I-mic? Options

[The Guitar God]

i was looking for a mic instead of an audio interface to record my guitar off (im just using the mic on my e-mac). i came across an 'i-mic' it says that it allows any mic to run on the mac. but it also mentions MIDI! amd i was wondering how the hell you could turn an anolouge mic int a MIDI file???

[dulla]

as far as i know, an imic has an 1/8 inch output and an 1/8 inch input. the sound quality is not that great either. the main purpose of one would be to take in a stereo signal vs. a mono siganl (which is the default of most laptops). and as far as midi, i don't think this is possible with an imic. even a midi device couldn't turn analog into midi. midi data makes no sounds and needs a midi controller and/or sound module.

[The Guitar God]

ok thanks

[vsmith1]

The iMic from Griffin Technology is a stereo in and stereo out via a USB interface. The quality is OK for transferring old LPs, cassettes etc. into a mac without any audio I/O (ie the iBook) and connecting it to your hi-fi.

If you want to get your guitar etc in then I'd look at M-Audio, Edirol , etc. USB or FireWire devices, unless you've got a desktop/tower Mac and then a PCI card option is better value.

Vince

[The Guitar God]

whats a PCI card

[shaneblyth]

A PCI Card is a computer card that fits in a slot called a pci slot as opposed to say an AGP slot
In AGP slots you put most modern video cards
In PCI slots you can put lotsa of different cards such as modem, network, older video card, firewaire card usb card etc
Most computer cards fit in a PCI slot

[vsmith1]

whats a PCI card

OK - a desktop/tower Mac such as a G5 or G4 PowerMac has a number of slots inside the computer that have a blanking plate on the back of the computer. You do not get PCI (or AGP) slots in laptops. PCI cards are items of hardware with associated software that are inserted into these slots. The blanking plate is removed and the PCI card fits into a slot and the end of the PCI card refills the place where the blanking plate had been. You can get PCI cards for a number of different tasks but for a Mac you needc to be very careful that there is software (called drivers) that enables the Mac to use them. Examples of PCI cards include extra USB and/or FireWire ports; SCSI cards to connect SCSI devices such as tape drives, hi-end scanners, external hard disks (though mainly FireWire nowadays); DSP cards to synthesise audio (ie instead of virtual instruments); and audio cards.

PCI is a standard definition for the power and interface pins for the cards, though there are some variations notably in terms of bus speed and voltage. But this is a little more complicated. If a card is said to be Mac compatible then it should fit into a slot - have a look at the back and check to see the blanking plates. They are about 10cm long and 1.5cm wide. An example is the M-Audio Audiophile 192 PCI card at Audiophile 192

I hope that this explains a bit more about cards. The advantage of using a card is that they are inside the computer, are cheaper than external USB or FireWire equivalents but they cannot fit all of the connectors onto that end-plate so usually have some sort of "multi-core" cable or break-put box.

[The Guitar God]

how would a PCI card help me record my guitar through a microphone?

[TheCatman]

First of all. You have an eMac. It has its own audio input. The iMic is just for computers with NO audio in, and is a REALLY BAD buy. I own one and only used it once before i got an MBOX instead. DON`T BUY IT.

Second, you can not put anything into an eMac, exept bigger HD or more RAM. So pci sollutions are not an option for you.

You should consider an external audio interface with good preamps. Your emac has lousy preamps so the guitar signal is weak in garageband/logic. Get something like m-audio mobilepre or firewire 410 or better, OR go large and get digidesign hardware with protools, or motu hardware and logic/dp. thats the best way for You to get your guitar onto you mac and get it to sound good.

good luck

[The Guitar God]

ok thanks i'll look into it