Recording Noob seeks help from Almighty Veterans

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:47 am

Being the bullheaded recording noob that I am, I only recently discovered Garageband's capability to record up to 9 tracks simultaneously. Since my school has a mixer, what would I need to take advantage of this?

As for gear, I only have a lightsnake cable.

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:47 am

A multi-channel ADC and more mics, cables and stands for starters.

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:16 pm

What's an ADC?

Oh, and the school has plenty of mics, stands and cables. Not too sure about the quality of the mics, however...

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:51 pm

BirdmanDeuce wrote:

What's an ADC?

Oh, and the school has plenty of mics, stands and cables. Not too sure about the quality of the mics, however...

Analog to Digital Converter

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:16 pm

Would I require more cables to hook that up to my Mac? Or is the lightsnake sufficient? If I understand the hookups correctly, it's instruments through amps -> mics -> mixer -> ADC -> ? -> Mac...

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:26 pm

The ADC would be like your "interface", only it's not what it today termed an interface because you're not using mic pres on it, you're just using it to convert to digital, which, if it's a designated ADC is probably better anyway.

I don't know much about the Lightsnake, but I don't think it will send 9 channels of audio from an ADC to a usb connector. More like 1. So, even though you have 9 tracks on GarageBand, you're still mixing to stereo on the mixer and then ouputting mono with that pimpy cable.

You need some sort of digital, multi-channel signal from a multi-channel source if you want to record 9 tracks simultaneously.

Someone help me out, cause I'm still pretty new to all this, too. I don't think he's going to be able to do things the way he wants. And the Lightsnake from what I can see has a lot of quality issues and is pretty much meant to plug in a guitar right to a computer.

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:43 am

Best way to think this thru is to follow the signal.

1) Source-instrument , voice,whatever is it you want to record. Goes into number 2.

2) Transducer-microphones and/or di boxes. If using a di you'll need an instrument cable between it and the instrument. Also mic stands to place the mics. On to number 3.

3)Interconections-xlr cables, that go to number 4.

4)Microphone preamps-the mixer may or may not have these. Also check that it has as many as you want to use. Then number 5.

5)Interconections-again, cables. What type and how many depends on how you get the signal out of the microphone preamps. Some mixers have direct outs. If yours has them use them,that's the shortest path. Into number 6.

6)Computer audio interface-check Garageband's manual or site for it's requirements on this. Then number7.

7)Interconections-again, cables. What type depends on the interface and your computer.

Hope that helps.

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:45 pm

Thanks for the replies! I'll be off to Guitar Center later this week to figure the rest of this out. I wanted to be able to spend as less money as I could, but looks like I'll be needing a few more things.

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:50 pm

Quote:

I wanted to be able to spend as less money as I could, but looks like I'll be needing a few more things.

Wouldn't we all !

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:22 pm

Alright!

Short form of it is this. I have a friend who has an ADC. However, it's an Mbox 2. Would it work on Garageband?

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:58 am

Yes. Just leave the mixer out of it and you should be fine.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:48 pm

The mbox will work but you can only record 4 tracks at a time. The only way to get 9 simutaneous tracks recorded indavidually would be to have a digital audio interface with that many inputs if that is what you are going for. A comprimise if the mixer has four buss output would be to rout everything throught the mixer and and tie the 4buss output to the 4 inputs of the Mbox2. This will give you at least digital tracks to mix. It will be a very "live" mix. You will be limited to the post editing. Depending on the mixer and equipment this could be good or bad. Its worth a try. It wont cost anything and you will definitly learn something.

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