Hey guys! First time post-er. Glad I found this place.
I am just getting into recording and a tad confused. I get the general idea and am able to work with sound equipment but here is my dilemma.
I am recording to a 13 inch macbook pro which only has 1 audio jack. It is in/out built in together. right now I have a Yamaha mixer that I am running my guitar and vocals through. I start by recording my guitar part and that goes pretty well but when i want to record my vocals I do not have a way to hear the monitor of my guitar part that I just recorded. Im sure this is not explained well but maybe somebody understands me.
I think my ultimate goal is to get a PreSonus firebox or something of that nature and do my recording through firewire and I wonder have this problem but until then I will have to deal with this.
If anyone has any type of solution feel free to add your comments. Also tell me what would be your next step in building your studio. Would you get a PreSonus firebox or would you go a different route?
Thanks!
danclax
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cool man thanks. I think I got what your saying. When you say a
cool man thanks.
I think I got what your saying. When you say an interface do you mean something like a presonus firebox? like i said I am pretty new at the whole thing so anymore advice would be great appreciated.
If anybody else has any suggestions of how they would set up a studio with a macbook, please leave a suggestion! I am kind of overwhelmed with all the different choices right now.
Thanks guys!
danclax
Yes, ideally you should get an external audio interface, not jus
Yes, ideally you should get an external audio interface, not just for flexibility, but also for noise and other audio quality considerations.
However, you should be able to get some sort of result using the built-in soundcard and Garageband. You don't give the model number of the Yamaha mixer, so it's difficult to give exact advice, but you will need a lead that goes from an 1/8" stereo jack plug to 2x 1/4" TS jack plugs. Use the TS plug on the wire that connects to the MacBook audio input to route one of the mixer's output channels into the Mac, and take the other TS plug to one of the mixer's line inputs. Assuming your mixer allows pre-fader monitoring, monitor that input channel via headphones while recording other channels, but make sure the fader for the monitored channel remains at zero so it doesn't get re-recorded.
Setting the levels can be tricky with this type of setup, as it's very easy to overload the Mac soundcard input.
When you come to listen to both channels of recording at once, you will hear a small delay between the tracks (caused by latency). Most audio software will allow you to time-shift entire tracks to compensate for this.
Because of the limitations of the internal soundcard, the audio results will be poor by studio standards, but it will at least give you a feel for what it's like to be building up a piece track by track.