Cheap Audio Interfaces

[LoudMac]

Originally Posted by baseballboy828

so I decided to buy the Behringer mic kit from B&H. I'm sure the quality isn't great, but I don't need that. I just need clear, loud vocals. I haven't ordered the mics yet by the way. So, here's what I;m getting to. I need to run the audio into my powerbook. I'd like to have it in GarageBand as seperate tracks.

Here's the problem, dude. You're going to have to spend a bit more money than you want to (have to spend). Cheap Best Buy and dynamic mic kits are not what you want for any kind of quality field audio on location or dialogue.

And it's not simply a matter of XLR, TS 1/4" or minijack. It's more a matter of microphone design and quality. A crappy mic will always sound crappy with a low quality mic pre behind it. A decent mic will sound crappy with a garbage mic pre/mxer. However, a decent mic with a better sounding mic pre will sound very good. Even a crappy mic with a better sounding mic pre will actually sound much better. So think about the whole signal chain and what compromises you are making before you try and do this for a hundred dollars (and actually like what you end up with).

Beyond that, you're going to find that it's not quite so simple to acheive the sound you're after when you start actually doing it. I'm not trying to discourage you here, mind you. Quite the opposite, I want you to get the right stuff so that you actually get some good results that you're happy with.

It wouldn't hurt to grab any textbook you can find on audio engineering and sound recording to get some mic placement theory and other useful bits of knowledge that will make the process easier and the end result more satisfying.

Next, I would buy a used MBox off eBay which has a pair of mic pre's that will work for you as well a pair of 1/4" line ins that you can feed with a small used Yamaha or Mackie mixer which have serviceable mic preamps and useful things like hi-pass filters to kill wind rumble and EQ, etc. It will definitely make you a happier camper to have a little Mackie 1202 or Yamaha "MG whatever" mixer to route audio in and around between acquisition and editing/mixing.

The Mbox will also give you your own copy of ProTools, which brings your whole operation up an order of magnitude in terms of professional capabilities. You can also use it for Garageband I would assume.

Hope this helps,

Brian McLeod
Miami, Florida

[baseballboy828]

Thanks for the tips, I'll look into what you said.