MacNifty Sound Cap

MacNifty SoundCap is software that allows creative manipulation of a system’s audio capabilities. It is a Macintosh sound format designed for use with early audio digitizers. By using the SoundCap, the volume of selected portions of an audio may be lowered or raised, compressed, stretched, repeated, or inverted. Echo and reverberate sounds can be created or mixed. The high quality of sound resolution is made possible through digital sound, the principle that creates the crystalline fidelity of compact discs. The hardware in SoundCap is composed of circuits within a small box with a cable connector to the Mac’s modem or printer port, and the input uses a standard RCA connector. The software is equipped with an oscilloscope that allows users to see the input waveform in real time and a spectrum analyzer that displays amplitudes for many frequency ranges. Spectrum analysis is done using a fast fourier transform (FFT) and the increases in sound resolution proportionately increases the time between updates.