Completely Stuck, HELPME!! Options

[mancabbage]

right here goes, me and my band want to record a demo that we can turn into mp3's.... Im using an new ibook and have no idea about where to start - i looked at some software and as soon as im ready im pretty sure i'll download the desk light trial for editing, etc. We want to record our tracks seperatly as well so we can edit them in the computer - thing is how the fuck do i get these sounds into my computer 0n a tight (very tight) budget? i have usb and firewire on my ibook so im assuming ill need some kinda connector box that will conect to a normal mic lead and will send the info thru one of these ports??? i only really need one mic lead type input because we have a PA system at the studio we jam at so we can mic the drums up with loadsa mics then set the levels on the pa and take a wire out of the pa into whatever i am using to connect to my computer??! but what do i use? ive searched the net but all i can come up with are biiig home studio expensive things when this is not what i need at all - just something that will let me plug a mic into it that will allow me to record the audio in my mac ??? so can someone help me and tell me what i need any advice - steps - suitable products- anything would be of help - cheers

[Levon River]

The iMic is the cheapest solution, varying reports of its results:

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/...imic/index.html

Next up is a USB audio interface. This page lists the ones available for Mac in all kinds of price ranges, some that work with OS 9 only right now, some that work in X as well. You'll have to do some comparison research, some homework:

http://www.audiomidi.com/hardware/audio_usb.cfm

Check out the ones on that page that fit your budget. You ought to find something that will do the job just fine.

There are also firewire interfaces, but they probably exceed what you describe as your budget:

http://www.audiomidi.com/hardware/audio_firewire.cfm

[ryosode]

First of all, you got a little bit of contradition going on here, you said you needed to record your band on separate tracks, but you said you just need one port going into your portable. Well, one stereo jack only gives you two channels and if you sum up drums, keyboard, guitar, bass and vocal, you need at least 6 to 8 audio input ports. If this is the case, the cheapest solution available for you is most likely MOTU 828, and that's gonna cost you $699 at least. As for software, if you get MOTU 828, it comes with a decent multitrack recording software that runs under OS 9, so you don't need to buy an additional software.

If I were you, I would probably go through MacMusic forum and check out some of previous threads with similar topic. This site's forums do provide a lot of information so if you can be patience, you'll know enough by the end of the day.

[mancabbage]

yeah i said that as at the studio we jam at we have a mixing desk - surely i could mic up the drums with as many mics as i wanted -mix the drum sound on the mixing desk using headphones to get the sound we think is cool then - use that headphone line - plug a guitar lead into it one end - the other into whatever it is i need that converts the signal to something over the firewire or usb ports (?????:| ) and record the sound into my mac - surely this way by recording the drums mixed already on the desk i would only need something with one input as ill never need anymore mics for guitar/bass/keyboard/vocals because i can record themall at seperate times, i think, or am i barking up the wrong tree completely???

[ryosode]

Ok, so the part about recording the band at separate times wasn't clear to me.

Well, if that's the case, I would recommend iMic just as Levon River suggested. It's only $30 or something like that. For you, software is more of an issue. You use OSX or OS9?

[mancabbage]

yeah i think ill definatly go with the imic - I i use os x but i have os9 installed too. I found a site that lets me download protools free - would that be any good? its a full version too no trial thingy. .... I also found deck le and was going to download the 15 day trial of that- would that be more suitable?? or do i want something else completely???

[kaboombahchuck]

Pro tools free is a good place to start. It is a full version, or at least as full as you are going to get for the price! One of the reasons they give out a fully funcional version, is to hopfully trap you into buying their products, which is a never ending thing.

[mancabbage]

one more thing - will pro tools free let me save my finished songs as mp3's? or something i can use to get em on a cd/

[MOLLOWITZ]

personally i've never even tried to save them as mp3's. but since you're just recording audio you can select the 'bounce to disk' feature in the file menu. after that, i usually just burn it off using toast (which converts it to a AIFF file).

on a related note, i record with midi and protools won't let me bounce the track to a disk unless i have an audio track in there somewhere. is there a way you can just bounce midi to disk?

[mancabbage]

whats an AIFF file ?

[MOLLOWITZ]

it's short for Audio Interchange File Format, it's basically a very high quality audio file (tends to be quite large in size, say, about 40 some MB per song.)

if you really want to know about AIFF files: http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tech/aiff.htm

it's a good format for burning normal cds (about 14 songs or so).

--
anyway... you can always convert AIFF files to mp3 if you need to.

[kaboombahchuck]

AIFF is the standard. I'm assuming that the protools program will save your music files as AIFF. You can use iTunes to convert them to mp3 if you wish.

[danml69]

One thing your band can try is miking the drums and getting all the balances and levels just right. Then set up mikes in front of all the other insturments in your band. Record a bit on the song you want to do and listen. Do that a few times until the balance and levels are to your liking. Then record the song live. minus the vocals. You will preserve the energy of the tune and will sound good. That done, record the vocals track at a time. Process and mix until done. Total cost. $40 bucks for the iMic.

[ryosode]

I actually agree with danml69. When you don't know much about this stuff, you want to start simple. Go ahead and get your sound recorded using SoundStudio OS X which is a 20days free trial shareware or Spark LE (free?). Save it to AIFF or whatever it might be, if necessary convert it to MP3 using iTunes. After you get it right, go ahead and explore into multi-track recording and other professional features. One thing is multi-track recording software by itself usually costs you $200 at least. A decent USB audio i/o is also at least $200 and could go up to $700 for those FireWire models. My point is that the investment is not cheap. You should try it first.

Also, don't forget that there are decent portable recording studio solution for $500 ~ $1000 (depends on number of channels and extra feature). These are multi-track recorders that have a hardware drive and USB interface in them or a flash memory slot for your convenience. This way, you don't have to worry about all the technical crap and after the recording is done, you can transfer the sound to your iBook for editting. Just a suggestion.