Total Beginner Needs Guiding Hand, Help for beginner Options

[russellthemessia...]

Hello all.

I am new both to Mac Music and making music on a Mac (or any other PC). I have absolutely no idea as to how audio setups work, MIDI interfaces, preamps etc. I once naively believed I could just plug my guitar into my computer; that gives you an idea of the level of ineptitude I display. BUT, I am willing to learn so, any plain English explanations of how best to go about recording my voice, my guitar and keyboards (yet to be bought but willing to spend some cash) would be much appreciated. I must make it clear that I fully intend to buy Logic Express 6... other than that, I am a little lost. I do not intend to spend more than £350 after having bought Logic... Many thanks in advance for your time.

[xingu]

Landlox,

Yes, DAWs like Cubase and Logic do act as virtual mixers with faders, pa knobs, etc. kaboombahchuck had suggested using a hardware mixer as a means to get various audio sources into the computer using the single line in as an alternative to an audio interface, which usually has multiple inputs (so you don't need a hardware mixer).

CoreAudio is the sound architecture for OSX. If you have an older Mac and are still running OS9, you can't use Cubase SE.

The low latency audio hardware is referring to an audio interface - most interfaces now feature some kind of direct monitoring to get around latency issues (when the sound you play is heard after a delay due to the time it takes for the signal to process through the computer). This can throw your timing off when listening to yourself through the computer while recording, which you'd need to do if, for example, you're putting guitar down over an existing drum track. Direct monitoring essentially lets you hear the signal at the input source before it's processed, so there's no delay (latency). You'll probably have latency issues using your Mac's input, so you might want to think about purchasing an audio interface.