Help Me, Please!, Utterly hopeless beginner begs help. Options

[Adamcasciaro]

Hello.

I am an absolute beginner to audio recording on my iMac.

I have an iMac G4 and Logic (of the Logic BIG BOX set) I am quite accompished at MIDI, but i have absolutely no idea what to do now i want to use my recently bought microphone.

I have just bought an AKG C1000S and tried plugging it in to my Mac direct. Is this not possible? Does the line-in not accept microphones?

Please, could someone tell me what other things i need, what connectors i will need with them and where they will connect to? I know it's all probably very basic stuff, but i really need to know in simple plain english, just for the first time....

Thankyou!

Adam Casciaro

[PristineRec]

You're going to need a preamp to boost the mic signal to a useable level. That particular microphone is a condenser, which requires phantom power, which most preamps can also provide. There are many computer audio interfaces which include a channel or more of mic preamps with phantom power, the discussion forums here are full of recommendations for many different ones. Take a look around for info on them. And I'm sure there will be other people adding their recommendations to this thread shortly.
I personally use a DIGI002, but Pro Tools might not be the way to go for someone who is mostly MIDI and just beginning to delve into audio recording. There are many cheaper pieces of hardware and software that are closer to what you are looking to do.