Novice-Noob jumping in... lots to learn...

[andygabrys]

Peter - I think everybody got on the budget mindset here as you mentioned. That happens.

So maybe to take a different approach:

How much ballpark are you wanting to spend on an interface?

Which mic does your buddy have? Maybe some people have some recommendations for a similar price that they have used that would be comparable - especially as you have mentioned for vocal and acoustic guitar.

Vikki is right than an SM57 will cover a lot of ground (including hammering in loose nails in your studio) but there are a lot of other choices.

Same with the DAW software. Nobody mentioned Reaper on the budget end either and several forum members use that to great effect. And since you already mentioned Garage Band - that is very simple and intuitive - just not totally expandable and flexible as Mojo said. OTOH you can open Garage Band sessions in Logic as well and have all the extra functions and stuff built into Logic at your disposal.

As for Apogee - yes the Duet 2 is great and I own one - with the caveat that if you are using it for desktop use all the time (instead of being mobile) it's going to hold up to use better if you spend the extra $100 on the "breakout box" to take the strain off the cables. Since I have a Universal Audio PCI card I always leave the process buffer at 1024 samples in Logic which makes recording useless with this interface unless I use "low latency monitoring" mode in Logic. Not all DAWS have this function. And to be honest - most interface are going to have a similar issue that you are going to be switching the processing buffer around a lot - as low as possible to record, and then up to a high value for mixing.

But if I were buying a MAc today that had a Thunderbolt connection https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202638 and had some budget - I would consider getting a Universal Audio Twin interface. They are a hundred or two more than the duet. The principal reason I would look at this is the low / zero latency path for recording which due to the design of the interface allows you to record without switching the process buffer around in your DAW.

John Lewitt has one and records a fair bit of acoustic guitar. Maybe he will pipe in and describe whether it's all it's cracked up to be.

[Len911]

You might feel more comfortable with a daw like the Harrison Mixbus $79
http://harrisonconsoles.com/site/mixbus.html

Analog Console Feel. So we make the mixer portion of Mixbus work just like a hardware console, applying precision & proprietary algorithms to provide Harrison’s great sounding EQ, HP Filter, and Dynamics on every channel… without the need for additional plug-ins. For example, the fader area contains the input trim, fader level, compressor threshold (with meter), and compressor makeup gain. This provides the most-used gain functions within a very small "mouse travel" distance. Compare this to other DAWs which require juggling multiple windows, popups, and menus simply to navigate these most fundamental mixing features! Mixbus provides the channel meter, compressor gain reduction meter, tape saturation meters, peak limiting meter, K-14 average level meter, stereo correlation meter, and a final peak limiting meter simultaneously. Compare this to other designs which require plug-ins from several manufacturers and several windows to find this important information

And of course it has audio editing and midi.

It doesn't come with but maybe one or two instruments, but I'm not sure many use the built in instruments or loops to an exclusive degree as to consider them complete.

A logical progression it seems to get your feet wet, is to maybe begin with audio loops first before midi instruments. That will help you learn the audio editing portion. For example, I know you like country, fiddles, guitars, drums, piano, pedal steel, etc.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/loops/country

hth

[andygabrys]

Anybody want a license for the Harrison mix buss?

You can have mine for the $35 I paid for it.

It's great - sure. But you need a lot more time on your hands for mixing than I do to export everything from one DAW and into the Harrison deal. By the time I am ready to mix a project it's usually 80% mixed always so taking it into another mix app seems crazy to me.

Still - anyone wants it, send me a PM.

[Len911]

Mojo & Vikki - thank you.
ML often touts the Apogee (for Mac)... but no one has written any recommendations about that so far.
Honestly, I'm not so pinched that I need to "go cheap"... I'd rather get good stuff the first time around, and not have re-do gear later... mostly for doing acoustic guitar-driven songwriting.

I believe the Apogee One with a built in mic is what Michael mentions a lot. That's $350 and to use your monitors you would need to go from the 1/8" stereo plug headphone out and split that into 2 1/4" TRS plugs. Not practical imo.

Like Andy says, the Apogee Duet with the breakout cable, Sweetwater $700 with breakout cable. The cables seem to be the weak link. To move up to an Apogee with 1/4" TRS output for your monitors, the Quartet, it's $1,495!!

Imo you might lose any advantage in the A/D conversion by the flimsy cable structure. In the past, I have had bad experiences with those Y-type splitter cables, they can make poor connection if you touch any of the cables,lol!

[andygabrys]

To move up to an Apogee with 1/4" TRS output for your monitors, the Quartet, it's $1,495!!

Duet 2 with the breakout box is solid and actually has 2 x XKR monitor outputs. but its not for everyone.

[Len911]

Anybody want a license for the Harrison mix buss?

You can have mine for the $35 I paid for it.

It's great - sure. But you need a lot more time on your hands for mixing than I do to export everything from one DAW and into the Harrison deal. By the time I am ready to mix a project it's usually 80% mixed always so taking it into another mix app seems crazy to me.

Still - anyone wants it, send me a PM.

What??

Is it version 3 with midi?

Yes but the Harrison deal is more than a "mix app", it's a full-fledged daw. I think many did buy it not for the daw portion but for the mix summing quality, and at one time it didn't have midi. So yes I can see exporting it from a complete daw and into Harrison and used as an effect. But if you use it as your only daw, there wouldn't be any extra time.

+1 on Reaper. It's only $60 also. And it has a 60-day free trial and Harrison has 0-day trial!

I've watched a few videos on Reaper the past couple days. Highly configurable. In fact, if configured with a comfortable theme, like this one, (I didn't look at all 32 pages,lol), you could find a theme that would mimic something similar to the Harrison to make it easier to learn.
http://stash.reaper.fm/theme/1629/IMPER ... #file_info

[Len911]

To move up to an Apogee with 1/4" TRS output for your monitors, the Quartet, it's $1,495!!

Duet 2 with the breakout box is solid and actually has 2 x XKR monitor outputs. but its not for everyone.

Aha! solution, the breakout box! Seems to be no longer available from a couple stores. But it is on the Apogee site for $129.
http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet/buy

[andygabrys]

What??

Is it version 3 with midi?

my bad. its version 2. no midi I guess.

[Len911]

What??

Is it version 3 with midi?

my bad. its version 2. no midi I guess.

It would be a full time job keeping up with all the changes and new stuff,lol! I think that breakout box is discontinued for some reason, I'm not sure it is even available from Apogee. From the same site on a different page if you try to order it, it's not available.

[Len911]

How about this deal??
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/P420-iD14

https://audient.com/products/id14

It's like you get the AKG large diaphragm condenser mic with Variable pickup patterns: cardioid, omni, figure-8 for a $100.