Music programs

[Harrison]

.m4a isn't a common format but doing a quick google "m4a to mp3" revealed this free converter. Also just to check, none of you .m4a files are from iTunes are they? If they are then they will be copy protected and cannot be converted. But you can convert them using iOpener to remove the copy protection and then convert them.

As for extracting lyrics from a track, I'm not sure of any software that can do that.

[Submeg]

Well I did find another program AltoMP3Gold which can convert them. Yes they are from iTunes, but I made sure when I imported them I set them without copy protection.

I did find AltoMP3Gold, but that needs to be bought...it only allows 5 conversions....but it did convert my iTunes made m4a files. I made sure that I didnt put the copy protection on them (pretty sure you can select it when you set up iTunes...also I have bought all my music on CD, not downloaded from iStore or whatever it is called)

[Harrison]

You have been able to purchase unprotected tracks from iTunes for a few months now. There is a new attack against Apple though because it has now come to light that when downloading unprotected tracks from iTunes, Apple embed your name and email address in each file so they can track the origin of any files found on p2p networks. (Just to warn you to look out for that).

[J T]

For music conversion, I've always been a big fan of DB Poweramp.

I had a friend that was quite into making music on the computer and he used to talk about 'CuBase' and 'Fruity Loops' a lot. I know pretty much nothing about them but if you look into them maybe they could be of interest to you???

[Harrison]

Fruity Loops is a loop based sample sequencer. It builds on the idea originally invented by a different program years ago that can take looped samples and example the beats to time stretch and resync the rhythm of the sample into the current composition so they fit perfectly into a music sequence alongside other samples, allowing you to build up multi-track compositions. It is a great program and comes with a load of samples to get you started, but it is expensive (legally that is! ).

Cubase on the other hand is a midi sequencer and has been used for a couple of decades now, originally released on the Atari ST and later the Amiga and Mac, it is still used extensively for multi track midi composing, controlling midi connected instruments and music hardware. I've used it in the past at University but as I'm not musically minded it was more just a passing interest that something I would personally use again as I cannot read music or play any instruments.

[Stephen Coates]

I used CuBase at school a few years ago on an iMac (The joy of not having to log on to the network and loading software locally from the hard disk!).

We used it with some USB midi interface which was conected the the Casio keyboards. I think we only used it for one lesson though.

You could play some music on the keyboard and then edit it. Quite interesting when you are only used to recording stuff into the keyboards built in memory and playing it back exactly as it was recorded.

[Harrison]

I've always found midi an interesting technology, and the fact you are actual just using the computer to compose and and control the midi connected audio equipment can be a very powerful combination.

In my university they had a load of audio facilities with racks of midi equipment to create some amazing music.