Monday's Mac Gadget
by John F. Braun

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Need to Capture Some Audio? Get a WireTap!

April 25th, 2005

WireTap Pro 1.0.1 ($19 Shareware)
Ambrosia Software

The Mac was one of the first personal computers to come standard with sound input and output hardware. Whereas older machines could only produce sad little clicks and beeps, the Mac used a D/A converter to faithfully reproduce great sound. Unfortunately, there isn't much software built into OS X that actually supports the recording of sound; fortunately, the good folks at Ambrosia offer WireTap Pro, a program that can handle all your sound input needs.

To get started, you'll need to specify an input source. You can plug in your favorite microphone, and even use the built-in mic for quick and dirty recording. More interesting is being able to select your Mac's sound output as the input. This is great for applications which produce audio, but offer no easy way to record it. You can record all sounds, start recording when there's sound above a certain level, or trim out silence to save space and speed playback. Your audio can be saved in AIFF, QuickTime Movie, MP3 or AAC format.

WireTap Pro Has a Clean, Simple Interface

WireTap Pro also offers a variety of save options. Of course you can save your audio to a file, but you can also opt to save to iTunes, or directly to your iPod, or another MP3 player that is compatible with iTunes. A feature that really makes WireTap Pro shine is the ability to schedule various recording sessions, and integrate with iCal. A new calendar group will be created, so you can use iCal to view all of your recordings. You can also define an application, AppleScript or other file to be executed both before and after the scheduled event.

So take full control of gathering audio with your Mac, and give WireTap a listen!

Have any other gadgets that you'd like others to hear about? Send an e-mail to John and he'll try it.

Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs.

John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at

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