I've hosted radio programs on a non-commercial college station for over ten years (as a volunteer). I am looking to find out what equipment (hardware) and software are necessary for two different projects. (1) what I need in order to take digital based recorded programs (my live radio programs recorded directly off studio sound board onto digital VCR tapes) and upload them onto my web site. (2) to mix my own radio shows on my home computer and upload them to my website. For both projects the idea is to archive the programs. I am looking to purchase a new computer (probably an imac G3) and I have been given some info. on where I might download freeware/shareware to set up the files. I currently have a Performa 6214 with a reinstalled Fitjitsu 4.3 GB IDE hard drive. I want something faster with more ram for this project. Right now just to get the imac G3 with all the extensions (scanner, printer, Zip) that I already have will be $1,500.00. The USB limitations suck. It's been recomended that I go USB rather than using a converter cable as well with some pretty convincing arguments. I am looking for recomendations on what Mac or PC might be the best to purchase for my needs, and what other hardware CDR's, etc. and software will be required to get this off the ground. I have an internet service provider...haven't spoken with them yet on how I work with them, but I already have a web site with them. I appreciate any information on products...hardware and software. Thanks!

Ideas:
You need to digitize audio from your VCR tape to the mac, yes? So you will need a way to do that, be it either a digitizing board/solution (Check out IOmega 'Buzz'
--cheap at around 100 bucks--for a general idea of the type of product you need) or to get the stuff digitized raw (onto CD?) elsewhere, say from a friend who has an
A/V mac (6100 A/V, 8100A/V or an 8500 or something). I don't think there's a way to put an input board in an i-mac, so you are out of luck there, unless you can find
a USB input solution. The money you will save by digitizing it yourself will more than pay for the initial upgrade to a tower G3 system (thinking economically as
opposed to a new G4, but...) and a PCI board such as BUZZ or something. Plus the G series have larger hard drives and can utilize (cheaper) IDE drives if you want
to add a bigger one.

My personal suggestion: I don't know if the Performa 6214 has PCI or NuBus slots, but you may want to try to find a sound digitizing board for THAT, and use it as
your sound capture station, using the I-mac you want to buy as you production station. I'm not sure of the quality you are looking for, but if you can jack the VCR
output into the microphone port of the performa, and the quality is good enough for your needs, then there you have it! You can connect the i-mac to the performa with
ethernet to transfer data if you have an ethernet port (or card) on the performa. E-Bay is a good source for boards you may want for the performa.
Software: Apple's 'Quicktime Pro' is capable for what you want, but is limited.
Sound Edit or Sound Edit Pro has been the defacto app for that sort of thing. It's easy to use, and would be MUCH better suited to your needs. A CDR would be a
great archiving solution for the final product, but I will suggest a JAZ drive instead of the zip, as raw data and files in progress get pretty big, and a zip disk is pretty
small for that type of working storage.
As far as file format: "MP3" has the edge with compression and small file size. "AIFF" is standard audio CD format, but is larger in file size. Any native format for a
sound app wil probably be smaller but less compatible elsewhere.