[jamesl]

HI

I am a student, who is looking to purchase an audio interface, to enable me to connect a microhone to my mac, as part of my media course. Does anybody know if the iMic would meet my reauirements? Or is the technical quality of the final piece of audio poor?

Thanks

[hab]

I have the same question. I have heard good things about iMic but then read an article in MacWorld [Should I convert?, Jan2005, p.71] on transferring music from tape to CD and they say that you will get "much better results with a full-featured audio interface such as" the Griffin Powerwave [http://www.griffintechnology.com/pro...wave/index.php]. However, I have not seen a comparison between the two products. Anybody have insight into pros and cons for these two?

[barang]

I'd say that the real issue is the quality of the mic and/or the mixer. With a good quality mic and a good quality mixer results should be great.

[Axo1ot1]

I hated my iMic because it had such a shit signal to noise ratio. Go with something else.

[bonniescotland]

hi there
Your question about imic seems to be very similar to the question I asked (no replies so far) re voiceover into fcp. I thought perhaps I would add my question to your stream, hope this doesn't complicate things, but it seems it is a similar question. It seems from your replies that the powerwave rather than the imic is the way to go, but still not sure if I even need an audio interface if I apparently have a line in?
My question from the other strand is below:

"Hi All
Am confused.
Okay here is what I would like to do, I want to record a voice over using fcp. I have a 1gig e-mac with audio line in.

Well I know I can use a mic connected to mini dv camcorder and import it into fcp that way, but just because I like to complicate my life I decided it would be easier to record a voiceover straight into fcp. I figured out how to do this using the internal mic on the e-mac, it works but of course lousy sound, so I thought I would try hooking up a mic to the audio line in port.

Well I used two mics, one not powered, and one powered and neither worked. Now I was wondering the apple shop guy told me I need a pre-amp and to buy a Griffin powerwave, which I belive works as a pre-amp, however I would have thought a powered mic had a pre-amp? There is a possibility that I didn’t have the settings right for the mic in system preferences (I set my fcp preference to external line in when in fcp, but someone has since told me that I should have done this in the system preferences and not directly in fcp. I don’t have the mics to test this again as borrowed them.)

So I need to know do I need to buy the Griffin powerwave or just a good powered mic (also any ideas on what mic to buy for approx $100?).

If I do all this and assuming it all works will the quality of the voice over be good, or is it better to just use a good mic connected to the mini dv camcorder.

I understand editing (well kind of!), but not great with sound issues, so please any replies assume that I am very dumb and speak jargon less please (still don't fully understand what an amp means so that will give you an idea re my knowledge of sound).

Also some friends are telling me that the audio line in on my e-mac is for mics, some saying is only for hooking up a stereo and not for mics, got conflicting advice for apple people.

Just to complicate things futher am thinking of buying an ipod, would this work as a pre-amp and how would the sound be if I buy one of those Belkin or Griffin attachments that allow you to record into the ipod.

Okay thanks for your help."

[analogika]

Fact is, A/D converters range from $50 to several thousands PER CHANNEL.

You do the math.



Also, "line-level" means "line-level", as opposed to "mic-level".

A battery-powered mic will *usually* output line-level, though.


As for mic recommendations, I mentioned in a thread about voice-over work for Final Cut a pretty ideal budget set-up for decent voice-over:

Studio projects B1 condensor mic and the Studio Projects VTB-1 pre-amp.

That setup should run you about $250, but it's *very* sweet, and it will output line-level.

[jamil5454]

The M-Audio Transit is a $100 USB soundcard that has pretty good recording quality. It can do 24-bit 96khz. It's also got optical.