Recording onto a MAC?

[Codemonkey]

I've recently Mac-ified my house, and I'm ready to start recording again.  So, now I have some questions, that I can't seem to find answers to, even though I know they are simple.

First off, I need to say that I barely record.  When I recorded in the past, it was onto a linux laptop, via the 1/8 mic jack.  But, now that I have a mac, I'd like to upgrade.

I have a Behringer V-Amp Pro that I'd like to get the sound from, then into my mac.  The V-amp has S/PDIF (coax), AES/EBU (whatever that is), and normal line outs.  I'm not sure what my iMac has.

I'd *like* to use Garage Band.  I'm sure it sucks, but I'll bet it's good enough for me.  Plus, I like the price.  Free is good.

When I bought my mac, I saw a mixer-like hardware thing in the apple store.  I remember it was under $200.  But, I can't seem to find it online.  And, I'm not sure how it interfaced to the mac.  Probably firewire or USB.

So -- the question:  How should I get my audio from my V-Amp, into my imac, in a Garage Band supported way?  And, I'd like the best possible quality for $200 or less.  My rig is not very close to my mac -- it'd probably be a 6-10' cable, so I'd rather not do analog.

Thanks in advance,


-Dave

[Gerk]

hehe nice nickname!  That's what they call me around here lots of times (as I do backend code for the site).  Glad to see i can shed that name now

First advice, don't even bother with the digital out of the V-amp pro, it has issues -- namely it doesn't like to stay in sync with external stuff.  I had issues with both a V-amp pro and a bass V-amp pro, same issues.  When I took it up with support it was a "known issue".  That said I'd use the stereo audio outs (analog) from the V-amp and go into a USB/Firewire unit.

I'm a mac user, but I don't have good advice on the audio interface front so I'll let others chime in on that one, but pretty much any of the modern USB2/Firewire input devices work with mac these days so there's lots of choices.  The stuff I use is way outside what you are looking at.

Mark

[Codemonkey]

Ok.  Thanks -- that does help a lot.  So, now I'm at:

What is a decent economical, preferably multi-channel, analog -> firewire / usb device?

And, is Firewire better / same as USB for these?  Now that USB2 is 800mbit, I've heard that firewire is only nicer because of the DMA aspects -- which also makes it dangerous

Oh -- And, one last thing:  If I use a USB / firewire thingie, I can make the firewire or usb take the 10' run -- does one or the other fare better over long (10-15') runs?

[Gerk]

You can do the run with the USB/Firewire but honestly if it's only that long you're not really losing anything by doing it with a pair of guitar cables.

As for USB vs. Firewire if you're only looking for a couple/few inputs there's no big difference.  If you want many inputs go firewire.

Lots of people probably won't read this thread because it says mac in the title   You might want to start another thread asking about a decent multi-channel interface and just mention that it has to support mac in the body of the message (not the title).  As I said, most of those devices work fine with Mac these ays, often times you don't even need drivers if they conform to standards

HTH

Mark

[meekofnature]

If I remember correctly USB is supposed to be good for 15', but I've heard of guys using cheap passive extenders to up to 50'.  In any case, this shouldn't be an issue for a 10' run.  It all really depends on the interface, but firewire is fast enough to have very low latency times, and in my experience with M-Audio and Digidesign none of the USB stuff is fast enough to go through the analog - digital - analog conversion without the audio your recording coming out so late that it's distracting.  Anyone else want to chime in on this?  My experience is limited to Digidesign/MOTU/Apogee interfaces and the latency thing might not be such a big problem on other branded usb products.

-Marc

[Codemonkey]

Well, I ended up with a very strange solution.

I was also looking for a small effects processor so that I could move my big amp & rack downstairs, and still tool around at my desk.  A buddy of mine recommended the Boss GS-10, and I found one for $135.

So, it has little speakers for a monitor, a USB audio interface, and it's an effects processor (and it fits on my desk)

Woo Hoo!

Now I just need to stop sucking at playing.

-Dave