I'm sure several threads on this subject are already posted here but I'm new so bear with me.
I have an Ibanez acoustic/electric bass AEB10 series and want to hook it up to my MacBook Pro laptop: What's the cheapest, easiest way to do so?
Plus, it has both 1/4" and XLR balanced output jacks on it – is one superior than the other?
I'm assuming you want to record the output. To do that, you need a way to get the sound out of your bass changed to digital and put into your computer. The cheapest way I can think of is to: 1. buy a direct box or preamp with 1/4-inch in; 2. buy a usb or firewire interface, which takes the sound from the DI or pre and makes it digital; 3. cables to hook it all up.
There are millions of different combinations of gear that can do this. A very low-end (i.e., cheep) way to do this would be to purchase the ART Tube MP (40 bucks at Musicians Friend, not a great pre but ok for bass) and, say, an M-Audio firewire soundcard (around 120 bucks.) You would take the 1/4-inch output of your bass into the Tube MP and use a balanced cable to go out of the ART and into the card.
Alternatively, you could buy an all-in-one interface that has preamp and soundcard built in. ONE such example would be the M-Audio Omni USB; another would be the Line 6 UX series of USB interfaces... but there are, as I said, thousands of options, including Firewire which has greater bandwith and many people prefer. Also there are special cards made for laptops you can install and connect an interface to.
But as I said, there are literally thousands of products out there, so take some time reading, at this site and at others. Soon you'll be sucked in to a whole new worlds of Gear Aquisition Syndrome and wasting work time online here, at gearslutz, etc.... heh heh.
