[Paul Stephen C.]

A few years ago, I did lots of home recording of my own music using analog technology, recording guitar, bass, voice and casio drum sampler into a Yamaha MT1X 4-track cassette, then mixing down to a Sony Professional cassette tape machine. Seems like prehistoric technology now, but it was impressive and expensive not so long ago!

Well now I have a new 1Ghz 1Gb 17" iMac (I love saying that bit) and I've been doing what I'm sure lots of you out there have been doing - creating vast albums of MP3s, photos, surfing on ADSL broadband, playing a few games (tho' my X-Box keeps the iMac free!), and digitizing old analog tapes using Sound Studio.

I work in a college where they use ProTools software for audio recording and I've been really impressed with it's ease of use, and in particular, how cheap it is compared with all the tape machines, noise reduction, effects etc that you used to have to buy.

I see that Digidesign offer the MBox for about £370 ($500) which includes audio in to the iMac, and a virtual 32-track digital recording set up (according to my local music hardware dealer). It seems to be incredible value.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone about their experiences using recording software/hardware with the iMac (or Powermac for that matter). For instance, what do you do for drum sequencing? Do you use a keyboard midi for recording bass, or plug the bass straight in? Are there any must-have software effects out there? Will my trusty Audio-Technica High Impedance Mic still be useful?

Ther are loads of things I'd like to ask, but basically I'd be grateful to hear of any of your experiences using MacOsX software to do multitrack home recording. Any tips?

Thanks.

[CreepDogg]

I've been doing home recording for a couple years now using a MOTU 828 (FireWire interface) on a HARMONi-upgraded Rev. A iMac 233 (it adds a faster 500 MHz processor and FireWire).

We've used it for acoustic recording - that is, acoustic drums with 5-6 microphones, and mic-ed guitar and bass amps. It has worked great. The main advantage (and it is huge) of this over other multitrack means is ease of editing and no loss of sound quality on repeated mixes.

We're using the software that comes with the 828 - MOTU's AudioDesk - and it does everything we need. It lacks MIDI and sophisticated sequencing, but we haven't had that need. I know ProTools and MOTU's Digital Performer (among others) have those capabilities.

AudioDesk is an OS9 application, and the bondi iMac is best suited to OS9 - so it's been a useful and stable setup, and I expect it to be for at least a couple more years (for my needs, anyway). I know ProTools and Digital Performer are both available for OS X, and there are probably others.

We use several different dynamic and condenser mics depending on the situation. Your mic will work great as long as your audio interface has analog inputs and A/D converters, as the 828 does. I don't have much experience with third-party effects - we've only used the basic reverbs, delays, etc that came with AudioDesk - and I tend to have preferences to things sounding kind of 'raw'.

Using this setup, although very basic by most standards, has been light years better than anything we ever did on cassette 4- and 8-tracks - if you've already got the computer, and can afford an audio interface, I'd definitely recommend it. I also have a 1GHz 1GB 17" iMac (used for all other general computing), and it's a great machine and would have no problem handling the demands of multitrack recording.

Hope this helps - sounds like you have some needs that go beyond what I've done, but thought I'd chime in with my positive experience...

[Paul Stephen C.]

Thanks CreepDogg,

Sounds great - I'd love to set up a kit and record acoustically, but I suspect my other half might complain! No, my home recording setup will be in an 8 by 5 foot space. Also I'm pretty crap at drumming, so I need to program digitally. I used to play live a lot, so I know what I'm missing, but you can create faster when you don't have a drummer to compromise with! Voice, guitars and (probably) bass will be "real" - keys for generating strings etc.

The new iMac has been such a revelation, I'm sure it'll do the job for long while to come. It's reassuring to hear your still using a Rev A iMac - shows the staying power of the technology!

[iMacsteve]

Hey. I've got my iMac 800 here with 640mb ram hooked up via a tascam us428 soundcard/control surface. hooked up to that are some roland v-drums and a POD to direct record my guitar. I'm using Steinberg's Cubase SX software running a bunch of VST instruments like Halion software sampler and Model E synth, etc and triggering everything with a midiman Oxygen 8. I must say that everything works just fine. Cubase crashes sometimes but never the OS. I'd ultimately like to get a MOTU interface (firewire) because I have to tweak the buffer a lot using the Tascam. I also have a reel to reel that i like to print final mixes to just to add some analog warmth. I'm sure some of the newer plug-ins would do this better but I have to use my reel to reel for something (plus it gives my setup a vintage feel!). Don't believe much of what you read. These iMacs are perfectly capable in a home studio.

[dagonjames]

I've been using the Mbox for about 5 months now on an older powerbook and i have to honestly say that it is amazing. The oSX version which currently ships offers 32 tracks and even comes with re-wire so you can use Reason with it. I use a Boss DR-770 drum machine and it's quite nice. I recently produced an finished album for an artist using the mbox for almost everything from guitars, to bass, guitars, keys, etc... You should max out the ram if you're thinking of getting one.Go ahead and take the plunge, it's more than worth it for the money.

[ticketmack]

I've got a 700mhz g4 iMac that I've been using with my Mbox and Protools LE 6.1 on OSX.2.6 for about 6 months now. I too am a convert from the world of analog 4-track recording, and former owner of a Yamaha MT4X and a Tascam Porta 03. I play Guitar and Bass, and I fake a little Piano. I'm also a long time user of a Boss DR-660, and I have still have no idea how to use midi to do anything for me, so I just record it in stereo as straight audio. I use a Behringer B-1 for vocals and acoustic instruments, and I have no complaints. It's a condenser Mic. so it needs a 48V power supply, which the Mbox provides. The fact that Mbox is USB powered is nice, but I wouldn't mind an extra power cord if it meant more inputs or faster monitoring.

The big issue I'm having right now is hard drive speed and fragmentation. I had to get my own copy of Norton System Works because of all the errors I've been having lately. I bought an external 7200 rpm firewire hard drive to use exclusively with protools, but it's not really working out for me. I'm generally able to record 3 or 4 tracks before the "your disk is too slow, or too fragmented" errors start. I'm usually able to fight my way through it (sometimes copying the session to the built in hard drive and continuing), but it's getting frustrating. Apparently, Digidesign makes an 80 gig firewire hard drive called the Digidrive, that is guaranteed to be fast enough for protools recording, but they make no guarantees about other hard drives, and the digidrive costs something like $500.00.

The hurtles can be high and frequent, but if you're patient, and a little more than computer literate, you should be able to deal with them, and get some great recordings made.

Overall, I love using Protools. I feel like I'm a pro now, especially compared to what I had going on in the past. Since I'm pretty much a one man band, the fact that the Mbox only has 2 inputs isn't a problem for me. However, if I ever started a band again, I'd want to record the whole group at the same time on all different tracks, which this interface can't do for me. If that day ever came, I'd probably peice each song together rather than upgrade to a more versatile, more expensive system, but those extras would be nice to have.

ps - my protools recordings will be available for review at http://www.singingbirthdaycard.com soon.