KAOTIC Mac OS
Planning on setting up a public access (often called a computer kiosk) Mac? You can change the Automatic Login account from the Users & Groups pane in System Preferences to configure your Mac for unattended public use. Click the Login Options button under the User list, and then click the Automatic Login pop-up menu to. How To: Install KACE Agent for Mac OS 1. Double click the ampagent.dmg file to extract the ampagent.pkg. Double click the ampagent.pkg in the new window that popped up. The installer will open and will want to run a package to determine of the software can be installed. This should only take a few seconds.
Can this small ball of foam really take the room out of the equation when recording vocals?
Kaotica's Eyeball is a different take on the 'virtual vocal booth' concept, and is designed to keep unwanted off-axis sound out of the microphone so as to facilitate cleaner recordings in rooms or spaces with inadequate acoustic treatment. It's also designed to channel more of the vocal sound energy into the microphone than with the mic set up in free space, so you actually get a slight apparent increase in microphone sensitivity. This latter characteristic might sound like a recipe for unwanted sound coloration, but the designers have made a lot of measurements and produced a wealth of technical evidence that appears to support their claim that the sound remains accurate; their test results suggest that the Eyeball doesn't affect the mic's frequency response by more than ±1.4dB right up to 30kHz.
The key questions, though, are how it performs and how easy it is to use. On the face of it, the Eyeball looks like a large foam windsock, with a horizontal cavity bored into it around 4.5 inches in diameter. Another hole in the base allows a side-address mic to be poked in from below, and in many cases the Eyeball can simply sit on top of an existing shockmount. A custom-made pop shield with blue nylon mesh, pushed into the front of the cavity, completes the assembly. The foam is fairly dense, and this makes the structure feel quite secure. Note that while most side-address mics will fit (up to 2.75 inches in diameter), the foam won't stretch far enough to accommodate extra-wide-bodied mics. There are many advantages to this format (assuming it actually works as described — which I'll get to!) and despite what seems to be a high cost for a seemingly simple foam gizmo, it's no more expensive than many of the curved 'behind the mic' screens on the market.
It's clear that the light weight of the Eyeball is not going to cause the mic stand to overbalance (which some screens can) and its small physical size also facilitates better eye contact with the engineer. Another criticism of conventional screens is that they make it difficult for vocalists to put their lyric sheets where they can see them easily without compromising their singingposture. Again, that's not a problem here. So, it all comes down to how well it works as a screen and whether or not it allows the true character of the mic to be maintained.
I made my test recordings using the new Rode NT1 microphone (cardioid) set up in my control room, firstly in free air with no pop shield, then inside the Eyeball with the pop shield fitted. As the Eyeball design claims a channelling effect on the incoming sound, I also took care to set the pop shield at precisely mouth level, speaking around six inches away from it, though singers may find that they want to work a little closer. As the documentation suggests, there seemed to be a decibel or two more level with the Eyeball fitted, and I also felt as though the lower-mids had come up in level a fraction. However, any tonal change (other than the wanted attenuation of room reflections) is very subtle; to put this in more practical terms, I've heard just as great or greater changes when placing a conventional curved screen behind a mic. I also tried recording with and without the pop shield to see if that had any subjective effect on the sound, but there was nothing I could detect on general speech.
My tests confirmed that the foam surrounding the mic provides a worthwhile screening effect, attenuating off-axis sounds and room reflections to a significant degree. In this respect the results are certainly no less effective than when using a conventional screen, and with the Eyeball there's actually more screen coverage at the sides of the mic (as well as above and below) where cardioid models are still very sensitive. Another design plus point is that having a snug-fitting pop shield like this means there's no path that allows air blasts to leak around the edge of the screen.
To achieve the best results, the singer needs to work close to the pop shield and to sing directly into it, rather than above or below it, but if you do that the Eyeball actually works very well. I'd still recommend putting an absorber behind the singer to intercept reflections from that wall, especially if it is close by, but as always a cheap polyester duvet works fine for that purpose. This simple strategy means the sound can be dried up nicely even when working in very reflective spaces. Applications for smaller studios that have no dedicated vocal booth are obvious but the Eyeball is also well suited to straight voice-over work or podcast production, particularly given that it still allows a clear line of sight to your cheat sheet!
£189 including VAT.
Vintage Macintosh Software
If you’re looking for old Mac software, there are a number of sites on the interwebs that are worth checking out:
Macintosh Garden– great site for old Mac games, system software and abandoned applications
Rescue My Classic Mac – old Macintosh boot floppies and applications available for purchase
Macintosh Repository – a sanctuary for old software of the classic Mac OS era
Mac GUI – customize your Mac’s look and feel with Themes, Desktops, Icons, Widgets, etc..
Mac OS 9 Lives – tips and software for running the Classic Mac OS; audio-centric focus
U-Mich Software Archives – large legacy software collection, for Macs and other platforms
Max1zzz’s Classic Mac Server – another vast collection of Mac system and application software
The Gryphel Project – 68k era Mac software and home of the Mini VMac Mac Plus emulator
E-Maculation – dedicated to emulation of the classic Macintosh computer in OS X, Windows and Linux
OldApps.com – installers for superceded and obsoleted Mac OS X software
PowerPC Software Archive– links to the most current PowerPC compatible versions of many programs
The Mac Driver Museum – old hardware drivers for Mac printers, disks, video cards and related items (partial archive)
MacFixer Mac Software Library – a growing compendium of early Mac system, utility and game installers
The Internet Archive – the grand attic of the internet adds software to its collection
Mac OS 9.2.2 for PowerMac G4 MDD– Retail Mac OS 9 installers do not work on the last generation PowerMac G4 MDD models. This is a copy of Mac OS 9.2.2 included on the MDD bundled Software Restore CDs which is able to boot these G4 models into OS 9 (FireWire 400 models only). It can also be used as Classic Mode on any PowerMac running Mac OS X 10.1-10.4.
ProTools 3.4 Free– Pro Tools 3.4 Digital Audio Workstation software was released free of charge by Digidesign in 1997. This is a fully-functional 16-track version of the program which runs on many 68k Nubus Macs and old PCI PowerMacs.
SoundApp – a swiss army knife for old sound files. Play and convert many vintage audio formats with this useful utility.
Kaotic Mac Os 11
Classilla and TenFourFox – ports of the current Firefox web browser, optimized for Mac OS 9 (Classilla) and PowerPC Macs running OS X Tiger (TenFourFox). Get online with your vintage Mac!
Kaotic Mac Os Catalina
PrintToPDF– a free utility to create PDF files on classic Macs running System 7 through Mac OS 9. This is a handy way to keep the formatting of old documents you can’t otherwise convert.
Kaotic Mac Os X
The Vintage Mac Museum is a private, working collection of the pre-Intel Apple Macintosh. We provide old Mac file transfer and conversion services, along with research into old Mac technologies for patent prior art searches or academic purposes.