let us know if you have any specific questions. Here's some good open source Mac software: http://www.opensourcemac.org/

[JoeyDonuts]

To be honest, I will only use it for photo editing, video editing, and tracking with garage band. Possibly some coursework later on if it becomes necessary. I got OpenOffice and so far can't see why I'd need anything else.

I do have a few complaints so far.

One, the mouse. I don't really like it. I've enabled right-click, but I still don't care for it one bit, mostly because of the scroll "nub" or whatever that is.

ETA: And then I saw this: http://gizmodo.com/5385834/apple-magic-mouse-hands-on

Two, I have the small keyboard - which I will keep since the way my desk is set up (pull out drawer) it fits the mouse pad and the keyboard right on the drawer. With my PC I had to set the mouse up on the desk surface since there's wasn't room for it with the keyboard.

Anyway, I like that PC's let you use the Ctrl+Home trick to go right to the top of a webpage/document. Is there an analogous Mac function on the small keyboard?

[jimtron]

You can use a non-Mac mouse if you prefer. But the scroll nub is super-handy, for scrolling up and down pages and stuff. Not sure about a keyboard shortcut for getting to the top of a page/doc, other than the "page up" key.

Handbrake is a great, free OS X app for compressing video for the Web, iPhone, DVDs, etc. Also MpegStreamclip.

eta: you might prefer a different mouse, and any USB mouse should work, but give it a few days--it takes a bit to get used to, but it's well designed.
eta2: I use FCP for editing, but iMovie and iDVD are pretty swell too.

[JoeyDonuts]

Just thought of something else. Is there a way to set up dual-screen display using an iMac? My old ViewSonic flat panel monitor is still pretty usable...will it split using DVI?

[jimtron]

I believe the iMac should have a mini-DVI port allowing a second display. Go to System Preferences: Display to set the second monitor the way you want.

[JoeyDonuts]

I'm already about 85 percent done with a wedding movie project using iMovie. I'm going to be getting FCP, but I might as well finish out what I've got so far in iMovie. I was stunned by how easy it is to select clips out of a large master file. What would have taken me three hours in Windows Movie Maker took me about 30 minutes in iMovie.

[jimtron]

Yeah, iMovie's great. Also, have you set up Time Machine? It's pretty nifty. Connect an external drive, turn it on, and then you can enter your computer just the way it was a few hours ago, or a few days. If you screwed up or deleted a file, you can easily grab an older copy.

[JoeyDonuts]

I've heard Time Machine slows down overall system performance. any truth to that?

[jimtron]

I've heard Time Machine slows down overall system performance. any truth to that?

Hmm, haven't noticed. But there's an option to have TM displayed in the menu bar, and when it's backing up you'll see it spinning. You could give it a try and turn it off if it's hurting your Mac's performance. You gotta have some form of backup.

[Gilmar]

The "Missing Manual" series is pretty good. Here's a link for the one for OS X Leopard:
http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-Leopard-Missing-Manual/dp/059652952X
My cousin found it very useful going from PC to Mac. There are many other manuals in the series.

[jimtron]

The "Missing Manual" series is pretty good. Here's a link for the one for OS X Leopard:
http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-Leopard-Missing-Manual/dp/059652952X
My cousin found it very useful going from PC to Mac. There are many other manuals in the series.

Good suggestion. PDF manuals available from Apple here: http://www.apple.com/support/ (both for OS and hardware). Also the Apple forums are decent: http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

[Darat]

...snip...

When I get there, there are no PCs anywhere to be found. When I asked the staff, I was told the reason they weren't selling was the upcoming Windows 7 upgrade. I told them I needed a computer today and was fully capable of upgrading to Windows 7 on my own. They then told me if they sold me a PC with Vista on it, Microsoft could slap them with a fine. (They were required to not sell anything until they were all upgraded with Windows 7 on the 22nd.)

...snip...

Why do people tell such lies? (Not you JoeyDonuts, the store and their staff.)

[Darat]

To be honest, I will only use it for photo editing, video editing, and tracking with garage band. Possibly some coursework later on if it becomes necessary. I got OpenOffice and so far can't see why I'd need anything else.

I do have a few complaints so far.

One, the mouse. I don't really like it. I've enabled right-click, but I still don't care for it one bit, mostly because of the scroll "nub" or whatever that is.

ETA: And then I saw this: http://gizmodo.com/5385834/apple-magic-mouse-hands-on

...snip...

Not tried that new mouse but I've hated all the other Apple mice I've tried - I swapped to a Logitech USB mouse some time ago on my Mac (despite the Mac not supporting all the mouse's features....).



Two, I have the small keyboard - which I will keep since the way my desk is set up (pull out drawer) it fits the mouse pad and the keyboard right on the drawer. With my PC I had to set the mouse up on the desk surface since there's wasn't room for it with the keyboard.

Anyway, I like that PC's let you use the Ctrl+Home trick to go right to the top of a webpage/document. Is there an analogous Mac function on the small keyboard?

This site: http://www.xvsxp.com/misc/keyboard.php lists the Mac/XP common keyboard shortcuts.

I really, really do recommend that you spend sometime learning the keyboard "shortcuts" - unlike a Windows PC on a Mac they are not really shortcuts but essentials if you want to be able to use your Mac proficiently.

[BenBurch]

Where to find software; http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/

If you are interested in ported Unix/Linux software; http://www.finkproject.org/

If you download a lot of content, get this; http://yazsoft.com/products/speed-download/information/

I almost always use this instead of photoshop; http://www.pixelmator.com/

If you edit web sites, I like these folk's stuff; http://macrabbit.com/

If you work with audio, I couldn't do my work without the software from; http://www.rogueamoeba.com/

For text file editing, nothing is better than BBEdit, or its free little brother, TextWrangler; http://bbedit.com/products/

And even though its a mac, an antivirus is a good idea; http://www.clamxav.com/index.php?page=v2beta

[BenBurch]

I've heard Time Machine slows down overall system performance. any truth to that?

Well, when you first turn it on it will do a lot of file copying, as you might expect. And anything that copies files takes some processor and machine bandwidth, and time machine schedules every hour.

There is a utility called TimeMachineEditor that will let you make it schedule less often. I really do recommend you let it run when it wants to. You have no idea how often it will allow you to save yourself from a screw-up! And easily too. Get yourself a 2 TB external disk, give it over to Time Machine, and never look back. You will be able to recover files and emails you deleted months ago.

[JoeyDonuts]

Why do people tell such lies? (Not you JoeyDonuts, the store and their staff.)

Just curious...do you know for a fact this is false?

I only ask because I was given the information by employees of a very large US retailer. I'd like to know if one of the largest if not THE largest consumer electronics retailers in the world willingly blew smoke up my backside.

As to the other information, thank you all tremendously for the suggestions.

I'll forward this thread on to my wife, as we're both getting used to our "Mac feet."

I have to confess, at this point, most of my "gear dreaming" involves trying to successfully record a live drum kit in my living room using Garageband. I have a vaulted ceiling...I think I can do it, but I may need to upgrade past 2GB ram if I'm going to be dealing with 8 simultaneous CD-quality audio streams through FireWire.

[Ducky]

Where to find software; http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/

If you are interested in ported Unix/Linux software; http://www.finkproject.org/

If you download a lot of content, get this; http://yazsoft.com/products/speed-download/information/

I almost always use this instead of photoshop; http://www.pixelmator.com/

If you edit web sites, I like these folk's stuff; http://macrabbit.com/

If you work with audio, I couldn't do my work without the software from; http://www.rogueamoeba.com/

For text file editing, nothing is better than BBEdit, or its free little brother, TextWrangler; http://bbedit.com/products/

And even though its a mac, an antivirus is a good idea; http://www.clamxav.com/index.php?page=v2beta

My personal opinion is to use macports over fink.

But YMMV.

[Ducky]

Just curious...do you know for a fact this is false?

I only ask because I was given the information by employees of a very large US retailer. I'd like to know if one of the largest if not THE largest consumer electronics retailers in the world willingly blew smoke up my backside.

As to the other information, thank you all tremendously for the suggestions.

I'll forward this thread on to my wife, as we're both getting used to our "Mac feet."

I have to confess, at this point, most of my "gear dreaming" involves trying to successfully record a live drum kit in my living room using Garageband. I have a vaulted ceiling...I think I can do it, but I may need to upgrade past 2GB ram if I'm going to be dealing with 8 simultaneous CD-quality audio streams through FireWire.

if you limit to 8, no you won't (Garageband limits you to 8, iirc). I have done that. I have even tracked 16 at once at 44.1 over firewire to an older macbook pro. Currently I track 36 inputs on my latest rig. Your bottleneck will be your hard disk speeds, not your ram.

In fact, you'd be surprised how much you can track. This I have direct experience in. Trust me on this: Spend the money for Logic (either express or studio pro.)

Email me if you have any questions. My entire studio is built around macs running Logic.

[JoeyDonuts]

Email me if you have any questions. My entire studio is built around macs running Logic.

Expect that email. My band is getting sick of being jerked around by one of the more traditional studios here in town, and I'm thinking I'd rather spend money, time, and effort into doing it all ourselves. It's intimidating, but we know what we should sound like, we know what a good mix (and a BAD mix) is, and if my Mac + some sweat equity can make that happen, I'll be really happy.

[Ernie M]

[...]

One, the mouse. I don't really like it. I've enabled right-click, but I still don't care for it one bit, mostly because of the scroll "nub" or whatever that is.

[...]


Hi JoeyDonuts,

Sounds like you bought your iMac right before the 'new' ones were introduced on 20 Oct 2009. The 'new' iMacs have a "wireless Magic Mouse" which doesn't have the small scroll ball you mentioned, and the 'new' screen display sizes are 21.5" and 27."

Click here and see (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?mco=MTAyNTM5OTY) if one of these iMacs is the one you have.

If you don't have one of these iMacs, I believe you can take your just-bought (previous-model) iMac and return it for one of the newly-released models. I believe Apple should allow the exchange if it is done within a certain time frame.


[...]
Two, I have the small keyboard - which I will keep since the way my desk is set up (pull out drawer) it fits the mouse pad and the keyboard right on the drawer. With my PC I had to set the mouse up on the desk surface since there's wasn't room for it with the keyboard.
[...


You might not need to use a mouse pad, as the optical sensor underneath the mouse may be able to work by seeing your desk or keyboard tray surface, so try it without a mouse pad and see it it works. Also, the mouse is built so that it should glide across most surfaces. But be aware that over time, the rubbing action may wear the surface, producing a shiny smooth spot.



Anyway, I like that PC's let you use the Ctrl+Home trick to go right to the top of a webpage/document. Is there an analogous Mac function on the small keyboard?


On the "small keyboard":
To get to the top of a Web page: "command" + "up arrow" (one of those little, filled-in triangles)
To get the cursor to the top of say, an iWorks "Pages" document: "command" + "up arrow" (one of those little, filled-in triangles)

Click here for additional Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343)


Just thought of something else. Is there a way to set up dual-screen display using an iMac? My old ViewSonic flat panel monitor is still pretty usable...will it split using DVI?


You should have a 'Mini DisplayPort' on the back of the 'new' (20 Oct 2009 version) iMac. You will need an adaptor cable; 'Mini DisplayPort' to VGA Adapter, for example.

Click here to view Cables (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/cables?mco=MTA4MTg3MDM).

jimtron mentioned a good way to set your iMac to view while running another monitor. A different way is to click on the 'screen' icon at the top of the menu bar, and from the pull-down menu choose "detect displays" and also go to "Display Preferences" > "Arrangements" to select how you'd prefer to 'order' your screens.

[Darat]

Just curious...do you know for a fact this is false?

I only ask because I was given the information by employees of a very large US retailer. I'd like to know if one of the largest if not THE largest consumer electronics retailers in the world willingly blew smoke up my backside.

...snip...

I can't be 100% certain however you can pick up a new PC from the likes of Curry and PC World (UK big electrical & PC store chains) today with Vista as the OS. Plus how would Microsoft impose a fine on a retailer of such a size? All the retailers over here have been selling their PCs with Vista and a "free upgrade" coupon to Win7 for the last month or so, I've just put together a new Windows PC (see:http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=156376) and was looking to place my order last week and there was not a one that wouldn't take my order.

Also Vista - retail and OEM - will still be a SKU that a retailer or system builder can buy from MS for quite some time.

Their story doesn't pass my sniff test!

[JoeyDonuts]

If you don't have one of these iMacs, I believe you can take your just-bought (previous-model) iMac and return it for one of the newly-released models. I believe Apple should allow the exchange if it is done within a certain time frame.

Fascinating. I'll be making this phone call VERY soon.

[Zax63]

About 1 1/2 years old but there is probably still some good info in the thread I started when I got my Macbook: OK, I got a Macbook. Now what? (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=111922)

[NoZed Avenger]

I can't be 100% certain however you can pick up a new PC from the likes of Curry and PC World (UK big electrical & PC store chains) today with Vista as the OS. Plus how would Microsoft impose a fine on a retailer of such a size? All the retailers over here have been selling their PCs with Vista and a "free upgrade" coupon to Win7 for the last month or so, I've just put together a new Windows PC (see:http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=156376) and was looking to place my order last week and there was not a one that wouldn't take my order.

Also Vista - retail and OEM - will still be a SKU that a retailer or system builder can buy from MS for quite some time.

Their story doesn't pass my sniff test!

I will also add that I bet the large retailer has the initials B.B.

I happened to speak to a salesperson at one of there stores in a similar situation (a lack of on-the-shelf computers) and he was very frank. When Vista rolled out, they got stuck with a large number of non-Vista machines. This time, they decided to stop ordering stock coming up on the release of Windows 7 so they wouldn't have as big a problem -- but *underestimated* the number of sales, and so ran out of stock. I have heard the same from a friend.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I only ask because I was given the information by employees of a very large US retailer. I'd like to know if one of the largest if not THE largest consumer electronics retailers in the world willingly blew smoke up my backside.

Given that Best Buy insisted that they delivered a TV to me, even though I couldn't find it anywhere in my house, it wouldn't surprise me that they would lie about not being able to sell you a Vista PC.

[tesscaline]

I will also add that I bet the large retailer has the initials B.B.

I happened to speak to a salesperson at one of there stores in a similar situation (a lack of on-the-shelf computers) and he was very frank. When Vista rolled out, they got stuck with a large number of non-Vista machines. This time, they decided to stop ordering stock coming up on the release of Windows 7 so they wouldn't have as big a problem -- but *underestimated* the number of sales, and so ran out of stock. I have heard the same from a friend.Best Buy is well known for not only making errors as huge as this one, but also lying to customers intentionally.

Examples:

1) Best Buy was recently sued for purposefully making their internal store sites (inventory and the like) look exactly like their commercial website. Why was this an issue? People would look up the price of something on the website, and walk into the store to buy it. But, in the store, the price would be higher. People would complain, and the store clerks would say "you were mistaken, go look it up on our computer here, and see for yourself" except the in-store computer wouldn't take them to the commercial website, it would take them to the instore site, which would of course display the higher price. People caught on when they would go home, look up the site again just to triple check, and found that indeed, the website had a lower price.

2) We went to Best Buy to pick up a Nintendo DS. Before going, we checked their website for availability. The website said they had 8 of the color we wanted in stock. So, we drove over, and went to the aisle they would be in. Except there weren't any. So we ask a clerk. "Nope, don't have any in stock" he says before walking off again. Confused, we ask another clerk, and explain that the website says they have 8 in stock but the first clerk says there aren't any. So this clerk looks at their inventory tracking system. Yep, it says 8 of the color we want, and a good 16 others in different colors. That's 24 total. And there are zero on the shelves. So that clerk goes to look in the stock room. None in the stock room. So we go back to the original clerk, and ask what's up. His explanation? An inventory error. So, either Best Buy has inventory tracking issues SO bad that they just "lose" nearly 5k worth of merchandise, or the clerk in charge of that section was lying. Either way, it's bad business.

[GreNME]

For you seasoned Mac'ers, are there any tips or advice you can dish out?

Sure: go out to the store, buy Windows 7 tomorrow, and install that on the machine as the main OS.



Sorry, couldn't resist. So far everything Ducky has said I agree with, and the links from BenB look interesting. If there's anything in particular you want to try to do, hit Ducky or me (or any of the Mac folk here) up for how-to info.

[GreNME]

Best Buy is well known for not only making errors as huge as this one, but also lying to customers intentionally.

Examples:

1) Best Buy was recently sued for purposefully making their internal store sites (inventory and the like) look exactly like their commercial website. Why was this an issue? People would look up the price of something on the website, and walk into the store to buy it. But, in the store, the price would be higher. People would complain, and the store clerks would say "you were mistaken, go look it up on our computer here, and see for yourself" except the in-store computer wouldn't take them to the commercial website, it would take them to the instore site, which would of course display the higher price. People caught on when they would go home, look up the site again just to triple check, and found that indeed, the website had a lower price.

2) We went to Best Buy to pick up a Nintendo DS. Before going, we checked their website for availability. The website said they had 8 of the color we wanted in stock. So, we drove over, and went to the aisle they would be in. Except there weren't any. So we ask a clerk. "Nope, don't have any in stock" he says before walking off again. Confused, we ask another clerk, and explain that the website says they have 8 in stock but the first clerk says there aren't any. So this clerk looks at their inventory tracking system. Yep, it says 8 of the color we want, and a good 16 others in different colors. That's 24 total. And there are zero on the shelves. So that clerk goes to look in the stock room. None in the stock room. So we go back to the original clerk, and ask what's up. His explanation? An inventory error. So, either Best Buy has inventory tracking issues SO bad that they just "lose" nearly 5k worth of merchandise, or the clerk in charge of that section was lying. Either way, it's bad business.

My guess is that someone thought they could save a few on the side and sell off at a premium to a given customer who just-so-happens to offer them above-sticker price.

Oh, and you forgot number three: BB Geek Squad folk have been caught red-handed searching people's hard drives for images and music, using the store's network to keep a media dump (of movies, music, and pics), using unlicensed system repair software, and other sketchy practices. Never go to the Geek Squad for fixing your computer, or do so at your own risk.

[tesscaline]

My guess is that someone thought they could save a few on the side and sell off at a premium to a given customer who just-so-happens to offer them above-sticker price.My guess was similar, but as I have no evidence, it's not something I'm willing to insinuate publicly.

Oh, and you forgot number three: BB Geek Squad folk have been caught red-handed searching people's hard drives for images and music, using the store's network to keep a media dump (of movies, music, and pics), using unlicensed system repair software, and other sketchy practices. Never go to the Geek Squad for fixing your computer, or do so at your own risk.
Ugh. I had forgotten about Geek Squad. In addition to that particular practice (of stealing media off people's computers), on a purely technical nature, anything they can't immediately fix with a few button clicks they send out to contracted repair shops. According to an article I read (oh I wish I could find that article again), 90% of the things they send out to the repair shops are either not actually broken at all, or slightly broken but not nearly to the level that Geek Squad says they are. Like, sending a computer out to have the hard drive replaced (claiming hard drive failure) when really all that it needed was to have some viruses removed...

[leonAzul]

Anyway, I like that PC's let you use the Ctrl+Home trick to go right to the top of a webpage/document. Is there an analogous Mac function on the small keyboard?

The standard is "cmd-up arrow" for top of page, "cmd-down arrow" for bottom. That's fairly consistent in most documents. Many video and music apps will use that to control zoom. In "Finder", they mean "change to parent directory" or "open", as in the backspace key and the enter key in Windows Explorer.

In general, most of the keybindings in Windows can be translated to Mac by using the command key ['apple' key] instead of the control key: cmd-Z = undo; cmd-X = cut; cmd-A = select all; cmd-Q = quit; etc.

ETA

Using the 'fn' key to the far left of the keyboard, the arrow keys can also be used for page up, page down, home, and end.

[Beanbag]

First off, remember: it's an APPLIANCE, not a computer...
:duck:

Beanbag

[leonAzul]

A few other software suggestions come to mind:

While you are sorting things out, take a look at Reaper (http://www.cockos.com/reaper/index.php) as an alternative to GarageBand or one of the more "heavyweight" DAWs.

For an excellent graphics editor, especially when dealing with large numbers of files as you might if you need to prepare web site graphics, GraphicConverter (http://www.lemkesoft.com/) is hard to beat. CS4 and GIMP might offer more creative tools, but neither are as convenient for batch processing. For simple cropping, rotation and color balancing, iPhoto might be enough.

[JoeyDonuts]

While you are sorting things out, take a look at Reaper (http://www.cockos.com/reaper/index.php) as an alternative to GarageBand or one of the more "heavyweight" DAWs.

Right now I'm leaning towards the following setup:

Apple Logic Studio
Alesis IO/26 interface
Samson 8Kit Drum Mic Set
Some sort of Ribbon Microphone for vocals/guitar amp
Shure SM 57's for general use

There's some disagreement in the band about just how much utility we'd be able to get out of a setup like this. I think we've all settled on the fact it would be an awesome way to cut scratch tracks - but anything past that I really don't know about.

On top of that, vocal recording scares me a little. I don't have much experience with the subtleties involved in that - or mixing/mastering, for that matter. I'm pretty sure we'd outsource those to a pro studio that used Logic.

For an excellent graphics editor, especially when dealing with large numbers of files as you might if you need to prepare web site graphics, GraphicConverter (http://www.lemkesoft.com/) is hard to beat. CS4 and GIMP might offer more creative tools, but neither are as convenient for batch processing. For simple cropping, rotation and color balancing, iPhoto might be enough.

The wife's already pretty enamored of iPhoto - particularly the face-tagging option. Certain members of my family are freaked out that my computer is now able to identify their face about 50 percent of the time.

[GreNME]

While you are sorting things out, take a look at Reaper (http://www.cockos.com/reaper/index.php) as an alternative to GarageBand or one of the more "heavyweight" DAWs.

Wow, it's like ACID Music Studio (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/musicstudio) (though it hasn't improved since ACID Pro 4 (http://www.planet-groove.com/programs/acidpro4.html)).

Seriously, though, I think GB is pretty decent for a free program that comes with the OS.

[jimtron]

On top of that, vocal recording scares me a little. I don't have much experience with the subtleties involved in that - or mixing/mastering, for that matter. I'm pretty sure we'd outsource those to a pro studio that used Logic.If you're just planning on recording rough demos, vocals aren't particularly difficult--getting great drum and bass sounds at home might be a lot harder. Even with a cheap mic like the SM57 you can get OK vocals, but it would help a lot to have a mic preamp and compressor. But again, if you're not going for a finished product, you might want to keep things as simple as possible, and just concentrate on getting good levels and separation between instruments. Basic mixing isn't terribly difficult, but mastering should probably be left to someone who specializes in that.

[pounce]

I'm another one here who could help with audio on the mac advice. My website has some info about me...

www.paperstreetaudio.com

I have three macs there. Oddly, I've never much liked garageband. Logic would be an excellent thing to pick up, and as has been mentioned, an external hard drive for the audio would be swell. With those two things you would be set for some time, and then you could go to studios with nicer acoustic treatment, outboard gear, etc. to do real work for a release.

For someone new to the mac, I'd have iwork and ilife to make sure the basics were covered. I'd download perian and flip4mac so you had any necessary windows codecs. As needed, you could pick up an ftp program, something like onyx or cocktail to maintain the computer, nvu for website creation, and who knows what. Here is one good link for some things you might want to download..

http://www.macinstruct.com/node/139

Hope that gets you off to a good start. I suspect you'll love it. My macbook pro has osx, windows, and ubuntu linux on it so you can still mess with other os's if you have any interest in doing so. Have fun.

[leonAzul]

Right now I'm leaning towards the following setup:

Apple Logic Studio
Alesis IO/26 interface
Samson 8Kit Drum Mic Set
Some sort of Ribbon Microphone for vocals/guitar amp
Shure SM 57's for general use

There's some disagreement in the band about just how much utility we'd be able to get out of a setup like this.


You're on to something by considering mics, but for your immediate goals, the SM 57s should be sufficient. Spending time to get acquainted with placing them so you get the sound you want will serve you much better and give you the experience to judge which mics you really need. Before a specialised drum mic set or a ribbon mic, I would consider a mid-range pair of small diaphragm condensers for drum overheads and a Sennheiser MD 421 (preferably a MK I if I could find one in good shape) for lead vocals and any solo tracks, but that's my taste.

Better to divert some of the mic budget to a decent monitoring system so you can hear what you are doing, IMHO.

[elgarak]

Seriously, though, I think GB is pretty decent for a free program that comes with the OS.
Correction: It comes with the Mac, not with the OS.

[BenBurch]

My personal opinion is to use macports over fink.

But YMMV.

Hadn't looked at MacPorts in ages. I did last night. Its a lot nicer than it was!

I installed it. It does not interfere with fink and they each have ports the other does not.

Just mind that where the same thing is installed by both, the executable that will be found is the one that is leftmost in the PATH. You will have to fullpath to select the second version in that event.

[Almo]

Something I'd like to point about about Macs. They don't recognize the location of files in the same way as Windows. If you have a document open and are editing it, you can rename the file and move it elsewhere in the file system without closing the document. The OS just updates its opinion of where the file is and what its name is, and the application that has the file open is notified.

[Ducky]

You're on to something by considering mics, but for your immediate goals, the SM 57s should be sufficient. Spending time to get acquainted with placing them so you get the sound you want will serve you much better and give you the experience to judge which mics you really need. Before a specialised drum mic set or a ribbon mic, I would consider a mid-range pair of small diaphragm condensers for drum overheads and a Sennheiser MD 421 (preferably a MK I if I could find one in good shape) for lead vocals and any solo tracks, but that's my taste.

Better to divert some of the mic budget to a decent monitoring system so you can hear what you are doing, IMHO.

Agreed. I would go with some 57/58's and and a sennheisser 421 or two. You can get the killer ribbon mics later.

[GreNME]

Correction: It comes with the Mac, not with the OS.

Consider me corrected. Still, it's a nice little app for what it comes with.

[jimtron]

Some general/finder tips:

When you have a folder open (including the desktop folder), you can:


hit command-1, 2, 3, or 4 for different views of your files (#4 being the nifty coverflow view, especially handy for looking at pics)
hit a letter key (without modifier) to go to the first file with that starts with that letter
when a file (or application) is highlighted (like if you just did the above), you can open it via command-key and "O" key
when you're in an application and saving a file, command-D will select the desktop

Also: DiskWarrior is a very highly rated utility for protecting hard drives from corruption and rescuing corrupted drives.

[dtugg]

I am no Apple fan but I find the latest line of iMacs impressive. Particularly the 27 inch i5/7 model.

[Chris H]

Hold down "control" and push the scroll wheel on your mouse forward. Keep holding "control" and pull scroll wheel back to return to normal.
(I won't tell you what this does, as it's one of those functions that just made me go "Coooool!!" when I found it. I'd hate to deprive you of the same excitement.)


To get a screen grab,

command+shift+3 - full screen grab

command+shift+4 - left click your mouse and drag the box that appears around the area you want to save. Release the mouse button to capture the image.

command+shift+4, then hit spacebar - brings up a camera icon. Left click on the window you want to capture and you'll get a nice image of just that window with a nice little drop shadow and all. Lovely...

Hope these help!

Cheers,

Chris

[fullflavormenthol]

For the love of...

To the original topic. I used to always recommend the purchase of Quicktime Pro for OSX, but Snow Leopard introduced Quicktime 7 which ended the whole standard/pro thing. Anyway, you can do really quick trims to movie files in Quicktime, which is why I tend to use it for videos in which I need to trim off a few seconds.

Potentially useless tip, but one of the few I can really think of.

[jimtron]

Ah Quicktime--I've got a couple things. With the pre-Snow Leopard version of QT Player (7.xx), you can quickly and easily make a .mov video file from a folder full of jpgs (time lapse shots, or example). Just go to File: open image sequence, and select any one of the jpgs in the folder. Hit open or ok and then you'll have a choice of frame rates. This might require QT Pro; I can't remember.

The new QT Player that comes with Snow Leopard has a built-in video screen capture capability (useful for how-to videos on software and stuff). The new version also has video capture built-in, and direct export to Youtube or iTunes. If you upgrade your system to SL, you should still get the old player in your utilities folder.

[Darat]

If anyone wants to bash out why their preference is better than someone else's - there is a thread to do so: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=157762.

As for this thread - the topic of this thread is hidden in the cryptic title of the thread, if you can't work out what it is then don't post...

[leonAzul]

…you can do really quick trims to movie files in Quicktime, which is why I tend to use it for videos in which I need to trim off a few seconds

…you can quickly and easily make a .mov video file from a folder full of jpgs (time lapse shots, or example). Just go to File: open image sequence, and select any one of the jpgs in the folder. Hit open or ok and then you'll have a choice of frame rates. This might require QT Pro; I can't remember.

The new QT Player that comes with Snow Leopard has a built-in video screen capture capability (useful for how-to videos on software and stuff). The new version also has video capture built-in, and direct export to Youtube or iTunes. If you upgrade your system to SL, you should still get the old player in your utilities folder.

With QuickTime Player you can also do the opposite: select a range of a video using the pointers on the timeline and export that to stills from each frame, all properly interlaced.

[BenBurch]

ffmpegX is a good video converter, BTW. Was just using to to make some flv videos for a web site and remembered to mention it.

[HarryKeogh]

Got a PS3? This software lets it communicate wirelessly with your Mac

http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink

[Almo]

Got a PS3? This software lets it communicate wirelessly with your Mac

http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink

I use mediatomb, which is free. But it's kind of a hassle to install since you have to use Fink. If you're not a power user, medialink is very nice. :)

[fullflavormenthol]

I just wish the PS3 could run the MP4 video files from my Mac, than I could convince my fiance to buy that instead of an AppleTV.

[JoeyDonuts]

Ok...I need help making a decision here.

It is now the 14th day after my purchase of the iMac. If I'm going to take it back and exchange it for this year's new model, today's the day to decide.

The machine I currently have is the 20" 2.66 Intel Dual Core w/ 2G RAM and 300G HD.

The machine I can get for the equivalent price is the new 21.5" 3.06 Intel Dual Core w/ 4G RAM and 500G HD.

My only reservations are that my wife has already done a ton of work with iPhoto organizing photos, and I'm not quite sure how to back all of that up. My only "lifeboat" option is a Seagate 60GB external USB drive. I've only got about 30 GB of information or so on the iMac HD right now. Also, I bought it as an "open box" purchase, which means I'd have to cough up about 120 bucks to get the new one.

Is the larger screen, extra processor speed, 2 more GB of RAM, and 200 more GB of hard disk space worth it? I will be running Office, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and eventually Logic - will those extra specs make a noticeable difference in what I do?

If I do decide to return it to BB, what's a good way to move my media files to my SEAGATE 60GB fairly painlessly?

ETA: I notice I left some ambiguity as to what the subject of this thread was. Apparently. I think I'll stop speaking in code if it helps things out around here.

[jimtron]

Ok...I need help making a decision here.

It is now the 14th day after my purchase of the iMac. If I'm going to take it back and exchange it for this year's new model, today's the day to decide.

The machine I currently have is the 20" 2.66 Intel Dual Core w/ 2G RAM and 300G HD.

The machine I can get for the equivalent price is the new 21.5" 3.06 Intel Dual Core w/ 4G RAM and 500G HD.

My only reservations are that my wife has already done a ton of work with iPhoto organizing photos, and I'm not quite sure how to back all of that up. My only "lifeboat" option is a Seagate 60GB external USB drive. I've only got about 30 GB of information or so on the iMac HD right now. Also, I bought it as an "open box" purchase, which means I'd have to cough up about 120 bucks to get the new one.

Is the larger screen, extra processor speed, 2 more GB of RAM, and 200 more GB of hard disk space worth it? I will be running Office, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and eventually Logic - will those extra specs make a noticeable difference in what I do?

If I do decide to return it to BB, what's a good way to move my media files to my SEAGATE 60GB fairly painlessly?

ETA: I notice I left some ambiguity as to what the subject of this thread was. Apparently. I think I'll stop speaking in code if it helps things out around here.

It seems worth it to me--you can exchange it without paying extra? Regarding transferring your stuff to a new Mac; the easiest way is if you can have both Macs at the same time. When you go through the installation with the new Mac, and you'll have an option to transfer your data from another computer. Best if you have a FW (preferrably 800) cable for this. This is the way to go, because not only will it copy your apps and docs, but also bookmarks, preferences, user accounts--everything.

Otherwise Time Machine should do the trick, with your external drive. But I'm not sure if 60GB will be big enough--see how much is on your current Mac drive. I've never done it, but I'm pretty sure you can restore from Time Machine. Another option is to use Superduper to clone your internal drive. http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Also see this: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=810449

And this: http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/migration.html

[jsiv]

The additional memory would definitely be worth it, especially if you want to edit large images and video. Same with the additional 200GB hard drive space, I suppose. Unless the iMac uses some obscure type of memory though, it might be a lot cheaper than $120 to just buy more memory at some point.

[JoeyDonuts]

Here's the hitch. I wouldn't have both Macs at the same time.

I'm returning one to BB, but I'm not getting the new one there. I'm reasonably sure that the line they fed me about Microsoft fining them if they sold me a PC with Vista six days before the 22nd was a giant load of crap. I won't do any more business with a company that I'm reasonably certain has lied to me. So, I'm using BB's 14-day return policy and just getting my money back. (Which was about $1020 for just the iMac - I got a 10 percent open box discount.)

Then, I'm going to go over to the Apple Store and just buy it directly from them like I should have done in the first place.

So, the takeaway from this is that neither I, not my wife, will ever darken the door of a Best Buy/Geek Squad ever again.

They don't sell anything exclusively...hell almost nobody does anymore.

[JoeyDonuts]

By Grapthar's Hammer, I think I've got it.

I was going to buy an external drive to back up using Time Machine, anyway. I buy THAT first, use Time Machine on my current iMac, restore it back to factory (don't want Geek Squad leeching off my media), return it, buy the new iMac and then run Migration Assistant.

[jsiv]

I would do it. Assuming you don't care about restoring the whole OS, you apparently only need to backup Macintosh HD/Users/username/Pictures

[JoeyDonuts]

I'd like to save the iTunes library without having to burn two or three DVDs. TM do that too?

[jsiv]

Can't you just drag that over on the external disk as well (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751)? You don't really need backup software.

[JoeyDonuts]

I may be able to backup everything my wife's done in iPhoto the same way. That'd be most ideal, as I wouldn't have to buy the new external hard disk right away. Hadn't really budgeted for that anyhow.

[jsiv]

Yeah, you should be able to just drag over the Pictures folder in the same way.

[HarryKeogh]

Hey Joey, have you considered buying the new mac from Amazon? I'm thinking of using them when I pick mine up to save the sales tax (plus they have free shipping).

[JoeyDonuts]

I'll go ahead and get it at the Apple Store today...that's assuming my return experience from BB goes off without a hitch. I thought about the Amazon route, but I don't really want to wait for it, as I've got some work to do later...promo stuff for my band's show on Halloween, you see.

Well, I was able to pull everything that was on my Seagate on to my Mac HD, then I reformatted the old Seagate HD as a Mac w/ journaling. Everything was aces after that. With all the old photos and digital content spanning about three PC's back, I was at about 55 GB. That's counting a 10GB wedding video project, a 7.5GB iTunes library, and older photos I can probably weed out.

Not too shabby.

If I don't post later today, that means I ran into trouble. Hopefully I'll have a spanky new one w/ dual screens enabled before the day's out, though.

Off to the races.

[GreNME]

Good luck, Mr. Donuts. You seem to have made the right decision.

[JoeyDonuts]

The new iMac is up and screaming.

I managed to get dual display going, and I was amazed at how effortless it was using DVI.

There's a problem, though. The Viewsonic from 2006 I'm using doesn't go past 1440X900 resolution. It still works and all, it just doesn't look all that great. Plus I've got it sitting on the right, which kinda interferes with the iMac loading slot.

I'll have to pick up another display that supports 1980Xwhatever iMac's native resultion is. Shouldn't be too expensive to get one with adequate performance and somewhat matches the iMac's styling.

And no, I'm not about to drop 800+ dollars on a Studio display.

I will say this...the new mouse is great.

[Ernie M]

[...]

The machine I can get for the equivalent price is the new 21.5" 3.06 Intel Dual Core w/ 4G RAM and 500G HD.

[...]

Is the larger screen, extra processor speed, 2 more GB of RAM, and 200 more GB of hard disk space worth it? I will be running Office, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and eventually Logic - will those extra specs make a noticeable difference in what I do?

[...]

The additional memory would definitely be worth it, especially if you want to edit large images and video. Same with the additional 200GB hard drive space, I suppose. Unless the iMac uses some obscure type of memory though, it might be a lot cheaper than $120 to just buy more memory at some point.


4GB RAM ALREADY ON YOUR iMAC IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE OKAY

JoeyDonuts, you will most likely be fine running the programs you mentioned with the iMac's 4GB RAM. If programs don't run properly, you can add say, an additional 4GB (2 x 2) of RAM. Consider buying from crucial.com. If you bought similar 4GB (2 x 2) memory through Apple, you'd pay about twice as much.

The new iMac is up and screaming.

I managed to get dual display going, and I was amazed at how effortless it was using DVI.

There's a problem, though. The Viewsonic from 2006 I'm using doesn't go past 1440X900 resolution. It still works and all, it just doesn't look all that great. Plus I've got it sitting on the right, which kinda interferes with the iMac loading slot.

I'll have to pick up another display that supports 1980Xwhatever iMac's native resultion is. Shouldn't be too expensive to get one with adequate performance and somewhat matches the iMac's styling.

[...]


MONITOR PLACEMENT

Does your Viewsonic monitor have to sit to the right? Can't you just move it to the left of your iMac, and select how you arrange your monitor viewing by clicking on the icon of a monitor at the top right of your iMac screen then select from the pull-down menu > Display Preferences > Arrangement, to select the positioning of your screens?

If you buy a new monitor, it could be a monitor/TV. Your iMac screen resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels. If you want to feed a cable TV signal into a new monitor (not the iMac) consider buying a monitor/TV with two HDMI inputs.

[JoeyDonuts]

Yeah, I did play with the arrangement...However, I'd be using the left screen for most of my work outside of FC Pro and Logic (if it supports dual-screen.) The Viewsonic monitor was just not up to snuff. Even at its max resolution, it was pretty dismal side by side a 1920 X 1080 iMac monitor.

When I do get one, it'll be on the left side. I also plan on building a hutch for both the iMac and the monitor to sit on, with plenty of space underneath for a mounted USB hub, a backup drive, and 1, maybe 2 audio interfaces. Then there's the studio monitors I'm going to need....

Jeez. Toys are expensive, aren't they? :D

Oh, BTW...all my old files made the journey no sweat.

[Ernie M]

BE CAREFUL ABOUT HOW HIGH YOU PUT THE iMAC AND MONITOR

To be most comfortable (ergonomically correct), a rule of thumb for monitor height should have the top of the view screen at, or below, eye level. Most people will find that their head naturally tilts down when looking ahead. Some modern reports indicate the preferred top of the monitor height (distance depending) might want to be at least 15˚down from horizontal eye level.

Eyes should be perpendicular to the screen for consistent focus across the viewing area. View distance from your eyes to monitor(s) may be around 20" - 40" depending on your eyesight, age, corrective lenses, lighting, what you're working on...

MONITOR DISTANCE FROM YOUR EYES

To clearly see things on the view (monitor) screen, your eyes typically go through three processes to bring things into focus: accommodation, convergence, and miosis (pupillary constriction).

Accommodation
Loosely translated, this is the ability of the eyes to change the shape of the lens so the eye can focus on things both near and far.

Convergence
Is when the eyes turn inwards towards your nose, in order to maintain focus and provide binocular vision. Usually the closer an object gets, the more your eyes converge (turn inwards).

Miosis
Pupils constrict or relax to let more, or less, light in.

BEFORE YOU BUILD A HUTCH, LOOK AT THESE WEB SITES FOR MONITOR PLACEMENT

Also, keyboard and mouse height/location are important, too.

United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Administration
"Computer Workstations (http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/components_monitors.html)" guidelines has helpful information on monitor height, viewing distance, angle and side-to-side, view time, viewing clarity.

Also some good info at "Visual Ergonomics in the Office (http://www.office-ergo.com/setting.htm)."

YOU MIGHT NOT TAKE MY ADVICE BECAUSE I'M A LITTLE EXTREME...
I don't know if you want to listen to my advice, considering that I have a height-adjustable desk on casters in which I can adjust the keyboard height and monitor height independent of each other. And, I work with a black velvet curtain behind me because black velvet has about the lowest light reflectance value for a cloth material (absorbs more light than flat-black paint on a wall), which cuts down tremendously on screen reflections. And, depending on the work I'm doing, I'll wear a black shirt to cut down on my reflection on my monitors.

[Ernie M]

JoeyDonuts,

I rambled, but I want to say "congratulations," and let you know I'm happy for you because you bought an iMac.

It should serve you and your needs, well.

-Ernie M

[leonAzul]

The new iMac is up and screaming.

I managed to get dual display going, and I was amazed at how effortless it was using DVI.

There's a problem, though. The Viewsonic from 2006 I'm using doesn't go past 1440X900 resolution. It still works and all, it just doesn't look all that great. Plus I've got it sitting on the right, which kinda interferes with the iMac loading slot.


May I suggest that you stick to 1 video display for the moment: KISS.

Getting jiggy with window management within one's primary application software is the better way to decide how to allocate multiple video monitors.

HTH

[Ducky]

"Getting jiggy"?

....really?


;)

[JoeyDonuts]

Na-na-na-na-na na.

*busts a move*

[CrossHair]

From your avatar I would think that NTSC color bars should be good enough for your monitor requirements. Or are they PAL? :)

[JoeyDonuts]

G'heh. Another one that speaks the language of the horizontal and the vertical.

I've decided to wait on the dual-monitor setup until I really need it.

My wife, who wants a new pair of shoes, concurs with my plan of action.

[JoeyDonuts]

*ahem*

I sort of *cough* "have" a copy of Final Cut pro 5.

When I tried to install it, it failed the system requirements check.

It's a brand new iMac for chrissakes! Is it possible the installer software rejected the newer Intel processor my iMac has?

[Darat]

One moment: Sorry but you must be at fault, it is a Mac and Macs do everything 100% right all the time so if you are having a problem it must be you. You're probably not the right class of person to own a Mac... Macs are only for special people.

Now that is out of the way, have you tried the support line?

[jimtron]

*ahem*

I sort of *cough* "have" a copy of Final Cut pro 5.

When I tried to install it, it failed the system requirements check.

It's a brand new iMac for chrissakes! Is it possible the installer software rejected the newer Intel processor my iMac has?

I think the problem is not with the iMac, but with the outdated FCP. Which version of 5 is it? 5.0 something? That's pretty old; I think it was designed to run on PowerPCs (pre-Intel).

[JoeyDonuts]

That's what I thought too, Jimtron.

And there won't be any calling of support lines either. They might ask me for a serial number.

Ah well. iMovie will be sufficient for my editing needs for now. Final Cut Express will do everything I'll probably ever need to do with NLE, so I'll most likely break down and buy it.

[kuroyume0161]

If you ever get tired of Finder, a good 'replacement' is Path Finder (http://www.cocoatech.com/). Since GPSoftware will never port Directory Opus to MacOS, this was the closest and best that I could find for MacOS.

[GreNME]

*ahem*

I sort of *cough* "have" a copy of Final Cut pro 5.

When I tried to install it, it failed the system requirements check.

It's a brand new iMac for chrissakes! Is it possible the installer software rejected the newer Intel processor my iMac has?

I believe this is one of the new "not a feature" features of Snow Leopard. Binaries are getting less universal, in that fewer things will run from the old PPC versions.

[elgarak]

Old PPC software should still run without problems; one needs to install Rosetta to do that. I did install it directly while updating to SL, since I still had some old PPC-only software (which has been upgraded since then as my boss finally understood that one should buy new versions at least every nine years). But even then, whenever you try to start PPC-only applications, SL should download and install Rosetta automatically -- assuming everything is proper. Now, everything beside Final Cut Pro 5 should be proper on your machine, right? ;)

[JoeyDonuts]

Sorry if this has been put out before, but are there any good web design programs that are a little bit more versatile than iWeb? WYSIWYG would be nice. I really need to update my band's website, and I'd prefer it didn't look like it was coded 10 years ago.

[Darat]

For simple to midling stuff I use http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ and "composer" within that - I don't know how it compares to iWeb.

[Ralfy]

For WYSIWYG web design how about Softpress Freeway (Express or Pro). They are having a 'Black Friday' sale which ends today:

http://www.softpress.com/

[JoeyDonuts]

I'll check those out. I'm still getting the hang of GIMP - hopefully between the two I'll be able to work something out. I just really wanted something that's easier to update than traditional HTML, which is honestly the only thing I know how to do - and quite half-assedly at that.

[Darat]

I'll check those out. I'm still getting the hang of GIMP - hopefully between the two I'll be able to work something out. I just really wanted something that's easier to update than traditional HTML, which is honestly the only thing I know how to do - and quite half-assedly at that.


Seamonkey should be fine for that. You can edit in a few modes, a WYSIAWYG mode, a hybrid (HTML tags show as dinky graphics in the page), in source mode or a WYSIWYG preview mode

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Sorry if this has been put out before, but are there any good web design programs that are a little bit more versatile than iWeb? WYSIWYG would be nice. I really need to update my band's website, and I'd prefer it didn't look like it was coded 10 years ago.

FrontPage.

:duck:

[jimtron]

Free/open source OS X WYSIWYG:

http://kompozer.net/
http://aptana.com/

And this online CMS is pretty swell:
http://www.squarespace.com/

[fullflavormenthol]

I am able to run my copy of FCP 5.1.4 fine on Snow Leopard, but than again I have been basically running the same HD for years. It isn't really a good thing, but I basically just clone the HD over with each new computer. I am really dreading having to buy FCP again. I am not only cheap, but am notorious for refusal to learn new software.