First time mixing with my mac.

[JBot]

So heres the deal. I used to run a recording studio, mixing most through a self powered mixer, throwing it on another 15 track system, than save it to a zip file, where we could than put it on my pc and mix it through that.
NOW. i have a powerbook, g4, 1.67, with the most recent upgrade(last weekend) adding another gig ram into it. I believe the system is powerful enough, my question is, what should i be using mixer wise.
Im going to try garage band for the first time this weekend recording someone, and i was curious as to if anyone has done this before, and what they used. i will be renting equipment, as i settled with my partner prior to moving away for uni, so i have nothing again.

 

[Hytower77]

I've never messed with it, but Logic is the choice from what some of the folks I've talked to have said. It's the Final Cut equal for audio etc.

http://www.apple.com/logicpro/

 

[JBot]

No, i apologize, im going to use garage band for now. See how that works. Im more wondering on hardware, tracking, mixing boards people use.
Im not about to drop $999. Unless they have a huge student discount...

 

[tipdrill407]

I'm not sure what kind of results you want, but GarageBand is made for amateurs. If you want professional features and results you will need to dish out money for Logic Pro.

 

[JBot]

Its just a demo recording, its not going to be tops, im doing it for next to nothing, just cause these guys want to get someone on disc.
What makes this app for amateurs? Like i understand the whole, its free, of course it wont come with asmany whistles as a 1000$ app, but what makes garage band so bad?

 

[codo]

Cubase.

 

[JBot]

again. not software. hardware.
i know what im using to mix tracks. i want to know what you guys have used to record the tracks into your mac.

 

[Super Macho Man]

So heres the deal. I used to run a recording studio, mixing most through a self powered mixer, throwing it on another 15 track system, than save it to a zip file, where we could than put it on my pc and mix it through that.
NOW. i have a powerbook, g4, 1.67, with the most recent upgrade(last weekend) adding another gig ram into it. I believe the system is powerful enough, my question is, what should i be using mixer wise.
Im going to try garage band for the first time this weekend recording someone, and i was curious as to if anyone has done this before, and what they used. i will be renting equipment, as i settled with my partner prior to moving away for uni, so i have nothing again.

Are you talking analog mixer + digital audio interface? Or just the interface, and doing mixing in software? What is your price range, how many simultaneous ins and outs do you need? I guess more detail would help - what exactly do you want to do.

 

[JBot]

Are you talking analog mixer + digital audio interface?

Yes

how many simultaneous ins and outs do you need?

I would want to do a drum kit in 3 different tracks. The most inputs would be 3.
Would outputs be only 1? As it will be a usb input?
I want to record tracks and put them into garageband, than edit levels and such.

 

[crees!]

Yes

I would want to do a drum kit in 3 different tracks. The most inputs would be 3.
Would outputs be only 1? As it will be a usb input?
I want to record tracks and put them into garageband, than edit levels and such.

If you could fork out for a mixer that has a harddisk recorder you could record the band and mix it down into garageband. Don't know how many simulataneous tracks you can mix at once though onto the PB. I'll eventually be doing something like this myself but need to learn how to program (drums) first and which programs to use for that.

 

[williamh]

I hope my studio setup will help you with this regard.

I'm having a G4 1Ghz dual tower and hooking up with Motu 828 (interface), then a Mackie 1604-VLZ Pro (mixer) hook up to Motu 828. The software I'm running is just Logic Pro 7 and it works perfectly fine!

However, if you want to have something easier and cheaper, try do a research on Phonic's Helix Board firewire (http://210.243.85.5/partner/modules/product_explor/products_detail.php?product_id=139)

I'm pretty sure that logic pro/express works with most of the recording interface s and mixers!

 

[Super Macho Man]

Yes
I would want to do a drum kit in 3 different tracks. The most inputs would be 3.
Would outputs be only 1? As it will be a usb input?
I want to record tracks and put them into garageband, than edit levels and such.

In that case you would need an audio interface with at least 4 inputs. (That's 3 for your drums, plus one extra because they don't make audio interfaces with only 3 inputs.) These may be line level inputs if you plan on using other mic preamps, such as ones on a mixer, or they may be mic inputs on the interface itself if you don't. Depending on the audio interface, you really wouldn't even need a mixer unless you need to route sound in/out to/from outboard devices. If you are going to do all your mixing in software, you don't need one. They're nice to have, but not essential in this case.

The number of outputs you would need depends on whether you want to mix entirely inside the computer or if you want to route the tracks out to a hardware mixer for outboard processing, monitoring, etc. For software mixing, any number of outputs is fine. For outboard mixing, it's nice to have as many outputs as you have tracks, or at least a decent number of outputs like 8.

I don't have any experience with USB 2.0 interfaces, but I think Firewire is the way to go. Most decent Mac audio interfaces are Firewire. The audio interface is the bridge between your computer and your musical instruments. All audio between the interface and the computer will travel over Firewire, and all audio between the interface and everything else will not.