Suggestions for a home recording setup (please)

[marcel-v]

Ok, so I have an iMac, a MIDI keyboard and recently purchased Logic Pro Studio 8 (so I'm feeling pretty good!!). I use a Les Paul Custom and would plan on using a drum machine to record home demos.

My real question is; what other hardware equipment would I need to make decent quality recordings?? Eg.. mixers, microphones, leads.. I would appreciate any suggestions! :) What kind of expenditure would I be looking at too?

Cheers guys!

[CanadaRAM]

This is an impossibly wide open question, can you narrow it down any?

First, read the Sticky (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=179296) at the top of this forum. This covers basics plus a lot of links to manufacturers.

You will need a few basic components --
Digital Audio interface (USB or Firewire) to get the music in and out of the Mac. $100 - $3,000 depending on quality and features and brand. You'll find

Outboard preamps, mixers, microphones and signal processors - entirely dependent on how you plan to record. It is possible for a solo act to work with just a 2 channel DA Interface that has a mic preamp onboard, and then rely on software for everything else.

"Decent quality" - define please? Where are you going with this?

My suggestion is to do some reading (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=164013) before you jump at any equipment. Good sources are magazines Sound on Sound, Recording, Electronic Musician, EQ, Mix, Computer Music, Future Music, Keyboard. Hit the library for backissues. They often have How To articles, case studies, and reviews of the type of equipment you;d be considering.

Then do some searching on this forum, we have discussed equipment and technique many many times.

[GoKyu]

I'm also looking into recording with my Les Paul, and I found a pretty cool USB interface that will work with both guitar and bass (I also play a 5 string Ibanez) - Line 6's Toneport UX1 (http://line6.com/toneportux1/index.html) - it's also reasonably priced at $130 and has several amp models to choose from for both Guitar *and* Bass.

I'm just doing home recordings for the fun of it, playing guitar and bass is a hobby :)

-Bryan