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recording with a laptop

H

havik180

Oct 9, 2005
228
0
45
SF bay area
#1
I was thinkin of getting a Mac with Garageband to record and practice , just for fun & learning. But I really know nothing about doing it and don't know a whole lot about computers in general. I'd probably get an ibook but what else do I need ? How do I even hook up my bass to a laptop ? :confused:


Rich
 
#2
Do you have an Apple store in your area? I know they sell a cable specifically made to interface your guitar with a computer. I think it's just a 1/4" to 1/8" cable. I think the mac is pretty much set up start recording right away - but I could be wrong.

I personally have a have a Line 6 Guitar Port that I use to interface with my computer. It works great and the best part is the amp models sound terrific when you lay them down. For bass I use the "Tube instument preamp" model and no cabinet modeling.
 
#5
I have a 14' IBook (Mac) and I also purchased an MBox2 (Which includes the Pro Tools software), and it is great for home recordings, and specially great for live performances.
The only negative thing is the memory that Protools uses from your hard drive, but that can be easily solved with an external hard drive.

I am sorry but I do not have a lot of good things to say when it comes to garage band. Pro tools or Digital Performer are the way to go in my opinion.
 
#6
havik180 said:
I was thinkin of getting a Mac with Garageband to record and practice , just for fun & learning. But I really know nothing about doing it and don't know a whole lot about computers in general. I'd probably get an ibook but what else do I need ? How do I even hook up my bass to a laptop ? :confused:
Rich
Click to expand...

depending on the type of recording you want to do, you have a lot of options.
the cheap...
For two channel recording, as in live recording from a mixing board, I use a USB audio (Edirol) interface into my iBook. I prefer QuickTime Pro (30$) over Garageband, since my iBook is a couple years old.

GB has improved a lot, but I still prefer QTPro, I also use it for video since I can use seperate audio and video inputs.

If you want to to have a mini studio set-up, be prepared to outlay a bit more cash....

If you go the cheap route be sure to get a copy of Audacity(open source) so edit the audio files even more and you can convert your file to different formats; mp3 etc.
 
#7
It's a good idea, when i think of the time i used to waste on my old four track and where i could have been lol

The Griffin i-mic (try ebay) is the cheapest way to get going on garageband, the quality aint the best but for something portable to get the ideas down quickly it's great.

Garageband is really easy to use, i cant set a vcr for timer record and im fine with it!
 

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