Which interface to use? Recording advice please!!

[patch006]

Hi all

I have just purchased a mac with the intention of recording some stuff. I am a total novice and have no idea about any of it
so any advice would be greatly received.

What I want to do is.....

Create and write tunes.
Create backing tracks so I can perform live.
Visually record my self playing to create my u tube page.
Record rehersals with my band.

So the questions are...........

Most suitable software logic? logic express ? gargeband etc......
Most suitable interface to connect bass.

Any other tips would be useful.

Edited August 9, 2011 by patch006

[Killerfridge]

[quote name='patch006' post='1333322' date='Aug 9 2011, 10:40 AM']Hi all

I have just purchased a mac with the intention of recording some stuff. I am a total novice and have no idea about any of it
so any advice would be greatly received.

What I want to do is.....

Create and write tunes.
Create backing tracks so I can perform live.
Visually record my self playing to create my u tube page.
Record rehersals with my band.

So the questions are...........

Most suitable software logic? logic express ? gargeband etc......
Most suitable interface to connect bass.

Any other tips would be useful.[/quote]

Garageband should be able to do everything you need, that and the inbuilt camera (for Youtube videos).

As for interfaces, I quite like the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, but it's up to you really. How many tracks will you be recording at the same time?

[patch006]

[quote name='Killerfridge' post='1333348' date='Aug 9 2011, 10:52 AM']Garageband should be able to do everything you need, that and the inbuilt camera (for Youtube videos).

As for interfaces, I quite like the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, but it's up to you really. How many tracks will you be recording at the same time?[/quote]


Hi,

Well at home it would just be creating a track and me recording my playing to it.
At rehersal we have two vocals , drums , acoustic guitar and moi, there is a small pa. Could I come straight out of that in to the interface?

Cheers

[NJE]

The latest Garage Band is supposed to be very good but if you can 'aquire' a copy of Logic it is incredibly good. Interface wise, the best I have come accross and the ones used by my session guitarist/composer friend are Apogee. I used to have the Apogee One but the Duet is the next level up, fantastic kit.

[Skol303]

[quote name='NJE' post='1333609' date='Aug 9 2011, 02:22 PM']The latest Garage Band is supposed to be very good but if you can 'aquire' a copy of Logic it is incredibly good.[/quote]

By 'acquire' I assume you mean spend your money on a legitimate licensed copy? In the same way I acquired my bass guitar by, y'know, not robbing it from somebody's house... Just saying

I'd also recommend checking out Propellerhead Reason & Record - superb (and relatively cheap) softwares in my opinion; I'm constantly bleating on about them on this forum (so yes, I am bias):

[url="http://www.propellerheads.se/"]http://www.propellerheads.se/[/url]

Interface-wise I use a Tascam US-144mkII which I find to be very reliable and probably available for cheap second hand on ebay. If I were to buy a new one tomorrow I'd certainly be checking out the Focusrite Saffire as already mentioned here - I'm always hearing good things about it.

[NJE]

[quote name='Skol303' post='1333637' date='Aug 9 2011, 02:45 PM']By 'acquire' I assume you mean spend your money on a legitimate licensed copy? In the same way I acquired my bass guitar by, y'know, not robbing it from somebody's house... Just saying [/quote]

No I mean find a very good friend who has a multiple user licence and get it installed for the price of a pint and being a good friend.

[Skol303]

[quote name='NJE' post='1333716' date='Aug 9 2011, 03:52 PM']No I mean find a very good friend who has a multiple user licence and get it installed for the price of a pint and being a good friend. [/quote]

Ha! Funny you mention that, as I have a friend who did exactly the same thing and shared his Logic license... not with me however.

I've been spitting in his pints ever since

[kidding, of course]

[stringintheshade]

[quote name='patch006' post='1333322' date='Aug 9 2011, 10:40 AM']Create and write tunes.
Create backing tracks so I can perform live.
Record rehersals with my band.[/quote]


I recommend Ardour - it's utterly fantastic

[url="http://ardour.org/"]http://ardour.org/[/url]

It's open source and subscription based. I'm a devoted fan.

As with anything, there's a learning curve but you may as well devote your learning to a proper DAW like Ardour rather than Garage Band.

[Bankai]

Logic Express.

And either a Focusrite Pro 24 or Pro 40 depending on how many channels you'd like.


IMO of course...

[Ian Savage]

I'm assuming that GarageBand came installed on the Mac? That should be fine to get you started, and as soon as you find it limiting it's a very small jump learning-wise to Logic Express (and IIRC your GarageBand files can be instantly converted). I ummed and ahhed for ages about whether to get Logic Express or go the whole hog and spring for Logic Pro, but to be honest having gone for the cheaper option I don't feel limited by it at all.

As far as interfaces go, budget is the main spec for this; there's plenty out there, and the USB/FireWire choice isn't as relevant as it used to be (personally I'd still go FW for a Mac, but that's just me) - I like Presonus myself (had a FireStudio Project which was superb) but the Tascam and Focusrite stuff already mentioned are very good too.

If you're wanting to use it both at home and in rehearsals, might be worth trying to track down a Mackie Onyx Satellite secondhand; very versatile bit of kit which I can't understand the reason for them discontinuing. [url="http://www.mackie.com/products/satellite/"]http://www.mackie.com/products/satellite/[/url]

[51m0n]

Reaper

4.01 just released, (yes it works on a Mac!) about £25, best software bang for the buck out there.

[Mornats]

+1 for Reaper. I've just made the switch from GarageBand to Reaper (as the latest OSX update killed GarageBand's ability to record...). Their trial never expires which gives you plenty of time to test it fully before buying the very reasonably priced (i.e. it's a steal) licence fee.

However, there's a lot to be said for GarageBand's simplicity plus there's the added bonus of moving up to Logic (Express or Pro) and being able to import your tracks (which you can't do so easily in Reaper).

Either of these programs gives you a very cheap / free way to try them out and see which one you prefer.

Audio interface wise, I've been more than happy with my Native Instruments Guitar Rig Session (sadly discontinued but they have a Guitar Rig Mobile out now for around £80-100 I think but I can't vouch for it). It comes with Guitar Rig LE which gives me a lot of amp and effects options. It's USB and I've noticed no lag whatsoever on my Mac or PC when using it but there's nothing wrong with going for Firewire.

If you want some virtual instruments go and download the free Kore Player set from Native Instruments. You get 600MB of some decent instruments to use plus you do what I did and find a copy of Komplete 7 Elements for around £45 to add more (note that there's 2 version - Komplete Elements and Komplete 7 Elements. The "7" version has 9GB of samples compared with 3GB for the later version without the "7" in the title. I got mine from decks.co.uk). Play around with the free ones first to see if you like them. Look out for Independence Free (from IK Multimedia iirc) as this is another free virtual instrument collection.

For drums I can recommend EZ Drummer at around £80. All of my tracks at [url="http://www.soundcloud.com/mornats"]www.soundcloud.com/mornats[/url] use EZ Drummer.

Most of all, have fun recording, I'm finding it a fantastic way to learn as I can listen back to my tracks and work out where I'm going wrong (or right!).

[Carld]

Hi,

I use Ableton Live which is the best tool for writing I've used over 20 years. (I tought Music Tech for 7 years) and I've used Logic also which is outdtanding but for writing Ableton beats it hands down. For a sound card I use a presonus firebox which again for the cost is great. I also use an Behringer FCB1010 foot controller when I need to trigger loops live. Hope this helps Carl

[noelk27]

Software really does come down to what suits your working methodology/workflow. Spent years trying to get along with Protools, but just don't like it. Sure, it's the industry standard, but that's more by accident than design. Same with Logic, even though I'm a confirmed Apple/Mac user. After trying out most of the systems that are out there, settled on composing in Propellerheads Record (treating Reason like a massive plug-in), before rewiring into Cubase (to take advantage of those plug-ins from the likes of Lexicon, Izotope, TC, Waves, etc, and guitar-specific packages from Softube and Studio Devil, that I think I can't do without), but doing my final mixing using a relative newcomer, Harrison's Mixbus. If Propellerheads had better guitar processing than Line 6 then it'd probably be possible to skip the whole Cubase stage. But, I digress. My point was that you shouldn't limit yourself to the major DAWs, and you shouldn't be afraid to have more than one on your desktop, to realise what's in your head.

Interfaces are usually Firewire or USB, and in addition to a few that have already been mentioned I'd suggest checking out Lexicon's Ionix U24S, TC's Impact Twin, and Focusrite's Saffire Pro 24 DSP. All sub £300. It's not the cheapest, around £400, but I'd suggest giving serious thought to Motu's UltraLite Mk 3, which has the advantage of being both a Firewire 400 and USB2 device, as well as coming with a truckload of DSP effects and an intuitive, highly flexible routing interface. For me, though, the Motu wins on tech specs, from its 24 bit/192 kHz sampling to the range and clarity of its pre-amps, and is worth the extra initial outlay. (It also comes with a DAW package, which is a good introduction to Digital Performer, a package I like, but found a little crash-prone - although not as crash-prone as Protools.) Personally, I'm using an RME Fireface, which is a superb bit of kit, but that takes you into the £700+ range.

Edited August 10, 2011 by noelk27

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='Mornats' post='1335262' date='Aug 10 2011, 04:40 PM']If you want some virtual instruments go and download the free Kore Player set from Native Instruments.[/quote]
Kore Player's now been discontinued (along with Kore itself). From 1st September, there'll be [url="http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/komplete-8-players/"]Komplete 8 Players[/url] available to download for nowt, or you can already download the individual parts of it (although Kontakt Player remains v4 until September).

[stringintheshade]

[quote name='noelk27' post='1335844' date='Aug 10 2011, 10:41 PM']but doing my final mixing using a relative newcomer, Harrison's Mixbus.[/quote]

Mixbus is a branch of Ardour

[url="http://ardour.org/node/3011"]http://ardour.org/node/3011[/url]

Use Ardour and you've got the same thing, minus the Harrison DSPs. I get along fine with the army of DSPs that come with Ardour itself.

It's worth noting that Harrison chose Ardour as their foundation. Their consoles are truly world class. You'd have to question why anyone would go the Logic or ProTools route starting from scratch when there's stuff like Ardour around.

[noelk27]

[quote name='stringintheshade' post='1336809' date='Aug 11 2011, 05:14 PM'][Harrison] Mixbus is a branch of Ardour ...

Use Ardour and you've got the same thing, minus the Harrison DSPs. ...

You'd have to question why anyone would go the Logic or ProTools route starting from scratch when there's stuff like Ardour around.[/quote]
Well, for me, the reason to purchase the Mixbus package was (and is) the Harrison interface, and sonic processing. The Harrison EQ in the Mixbus package is one of the most musical I've used (and for $89 it was a no-brainer). Perhaps the reason it's not better known is that the Ardour package is specifically Mac and Linux based. Ardour is a solid package, although not exceptional. It has suffered with a number of significant limitations, but more and more of these are being addressed with releases. (Having not yet upgraded to Mixbus 2, I can't comment on the performance of the latest version of that package, or the latest version of Ardour, but my understanding is that there has been a significant improvement in both.) And, the biggest "selling" point for some, perhaps, is that Ardour is free (although the developers ask that you make a donation to their technology fund). Well worth checking out. (Of course, if you were PC-based you could be looking at Acoustica's Mixcraft, as an alternative to the likes of Cakewalk, among the other usual suspects.)

[patch006]

Thanks for all the info guys, i have a TC electronic konnect 6 arriving tomorrow.
It looks like a nice little interface to start on as I don't need lots of inputs. Im just tinkering on garage band at the mo.
I am a total newbie to this recording lark so it will take a while to get to grips with it all.

Thanks again, keep the info coming any hints tips would be very useful.

[stringintheshade]

[quote name='noelk27' post='1336880' date='Aug 11 2011, 07:16 PM']Ardour is a solid package, although not exceptional. It has suffered with a number of significant limitations[/quote]

I'd disagree, I think it [i]is[/i] exceptional. I've spent a fair amount of time on ProTools before this. For me, Ardour's been running perfectly for a long while; I have it on Linux with an M-Audio 1010LT. Ardour 3 is in Alpha and is looking great, too, but there's no reason not to jump right in and use it now.

As you say, it's free, if you want it that way. I happen to be a subscriber. If your searching for a new DAW on a Mac/Linux platform, you'd be crazy not to spin it up.