Advice for High Qual. Audio Recording on Mac Book

alhava

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 8, 2004
Messages
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Hello! I am new to the whole "Mac" thing, so bear with me.
My girlfriend just got a mac book, adn she is a musician, and has started using Finale and Garage band to make her own songs, but she doesn't have a compatible mic any better than the built in laptop mic.

Her recordings end up sounding awfully tinny.

She has a gorgeous mic that uses (as far as I'm aware) a sort of standard, 3 pin professional mic connection. (like the one in the linked image):

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N

Is there a way to get this mic to input into her laptop?

Are there mac compatible external sound cards that we can use to get higher fidelity audio input and output?

Thanks.
 
why not just take the 1/4 jack and get a wire that goes 1/4 to 3.5mm and your problems will be solved. (unless yours doesn't have a headphone port like pictured)
 
Well, I suppose that would work, but I don't know if professional mics need any sort of powered amplification.

The photo I used was just an image of the type of plug for the mic ripped out of a google image search.

But you're saying they have mic cabled that go from teh 3 pin (1/4 jack it is called?) to the traditional stereo plug (3.5mm?)

What an elegant and simple solution.

Will there be any problem with that?
 
That 3 pin jack is called an XLR connector.

Could you post the model of the microphone? Some do require somehting called Phantom Power to work, some don't.

Here's the kind of cable you'd want: http://www.amazon.com/GRIFFIN-TECHNOLOGY-GarageBand-Microphone-3105-XLR/dp/B00030EE04

And if the mic needs phantom power you can get a little outboard box that plugs in between the cable and the mic (you'd need another XLR mic cable as well) and provides it.

If you want to get some sort of recording interface there are all sorts of USB and firewire options for that. I have a Digidesign MBox for example.
 
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If its a dynamic mic it doesn't need +32 or phantom power, but if i'ts a condenser mic it will most likely. A dynamic is usually one of those microphones you see a singer with, but you can usually find out. Im going to go out on a limb and say you will need power.
 
Most likely. She said she needed a "special sound card" to get it to work before, so I'm fairly certain she needed to preamp it.

I did some research last night and came up with this:
http://videoediting.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=33810-0

It's a desktop condenser mic that is self powered, so no preamp is necessary.

It's more or less exactly what she needs, and a quite reasonable price ($83 shipped, guitar center)

people keep using the term "phantom power"
what does it mean?
 
Most likely. She said she needed a "special sound card" to get it to work before, so I'm fairly certain she needed to preamp it.

I did some research last night and came up with this:
http://videoediting.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=33810-0

It's a desktop condenser mic that is self powered, so no preamp is necessary.

It's more or less exactly what she needs, and a quite reasonable price ($83 shipped, guitar center)

people keep using the term "phantom power"
what does it mean?

Preamps and Phantom Power are two different things.

Phantom power is a method for providing certian types of microphones the power that they need to operate properly via the microphone cable.

The input on a Macbook has a preamp built in I beleive which is why that cable I linked to should be all that you need if the mic doesn't need Pahntom Power.
 
Hmm, well, I will look into it. I will write down the model number and such tonight and see what it needs. I'm sure she'd be thrilled to use her fancy mic.
 
Look for a USB preamp from M-Audio. All of their pre-amps should come with phantom power should she need it and their products are relatively cheap while offering good quality. Don't try to hook it into the 3.5mm jack through adapters, you just lose quality that way. The preamps are designed to channel in the best quality sound that they're capable of.

Get something with phantom power even if she doesnt need it at the moment, it will only prepare her for a better mic in the future.
 
why not just take the 1/4 jack and get a wire that goes 1/4 to 3.5mm and your problems will be solved. (unless yours doesn't have a headphone port like pictured)

bad idea^^^

She's going to want your run of the mill USB or Firewire audio interface - for starters try something from M-Audio, they're not the best, but they work with all/most audio software.
Heres a decent one to get her going:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOMOBILEPRE

this will handle any type of dynamic or condensor mic she can throw at it - its got two XLR inputs, two 1/4in inputs, and a stereo mic input jack. I've used this little interface to do all sorts of field recordings and some simpler stuff at home.....it works great with garageband and is really simple to use.

for example,
you can plug in a vocal mic and a guitar at the same time and multi-track that into garage band or whatever
 
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