new imac owner

[Al Heeley]

As a new imac owner I want to have a go at using GarageBand to record some simple compositions.
Am I wasting my time trying to plug in directly to the sound input on the back of the imac?
I'm not convinced I can justify another 300 quid on a firewire audio interface for what I want to use it for, is there a low cost alternative that works reasonably well?

[JMT3781]

there are a few ways to do it

Theres the built in mic if you are just after a basic sound

or, maybe a USB to Jack lead for about 30 quid.. in my experience plugging into the mini jack in never goes well

[Colledge]

are you using a preamp anywhere in the chain? the guitarist i work with regords quite alot and his recordings come out really [url="http://www.myspace.com/danleak"]well[/url].

i always assumed that he used a proper usb / firewire preamp but when i recorded some stuff over his house.. i was amazed that he was just using a relatively cheap tube mic pre straight into the imac sound card. as long as you use decent quality cables and a preamp, they can come out pretty well. i've got an imac too but every time i try to record i end up with a lot of noise in my signal, i think its mostly down to the use of crappy cheap jack adapters, cables and the use of a cheapy processor as a preamp.

[Al Heeley]

I see there are cheap usb/audio interfaces u can get, then there are the basic Edirol-type interfacecs which are a lot of money - from £120 up to £3000!If I were to go straight into the back of the imac, I have the option of putting the signal thru a mosfet boost pedal, thats a basic clean preamp, if that would help, or would it be better to spend £30 on a cheap little behringer type or griffin imic connector to convert signal to usb?

[tonyf]

I wouldn't use the mic input, there's much better and more flexible ways of inputting into Garageband.

If you don't want to go down the more expensive FireWire route, there's loads of cheapish USB audio input devices out there.

I've had a Line6 UX-2 for a while as a cheapy knocking-about USB input device and it works brilliantly. Couple of jack inputs, some mic inputs, some midi and loads of options for outputs. Comes with the GearBox application which gives you loads of tinkering options (in fact, looks like they've updated it since i got mine).

[url="http://uk.line6.com/podstudioux2/"]http://uk.line6.com/podstudioux2/[/url]

Again though, there's probably loads of other options out there that probably do the same thing.

T

[Low End Bee]

A secondhand Line 6 KB37?

You can do all that keyboard malarkey too then.

[waldemar]

+1 on the line 6 Gear. I was wanting to do a similar thing (record bits and pieces in an uncomplicated and for not a lot of money style)

I bought a Pod Studio GX a while back.

[url="http://line6.com/podstudiogx/"]http://line6.com/podstudiogx/[/url]

Around 70/80 quid. Bloomin' marvelous device and works perfectly with Garageband. You're not just grabbing your sound at good quality - you can model how it sounds too. It's ace.

[xgsjx]

There's nothing wrong with plugging your bass directly (with or without pedals) into the mic/line input on the iMac, I do it all the time.
OK it won't give you great studio quality results, but for laying down ideas it does the job with decent results.

I do have a USB mixer to hand that I haven't plugged into the iMac yet, but shall try it next week sometime & compare (I'll post two clips, one thru the mixer & one thru the mic/line input).

[WHUFC BASS]

[quote name='xgsjx' post='981192' date='Oct 8 2010, 08:10 AM']There's nothing wrong with plugging your bass directly (with or without pedals) into the mic/line input on the iMac, I do it all the time.[/quote]

Me too, there's nothing wrong with it at all. I only ever use the mic input and its fine. I do use a Griffin Garageband cable which is a cheap, good quality cable designed for the job. Shell out for an interface if you want, but with a bit of patience, and by using some of the bass and eq presets that ship with Garageband you won't go wrong. Here's an example of my Traben going through the mic input only:

[url="http://www.ebaumsworld.com/audio/play/80714129/"]Traben Havoc - No EQ[/url]

[DaveB]

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='987808' date='Oct 14 2010, 10:35 AM']Me too, there's nothing wrong with it at all. I only ever use the mic input and its fine. I do use a Griffin Garageband cable which is a cheap, good quality cable designed for the job. Shell out for an interface if you want, but with a bit of patience, and by using some of the bass and eq presets that ship with Garageband you won't go wrong. Here's an example of my Traben going through the mic input only:

[url="http://www.ebaumsworld.com/audio/play/80714129/"]Traben Havoc - No EQ[/url][/quote]


I don't know if it's an effect you were using or the cheapy speakers on my second computer i'm listening to this on but that sounded very distorted in parts to me???

[WHUFC BASS]

I think its the actual volume of the tracks. I did remix this track and lowered the overall volume - nothing to do with the actual quality of the sound going in though

[DaveB]

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='987992' date='Oct 14 2010, 01:12 PM']I think its the actual volume of the tracks. I did remix this track and lowered the overall volume - nothing to do with the actual quality of the sound going in though [/quote]

Ah fair enough

[xgsjx]

Well I finally got a chance to record a bit of bass like I said I would. First I plugged directly from bass to line in & then I went thru the USB mixer. Both the same bassline with the exact same settings.
I recorded it straight into GarageBand & the change is at the Harmonic stop. Uploaded to Reverbnation, here's the link, spot the difference.

[url="http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_5605705"]http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_5605705[/url]

[Al Heeley]

I managed to pick up a bargain line6 toneport DI from a clearance sale at the local Dolphin music. THis is a single input usb interface with DI and 2 analog outs plus headphone and after a weekends playing I think i got the hang of how to use it and configure the audio. I must say just using one of the fairly minimal garageband presets for bass i get a really nice sound out of the musicman, its a steep learning curve for me but I can see the next few months of late nights experimenting with tracks and tunes.
The toneport is now a few years old and i guess largely redundant though I don't know what the new versions of same thing do any different. It automatically updates with all the pod and pod2 software and sound patches as well as the original gearbox stuff, so you have access to a really wide range of settings, amp models, effects, cabs, on-line patches and setups, you name it. Quite bewildering for me, trading off all the garageband presets with the line 6 ones, as well as the ability to mix both lots together and create chaos.
Loving the simple entry level into garageband- it's helped rekindle my daughter's interest in piano too, which is brilliant.

[noelk27]

You can get this [url="http://www.lexiconpro.com/product.php?id=7"]http://www.lexiconpro.com/product.php?id=7[/url] Lexicon Alpha interface for under £60.

[ben604]

[quote name='noelk27' post='999594' date='Oct 25 2010, 01:05 AM']You can get this [url="http://www.lexiconpro.com/product.php?id=7"]http://www.lexiconpro.com/product.php?id=7[/url] Lexicon Alpha interface for under £60.[/quote]

We've got about 25 of these in our school. They're ideal for home recording and play nice with garage band.

[noelk27]

[quote name='ben604' post='999688' date='Oct 25 2010, 09:17 AM']We've got about 25 of these in our school. They're ideal for home recording and play nice with garage band.[/quote]
The bundled reverb plugin is worth the money alone.

[Stu-khag]

I've got an old Boss 4 track which has a stereo phono out on it, I just plug that into the mic port. Works great for what I do