I use garageband it is easy to use and it came on my Mac. I think it sounds good, but I'm not a pro by any means. It is easy to sync with the photo booth app too so you can make decent sounding vids.
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Just bought my first mac
- Thread starter volerium
- Start date
So If I decide to get a Mac laptop and decide to do some full band recording for fun . What recommendations do you guys think I need built into the laptop so it's not lagging ? Ram, Hard drive etc.... I also have a presonus 16.4.2 board and plan on using presonus studio one software. Thanks in advance... Jody
+1 Studio One is powerful, simple and ultra logical to use. I've tried other programs and they're all too complicated. You spend most of your time trying to figure out the software instead of making music.
DiabolusInMusic
Functionless Art is Merely Tolerated Vandalism
Nope, not a single one aside from the professional series stuff, like Logic and whatever the movie one is, I forget. Pro Tools is not an Apple application, it is an application that runs on Apple.
Mac doesn't support their products on any other operating systems than Mac, they won't talk to you if you run a "hackintosh" heck they don't even like 3rd party RAM and will diagnose issues to it. Since they don't support their product on anything else, they don't see the need to copy protect their OS or programs.
I agree GarageBand is very good and still free I believe. The Drummer feature within GB is pretty good actually.
Initially, for my desktop I had an Intel Celeron G550 2.6GHz, with 8GB of Ram running Logic Pro X. It was somewhat laggy.
Recently, I upgraded to an Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz and now 10GB of Ram, much better. I run with a 1.5 TB drive. If you use the stock plugins you should be fine with the i5. Some plugins such as Waves seem to take a little more resources, I imagine.
Hard drive... I would go with at least a 500GB but I hear that it is better to run an external HD when recording (saving files to the External HD). I haven't tried that yet. Perhaps someone can vouch for that.
I also run Studio One Artist. Still good recording software and it is easy to use.
I know the OS is not copy protected (nor is it very expensive compared to Windows) but most non-native music apps for OS X that I have come across are at the very least serial # protected. Some are ridiculously over-protected with serial numbers, dongles, online license managers, and even hardware (think of previous generations of Pro Tools).
However, native apps like iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, Pages, et al are indeed free.
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I can vouch for that. I use an external Glyph 500GB via thunderbolt/firewire adapter. Lag is decreased when live recording.
Another big thumbs-up for Logic. The newest version is a *steal* for the price when you add in all the additional downloadable content (I think about 20GB worth of samples?) and the Drummer feature alone is pretty amazing. Also fantastic vintage keyboard modelling.
I'll also add that I switched to a Mac about two years ago and within less than a week I had nearly forgotten that I was using a new OS - the user-interface differences between Mac and Windows are often overblown on both sides.
I'll also add that I switched to a Mac about two years ago and within less than a week I had nearly forgotten that I was using a new OS - the user-interface differences between Mac and Windows are often overblown on both sides.
Logic IS copy protected, it's tied to an Apple ID and pirated versions cannot be updated normally. Older 9 and 8 versions had activation keys, 7 had an USB dongle.
Sure, the protection is not very aggressive but then again the app is cheap enough not to pirate for most serious users. And Apple seems to understand that an overkill copy protection is nothing but a nuisance for paying customers.
The need for external recording hard drive has pretty much vanished with SSDs; current MacBook SSDs are about 10x faster than regular HDDs. Not to mention the significant performance boost all over. Just get one large enough. It'll cost you extra but IMHO it's worth every penny. I'm never ever even going to consider switching back to HDDs.
For anyone considering the non-Retina Display MacBook Pro; don't. It's 2012 hardware with mechanical (read: slow) hard drive. The Retina models cost a little extra but they are substantially better computers all over.
Sure, the protection is not very aggressive but then again the app is cheap enough not to pirate for most serious users. And Apple seems to understand that an overkill copy protection is nothing but a nuisance for paying customers.
The need for external recording hard drive has pretty much vanished with SSDs; current MacBook SSDs are about 10x faster than regular HDDs. Not to mention the significant performance boost all over. Just get one large enough. It'll cost you extra but IMHO it's worth every penny. I'm never ever even going to consider switching back to HDDs.
For anyone considering the non-Retina Display MacBook Pro; don't. It's 2012 hardware with mechanical (read: slow) hard drive. The Retina models cost a little extra but they are substantially better computers all over.
Yeah SSDs have demonstrated how much of a bottleneck a hard disk has been on system throughput for the last ten years or so. Once you've tried a system with solid state storage you wouldn't dream of going back to a HDD.
So here's my update. Got the imac and this weekend will mark two weeks with it. Love it! I really haven't gotten into it but yeah this thing is pretty slick. Coming from pc all my life and not being all that computer savvy anyways, it's a big learning curve for me. I'm looking at my dock at the bottom of the screen and of the... 25 items shown, I know what 7 of them are. But that's just me, some people will probably have an easier go of things.
This is the cheapest, plain jane imac they had. $1299 from musiciansfriend and another $180 for a 3 year warranty from mf too. People have their opinion of mf and gc but I do love their warranties and would recommend them for any piece of equipment. The salesman said that mf warranties for apple items is a new thing for them. Whether that's true or not I don't know but having it gives me peace of mind. This computer at almost $1500 was the peak of our budget and I actually put it on my mf card. A new computer was needed since my pc bit the dust and we decided to give this a go. It does start up pretty slow and I'm sure an ssd would make this thing fly. So assuming I'm a mac user from now on I'll probably order direct from apple next time and get all the bells and whistles with it, 27", maxed out ram, ssd and larger hard drive.
For now though I think we'll be set. Like I said we love it. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions posted
The only garageband messing around I've gotten done was the first night it came, super easy program. I was making goofy little dance music beats and synth stuff with the included instruments on it haha. Looking forward to getting a bass plugged in.
This is the cheapest, plain jane imac they had. $1299 from musiciansfriend and another $180 for a 3 year warranty from mf too. People have their opinion of mf and gc but I do love their warranties and would recommend them for any piece of equipment. The salesman said that mf warranties for apple items is a new thing for them. Whether that's true or not I don't know but having it gives me peace of mind. This computer at almost $1500 was the peak of our budget and I actually put it on my mf card. A new computer was needed since my pc bit the dust and we decided to give this a go. It does start up pretty slow and I'm sure an ssd would make this thing fly. So assuming I'm a mac user from now on I'll probably order direct from apple next time and get all the bells and whistles with it, 27", maxed out ram, ssd and larger hard drive.
For now though I think we'll be set. Like I said we love it. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions posted
The only garageband messing around I've gotten done was the first night it came, super easy program. I was making goofy little dance music beats and synth stuff with the included instruments on it haha. Looking forward to getting a bass plugged in.
I am brand new to recording also. Just got my first Mac mini and loaded it with as much memory as I could and I am now trying to learn Garageband.
I found lots of tutorials on YouTube on GB but they are all very short. Does anyone have links to a "series" that walks me through everything?
My needs are really simple. I am just transcribing solos and then playing over a backing track. So I figured out how to import the backing tracks. Right now I just plug my bass direct into my Focusrite. Trying to figure out how to get a really nice tone on the bass.
I am also video taping the performance. What I want to do is cancel the video audio and use my GB audio in its place. Merge my audio into IMovie and then upload these bass vids to YouTube. Anybody found links how to do this? I am not sure how you line up the GB audio exactly to replace the video audio.
Great thread and so relieved there are people on here who really know their stuff!
Thanks in advance.
I found lots of tutorials on YouTube on GB but they are all very short. Does anyone have links to a "series" that walks me through everything?
My needs are really simple. I am just transcribing solos and then playing over a backing track. So I figured out how to import the backing tracks. Right now I just plug my bass direct into my Focusrite. Trying to figure out how to get a really nice tone on the bass.
I am also video taping the performance. What I want to do is cancel the video audio and use my GB audio in its place. Merge my audio into IMovie and then upload these bass vids to YouTube. Anybody found links how to do this? I am not sure how you line up the GB audio exactly to replace the video audio.
Great thread and so relieved there are people on here who really know their stuff!
Thanks in advance.
I switched to Mac in November when my wife bought me a used (2007) Macbook. I really wasn't sure at first but man do I love it. It was always a nightmare for me to do any recording on my PC without an interface but with my Mac I can just plug in direct and it works.
The winning combo for me software wise has been Reaper and Amplitube. with Amplitube I have been able to get the sound of my full rig without having to mic it.
The winning combo for me software wise has been Reaper and Amplitube. with Amplitube I have been able to get the sound of my full rig without having to mic it.
Mac user since they switched to OS X
First thing I'd buy if I didn't already have is a couple of external 1Tb drives and
Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner and clone the disk in the iMac a couple of times.
Backups are good.
First thing I'd buy if I didn't already have is a couple of external 1Tb drives and
Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner and clone the disk in the iMac a couple of times.
Backups are good.
GarageBand is nice and free, the Midi Guitar for GarageBand app also looks interesting.
Keep us updated.
haha, I work in post production at an avid media composer facility. It's a wonderful system, which is also the absolute bane of my life. I bought pro tools recently rather than a cubase update and love how it works, but it is annoying to be stuck in the whole 'don't update your mac ever' thing at home as well as at work.
OP, I'd say start off with garageband or something. It's free and it has most of the features that logic express used to have, if you can cope with it's nasty gui I've heard it's pretty powerful!
Then when you find yourself being constrained by it have a look at logic/pro tools/cubase. They all do the same things really though you'll be able to open up your GB projects in Logic I believe.
Check out some trials too and find out which ones you like, there's a 30 day trial of Cubase, a 30 day trial of pro tools (though you need an ilok key for this), I'm not sure about Logic.
Another update here. Probably the last.
Today I finally got around to plugging my bass in and recording in garageband via the zoom H4N as an interface. I will say that I was shocked at how easy that was. Just make all the connections- bass to zoom, zoom to computer, open garageband and hit r and your keyboard and you're off recording. It's really that simple. No lag or anything and sounds much cleaner than anything else I've recorded myself
Next up for me to figure out is how to export whatever I make up in garageband to itunes and as an mp3 to copy to flashdrives.
One thing I am concerned about is that when I'm going direct bass to garageband I'm pretty much playing bass through these crap computer speakers and I'm not sure how much of that they'll take...
Today I finally got around to plugging my bass in and recording in garageband via the zoom H4N as an interface. I will say that I was shocked at how easy that was. Just make all the connections- bass to zoom, zoom to computer, open garageband and hit r and your keyboard and you're off recording. It's really that simple. No lag or anything and sounds much cleaner than anything else I've recorded myself
Next up for me to figure out is how to export whatever I make up in garageband to itunes and as an mp3 to copy to flashdrives.
One thing I am concerned about is that when I'm going direct bass to garageband I'm pretty much playing bass through these crap computer speakers and I'm not sure how much of that they'll take...
