Welcome to the On The Air Demo! The following late-breaking information did not have time to make it into the manual. Please read it before launching On The Air.
Ñ Simultaneous Play & Record Preference
Because of a System 7 software bug, some machines have problems playing and recording at the same time. If you own a Classic II, Duo 210 or 230, IIvx, LC, LC II, Performa 200 & 400, or PowerBook 140 & 170, you should turn on the "Stop play when recording" sound preference in On The Air to avoid problems with simultaneous play and record. To change this preference, choose Preferences from the Edit menu and select Sound from the pop-up menu. Since Apple introduces new machines all the time, the above list of machines with the bug may not be complete. If you have problems with simultaneous play and record, try turning on the "Stop play when recording" preference.
Ñ Record to Disk and Voice-Activated Recording
Because of a System 7 software bug, voice-activated recording does not stop when recording to disk. You must stop recording manually by clicking the Record button to stop voice-activated recording when recording to disk.
Ñ╩Virtual Memory
To maximize sound quality when playing or recording, make sure virtual memory is turned off.
Ñ IIfx and Quadra Owners
If you are connected to a LocalTalk network and your Macintosh has the Serial Switch control panel, setting the serial switch to "faster" will substantially improve On The Air network performance and eliminate mouse jerkiness when sending and receiving.
If you are connected to a LocalTalk network and you set the Serial switch to "faster", or you do not have the Serial Switch control panel, you can improve your network performance by turning the "Pause network when playing or recording sound" preference in On The Air off. You can do this because network activity cannot cause sound dropouts on your Macintosh with the serial port operating in "faster" mode.
Ñ PowerBook/Portable Owners
Putting your PowerBook to sleep with On The Air running will remove On The Air from the network. When your PowerBook wakes up again, On The Air will not be visible to other machines. To avoid this problem, quit On The Air before putting your PowerBook to sleep.
Ñ EtherNet/TokenTalk/FDDITalk Users
On The Air requires 48Kb more memory per connection over the suggested memory size when operating over an EtherNet, TokenTalk, or FDDITalk network. If you use System 7.1, you may want to adjust On The Air's minimum memory size (using the Get Info command in the Finder) to insure that it always gets enough memory.
You can improve On The Air's network performance by turning the "Pause network when playing or recording sound" preference in On The Air off. You can do this because network activity cannot cause sound dropouts on your Macintosh when operating over EtherNet, TokenTalk, or FDDITalk.
Ñ Sound Files
On The Air prefers the AIFF sound file format. On most Macintosh models, On The Air can open these files without using any extra memory. When opening SoundEdit or System 7 sound files, On The Air must load the entire sound into memory to convert it. If you run out of memory loading SoundEdit or System 7 sound files, try converting these files to AIFF format. You can convert sound files to AIFF with a sound editing program, or with On The Air. To convert a sound file with On The Air, open a record-only Talk window, open the sound file, and save it. The saved sound file will be in AIFF format.
On Macintosh Plus, SE, Classic, Portable, and PowerBook 100 models, On The Air must load all files into memory. There is no advantage to converting sound files to AIFF format on these machines.
Some sound editing programs have problems saving valid AIFF files. The sound editor may be able to open the sound file, but other programs like On The Air may not be able to read or play it. If you see the message "file corrupt or unuseable" when opening an AIFF file, try opening the file with you sound editor and saving in another format like System 7 format. Then open the sound file with On The Air and save it. The resulting file will be a valid AIFF file.
Because of a Finder bug, you cannot open System 7 sound files by dragging them on top of the On The Air icon. You must open them by clicking on the Load button in the Talk window.
