[tomh]

My mac with garageband should be arriving any day now, but there's some confusion as to whether or not you can directly attach and record a guitar.
In Macworld's feature on music on macs it said you can't connect a guitar to the audio-in socket and need some midi thing (I'm so ignorant I don't even know exactly what that is!).
However, on Apple's website it says you can get a thing called the iStudioLink adapter (or something) which does connect directly. Does this just adapt the size of the jack on the guitar lead? If so, would I just be able to use a headphone jack adaptor, which is cheaper, and i already own?

[unclebinky]

I think it depends on the Mac you've got. I used the Griffin iMic with my 15" iMac, which worked reasonably well (nothing I'd share w/ anybody but family & friends! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif), and with my G4 tower, there's an audio (mic) input in the back that works. In either case, you need a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter (most guitars have a 1/4" jack & the mic jack will be 1/8"). There are certainly better options if you're serious about your music, but I decided it wasn't worth the $250+ it would cost for a firewire audio input adapter. I wasn't convinced that the USB options would quite cut it because of their slower bus speeds, which I won't embarass myself by attempting to explain.
Hope that helps!

[Jon Seff]

For the record, I've connected my guitar to my G4 using a cheap little 1/4" to 1/8" adapter from Radio Shack, and it worked fine.

[mgbasinski]

In reply to:

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I wasn't convinced that the USB options would quite cut it because of their slower bus speeds

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USB 1.x is plenty fast for digital audio. There are numerous examples, and though of course your mileage will vary depending on your Mac (and it would be best to not have lot of other traffic on the same bus while doing music), but in general stereo 24 bit audio over USB works fine. There are even tools like the Apple/eMagic low latency USB adapters that can handle 6 mono audio ins (to Logic). Not sure if that is 24 or 16-bit though.
I use my Digidesign MBox for input to Garage Band (as well as Pro Tools).
Anyway, the point is that the USB bus speed is not the main limiting factor to worry about for audio.
Mark

[unclebinky]

I'm glad to hear that USB works fine. Guys I talked to in my local Mac store are much more helpful with questions about video/photo editing than music/Garageband, so they couldn't really tell me what I needed. Guys in my local music store swore that I needed firewire, and I balked @ the cost & just did nothing (except use the cheap radio shack 1/4-1/8 adapter), which is fine for most of what I want to do. I think the documentation with the iMic is part of what had me worried about USB...
Thanks for the helpful info, though!

[unclebinky]

In reply to:

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Guys I talked to in my local Mac store are much more helpful with questions about video/photo editing than music/Garageband, so they couldn't really tell me what I needed.

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I must recant! I got inspired by this thread & decided to go to our local LARGE music store again where I was told I needed a $450 mbox, a $300 condenser mike, and that was the bare minimum I could get by with for my wife & I to do some basic recording for no one but us! I said, "let me think about it." and went to the Apple Store.
This time, the guys @ the Lenox Store in Atlanta pointed me to an employee who is also in a band and experienced w/ recording. He was VERY helpful, knew what he was talking about & got me out of there w/ a passable mike and mobilepre usb for about $250 total. I wanted to make sure I passed on a compliment after "griping" earlier.
Also, the inputs work fine on the mobilepre, having 2 gain controls right there is nice, and I think I'll be very happy with it. Take all of that with a grain of salt, though, b/c I'm sleep-deprived from playing w/ G-B late into the night & really only have 1 evening's experience w/ the new hardware! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif