Making Music With A New Ibook, Looking for setup help |
Sat 7 Dec 2002, 21:00
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 10 Joined: 08-Dec 01 From: Queens Member No.: 2,607 |
I am a public school music teacher who is thinking about getting a new iBook to use as a portable music making tool. Here's what I would like to do with it:
1. Sequence backing tracks in various musical styles for my students to play along with in class. I'd want to burn these backing tracks onto cd and bring them into the classroom so my kids can jam to a calypso-style "This Land Is Your Land" or whatever. What would be good software to do this with an iBook? 2. Record my own music and my students music either live or track by track - what is the best way to get sound into an iBook? 3. Begin to explore the world of software synths. Which ones are easy to use and can interact well with the software/hardware used for the above two items? I hope that's clear enough. I'd appreciate any suggestions. If there's anyone answering who lives in the NYC area and can help me in person with this I'd be really grateful. Thank you for supporting public education. |
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Replies
Fri 10 Jan 2003, 13:27
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#2
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Maniac Member Group: Members Posts: 645 Joined: 17-May 02 From: Broughton Member No.: 4,705 |
charlieb: I mean that whatever Mac you own, you're going to need to add either a better quality soundcard (if you have a tower) or a FireWire or USB interface if you have a laptop. If you're at all serious about the fidelity of your recordings, the internal soundcard of the Mac (although pretty good) won't be good enough. This is true for most musicians here, I'd say.
Presto's Mbox is a USB interface: the MOTU 828 or 868 that a lot of people here seem to like is a FireWire interface. There are plenty of interfaces around to choose from - Edirol, M-Audio, Emagic etc all make various flavours. Some have Midi, some have digital I/O, some have FX onboard. It all comes down to cost. FireWire is faster than USB, obviously, which is why some people say USB isn't sturdy enough to cope with multitrack audio. But like Presto says, it depends how much you're doing. If you're a professional engineer or musician and you want to send 24 tracks out from your Mac to an external digital mixer, you're probably better off with a FireWire device. If you're only sending a stereo signal back and forth, or maybe a few more tracks, USB is fine. I use a 600MHz iBook with an Edirol USB interface and it's been good for me. But if I had a sackload of money, I'd buy a new PowerBook, a FireWire interface like the MOTU 868 and a FireWire hard disk. Probably cost close to £4,000 all in. Dare to dream! |
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Posts in this topic
musicteacher Making Music With A New Ibook Sat 7 Dec 2002, 21:00
ghess musicteacher, An organization that you might find... Mon 9 Dec 2002, 17:26
rickenbacker Logic 5.x, Cubase SX, Pro Tools, Bias Deck & P... Wed 11 Dec 2002, 16:58
Hamish The absolute simplest option would be to get a gen... Wed 11 Dec 2002, 17:57
BagHun QUOTE (rickenbacker @ Dec 11 2002, 09:58)Logi... Wed 11 Dec 2002, 19:36
goldmike Hi everybody, I´m working on a iBook 700 Mhz with ... Thu 12 Dec 2002, 11:01
rickenbacker Baghun: OK, Pro Tools X isn't out yet, but it... Thu 12 Dec 2002, 16:01
musicteacher Thank you all for all of this helpful information.... Thu 12 Dec 2002, 22:54
rickenbacker Noooo! Don't do it! Don't go back ... Fri 13 Dec 2002, 15:46
ryosode Wait Rickenbacker, as it currently stands, I belie... Fri 13 Dec 2002, 22:20
musicteacher My fear is that after I get my new iBook (if I in ... Sun 15 Dec 2002, 16:53
ghess Musicteacher; There are two online resources whic... Mon 16 Dec 2002, 14:22
jmax Take a look at Harvestworks they have a number of ... Mon 16 Dec 2002, 19:05
ryosode NYC being a huge market for multimedia, I bet ther... Tue 17 Dec 2002, 23:27
bowsk If i can just throw in a query, Is there a major d... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 01:30
rickenbacker Bowsk: there's no difference between recording... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 13:16
charlieb Hi Rickenbacker, When you talk about "and add... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 15:57
Presto I'm no expert but have an ibook600 with 384 Ra... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 17:12
ghess musicteacher, An organization that you might find... Mon 9 Dec 2002, 17:26
rickenbacker Logic 5.x, Cubase SX, Pro Tools, Bias Deck & P... Wed 11 Dec 2002, 16:58
Hamish The absolute simplest option would be to get a gen... Wed 11 Dec 2002, 17:57
BagHun QUOTE (rickenbacker @ Dec 11 2002, 09:58)Logi... Wed 11 Dec 2002, 19:36
goldmike Hi everybody, I´m working on a iBook 700 Mhz with ... Thu 12 Dec 2002, 11:01
rickenbacker Baghun: OK, Pro Tools X isn't out yet, but it... Thu 12 Dec 2002, 16:01
musicteacher Thank you all for all of this helpful information.... Thu 12 Dec 2002, 22:54
rickenbacker Noooo! Don't do it! Don't go back ... Fri 13 Dec 2002, 15:46
ryosode Wait Rickenbacker, as it currently stands, I belie... Fri 13 Dec 2002, 22:20
musicteacher My fear is that after I get my new iBook (if I in ... Sun 15 Dec 2002, 16:53
ghess Musicteacher; There are two online resources whic... Mon 16 Dec 2002, 14:22
jmax Take a look at Harvestworks they have a number of ... Mon 16 Dec 2002, 19:05
ryosode NYC being a huge market for multimedia, I bet ther... Tue 17 Dec 2002, 23:27
bowsk If i can just throw in a query, Is there a major d... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 01:30
rickenbacker Bowsk: there's no difference between recording... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 13:16
charlieb Hi Rickenbacker, When you talk about "and add... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 15:57
Presto I'm no expert but have an ibook600 with 384 Ra... Thu 9 Jan 2003, 17:12
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