Beginner's Recording Set Up

[nickbatzdorf]

53 - On Mac, USB 2 doesn't work very well. Firewire is a better format for interfaces, but USB is fine for Spike's limited I/O channels. I'd stay away from USB 2 and just add a Firewire drive.As to the second drive, it's not like you're going to die if you don't do it. But it is safer. I use the internal drive once in a while too, but not as a regular feature.You can get external drive boxes that don't have fans, which takes care of the noisy F^cker problem.

[53mph]

But if there's no fan, doesn't the drive overheat?

[nickbatzdorf]

No, they're fine.

[mrbassman]

Hi bones.I wouldn't dare to recommend anything but I can tell you about the equipment me and my band made really good experiences with.- Apple Powerbook G3 (the tiny white one )- Soundcard: PreSonus Firepod, more info here: http://www.presonus.com/firepod.html- Voice mic: t.bone SCT 800 http://www.thomann.de/thoiw4_the_tbone_ ... info.html- Drums mics: a few different t.bone; t.bone mics are cheap copies of Shure mics but with nearly the same quality and frequency range- Bass (Fender Jazz) went directly into the Firepod- Software: Emagic Logic Platinum 7You can hear the result here: http://www.soundclick.com/headlights the song called "Disappear" has been recorded exactly with this setup.Chris

[ruserious]

My setup is similar to what you are thinking except I have a desktop iMac. I would recommend getting much more RAM I only have 512 and with a couple of songs that have 6 tracks it's sluggish. While I could do all of the recording straight into the Mac I don't, primarily because it lacks the right plugs for my mics. Instead, I have a Fostex 8 track recorder that I use to record Acoustic Guitars and vocals. I then drag and drop the wav files to Garageband into their tracks and add any additional MIDI tracks that are necessary. When I'm done I do the mix down in Garageband and export to iTunes and then use iTunes to convert to MP3 files if necessary. Works like a champ.