Re: Recording for cheap
As long as you have Firewire (you said Mac, but most iMac's have two Firewire ports - mine has FW400 and FW800) then get a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40. It has 8 solid preamps. I love mine - so far the most mics I've used at once was 4 doing some basic recording with a kick, snare and two overhead mics, just to see if I could, but everything worked out fine. Street price on that is sub $500.
I'd like to add that getting up and rolling with that piece was easy - basic quick start instructions that get you going, and immediately compatible with the iMac - I just installed the Focusrite routing software, plugged it in and it worked.
Something else to consider that I think is a MAJOR plus with the Focusrite piece is the plugin suite. You get four plugins:
Gating
Compression
Reverb
Parametric EQ
I'm still kind of a recording noob, but I'm using this interface with GarageBand and the plugins were easy to install, and immediately showed up as usuable options on my dropdown menus. They can be used by themselves or stacked/doubled with the tools intrinsic to GarageBand. I liked GarageBand before and did ok recording trumpet with it, but had a heck of a time finding good settings for vocals. The Focusrite Compressor plugin is IMO the best of the plugins. (although I also really like the reverb) That was what finally gave me the ability to get a solid vocal recording, and at this point I don't record a track without it.
I think the best part about the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 is that it's a solid piece that I'll be able to use for quite a while - it will still be relevant to my efforts several years down the road. You could spend a bit more and get the Liquid 56, but the 40 will probably get you where you want to go.
Last edited by trickg; 09-13-2011 at 02:04 PM.
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