Basic Software/Hardware Needs for Mac recording studio?, Need advice on cheap alternative for home recording Options

I have Adobe Premiere editing software and I want to utilize my instruments(Midi keyboard), Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Tascam 4-track, and Zoom effects processer(Midi Outlet), and microphone. My goal is to record original music and then use it in Premiere as a soundtrack. I also have a G4 Power Mac.
  What are the cheapest, most basic, and essential needs for such a poor artist(Software, Hardware, Etc...) to record on his computer? Any advice is good advice! Thanks

[woottoon]

galvin - I have exactly the same situation as you - premier, guitars, midi needs, films, soundtrack, the lot. However, in all my previous forays into recording I've met with crashes, freezes etc, on cubase and reason. I want a good soundcard that doesn't cost a £1000 to input sound (the digi design 001 sounds good but costs). I've read that the Maudio 2496 (under £200) is great for windows but rubbish for MAC. If there's anyone out there that has got round the basic problems then this card (as it's got midi in) may do it - anyone out there cracked the problems ? If not - which card is  the one ??????

for asig non-midi recordings, I use SoundStudio. [http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio]
It is a really good and user-friendly recorder and editor.

[copied-and-pasted from documentation]
Features
Audio Recording:
• CD-quality recording (44.1kHz, 16-bit stereo)
• Records from any Sound Manager input device, including USB audio input
• Auto Start/Stop recording options for VOX-style and timed-length recording
• Disk-based recording
• AppleScript support for recording

Audio Editing:
• Waveform display window with zooming down to the sample level
• Standard cut/copy/paste editing, plus mixing
• Effects filters including Chorus, Flanger, Reverb, EQ, Compressor, Expander, Noise Gate
• More filters: Fade In and Out, Normalize, Volume
• Repair clicks and pops with the Interpolate filter
• Remove DC offsets and fix inverted signals
• Tone and noise generators
• Resample to different sample rates
• Adjust the pitch of the sound

File Formats:
• Apple AIFF with marker support
• CD Audio Track (requires QuickTime)
• Windows WAVE (.WAV)
• System 7 Sound
• Sound Designer II
• Dual-mono import/export
• QuickTime import/export (imports MP3s)
• Export as tab-delimited text

Needless to say, it's some pretty sweet stuff. The demo version only lasts 14 days nonregistered, so if you want to use it freely, budget your time or keep downloading it.
For MIDI recording, I don't know what to recommend. So far, I've just plugged my keyboard into the computer using the audio output jack, bcuz I can't find a suitable linkup between the two machines.

[kaboombahchuck]

So far I've had pretty good luck with calewalks metro 5. I just got my midiman 2x2 usb to midi interface working, and have found the midi sequencer in metro 5 is awsome. Before I got the midiman working I used the metro as an audio only recording device. Tons of tricks there.

I also use a behringer 16 track mixer, so I don't have to keep unpluging instruments to plug in another. I have an alesis nanoverb in the effects loop of the mixer to sweeten up the sounds.

All of these items costs less than a moto 828 firewire audio interface.

[marlie]

Hello! I've just started to experiment with sound on the computer and now I am looking for an audio program to run on my iMac like for example fruity loops (which i have been using on a pc so far..). I also have a miniman but don't even know if i can plug the optical into the computer one way or another!? maybe you could help me there?

marlie