I'm about to buy an iMac DV SE. One of the main needs I have is quality digital audio recording. Can anyone give me some advice on what I need to record my voice and blend it with backing music. What's the best mike? How do I get true digital sound input, since you can't add a sound card to the iMac? What's the best (cheap) audio processing software to mix voice and music?

Michael.

[acidchicken]

Hello. For mics, I'd get a Sure Sm57 or 58. They are known as the industry standard. And will cost about $100 each. one of each would be nice. maybe an audio technica or an audix would be nice too. Get the best mixer you can afford (Mackie, Behringer, Samson, etc.) with the most channels you can afford. you might want to test drive these because some low end mixers can create a lot of unwanted noise. You can use the mic preamps built in the mixer for the mics, or you could buy a separate preamp $$$$$. the economical more useful way is the mixer. then run the outputs of the mixer into the input of the iMac. As far as software goes I like the way Deck II works a lot, but since mine isn't working at the moment its not so cool. but Deck II about $200 is a good multitrack system, and get Peak 2.0 or waves for an editor. and if you can afford it, Pro Tools. any version you can afford. I've played around with other people's versions of cubase. It gets more spendy but you can run midi to it if that's what you're into, as well as Audio tracks. Hopefully this will get you started. In the meantime I need to find some help for my Deck II. Later

[iPaul UK]

I don't know what digital audio input devices have been tried and tested with iMac's.. I know Opcode make one.. "Sonicport" I think it's called. Plus Roland have what looks like to be a really good one "Roland ED UA-30" This looks like the one I'll be getting for my studio set up.. But like I say, I need to know that it will work on my iMac DVSE with Cubase VST.Some people have said that Cubase VST doesn't work on an iMac.. But I spoke to the distributers the other day.. And they assure me that it does.. So long as you have the latest version of the software and the latest OS (8.6 will do) Cubase VST is great software.. Although I fear that it is getting a little gimicky in it's old age.. However.. I'll be trying it out on my iMac over the next few days so I will post a message to let everyone know how I am getting on with it. Incase Cubase VST is too expensive for you.. Or just has features that you won't use on it.. They do a stripped down version too "Cubasis" I think it is about a 3rd of the price. As for software from other manufacturers.. I can't really comment as I've not really used any. Anyway.. Hope I have helped you out a bit!
Paul

[MAlan]

Hello...this is a topic that I'm intensly interested in. I have just assembled what I think is necessary for my little recording studio...at least to start out with. I have an iMac DV/SE and have purchased a Shure Beta 57 Mic...(I think that is the model but I will check in later to verify). I'm using the Sound in port on the iMac. The software I'm using is Cakewalk's Metro 5. Metro 5 supposedly has issues on OS 9 right now so I'm using it in 8.6. I have my hard drive partitioned so that I can boot up with 8.6 or 9.0. Metro 5 can do 64 track recording. It is pretty nice. I don't know about other competitors though...depending on your needs you might want something more.

I play guitar as a hobby. So far I've recorded myself playing guitar on a couple of different songs. I've multitracked those songs so I can solo over a track of mainly chords I've laid down. I'm was playing a standard jazz tune. I also recorded myself playing and my wife singing on one track. We also did me on one track and her later recording her voice.

My guitar goes to a Fender KXR 100 keyboard amplifier. This amp has 3 phono inputs plus an XLR mic input. The XLR mic input provides good sensitivity. The Shure Microphone I bought is a so called "hot" microphone.

The results I got were excellent. I have to turn the preamp section for the Microphone of the KXR to almost all the way to use the full dynamic range of the iMacs sound input. This is with my wife singing...she has a soft voice. When I sing through it I have to turn the pot on the preamp down significantly. The guitar has to be turned up similarly. I go from the KXR 100 to the iMac using a standard RCA style connector from my record out ports on the amplifier.

In the end I was able to use the whole dynamic range of the iMacs sound in and get what I would call high quality recording...however you can probably get better quality if you had for instance a power mac and a Korg 1212 PCI card with 12 sound inputs. For what I want to do this quality is pretty good. I wish the sound input on the iMac was a little more sensitive so I wouldn't have to turn the pre-amp up so much. However, I could use the headphones out of the KXR 100 to provide more signal...I'm thinking of trying this at some point. That way I would get much more signal but would risk blowing out the iMac since the master volume control on the KXR 100 controls the headphone out. Thats why I use the record out because it is guaranteed not to exceed a particular voltage out.

One more thing I'd like to add. Metro 5 has this very nice feature which allows you to Normalize an audio track. That means if I record a track which has a slightly lower volume level than I like I can use the normalize feature to increase the overall perceived loudness of the track. This really comes in handy because like I said before I don't really want to be playing with the pre-amp turned all the way up. I can crank it down slightly and still get the same sound quality in the end. Cakewalk seems like it has pretty amiable support people too. I contacted them before I even bought the software and gave me straight forward advice on not running it in OS 9.

Please let me know what you end up doing with you system.

-Mike

[MAlan]

I went to Opcode's website and it said this.

"Macintosh compatibility expected in
1999 with Mac OS updates". Also I forgot to mention Cakewalks metro 5 software was 170 - 180 dollars.

[MAlan]

Here is a link to the metro 5 software page. On the bottom it tells you the compatible audio hardware along with apples sound manager.
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/ME/ME5.html

I also neglected to tell you the price of the microphone. I went to Guitar Center to buy it. It was $170 plus 22 for the cable. When I bought the fender KXR 100amplifier it was $300. I like this amp a lot. It is very flexible. It doesn't matter what instrument your playing. The only downside to this amp is that it is pretty big and bulky.

[antonio]

hi
i'm not a music guy but i have a basic question that some kids at school have asked me for help with - i have no definitive answer. what specific cable is needed to go from the mixer to the audio-in on the imac - i imagine it has to be some sort of Y cable to take the left/right audio-out of the mixer? am i right on this, and is this a typical radio shack buy?

thanks for any help

antonio

hi antonio,
you need a y-cable that has left and right rca plugs on one end and a standard stereo miniplug on the other.
-ster

[iPaul UK]

I tend to make nearly all my studio cables.. The only exception being Midi cables. But if you want to plug the output of your mixer into your Mac/iMac. Then obviously you need a minijack at one end for the computer.. Then I'd use 2 seperate cables out of that to whatever type of output sockets your mixer has. Although there is no point trying to wire a minijack to 2 seperate balanced XLR's! Just stick with mono jacks or RCA/phono type plugs.
By the way.. I got my copy of Cubase VST 4.1 today.. And guess what!? It won't boot up! it just crash's my iMac.. ( However.. Steinberg tell me there is a relatively easy way to fix this.. Which I am about to try. So I'll post a fresh message shortly letting you musical type guys know how I am getting on...
Paul

[antonio]

thanks Ster and iPaul UK, i'll let the kids know.

[disectamac]

Hi,
I make CD mixes and have always "ripped" from CD's into AIFF format from my iMac's internal CD drive, then edit and mix tracks and burn then on my own label. I could use some tips on what would be the best way I could import audio to my imac from a tape. alot of good tracks and samples I have are on tape and although quality of Tape vs. CD is one of my concerns I would still like to know what ways I can import the sound anyway.

[MAlan]

I can import sound from tape right now with my iMac and the Metro 5 software I have. I can take an RCA cable with 1/8" connector on one end and go directly from the Line out of my stereo into the Sound In on the iMac. Then with metro 5 I can just record whatever has been recorded on the tape by playing the tape and recording to one of the 64 tracks available in a single file. After its in the computer you can probably find some method of improving the audio quality. Metro 5 offers some features like Normalization to improve overall loudness but I haven't played with all the features yet to know whether I can selectively take out background hiss for example by focusing in on the frequencies background hiss typically resides in.

[MAlan]

You must be careful whenever you do this kind of stuff though. The RCA cable is a guaranteed voltage level. It is compliant with many types of audio interfaces so this is a very safe method. I would recommend making the necessary connections with the stereo off first. The iMac can either be on or off...doesn't matter. Then turn the volume all the way down even though what's coming out of the Line OUt shouldn't be affected by the volume control. Then turn on the stereo and record. If you don't get enough signal you might have to run the stereo through some kind of preamp.