Garageband Mic Setup

[lthan07]

Ok so I'm new to this forum and really hoping to find some help here. I have a Shure SM58 microphone that I want to hook up to my computer to use for Garageband. I bought a tube mic preamp that I hooked up to the mic then to my Macbook's line in. The mic worked great but sound only came out the left channel. I heard that this was caused by the mono cable I used to connect everything but when I connected it with a stereo cable it still only worked through the left channel. The guy at Guitar Center where I bought the preamp from told me I also needed a mixer and I couldn't connect to the computer directly but I'm only going to be recording on one channel so I kind of doubted his advice. Do I actually need to buy a mixer as well or can it actually work with just a preamp? I have a gut feeling that the guy was just trying to sell me equipment I didn't need.

 

[bstarstudios]

Ok so I'm new to this forum and really hoping to find some help here. I have a Shure SM58 microphone that I want to hook up to my computer to use for Garageband. I bought a tube mic preamp that I hooked up to the mic then to my Macbook's line in. The mic worked great but sound only came out the left channel. I heard that this was caused by the mono cable I used to connect everything but when I connected it with a stereo cable it still only worked through the left channel. The guy at Guitar Center where I bought the preamp from told me I also needed a mixer and I couldn't connect to the computer directly but I'm only going to be recording on one channel so I kind of doubted his advice. Do I actually need to buy a mixer as well or can it actually work with just a preamp? I have a gut feeling that the guy was just trying to sell me equipment I didn't need.

On your basic computer sound card, the line in is just there so you can plug in something while leaving your mic plugged in at the same time - less hassle.

might as well pick up a cheap mixer, there like 40$ and could do you wonders.

 

[lthan07]

So would I need both the preamp and the mixer? Or could I just use the mixer and use its built in preamp?