Help Me Start, Please!, Need advice on what to buy. :-) Options

[ibnabouna]

Hello,

I have a question for all of the professional audio buffs that hang around here.

On my not-so-spare time, I build and run the web site at http://www.coptichymns.net/ , which is dedicated to the digitization and preservation of rare hymns of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church (talk about niche market, huh).

Anyway, I currently encode all of my audio in RealAudio format via RealProducer Basic. I have a USB iMic connected to my DP G4, which, in turn, is connected to my stereo's headphone check. This is an extremely simple setup, I know.

I would like to begin doing more "hardcore" digitizing. My major concern at this point is that cable going from the stereo's headphone jack to the iMic. I think I would get better performance and quality from an RCA cable instead, right? Unfortunately, my stereo doesn't have that jack, so I guess I need to buy a completely new tape deck to play these ancient tapes and get the best possible quality for further optimization.

Now that you have my story, can anyone suggest a good quality tape deck that works well with Macs? Any other suggestions as to how I can make this endeavor more productive?

Thanks so much in advance.

[formatj]

Hi ibnabouna,

I don't think you made a mistake with the Audiophile card. It has very similar specs to the Mbox in terms of dynamic range. It also supports 96kHz, the Mbox only supports 44.1/48kHz.
With the Mbox you are paying for microphone preamps which you don't currently need.
If you do want a mic preamp one day you can buy one separately with digital out and use the digital in of the Audiophile.

The audiophile card was shipping with a copy of Logic delta for a while, don't know if it still is. This will have some similar functionality to protools LE.

You can also go to the digidesign website and download a copy of protools free.

Put the money you saved towards some good software plugins.