Good Equipment

[Mike Buesseler]

My partner and I aquired some Shure mics (57s, 58s) a couple of years ago, along with a decent Peavey mixer/amp (6xx--I can' t remember which model. #The stuff is in his basement).

Anyway, we used it onstage a time or two with moderate success. #Then sort of abandoned it, since we play small rooms which need no amplification.

I'd like to use the equipment for home recording, but my main issue is how to get from the Peavey to my computer, and what software to use (that won' t break the bank). #I'm on an iMac G3, DVD 400, system 9.2, or so....

Any suggestions? #(Besides having a good garage sale...)

[delsbrother]

Spruce (Bruce Harvie of Orcas Island Tonewoods) is a Microphone Fiend and home studio artist. Perhaps you should email him, or modify the subject line of this thread to get his attention..

tonewoods@rockisland.com

[mandofiddle]

What sort of outputs does the Peavey have on it? #Does it have RCA tape outs? #You can run the tape outs to an analog-digital converter such as this one:

http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua3d.html

I have a G3 Powerbook, and that's what I use to get sound into the computer. #There's a plethera of equipment that does essentially the same thing as the Roland unit, at various price points. #Essentially all you need is one of those types of equipment, and the cables.

[mandofiddle]

Oh yeah, I believe that the Roland unit above comes with the basic software to do audio on the computer. Mine came with Cakewalk Metro.

[Martin Jonas]

The Peavey should have a line-level output, and your iMac has (I'm pretty sure) a line-in plug and can therefore do the A/D conversion internally. #Connect the two. #You probably need a cable with two phono plugs on one end and a 3.5mm stereo jack on the other, but these are now very commonplace and unless they are more expensive in the US than they are here in the UK, you should be able to get a decent cable for under $10.

As for software, the world is your oyster -- Macs have long been the choice of the multimedia crowd, so this is one field where the offerings for Macs are plenty. #However, in order to get you going and to see whether your hardware is good enough for what you're after, try it first with the free Audacity program, which is really very good. #Unfortunately, the most recent version (v1.2) is available only for OS X, but the previous version (v1.0.0) works with System 9.2 and is still available for download from the site. #Using Audacity should give you an idea of the quality of the hardware setup and you can then decide whether you stick with that setup, whether you upgrade the hardware (e.g. get an external A/D converter like the Edirol discussed above) and/or upgrade the software.

Martin

[Mike Buesseler]

Jeez, I haven't been checking this thread for awhile. THANKS, everybody, for the great info and help. I sort of gave up on using the Peavey, since it's only me doing the recording. No need for multiple inputs. I've got a Sony mic that works well enough with Audacity.

Thanks again!!