Am I Dreaming? Can This Be Done??, Help create a guitar recording studioetc Options

[Myerzman]

HEY! For starters, I'm a definate beginner. I just got the new 17" updated IMAC, with the audio input, and I'm looking to set up a little place to record some guitar licks, vocal tracks, and maybe get a keyboard (althought I don't really understand what MIDI is) I got all my little effects pedals for my Strat, is there a way I can utilize these and plug my guitar into my mac to lay some tracks. I've heard about the M-Box, where I could get a guitar and mic in, but is that a good way to go, wouldn't I need to applify the signal? Or could I get a mixer and plug evetything into that? I was gonna try pro tools once I got everything hooked up, but I also need a good way to simulate realistic drums. Am I dreaming here or can this all be done?

[deaconblue]

depends on what your end goal is. You can get by with a USB interface to get the tracks onto the iMac (M-Audio's Duo <http://www.m-audio.net/products/m-audio/duo.php>) will get you decent results via USB with a Mic or 1/4 inch inputs. I have used it with both Peak and Deck. The results are pretty good for the low end input source (no offense to M-Audio, but I can't compare the sound quality to the MOTU 896 or 828). But this doesn't provide you any MIDI interfaces. You can get a separate MIDI interface for arount $80 US with 2x2 MIDI. With this set up (or any other that accepts an unbalanced 1/4 in. input) you will need to provide some type of preamp for your guitar signal. You can do this with a DI box (Tech 21 has some nice ones like the Sans-Amp) or if you have a box like the Line 6 POD or a Berringer V-Amp you can get a good tone from them as well since they have a 1/4 in. out and provide both amp and cabinet modelling. I have had mixed results using pedals to get a good tone from recording direct, but you can try it and see if you like the results.

If you want to go higher end, the MOTU 828 and 896 both have FireWire (IEEE1394) interfaces that will work with the iMac, but MOTU does not have an OS X compatible application to take advantage of this yet. Digidesign is also about to release a version that will work and the M-Box would be a good "entry level, semi-pro" interface. Their DIGI 02 is the next step up and likewise uses a FireWire interface to get the signal into the iMac.

MIDI can be pretty cool to play with if you have a MIDI controller (software and/or harware ones are plentiful) and there are plenty of good books on the subject (or this board for that matter).

For realistic drums, there is Doggie Box, a software based drum machine that runs in OS X. For OS9 there is Virtual Drummer 4.1. Alternatively, depending on how much MIDI hardware you want to invest in, there are plenty of drum machines or rhythm machines on the market as well. Some keyboards have drum sounds built in, but...

There are some drum trax cds that you can get that have drum loops in .AIFF format that you can import into your DAW software (digital audio workstation). With these you can get some really good loops with good drum sounds and simply "copy and paste" them together to get a good drum track to play against.

Hope this helps out. As you can see, there are a lot of options out there to choose from. It can seeem to be overwhelming at times. Determine how much you can or want to spend, then shop around. Sweetwater music and Musician's Friend both have good selections on line. Guitar Center and plenty of local (buy local if you can) retailers will have good selections. Read as much as you can before you buy. Ask questions of friends, other musicians people on this board, etc.

Good luck and post back if you need help with any of this.

Peace.
Dekon