Mic input for Powerbook ?

[om28marquis]

I have a Mac G4 powerbook w/ Garageband installed and I also have a Shure SM57 mic. What is the best (and cheapest) way to input the mic audio into my laptop?

USB or use the stereo jack? I imagine that a pre-amp of sorts might be needed, but I'm really not sure... Any advice on a cheap, but good quality solution for recording?

Thanks!

 

[Newbie dude]

Look up the M-Audio.....Refurb Mobile-Pre, I think? I dunno. I think that's right. It's a USB interface. 130 bucks I think, and specifically made for laptops. Even if you don't get that, get a USB interface defintely[ if you don't have a firewire port, that is. in which case get a firewire device], but get your USB upgraded to a USB 2 if you don't have a USB 2 already. You can upgrade it for about 30 bucks at COMP usa.

 

[dgatwood]

Look up the M-Audio.....Refurb Mobile-Pre, I think? I dunno. I think that's right. It's a USB interface. 130 bucks I think, and specifically made for laptops. Even if you don't get that, get a USB interface defintely[ if you don't have a firewire port, that is. in which case get a firewire device], but get your USB upgraded to a USB 2 if you don't have a USB 2 already. You can upgrade it for about 30 bucks at COMP usa.

It's a PowerBook. It has FireWire... unless it's 6+ years old. (Lombard/101 was the last one that didn't, replaced by the Pismo back in late 1999 or early 2000.)

I'd definitely go with something FireWire like the FireBox if you can. Failing that, you might try the Presonus Inspire 1394. I don't know of anybody who has tried one yet, so it's a bit of an unknown, but given their history, I'd expect it to be solid.

Don't know about the MobilePre, but my history with M-Audio gear has been a bit hit-and-miss. The hardware is solid, but I've seen their drivers go from solid to dead with minor bug fix releases to the drivers and/or the OS. 10.4.3 broke my FW1814 driver and other people's Delta 66 drivers (possibly linked to the M-Powered versions of the drivers). The M-Powered version of their Delta driver disabled sleep support on my G5 until I downgraded the driver to an earlier version. My Delta 1010LT suddenly became a two channel interface when I added the FW1814 due to some odd changes to the Audio/MIDI Setup settings that I had never touched and didn't realize even existed. And so on....

My FirePod doesn't have any custom drivers to break. That's a real win in my book for the Presonus hardware.

 

[tju85]

I imagine you could buy a mixer, and then run the mic through a channel in the mixer ( it would have a pre-amp). Then you could just use the Rec Out from the mixer into the Mic. input on your powerbook.

 

[tourettes5139]

I imagine you could buy a mixer, and then run the mic through a channel in the mixer ( it would have a pre-amp). Then you could just use the Rec Out from the mixer into the Mic. input on your powerbook.

No no no no no. If you are going to do that, you definitely will need to go into the LINE IN if you have one. Those mic inputs are no good.



(Sorry if I seemed harsh. )

 

[XLR]

A firewire or USB interface with mic preamp built in would be your best bet. Lots of info here on those if you poke around with a quick Search. Stock internal soundcards are generally of low sonic quality.

Tim

 

[om28marquis]

Thanks for all the replies. Way more helpful than the feedback I got on harmony central. I'm going to look into a firewire solution, like the m-audio.

I'll also look into swaping in a higher end sound card.

Thanks!

 

[om28marquis]

Here is another solution:

http://www.josephhathaway.com/2005/...-and-releasing-an-independent-record-part-one