Need Some Help with Recording

totaledhead

Hey!
I've got a macbook and I bought it for the sole purpose of recording my band and some solo stuff. I've got logic and garageband, but I'm looking around for a mixer to plug instruments into to get them onto the mac. Any suggestions? Around 6/8 inputs and preferably under $350/€300

Any ideas? Cos I have no clue which ones would suit....

Thanks!

who's_pearljam?

I have a Presonus Firepod which records into Cubase, which comes with it. It has 8 inputs and I bought it, then THIS came out! :

Motu Ultralite
http://www.zzounds.com/item--MTUULTRALITE

A friend has one and he uses it with his Macbook and even I know how to use it! I would definitely go with the Motu for the mac.


It's great to see you doing music and good to see you around! haha,, I remember leaning against that road sign, waiting for you in Galway, and knocking the whole thing over into the street.

Slainte!

acutejam

Yeah, MOTU is the way to go, that's a nice little unit above, the one my band got was like $900 or so, a rackmount type of unit.

But it's as easy as that -- MacBook, Logic, MOTU firewire unit.

We got frustrated with the crazy operating system/menu system on our Yamaha HD recorders and the drive was always stuffed. Now we can just buy more and more external hard-drives!

At home, I use the Zoom Handy Recorder H2 -- USB 2-channel in/out -- to noodle around with acoustic guitar multitrack with GarageBand. I might record something straight to H2 and then dump the AIFF into GarageBand and lay down some more tracks. But when I get serious, the H2 is no competition for a real mic (I like Sennheisers) into a Mackie into the MacBook.

kigcat

just a little heads up that we at Allen and Heath are pretty soon going to be releasing a Recording specific version of our ZED range of small footprint mixers. Its going to have a firewire port and transport controls that are assignable. Im not sure of the specs yet but ill let you all know closer to the time when we start the first production run in april. (oh yeah its a secret so shhh )

ianvomsaal

kigcat wrote:

just a little heads up that we at Allen and Heath are pretty soon going to be releasing a Recording specific version of our ZED range of small footprint mixers. Its going to have a firewire port and transport controls that are assignable. Im not sure of the specs yet but ill let you all know closer to the time when we start the first production run in april. (oh yeah its a secret so shhh )

I have a $2,500 click: Allen & Heath GL2400-32 - Why is it that Allen & Heath "NEVER" reply to any mixer related questions (USA)???
A&H seem to have VERY bad customer service - I won't be buying another A&H product because of this. I'd rather get a cheap MG-series
Yamaha mixer (or even a Carvin board) at 1/3 of the price, because at least they take time to answer questions from their customers.

- Ian

kigcat

i find that very hard to believe. Infact i know all the members of our tech support team and they all work bloody hard! If your referring to A+H US then i cant really answer for them but i know the guys that work with me and they all work damn hard..Also your GL2400 is made by a chinese company on our behalf and not actually by us. If you have a problem then get in touch the uk tech support team via our website and i gaurantee they will bend over backwards to sort out a problem. Infact i take that as a personal attack against me as well as i am part of the technical support team for the I-live systems and we constantly work our asses off to help customers get there problems and systems sorted. Hell we had one VERY important customer a few weeks ago whose system was giving him problems and we replaced the entire system and had it shipped up country to him for that exact same night.

I should also point out that we do stipulate that you should first of all get in touch with the distributor who supplied you the product for support as they should be trained in the product. Infact after just having a quick look at our website it has lots of information to do with different applications of use for the product in question. Including block diagrams and layouts for applications, an intrdcutory guide to using the matrix functionality, cue sheets, Using in FOH mode and Monitor mode, So anyone with an average level of competence in doing live sound should be able to figure it out. If its a repair issue then once again you should contact your supplier. If you then are still having problems then you should get in touch with our technical support team via the proper channels and by filling out the online form correctly filling in all required areas.

heres a direct link to our tech support page

http://www.allen-heath.com/UK/TechnicalSupport.asp

and heres a link to the documentation page for the GL2400
http://www.allen-heath.com/UK/ViewProductdownloads.asp?search=GL2400&I2=Find+User+Guide

also remember that im here on this board as a PJ fan not as a representative of A+H uk and i like to keep my work and my social/private life completely seperate. And i only comment on the company here in a completely non work related manner. What i have done in this post is to efectively stop someone bad mouthing the company i work for as i believe it was not called for and just ever so slightly verging on slander. It was completely out of context with the topic that i was Replying too.

ianvomsaal

kigcat wrote:

i find that very hard to believe. Infact i know all the members of our tech support team and they all work bloody hard! If your referring to A+H US then i cant really answer for them but i know the guys that work with me i take your comments very harshly.Also your GL2400 is made by a chinese company on our behalf and not actually by us. If you have a problem then get in touch with them the uk team via our website and i gaurantee they will bend over backwards to sort out a problem. Infact i take that as a personal attack against me as well as i am part of the technical support team for the I-live systems and we constantly work our asses off to help customers get there problems and systems sorted.Hell we had one very important customer a few weeks ago whose system was giving him problems and we replaced the entire system and had it shipped up country to him for that exact same night. If you cant use a system properly then maybe you should learn to use it properly before bad mouthing a company you probably know very little about. And im sure you not buying a tiny tin pot mass produced desk from us aint exactly gonna break our bank.

I've sent 6-emails within the last year without a single response . . . I didn't say the products were bad, I said the Customer Service was bad.
I guess you can take it as a personal attack if you want, but it's the truth (yes I live in the US, so maybe it's a problem on the US end).
And maybe being the good employee that you are (and looking out for the companies interests), you can pass along the problems people here in the US seem to have with A&H's Customer Service. I know how to use a mixer, been doing this music thing for years, however the manual doesn't thoroughly discuss certain aspects, like it's Matrix for one, or actually much of anything about the mixer - And you saying "you not buying a tiny tin pot mass produced desk from us aint exactly gonna break our bank" . . . makes me even more thrilled with A&H and the attitude.
I know $2,500 isn't a ton of money, but it isn't cheap for a small mixer (I'm not setting up a permanent system in a club or amphitheater, it's a road rig, so that's a chunk to drop on a mixer).
And I do have to say that you come off a little elitist with that kind of smug attitude (PJMP members, am I wrong) - therefore if I've offended you . . . so.
I know I've pressed a few buttons on this board, but that's not the point here is it - I've said my piece.
Cheers . . .

- Ian

kigcat

if you actually takte the time and see that i edited my post to remove some of my comments that may have caused offence before you had even replied so as to avoid accusations.
Your calling me elitist? have you ever noticed how you constantly come across on this board???!! Just dont get me started. Lets forget this. Ive had enough.
and once again i say:

Also remember that im here on this board as a PJ fan not as a representative of A+H uk and i like to keep my work and my social/private life completely seperate. And i only comment on the company here in a completely non work related manner. What i have done in this post is to efectively stop someone bad mouthing the company i work for as i believe it was not called for and just ever so slightly verging on slander. It was completely out of context with the topic that i was Replying too.

Pacomc79

kigcat wrote:

just a little heads up that we at Allen and Heath are pretty soon going to be releasing a Recording specific version of our ZED range of small footprint mixers. Its going to have a firewire port and transport controls that are assignable. Im not sure of the specs yet but ill let you all know closer to the time when we start the first production run in april. (oh yeah its a secret so shhh )

cool, so that's why the old ZED is on sale now. thanks for the heads up. I need a live mixer before July.

kigcat

the new ZED wont be for live use per se. Its designed for primarily home small studio digital recording. I aint had much to do with the standard ZEDs at all but they are a nice little mixer and the usb port is damn handy for 2trk mixdown and i think it comes bundled with a copy of sonar LE.