apple line in or USB/Firewire input

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sluzniak


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Greetings all. This question is for anyone doing semi-pro/pro audio work. I am going to be setting up a home recording studio for vocals and voice overs. I have used a USB M-audio Quatro audio interface on a G4 iMac to record vocals, and the the quality was good, but the USB box seemed to eat up system resources. Now Im starting from scratch (had to sell my old gear for some money) and Im getting a new imac.

My question is what has better quality a USB/firewire audio interface or using the line in on the back of the imac? would there be a huge diffrence? I am looking for a clean signal, and keeping as much of my resources that I can. If the signal is good off the line in, then I would just use that. If not, just another item to add to my shopping list.

Thanks all.
 
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sluzniak said:
Greetings all. This question is for anyone doing semi-pro/pro audio work. I am going to be setting up a home recording studio for vocals and voice overs. I have used a USB M-audio Quatro audio interface on a G4 iMac to record vocals, and the the quality was good, but the USB box seemed to eat up system resources. Now Im starting from scratch (had to sell my old gear for some money) and Im getting a new imac.

My question is what has better quality a USB/firewire audio interface or using the line in on the back of the imac? would there be a huge diffrence? I am looking for a clean signal, and keeping as much of my resources that I can. If the signal is good off the line in, then I would just use that. If not, just another item to add to my shopping list.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

I just use a little 4 channel mixing unit as an interface when I record guitar.
This goes in through the line in on my iMac. The mixer has input for mics too and doesn't put any strain on the cpu...it's what you do with it once it's on your HD that can cause system slowdowns.

I don't know about the usb/firewire method, sorry.
 
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sluzniak


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Pulse-8 said:
I just use a little 4 channel mixing unit as an interface when I record guitar.
This goes in through the line in on my iMac. The mixer has input for mics too and doesn't put any strain on the cpu...it's what you do with it once it's on your HD that can cause system slowdowns.

I don't know about the usb/firewire method, sorry.
Click to expand...

How is the quality of the recordings? Do you get any kind of line noise or anything like that? I think the only way to know for sure is to try it myself..
 
cjay

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Line in is convenient but I don't use it, sometimes it picks up system noise. It's always better to use a usb or preferably a firewire interface. I use a mixer going into a firewire interface and I have a nice clean signal with zero latency. Some issues can usually be resolved just by using a preamp to boost your signal before it gets to your Mac.

This unit gets the nod from a lot of garageband/logic users.
http://www.presonus.com/firepod.html

I use these because they were cheap.
http://www.behringer.com/FCA202/index.cfm?lang=ENG
http://www.behringer.com/802/index.cfm?lang=ENG
 
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I don't know what the built in audio interface is like, but certainly the people that I know who do this (on any platform) advise an external interface. Something built for the job is likely to be of a higher quality than the built-in interface. But like I said - the Mac gear might be of a decent spec.

FWIW, I've only switched from PC in the last couple of weeks. When I used the line-in I recorded a low level buzz which wasn't coming out of my Soundcraft mixer. I plugged the output of the mixer into a USB soundcard and the buzz disappeared. One other point is that the plug wouldn't go all the way into the line-in socket because it is recessed. This might have caused the buzz I guess.

Cheers,

Jack.
 

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