What do I need for basic home recording with a Mac?

[Jeff Strouse]

Finally taking the Mac plunge! And I’m new to all of this. Thanks in advance for any help!

What do I need for basic recording? I’d like to make my own music tracks for play along & practice. I guess I need to plug the guitar into some type of USB device for that? There is an Apogee Guitar Jam input on the apple website, unless anothe product is better…

At times I’d also like an external mic for room recording, if friends came over to jam. I have a small house, so one mic is probably all I’d need. Is there an all-around good mic for room recording and vocals? There are several mics on their site, but if a better mic is compatible I don’t necessarily need to buy from there…

Oh, and is the stock sound card in a a MacBook Pro okay, or should I get some type of external USB sound card?

For software, is Garage Band all I would need? I also see Main Stage 2 on the website. Not sure if BIAB would work or would be needed.

I’d also like to do audio restoration (vinyl/cass) and editing, as well as recording live audio (“what you hear“)…something similar to Audacity. Will a built in program work? I have a USB turntable, but would still need a USB RCA adaptor cable…They sell Elgato Video Capture on the website. I assume I could just use the audio cable part for audio, and then I’d have the video wire in case I want to plug a VCR in…

And for Itunes, is it the best player to use? I need a good music player/organizer for a large collection, but I doubt I would be downloading much music. Most of mine would come from Cds and Lps. I also want to be able to transfer files with my Android phone, or to a disc, etc. I think I remember hearing where Itunes wouldn’t allow play or transfer of certain types of files?…

Didn't mean for this to get so long....Thanks!

[Howard Smith]

Jeff, the Garage band will work fine for just making backing tracks. The main difference between different software is the editing ability. The apogee stuff is really good. They have a product called ONE. It's sounds like just what your looking for. Also visit the apogee site for more info, and the apple site. Also Band In a box is great if you don't have a drum machine, its makes really good backing tracks simply by typing in the chords you want it to play.

Good Luck

[Jeff Strouse]

Thanks for your input Howard. I'll check out Apogee..

[Bill Leff]

Jeff:

I just got an Apogee One and it is a snap to use with Garageband. It also has a built-in mic (haven't tried it yet) that is supposed to be very good. They are a bit pricey considering only one channel. I bought the mic adapter to mount it directly on a mic stand boom for recording acoustic instruments and voice.

I wouldn't get the Apogee Jam - am told the One has much better sound etc. The Jam is just a way to get your guitar into the Mac (or iPad, which is pretty cool).

I'm using mine with a MacBook Pro. Just the One and MacBook Pro so far, using the Garageband amp sims.

I do plan to get a Yamaha THR-10 also and use that as a front end amp that can go directly into the MacBook Pro as well. That thing is supposed to be the best sounding portable amp these days and has a USB interface also.



-Bill

[Bill C. Buntin]

I started out thinking I would go with apogee. And, for simplicity, I might still get an apogee one. My problem for laptop was that mine is air book so that means no FireWire.
So....I bought USB m audio interface for the air book and FireWire m audio interface for my G5 Mac in my studio.

I have very good luck using garage band and band in a box. The easiest way for me is that most nearly any tune can be found as a midi file for free. The midi files are easy and quick. Band in a box will just about do everything for you. But what I do is load the midi file and let band in the box take over. Let it generate tracks. Then change your style to match the tune. Usually, I have to move each tracks pan from -63 which is full left. And the vol of each track usually defaults to zero so usually have to raise vol to 85 or 90. 127 is maximum.

If I like the tune and decide to track it, I usually move the biab file over to logic on the Mac G5. Or if I'm not at home, garage band is a fairly good tool and is very friendly and plays nice with logic.

All in all, the m audio stuff works really well.

As far as vinyl, I have a very high end Thorens turntable. If I pull tunes off of vinyl, audacity does as good of a job as logic. A lot of it depends on your listening. If you are an audio junkie like me, sometimes McIntosh equipment is all that really sounds good.

But....for the money.....I use adcom solid state amp and preamp. Klipsch heresy for studio monitors. The adcom preamp also has a very nice Phono loop. The Thorens tt plays nice with the adcom and the adcom plays nice with the m audio interface. So
I'm real happy with it. Would I change anything? Yes. I would like to have a Conrad Johnson preamp.

But this all works for me.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[Daniel Policarpo]

I am still amazed at the capabilities that GarageBand offers.

[Jeff Scott Brown]

Finally taking the Mac plunge! And I’m new to all of this. Thanks in advance for any help!

What do I need for basic recording? I’d like to make my own music tracks for play along & practice. I guess I need to plug the guitar into some type of USB device for that? There is an Apogee Guitar Jam input on the apple website, unless anothe product is better…

I don't have any experience with the Apogee Guitar Jam. Looks like it might be interesting. I use the PreSonus AudioBox USB and it seems to work fine for me. It looks like the Apogee thing might be a little cheaper, maybe a little less flexible but I don't need much from this particular component. Anyway, mine works fine for me.

At times I’d also like an external mic for room recording, if friends came over to jam. I have a small house, so one mic is probably all I’d need. Is there an all-around good mic for room recording and vocals? There are several mics on their site, but if a better mic is compatible I don’t necessarily need to buy from there…

The Shure SM58 is kind of the standard all around general purpose mic. You can get them for under $100 and they are a good versatile mic. I use the Sennheiser e 609 silver. I don't know if that would be a good vocal mic. It is well suited for micing a guitar amp and that is all I ever record at home.

For software, is Garage Band all I would need? I also see Main Stage 2 on the website. Not sure if BIAB would work or would be needed.

GarageBand is quite a robust kit, especially considering the price point. For most folks who are tinkering around with recording at home, GarageBand will do more than they need it to do. The bigger pro tools stuff have a lot more advanced capabilities, most of which the average hobbyist recorder wouldn't use anyway. I say that GarageBand is the right choice, until it isn't, and then look at the pro packages. Most folks will find they don't really run into significant limitations in GarageBand and those that do then look to the pro tools.

I don't have any experience with Band In A Box but I thought that it had a whole lot of capabilities for constructing accompaniment stuff. GarageBand can do some of that, but that isn't the sweet spot. For me, GarageBand is really about recording and editing.

And for Itunes, is it the best player to use? I need a good music player/organizer for a large collection, but I doubt I would be downloading much music. Most of mine would come from Cds and Lps. I also want to be able to transfer files with my Android phone, or to a disc, etc. I think I remember hearing where Itunes wouldn’t allow play or transfer of certain types of files?…

iTunes is fine for managing your collection, even a very large one. I have something like 140gb of music currently in my iTunes collection (http://tinyurl.com/jeffsmusic) and don't have any problems with it. The Smart Playlist stuff is handy for organizing things by genre, or artist, or whatever criteria you like. Even if you don't use that iTunes is well done and easy to work with.



JSB

[Scott Henderson]

FWIW I would look into a presonus package or a small protools package. With either one you don't use the sound card you use the interface or tongle.....PT's midi is out of sight how good it sounds. And yo can load midi song files right into it....I've been able to take old dirty midi files and clean them up good enough to use on stage.....

[Daryl Thisdelle]

First of all I started out with an iMac 10 years ago with Garage Band. You can not go wrong with it at all. One of the biggest things over looked when getting into home recording is that you want to do is spend your time recording and not having to fiddle around with programs that do not actually mate well with other program and you spend more time doing that then playing and recording. You can not go wrong by starting and staying with a Mac computer and Garage Band and using Apogee products... If you have ever heard of streaming audio that's what fits together and works together with very little figuring out by you. Start miss matching programs and you will spend more time trying to get something to work instead of what you wanted to do, play and record. If you ever progress past Garage band Logic Pro is nice to go to. Logic Pro, Mac, Apogee, is streaming audio at its best, its made to work with each other. So for you to set up and actually record is a no brain er .. I started off that way and now own my own high end recording studio which evolves around Mac, Apogee and Logic Pro.