Igor Engraver 1.0 Light; Groovemaker 2

Quality notation from Igor Engraver 1.0 Light All you need are some MP3 files and BayTex Party! Pro 2.5 to be the DJ for a night...— and it's free!

Vic Lennard gives some sound advice on hard disk partitioning and also points the way to some useful free music notation software.

Have a quick look at your Mac's desktop. How many hard disk icons are there? If your Mac is as it was when it came out of the box then the chances are you'll only have a single icon: one hard disk partition. If you're into messing with Macs, you've probably set up a number of partitions. Question is: which method is best?

There used to be a key reason for partitioning hard disks. Prior to Mac OS 8.1, Macs used a standard filing structure called HFS (hierarchical filing system) where the minimum space a file could take up was proportional to the hard disk size. For instance, on a 4Gb hard disk this minimum space was 64K, which meant that even a tiddly 4K text file took up 64K of disk space. Consequently there was a good argument for partitioning hard disks — less wasted space.

Mac OS 8.1 and later offer HFS+, commonly known as Mac OS Extended format. This essentially optimises the storage capacity of larger hard disks by decreasing the minimum size of a single file. With the above example, the 4K text file would take up just 4K on a hard disk formatted as HFS+.

There is a second important factor in the arguments for and against partitioning. The partition with the operating system on it is the one most likely to bring up the dreaded "cannot recognise this disk: reformat?" dialogue box after a serious crash where the directory info has been damaged. Consequently, it is sensible to have at least two partitions; one holding Mac OS, the other containing everything else. The system partition needs to be of a reasonable size — a Mac OS 9 System Folder can easily weigh in at over 400Mb and you will need to allow space for items that require expansion on the boot partition, including printer spool files.

Quarantine Zones

Grooving on up — GrooveMaker 2 offers oodles of features for dance music creators.

If you intend to partition your hard disk, here's my advice. Using Apple's standard Drive Setup program and a drive of 4Gb or more, create the following HFS+ partitions:

• Boot partition (1Gb): This holds the System Folder and nothing else. Any files that change frequently, such as the browser cache in your Preferences Folder, are best moved to one of the Data partitions, though you'll need to create aliases of them in the original locations so that they can be found.
• Scratch partition (at least 1Gb): Use this for the operating system's Virtual Memory (set in the Memory Control Panel), audio recordings and as a Photoshop scratch disk. By doing this, you guarantee the best performance from software that needs a defragmented space. This partition is also big enough to create a folder for items you are about to back up — burn this to CD‑R and then trash the folder.
• Applications partition (1Gb): Place all static files here, in other words all of your standard programs, utilities, Internet applications and so on. You may even want two partitions for applications — mine currently exceeds 2Gb!
• Data partition(s): Temporary files and those that change frequently (such as Songs, Internet downloads and email) lead to a fragmented disk, so are best kept in partitions which can be defragmented regularly. Such partitions will also need to be well policed for viruses, particularly if they can be accessed from the Internet. A commercial anti‑virus package such as Virex or Norton AntiVirus is essential and can be set up to scan files as soon as they are downloaded.

The Right Score

All you need are some MP3 files and BayTex Party! Pro 2.5 to be the DJ for a night...

Now that Euro 2000 is over, our thoughts can return to scoring of a different kind. However, there aren't many dedicated notation programs on the Mac. There are even fewer that are free, but Igor Engraver 1.0 Light (www.noteheads.com) is one of them. It offers a powerful, fast environment and is easy to understand and work with — I'd even recommend it for complete novices.

Igor will handle almost anything you can throw at it, from rock and pop through to chamber music and large‑scale orchestral works or operas. Graphic elements, custom notation symbols, tuplets, beams extending across bar lines, clusters — Igor takes them all in its stride. It even knows all about ensembles and instrument sections, where to put titles, braces and brackets, where to break bar lines for maximum clarity and how to sort instruments and transpose them. You have to register on the Noteheads web site, but the program is free. It may be a 16Mb download, but it's worth it.

In The Groove

Guitarists will want to try out ChordBook v2.2 with its substantial chord library.

IK Multimedia's GrooveMaker caused quite a stir when it appeared in late '98. With its 'interesting' user interface and audio loop‑remixing capabilities, it was quite possible to create credible dance music. Version 2 has just landed and is also well worth a look. The interface controls have been improved (and tempo‑shifting enhanced) and all functions can be carried out in real time, even when importing loops or resync'ing. Almost any audio loop can be taken from sample CDs or MP3 files and the use of QuickTime 4 has increased the number of import/export format options. Point your Web browser at www.groovemaker.com/GMDemo.html for the demo and check it out for yourself.

The Big Cover‑Up

Just to finish with, at a recent Internet and Health conference in the States, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Services (FASCS) had to cover up and turn off the Science Centre's computer kiosks. Why? Because one of the exhibits was being sponsored by Intel and the kiosks were using Apple iMacs. To the FASCS's credit, it took "multiple requests and great reluctance" to do this. Goes to show that just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean they're not out to get you...