New to Garageband - Some questions on recording live instruments

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So I am looking to do some live music recording with my iMac and MBP using Garageband '08. However, it's a little unclear to me how to go about interfacing the live instruments with Garageband. I have read a few of the threads in the forum, but haven't seen answers to my specific questions, and I was hoping you guys could help me out.

I guess my first question is how does one interface to record with Garageband? Specifically, I am looking to connect the microphones on my drumset (8 mics in all) to GB and be able to keep them all as separate tracks so they can be manipulated individually.

I've looked at multi-track recorders, FireWire, and USB interfaces, but it's not clear to me which, if any one of these, is best suited for my needs. With a FireWire or USB interface, will the individual tracks be maintained once in Garageband, or does going through the interface automatically combine them into a single track?

With a multi-track recorder, do I record on the recorder itself, and then send the recording into Garageband to be editted? If so, does the recording maintain the individual tracks? Or will they be combined when imported into GB? Or can you use a multi-track recorder as purely an interface and plug the recorder into Garageband while maintaining the individual tracks?

Along with this, can anyone recommend a good interface for upwards of 8 or 10 tracks/microphones/instruments? I'm also new to recording, so I'm trying to learn as I go.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Sean
 
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The best way to go is to get an interface. Check out the Motu 8pre, seems to be the best choice for the buck. Firewire is the way to go, especially recording 8 tracks at once. Another good interface is the Presonus Firestudio. Both have 8 channels and they will record the tracks individually.
 
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Hello Chaunce322,
I understand what you're trying to do. But unfortunately, I've never heard of any way to multi-track record into GB simultaneously. You pretty much are looking into Logic, or Protools, or something like that.
BUT, there are ways to get around it, but are very annoying and take a lot of time to do. If you're using a multi-track recording unit, you could record all the tracks, and the send each track one by one into GB (Mute all but one track and hit play, for EACH track). It takes a lot of time, and I honestly don't think it would even be worth it with GB's technology.
The best thing that I've seen is using a mixing board, and sending the Output to go into garage band. You could do a sample recording to make sure all your levels are right, and then just record it live. It really doesn't bad at all.
What I think you're looking to do is out of GB's capabilities. I was in the same boat a few years ago. If you could spend a decent amount of money, you could get a logic setup, express isn't that bad.
I hope I could be of service. Good luck!
 
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You can multitrack in Garageband, read the manual
 
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How? With what interface?
My manual says nothing about it...
 
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In the manual it says you can record up to 8 live instruments simultaneously. You need to get the right interface, like the FireWire 410 or such. What you'd have to do in GB is to set each real channel's input to correspond to the respective output from the interface.
What you can do right now... let's say you just wanted to record a guitar and vocal, you can run the outputs from the guitar and microphone into the stereo input of your mac, set 2 real channels with input left on one and input right one the other. You can then arm the simultaneously.
 
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How? With what interface?
My manual says nothing about it...

If you are referring to a MIDI recording, you are indeed very correct. But if you have a USB or FW multi-track interface, you can record multiple tracks simultaneously.
 
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Is that only in GarageBand 08?
 
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Thanks for the help everybody! I am leaning towards picking up one of the PreSonus FireWire interfaces for this purpose. It's a little out of my price range right now, so it'll end up going on my list to Santa. :) I'll let you know how it turns out.

Sean
 
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Same problem...

Along with this, can anyone recommend a good interface for upwards of 8 or 10 tracks/microphones/instruments? I'm also new to recording, so I'm trying to learn as I go.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Sean

I know this is about three years too late, but I'm having the same dilemma that Sean was. I was wondering if anyone ever figured it out for sure? I was planning on renting a Presonus fp10 to use through the latest GB, but will this record the 8 tracks at once? Will it record in stereo or mono? (I recently tried to record two mics at once through an M-Audio fast track pro, but it would only record either one in stereo (which would then not allow me to pan?) or both in mono...)
 

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