[bonniescotland]

I have an e-mac, 1gig, firewire 400, usb 1.1

I just bought a Griffin powerwave, as it is a usb audio interface, I bought it because I want to record high quality voiceovers into final cut pro, the internal mic sound was terrible so apple people recommended I buy the powerwave as has inputs and also a pre-amp. The other reason I bought I thought I might convert my tapes to CD/MP3s.

Anyway just got it Friday, well this weekend I started to play with Garageband, totally love it, so have now decided I will be the next Billy Joel (yeah right!) and make some music (although I don't think Billy has too much too worry about), anyway was getting some advice from friends, as want to compose my own music. Complete newbie so don't know where to start, I am assuming that anything I compose right now will be pretty awful, but you've got to start somewhere!

A friend suggested buying an electronic keyboard and getting piano lessons, he explained to me that I would be able to import the piano music they I compose and then via software change this into other instruments if I like. So I looked at the applestore and they have quite a few midi keyboards, so may eventually look at buying one, however not sure if I need a midi interface, or whether the keyboards plug right into the computer, or can I use the powerwave? My friend doesn't know anything about the powerwave. Might even sing into garageband too, though assuming powerwave will be fine for that?

Although I'm not going to rush out and buy a keyboard tomorrow (will play with garage band a bit more before I get that advanced) but I need to know now because I have 10 days to return the powerwave, I don't want to discover in a few months time when I go out and get a keyboard that the powerwave was the wrong thing to buy and then it is too late to return it.

So in a nutshell is their an interface which I should buy which has both inputs for mics and keyboards and pre-amps both. Looking for something pretty basic music wise as not a professional musician.

[analogika]

point 1: learn to distinguish between MIDI and audio.

MIDI is the sheet music placed in front of the musician, telling him only which notes to play at what time on what instruments, while audio is the finished CD of his performance.

MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) transmits only information *about* the sound, and it does not care where this sound is generated. This is a very important concept to get your head around, because it means that the keyboard you're playing on isn't necessarily what is actually generating the sound.

The M-Audio keystation or Oxygen 8 or similar keyboards (they're actually quite good and come recommended) do not produce any sound whatsoever, they merely generate MIDI data as you play them. They hook up to your machine via USB. (The MIDI standard itself dates from 1983, long before computers took over the studio, or USB even existed.)

When you hook them up to your computer via USB and use them with GarageBand, they send "sheet music" to GarageBand, which then uses this information to generate the sounds with its built-in software synthesizers (termed "virtual instruments"). The sound is generated by the computer.

If you have a keyboard synthesizer (i.e. something that actually has internal sound generation) that doesn't have a USB port, and you want to record its internal sounds, you have to hook up its audio outputs to your Powerwave or equivalent audio interface and record them.

However (and here it gets a little complicated), if said synthesizer has a MIDI interface, you can also use it to play the virtual instruments within GarageBand. In this case, you do need a MIDI interface to transmit the MIDI data into the computer (something like the m-audio midisport uno or midisport 2x2 works fine; they hook up to your Mac via USB).


Conclusion:
If you're looking to get started, have no keyboards sitting around, and are fine with using GarageBand's internal synthesizers (they're actually really good) in addition to the stuff you record live via your audio interface, then go get yourself an M-Audio keystation 49, hook it up via USB, and you're all set.

-s*

[webraider]

Do not get the PowerWave... For about $159 you can get this:
http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOFWAP2496


It's put out by Midiman, it's FireWire instead of USB, you can plug in a mic, it has midi interface built into it so it's all you need. It's a great deal for the money.

It's better to avoid USB 1.0 (and usb altogther) for anything that has to do with Audio or Video. It's okay for midi alone but this device will do everything you need. Better quality too.

You can use your computer speakers to monitior it if you want to.

[analogika]

Originally posted by webraider:
Do not get the PowerWave...

he already has the PowerWave

[druber]

Tascam has a little unit that has audio and MIDI ins, the US-122. I have it myself, real easy to use. For $200 I think it's a solid performer. Besides MIDI it accepts either 2 XLR or 2 1/4" feeds, so recording voices and guitars is easy. I've been pleased with the quality, either working at home or taping a couple live shows.

Those little Oxygen keyboards are cool, but if you just need a MIDI controller there are lots of plain-jane Casio keyboards with MIDI out that can be had for much less. Can't hold a candle to my buddy's big Mackie rig, but it does what I need and is very easy to use.

[bonniescotland]

hi all
thanks for all your helpful suggestions. I just realised on the weekend that because my emac has an audio in port I can plug my cassette desk up to the computer directly via that and archive cassettes that way(which I tried and works brilliantly), my audio line in port doesn't work with a mic though (as every one has been telling me), but a friend told me that I don't need a usb interface for hooking a mic up, I could just attach the mic to a mixer and then hook the mixer up to the emac using the audio line inport, so seems no reason for me to need a usb interface at all.

Not sure if I can hook up midi devices to a mixer, but realise from reading all your helpful replies that if I can get a midi keyboard that hooks up to my emac's usb port then don't need to worry about getting a midi interface anyway (unless of course I had none midi instruments).

Thanks to everyone for explaining this stuff to me, have a small understanding now of what midi is all about.

[mattsgotredhair]

umm... not to sound like a sour puss, but i really think that your line in is gonna sound really horrible. using a usb interface is going to be much better.

[analogika]

Originally posted by mattsgotredhair:
umm... not to sound like a sour puss, but i really think that your line in is gonna sound really horrible. using a usb interface is going to be much better.

Not to sound like a sour puss, but I really think that a consumer USB interface is gonna sound really horrible. Using a Pro-Tools rig is going to be much better.

Point being, if he's tried the minijack in, and it sounds fine to him, then it is.

[mattsgotredhair]

Originally posted by analogika:
Not to sound like a sour puss, but I really think that a consumer USB interface is gonna sound really horrible. Using a Pro-Tools rig is going to be much better.

Point being, if he's tried the minijack in, and it sounds fine to him, then it is.

haha, i just know that from my days in highschool, when i used to use a mini jack in to get audio from a couple of adats going through a mixer into my pc, i thought it sounded fine. but now when i look back at all that, i wish i would have just spent a few hundred dollars on a usb interface.

and so what if im a little biased towards protools...
oh well

i still hate their exclusiveness.
may logic rule someday.

[analogika]

Well, you've apparently turned out a pro sound guy, so your standards are probably a little above consumer average.

I have some session recordings I did via line in, and the most annoying aspect to me isn't the sound quality, it's the fact that they're only stereo, when I'd really need the stuff on a minimum of 8 tracks for any sensible editing. (Grungy sound quality *can* be an asset in certain settings.)

But hey, it's a "let's-preserve-the-moment" type thing, so I'm fine with a little EQ and comping.

And as for Pro-Tools: sounds better than Logic, no question. But they're not known as the Microsoft of Audio for nothing.

I'm quite happy with my Metric Halo Mobile I/O - easily beats the pants of the the MotU stuff for sound quality, at least.

-s*

[mattsgotredhair]

Originally posted by analogika:
Grungy sound quality *can* be an asset in certain settings.

But hey, it's a "let's-preserve-the-moment" type thing, so I'm fine with a little EQ and comping.

With my particular setup in highschool, it wasn't the grunginess of the recordings that I didn't like. I can completely understand "preserving the moment". My major problem was that the sound card I was using to get the audio in must have really sucked (I cant remember anymore), but the bit rate and sample rates must have been horrible. Everything sounded like horrible mp3's, and I know it wasn't happening within protools, but came from the card. So theres my big problem with sound cards, and maybe things have changed, but I rarely using anything but a protools or other professional audio interface when listening or recording music anymore.

Originally posted by analogika:
I'm quite happy with my Metric Halo Mobile I/O - easily beats the pants of the the MotU stuff for sound quality, at least.

I havent used the mobile I/O, but I love their channel strip plugin, its really dsp friendly, and the gate on it is pretty nice, and everything else is good *enough* that ill use it on most stuff to save my dsp.