Help Me Start, Please!, Need advice on what to buy. :-) Options

[ibnabouna]

Hello,

I have a question for all of the professional audio buffs that hang around here.

On my not-so-spare time, I build and run the web site at http://www.coptichymns.net/ , which is dedicated to the digitization and preservation of rare hymns of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church (talk about niche market, huh).

Anyway, I currently encode all of my audio in RealAudio format via RealProducer Basic. I have a USB iMic connected to my DP G4, which, in turn, is connected to my stereo's headphone check. This is an extremely simple setup, I know.

I would like to begin doing more "hardcore" digitizing. My major concern at this point is that cable going from the stereo's headphone jack to the iMic. I think I would get better performance and quality from an RCA cable instead, right? Unfortunately, my stereo doesn't have that jack, so I guess I need to buy a completely new tape deck to play these ancient tapes and get the best possible quality for further optimization.

Now that you have my story, can anyone suggest a good quality tape deck that works well with Macs? Any other suggestions as to how I can make this endeavor more productive?

Thanks so much in advance.

[Presto]

Following on from what Damann has said (oops I wrote this before reading the other replies), I think its a good idea for me to propose one particular in/out (I/O) solution. There are other solutions but if you know nothing, its a good place to start. Damann and others will then add to, warn against, or propose other solutions. (Mine's an OS9 solution NOT classic and NOT X)

The Mbox ( www.digidesign.com ) should be quite satisfactory for your needs (usb connection) as Studiophile suggests. It has 2 good quality I/O connecters, a preamp and even 48V power for mics if ever you want to record hymns live - and you get the Protools LE editing/mixing app with it which is excellent for audio. I think it goes for around 500$ in the US. That way your computer becomes your digital tape deck.

You also get some plugins, a few of which are good quality, but you may have to invest in some more or better plugins as Studiophile has said. For example the reverb plugin free with PT LE can give you a church reverb sound to your hymns, but it is not considered the best. (There's one excellent plugin I'd like for correcting pitch, but which costs more than the Mbox.)

Also, are all your hymns originally on cassette tapes? (LPs would be better, even with scratches - they can be cleaned out). If you do get an Mbox (I have one) but have a tight budget, I should try comparing initial, unmodified recordings onto your mac using your present cassette deck and a borrowed better deck (make sure the heads are clean). Then you can decide if the improvement in quality is worth the extra investment.

Aha! You need a good pair of headphones in order to listen to the results - mine are Beyerdynamic DT 250 but you may get other suggestions. If you're going to spend long periods listening, remember headphones are tiring for the ears, so you'll need monitors (good amp + good speakers)

I tried recording from an unpowered mic onto my mac using an imic and the very low quality was mainly due to the low input signal. The imic may well be a good 24 bit A/D converter, but it only works at 16bits as it uses the 16bit sound manager in MacOS9 (this may be only a minor problem in your case - perhaps not a problem on OSX), and it does not amplify a low input signal (big problem). I bought the imic before I knew about MacMusic!!

If you want to get best quality all the way along the chain, each bit can be quite expensive (I'm looking at monitors normally costing 1600$). Still, to conclude, just an Mbox and nothing else would be an enormous improvement on your imic.

(I really think somebody should write an article for beginners - I could provide one point of view but it would be far from complete)