New to home recording - Cheapo USB Interface?

[Harryburke14]

Hi guys. Recently took ownership of a macbook from the big brother who had bought it and couldnt get on with MacOS. So, looking to make the most of it by using the plethora of great recording software available on a Mac, such as Garageband and Logic Pro X (which i came to love following Music creation classes back at school). Alls I need is a USB interface and potentially a MIDI Keyboard in the future (will stick to recording vocals, guitar and bass at the minute) to get up and running.Any suggestions for USB Interfaces? I dont care too much for recording multiple tracks at once right now, and will probably need no more than 2 inputs at any given time.

Also, any software recommendations or pointers in the direction of making drum loops will be greatly appreciated.

[Sibob]

I won't suggest an Interface, as I have a horse in that race (plenty of others will be along for those suggestions).

However, if easy drum 'programming' is something you're interested in to start off, then I would look at Logic X as your DAW. The Logic drummer feature is really great for demos/ideas and super easy to use, sounds good too. Check out some videos on Youtube on Logic Drummer etc.

Si

[bazzbass]

Reaper is only $60 for a 2 year or so licence, fully featured and infinitely tweaked to your liking. really is superb and awesome value. More popular now than Pro Tools,(according to gearsluts polls) second only to Cubase which costs ten times as much.

Edited March 29, 2017 by bazztard

[ROConnell]

Focusrite Solo or the Scarlett 2i2 is easy to use and good. Plug it in and it works. Assumign you have monitors?

Also for drum programming at a basic level I would consider using Cubase which has BeatDesigner built in. Really intuitive and great for building rhythm parts, I did a whole A-Level course with Cubase and it's really decent. Logic Pro is great too, however.

[Indy]

I'm pretty much at the bottom end of the recording and set up scale. I also acquired a mac and started form there. I've got Logic Pro as my DAW and I bought a second hand Focusrite 2i4. I find them both great bits of kit and simple enough for me who's relatively new to it all to start recording with.

I bought myself a second hand Shure sm58 microphone and a oxygen 49 keyboard. I couldn't/can't afford monitors at the moment so I just have a pair of £25 Sennheiser headphones.

You can start recording from there, I'm hoping to upgrade a few bits when I can, but you'll be able to get something recorded with that. I either record my instruments one at a time through the Focusrite, or record through the microphone via guitar/bass amp or just acoustically.

I probably know about 2% of what Logic Pro can do and 0% with regards to mixing but just have a go playing around with it. There's YouTube tutorials that are quite handy, and read through the recording guide on here which was brilliant for me.

[Light Grenade]

Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2x2 - £98

Great, no frills interface and built like a tank too. Stupidly quiet, high gain pres for an interface at this price point.

All guitars and bass in this track were recorded through the Blackjack if you want to hear their quality.

https://soundcloud.com/asbocmusic/let-go-or-be-dragged

[Mcgiver69]

As for Daw if you haven't found out one I would recommend Tracktion T5, is fully featured and it is totally FREE!! it's very easy to use and there's tons of youtube videos that show you how to do everything.

[Mornats]

You should definitely check out this thread compiled by Skol: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/248509-beginners-guide-to-home-recording/ lots of recommendations on how to get started.

I started off recording my bass playing on a Macbook Pro using a (now discontinued) Guitar Rig Session interface from Native Instruments. I progressed to adding EZDrummer to add in drums to play along to. EZDrummer comes with drum samples and drum midi files so you can either create your own beats or use and tweak the midi (or use third-party midi too).

A basic M-audio 49 key midi keyboard followed and then it all escalated from there for me! I now use a Native Instruments S61 keyboard, Maschine Mk II, Maschine Jam, dedicated monitor speakers and headphones and have SSDs full of premium sample libraries (Komplete Ultimate, full orchestral libraries etc.)

Happy to answer any questions about what you may need to get going. For example, sometimes it may be worth skipping the entry level version of something if you think you'll use it extensively in the future, or plan to expand in a certain direction.

[Mcgiver69]

I'm too venturing into the world of recording, here's what I'm using so far:

Audio Interfaces:
- Digibox m2 mini
- Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 (These are about £30 from Thomann and they sound very good. Don't let the brand name fool you )

Keyboard
- Arturia Minilab (25 keys)

DAW:
- Reaper
- Tracktion 5 (This is a fully featured DAW and totally free, not as fancy looking like the other but it's great)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXE9PJeQrSQ&list=PLGhDPxpNTpsrcpwBGYDYUNxtPy8-TaBtb


Drums:
- MT Power Drumkit 2 (The demo version comes with a free drum kit and lots of drum samples)
http://www.powerdrumkit.com/
If you are interested in recording drums you can always use an electronic drum kit to trigger the drums.


I hope this helps.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Mcgiver69

[lonestar]

I’ve recently bought a UMC22 and I’m at my wits end trying to get it to work with Presonus Stufio one prime on my MacBook Pro running 10.14.6.
it’s fine with GarageBand but despite trying all sorts of settings in system preferences, stufio one preferences and audio midi setup nada. Behringer support shobfar useless and tumbleweed from Presonus having sent them a system profile file.

any ideas?