what's needed to plug my bass into my Mac?

[sailri]

Centrance Axeport Pro - used - $50-75.
You plug it in and Garage Band already will have it in the drop down by the time you go looking for it.
Easy. Light.Mobile.High Sound Quality.No Latency.[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
That one's been around a month but I've seen several on Craigslist in that $50-70, and once a month there's an Amazon seller with one new for $99.

 

[twocargar]

Yup, this works great. One thing I've learned though the years is keeping it simple with the recording rig. The more complicated mine got, the longer it took to get it all dialed in and working. Many times I lost my creative thought and just got frustrated and walked away. Now I plug into my Mac and record in GarageBand usually, and if I want to continue with the idea later I can open it up in Logic or ProTools. GB works fine for me though. No one has ever said that my recordings don't sound good.

I agree with the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter, or guitar cable with 1/8 jack. Cheap, easy, works great. Plug into the Mac and open Gband. Start clicking. Click your track and look at the Edit info on right. Point and click. It's addictive.

 

[PerlNinja]

Depending on what kind of Mac, when I had my Macbook Pro I just used a 1/4 to 1/8th plug and went straight from my bass (passive) to the line-in jack on the MBP. Garage Band would take care of the rest. On an iMac, you can do something similar, although you'll need an extension cable for the line-in plug because it's in a b*tch of a location.

If you're using a Macbook Air, you'll have to buy an USB sound card and go the 1/4 to 1/8 route as well, but plug bass to amp, then from amp phone output to the soundcard. Make sure you buy decent cables, and make absolutely sure you've hooked your Mac up to a grounded socket, or you're going to get a buttload of buzz and interference.

 

[Stewthebassman]

If anyone notices this thread, I have gone the adapter plug route in the past with my MBP. It has worked fine. The cat must have made off with my adaptor, so I went and bought another one today. Plugged both active and passive basses in, different cables even, and got a low signal, rough, distorted...not what I had been used to!

Is my input destroyed? Is the adapter I bought no good?

Just so no one asks, I did have the headphones in the output jack and the bass plugged into the input jack

Thanks!

 

[Shovel]

I use a griffin iMic with a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter.