Phew! That piezo thing nearly wore me out! Here's a new project. I got a Mac laptop to use at work -- I'm a teacher -- and I'm all set to try out Garage Band and Sound Studio, but there's no audio input! There's USB, and someone gave me a Macally i-voice to use, which don't appear to review well; I'll know more after I try it. There are a few other products out there in the $40.00 range...
Is anyone recording on an iBook, and what works?
Jonathan
Is anyone recording on an iBook, and what works?
Jonathan
Depends on your level of need. If you just need a simple stereo input, use a Griffin iMic. If you need microphone inputs, gain controls, and whatnot get an Edirol UA-5.
Re: iBook sound in...
As posted, it is not that hard, but by the time you even account for your time to source & order the parts you could have paid for an iMic... even if i was building a more elaborate USB/analog device it would be at the top of my list as a prebuilt I/O module/part for my creation.
dave
jkratz said:Several review sites and the woman tyhat gave me the iVoice agree...the Griffin thing is the way to go. You'd really get mad at me if I asked for a schematic...
As posted, it is not that hard, but by the time you even account for your time to source & order the parts you could have paid for an iMic... even if i was building a more elaborate USB/analog device it would be at the top of my list as a prebuilt I/O module/part for my creation.
dave
I have to agree with P10 here, the iMic is so cheap that it's well worth getting just to have a play around with and keep with your laptop all the time, rather than the bigger and heavier other solutions. Sound quality is pretty good as well. A future project for me will be to buy another, and convert it to balanced xlr input and output.
imic, etc.
I agree. I just got back from a wedding reception where my friend Mike dj'd from his Powerbook. He has a band of two or three of them and his computer, and he uses the Tascam product to interface the music with his computer, apparently in both directions. Quite nice, mic preamps, levels, phantom power; quite tasty looking and about $200.00 or so, he says. The $40 for the Macally thing is about what I could spend on discretionary toys -- uh, tools.
and gets the job done. I'll let y'all know how it goes with the iVoice in a few days...that has an in, an out, a little condenser mic, and the USB cord. There nothing on the website in the way of manuals or such for this one, but you're suggesting that the analogue to digital trick is the hard part, around which you could build whichever input preamps and etc. you wanted?
J
I agree. I just got back from a wedding reception where my friend Mike dj'd from his Powerbook. He has a band of two or three of them and his computer, and he uses the Tascam product to interface the music with his computer, apparently in both directions. Quite nice, mic preamps, levels, phantom power; quite tasty looking and about $200.00 or so, he says. The $40 for the Macally thing is about what I could spend on discretionary toys -- uh, tools.
and gets the job done. I'll let y'all know how it goes with the iVoice in a few days...that has an in, an out, a little condenser mic, and the USB cord. There nothing on the website in the way of manuals or such for this one, but you're suggesting that the analogue to digital trick is the hard part, around which you could build whichever input preamps and etc. you wanted?J
Re: imic, etc.
Yeh, but again as Dave said, don't go over the top. I happen to have the bits and pieces around to play with, but if you didn't, then one of the prebuilt ones would work out cheaper and easier than sourcing all the bits to do it yourself, ( but then again, this is diyAudio! ).
jkratz said:
Yeh, but again as Dave said, don't go over the top. I happen to have the bits and pieces around to play with, but if you didn't, then one of the prebuilt ones would work out cheaper and easier than sourcing all the bits to do it yourself, ( but then again, this is diyAudio! ).
Re: iBook sound in...
You can come pretty close. Recent vintage iMic's are based on the Micronas UAC355xB Audio Codec. If ask them nicely, Micronas will give you access to a development kit, which includes software to control all the chip's internal functions (from windows only, alas) which includes the ability to turn off the weird subwoofer crossfeed "feature". The documentation also gives you pretty much everything you need to figure out what the iMic hardware is doing.
jkratz said:You'd really get mad at me if I asked for a schematic...
You can come pretty close. Recent vintage iMic's are based on the Micronas UAC355xB Audio Codec. If ask them nicely, Micronas will give you access to a development kit, which includes software to control all the chip's internal functions (from windows only, alas) which includes the ability to turn off the weird subwoofer crossfeed "feature". The documentation also gives you pretty much everything you need to figure out what the iMic hardware is doing.
Ah, well...life is busy, and time is short. I bought an iMic; it works well enough. Used it once live to jam over a recessional thing I did in Garage Band for this year's graduation at the school where I work. Except for the very light weight of the iMic, which meant finding a way to anchor the guitar cable to the grab-handle of the mixer, it was fine.
Thanks to all who humor me.
J
Thanks to all who humor me.
J
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