New Mac User Wants To Make Music

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gwar

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Hello All,

I have decided to make the switch and buy a mac. However, I don't know anything beyond knowing that I want to buy one. I am looking to get an ibook and I bascially want to use it for:

-microsoft office stuff

-internet/email

-music creation

it is this last one (music creation) that i know nothing about. i am thinking i want to get a midi controller, but my main musical ability is guitar and voice. i also want to be able to record from electric drums. so what do i need to do?
i see some of the interfaces on the apple website that connect to USB to record incoming sounds. so i am thinking of getting the cheapest or second cheapest i-book with an analog to audio interface and a midi controller to start. if i want to do music, should i upgrade the ram? are there other things i should consider? any software/hradware suggestions? i just thought i would throw this out there and see if any one has any words of wisdom.

daniel
 
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The cheapest option is probably griffin's iMic. It gives you a mic in & a line in connection. But the sound quality is not brilliant.

Another cheapish option are the m-audio boxes. Check out their stuff...
If you also want to to hook up a midi device, you might want to spend a it more and get a device that does both (audio in & midi). The best is probably the Tascam US-122, but it's not cheap!
For the e-drums: Do you want to record each part of the kit individually? Garageband 2 can record up to 6 tracks simultaneously, so you might want to get an audio device that supports multiple track recording: I think the Maya audio adapter does that, but I can't remember the full name... costs around $100.


I would definitely upgrade the ram, garageband will appreciate it!
Also go for the largest harddrive you can afford. 30/40 GB is just not enough in the long run.

Have fun recording!
 
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G

gwar

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thanks aptmunich!

do you know of any forums dedicated to music creation on macs?
 
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If you can afford it I'd suggest a firewire interface, perhaps something like this. Something along those lines will give you all the inputs you need. If you want to use the midi from the electric drums and a midi controller at the same time you may need a separate midi interface, so probably one that runs on USB as the iBook only has one firewire port.

The iBook will come with GarageBand 2 which will give you basic recording features (up to 8 tracks at once I think) and midi editing capabilities, although if you want something more powerful I really like logic (expensive) and peak. It really depends on what you want to do and what your budget is.

Definitely upgrade the RAM, Apple doesn't ship its computers with nearly enough standard RAM, let alone enough for music editing. Once again, go with as much as you can afford.
 
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J

jessica

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gwar check here:
http://www.americanmusical.com/amsforum/
or here
http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/003287.html

I use an iStudio monster cable for my guitar. No mic because i do not play drums and I do not sing. I also have a 49-key usb m-audio midi keyboard. I use that to make loops and work on song writing somewhat.

If I were you, and if you don't have an audio in, I'd invest in an interface. start with the one at the apple store, it's a decent priced one and it's kind of nice. Then upgrade as your needs grow.
 
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gwar said:
thanks aptmunich!

do you know of any forums dedicated to music creation on macs?
The best forum I know of is:
www.macmusic.org

(I think it's against the rules to link to other forums, but I hope the mods might make an exception in this case as it covers audio more in-depth than mac-forums.com)

The people there know tons about audio cards, software, hooking up instruments etc etc. ..

The iBook will come with GarageBand 2 which will give you basic recording features (up to 8 tracks at once I think)
Garageband 2 can record 6 real instruments at once and 2 software instruments. (8 in total).
GB is kind of a baby version of Logic Express 7 , which is the little brother of Logic Pro 7.

But to start out with it's really more than enough. For more professional recordings I'd then look to Logic Express 7. But give GB2 a whirl first!
 
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Aptmunich said:
I would definitely upgrade the ram, garageband will appreciate it!
Also go for the largest harddrive you can afford. 30/40 GB is just not enough in the long run.

The larger internal hard drives tend to be slower, especially on the Mini.

Personally I would recommend getting the 40Gb w 512Mb RAM and adding an external Lacie firewire drive later.

Amen-Moses
 
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G

gwar

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is it poasible to put in ram on an i-book yourself? cause the prices online at bestbuy.ca are really good but i don't know if you can change any of the specs. just wondering
 
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meltbanana314

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gwar said:
is it poasible to put in ram on an i-book yourself? cause the prices online at bestbuy.ca are really good but i don't know if you can change any of the specs. just wondering

You can put the RAM in the iBook by your oneseys. Just lift off the keyboard and drop it in.

Just make sure you get PC2100 (266MHz) RAM.
 

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