recording help

greetings everyone. i have a newer macbook pro and i am trying to do some recording with my acoustic guitar through the built in mic. i first just tried garageband and the audio was sort of "wavy" sounding, as in it will get quiet and loud again and sound sort of distorted almost. then i tried recording in soundtrack pro and the same thing happened. its like when you download a very poor quality song off the internet or something and it just doesn't sound right. does anyone know what's going on here? i used to have a much older macbook and when i recorded with that everything sounded fine. i know the built in mic isn't the best but still, i know it should give me better quality than what's it's doing

This typically happens when the mic is of very low quality, which built-ins usually are.. You're clipping the mic by driving a loud signal into it, or both..

To me, it sounds like the signal, albeit, just your acoustic guitar, is too "hot."

Try lowering your mic volume, or backing your Mac away a bit to give it some distance so it's not pounding the mic.

Chances are, the built-in isn't designed to handle to frequencies of an acoustic guitar, and has a more narrow range of response compared to something like a condenser/dynamic mic.

The best/cheapest route for you, honestly, would be to pick up a USB mic, something like a Behringer C-1U. Behringer makes very affordable and reliable stuff. I've never had a problem with them in my years of experience. For under $60, you can't go wrong.

Saves you from spending an excess of cash on a mixer/interface and a condenser mic to record, until you become more serious and "into" recording audio. Just for fun stuff, I highly recommend it.

thanks for the response my friend. that's basically what i figured, it being the built in mic and all. i just thought it was odd that my older mac had a better mic :/ makes some sense though, just didn't know if anyone else had a similar observation. i definitely plan on getting a mic though