If you ever wanted to be a recording musician, podcaster or score movies then Garageband can get you started. If you bought a Mac in the last few years you allready have it installed as part of the awesome ilife suite.
although it is very easy to learn it still can have a learning curve if your a total newbie. Below is a list of links to places to find help with the software and hardware.
First place is to check Apples own help
forum
If you want good quality or do multitrack recording you may need a interface. There are plenty of interfaces from analog to USB and Firewire. Firewire is best if you planning on recording 3 or more tracks at the same time. Below is a list of good audio interfaces manufactures.
December 29, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I have an Alesis Multimixer8 Firewire and I’ve been getting static in the recording. What can I do to get rid of this? I’m running OS X 10.5. Do I need to buy a new mixer? I read about the presonus but I can’t afford to buy a new mixer. This one was a christmas present last year.
Anything you recommend. Thanks.
December 30, 2007 at 1:36 am
As you notice the multimix and 10.5.X has driver problems. Check the Alesis site they have a beta driver that is suppose to help, not sure if it does but at least they’re working on it. If the beta driver doesn’t work you could use the tape out to the mac’s line in for record two channels at a time.
November 11, 2008 at 7:55 am
Hey, isteve: In a GB forum post you said you use a separate, bare-bones user account for GB. Do you keep Automatic LogIn on or do you turn it off?
Any other settings I should be aware of? (I’m still a relative Mac newbie, so please spell it out a bit if you can).
PS – I’m in Tiger 10.4.11.
July 9, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Hey i have a question about using Garageband with the Presonus Firebox. I just bought the thing. Let me know if any of the steps i have are wrong.. okay..
So in the Garageband-Preferences-Audio/MIDI i got Audio output on PreSonus and audio input on PreSonus.
Then I got 2 Real Instrument Tracks. I have one for Microphone (vocals) and one for microphone next to amp for Guitar.
For the vocal mic track i have it on “Mono 1 PreSonus..” under the input source.
Then the amp mic on “Mono 2 PreSonus..” under the input source.
Now when i tested record vocals it picked it up (the mixer bar went green) but when i tried to play back nothing came out of my speakers.. But then i put headphones on through the firebox headphone input.. i could hear it. So i am confused at this point..
Then i tried to record guitar and the mixer bar didn’t even go up at all.. no green.. and the recorded track had no sound waves. So it didn’t pick it up.
Is there anyway you can help me.. sorry.. haha.
July 9, 2009 at 10:09 pm
First what do you have your speakers connected to the firebox or the mac?
As for no sound on guitar track did you record enable the track?
July 9, 2009 at 10:55 pm
I got my speakers plugged into my mac.. should i have them into the firebox? in the headphone input?
how do i record enable the track?
July 9, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Doesn’t matter what you have the speakers (monitors) plugged into but you need to select that as output. So go into garageband > preferences> audio midi and choose output as line out. If you have the speakers plugged into the firebox then the output would be the presonus.
The red button in the track header needs to be lit that means the track is ready to record. It will enable when you highlight the track but when doing multi tracks you have to make sure all tracks are enabled before hitting the record button. Also if you turn the monitoring on for your guitar track you will hear it through the speakers. Be careful when recording with mics this can cause feedback, best to monitor with headphones.
July 10, 2009 at 12:09 am
alright i have picked up the guitar. and it sounds pretty good.
um i have the knob to turn up the guitar on the firebox.. at like 3 o clock tho. and Main level at 12 o clock. is that normal?
and i played a little something and imported it to itunes.. and it sounded horrible.. there was so much background noise.
What is my issue now?
July 10, 2009 at 8:59 am
Electric guitar or a acoustic with a mic?
July 10, 2009 at 1:48 pm
- I got a SHURE Dynamic SM57 mic
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Shure-SM57-InstrumentVocal-Mic?sku=270102
- and i got a MXL 992 mic (condenser)
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/MXL-MXL-992-LargeDiaphragm-Condenser-Microphone?sku=273162
July 12, 2009 at 11:39 am
Sorry for the delay haven’t been around. I’m guessing you have this figured out already.
If you need help with garageband fairly quick go to http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=127 plenty of people to help myself included.
Condenser mic pick up every sound in the room you really need a quiet room to use them. Sounds like you have things figured out you just need to experiment with settings and mic setup.