Consumer-Grade Audio Input Options for the Mac? 16
hypnos asks: "With the recent release of the Creative Labs Extigy, I'm wondering if there are any remotely similar options for Mac users. What I really want is a way to get several audio inputs, a mic pre-amp, and MIDI-IN all in one box, and attached to some protocol (USB, FireWire) that'll let me use it on my desktop or my laptop. Does anyone know of such a device? And barring that, are there sub-$500 PCI-type options that will allow the same things (without the notebook portability, obviously)?"
apple.com (Score:2)
More... (Score:3, Informative)
Tascam US428? (Score:2, Informative)
It's got a USB interface, MIDI I/O, 4 inputs, 2 outputs, and may meet many of your needs...
I'm trying to locate one in Sydney at the moment (with limited success), so I cannot give a review of its capabilities, but if it lives up to the product blurb, it could be nice! (any tips from fellow Australians?)
iAudio iInput (Score:2, Informative)
A bit (lot?) more capable is a couple of USB Digital Audio Processor's from Onkyo, a MSE-U33HB [onkyomm.com] and a SE-U55 [onkyomm.com]
I don't have any direct experience with these, but a quick Google search should turn up several reviews.
UNIVERSAL serial bus... (Score:2)
Heck, we might even get *nix USB drivers out of it.
Try the M-Audio USB Quattro (Score:1)
http://www.midiman.net/products/m-audio/quattro
Haven't used it myself but have seen a favourable review in computer music magazine (uk)
Re: (Score:2)
There's this thing called a search engine. (Score:3, Insightful)
Google is your friend [google.com].
- A.P.
Protools... (Score:1)
He swears up and down by Digidesign's [digidesign.com] ProTools. 'Says not to bother with anything else, as no one will ever take you seriously otherwise. (Kind of like no one will take anyone who claims to do graphics work seriously unless they know Photoshop, I guess)
Caught me by suprise, it did. I had always thought that ProTools was just a really high-end chunk of software. But, turns out it is a hardware/software combo package.
And it has an "LE" version, much like Adobe has the low end Photoshop, for novice users. And the LE version costs about that $500 you mentioned.
cya,
john
Re:Protools... (Score:1)
http://www.soundthinking.com/digi_products.htm [soundthinking.com]
Any proper "audio" card should have Mac drivers... in fact Mac was ahead of PCs for years for DAW equipment. A Creative card is regarded as a "gamer's" card, and will produce more headaches than you can imagine if used in a DAW. There are very few (if any?) legit cards under $500 that also have a midi port- FYI. Most people at the upper end would likely seek a midi bay with 64 to 128 channels anyway. A decent mic preamp alone can cost $500- but there are cards with basic preamps, XLR connections, etc...
Re:Protools... (Score:1)
I agree that a REAL protools system, shit doesnet even START at $10K however, (i know i work on one daily) In real life however the Digidesign 001 is good, simply becasue of the fact that you can work with it just about anywehre, in almost any computer. with few exceptions (within reason and *nix too), and once you have worekd as far as you can, you can take it to a REAL studio, without losing any sonic quality,
and abot the pre-amps, if you spend 500$ on a preamp, unless you are a REAL studio you are wasting your money, rarely is every channel going thorugh a 500$ preamp, it just doesnt make sense. and i have heard the ones in the 001 and they sound good, but rember you are only spending $1000 on what amounts to a "crippled" DAW worstation.
one thing to consider in all of this with HDR's and DAW's is that you are starting to use ALLOT of Hd space, and if you are serious about it Glyph Tech [glyphtech.com] makes a great one that matches the 001 called the Project X [glyphtech.com] but thats another 500$, (or you could just buy "generic" scsi/firewire external hard drive)
Some hardware is available (Score:1)
You can also get similar hardware for Midi connectors.
For a PCI-based solution, I know the SBLive! is supported on Macs by Creative. I don't know about the Audigy.
M-Audio (Score:1)
Personally, I have an Omni Studio [m-audio.com] system and have been extremely pleased with it. The audio quality is excellent.
Notably, M-Audio has also been much more forthcoming with OS X drivers than any other company I've seen.
Echo Audio & Aardvark (Score:1)