eMac and music production

[davejevons]

Hi,

I'm looking at the new emacs and considering buying one to replace my dead PC for general email/internet stuff but also some music recording/production. It's only a hobby so nothing serious but I was a little concerned that the emac doesn't have a lineout to connect amplified speakers to.

If I get something like the M-Audio USB interface then I guess I can use the line out from that to power something like the Harmon-Kardon Sound Sticks?

The apple site implies that the Soundsticks II will run off the headphone socket, has anyone done this? I'm a little suspicious of what it will sound like using the headphone socket.

Does anyone have any recommendations for speakers to use with the emac?

many thanks

dave

 

[emotion]

it has headphone out which should suffice.

it also has a line in which is a bonus on a budget machine.

if the audio is anything like the 12" powerbook i used recently then you don't really need external audio cards unless you need more than one in and out. the latency should be fine
as core audio/OSX really shines compared with windows XP (i use a dell inspiron at the moment and the audio is totally useless....it's a work machine, they made me choose it! )

 

[bunkre]

but then, USB audio I/O's have gotten really affordable, and you'll really see the difference with something with a decent pre-amp if you're gunna be using mics on anything. if you plan on recording line level stuff though, you can get by on the built-in.

 

[jazzmfk]

Hey. I use a first-generation eMac at the front of my music fundamentals/AP Music Theory classroom. We do a lot of listening in both, so I just brought in an old stereo I had lying around at home, ran the headphone jack to the aux in (thank you, Radio Shack), and mounted the speakers above the whiteboard. When we *need* to listen to something loudly (you know, stravinsky, schoenberg, holst, mahler, late beethoven, whatever....) you just let the stereo do the work (i.e. set the sound out at about the 60% mark and crank the stereo). We've never had a distortion problem. We have had the teacher next door interrupt The Rite of Spring, however.

And for the person who complained about how loud the eMac is - well, I guess he's forgotten what a bank of flourescent lights can do to your ambient noise level.... When I'm seated at the machine, I can hear the fan, but the racket from the ceiling is way, way louder.

Sound Soap can help, too, if you record anything live. Pretty killer program for less than a hundred bucks, IMHO.

MFK

 

[bunkre]

it would really be nice if they could just put a freggin' direct out on any computer with a sound card. it cant be that difficult, and i think enough mac users are audio/computer savvy enough to use it...

but then again if a simple complaint on a message board could make a difference, we woulda had these damn G5 PBs by now

 

[emotion]

it would really be nice if they could just put a freggin' direct out on any computer with a sound card. it cant be that difficult, and i think enough mac users are audio/computer savvy enough to use it...

but then again if a simple complaint on a message board could make a difference, we woulda had these damn G5 PBs by now

yeah it's the line in that i miss on things like the ibook (i'd have one by now rather than having the perpetual wait for slightly better pb 12s)

yeah eventually you're gonna want a firewire external audio interface but things are changing fast in this area and it kinda pays off to wait for the dust to settle a little

(it doesn't help that i want a four in four out for use with www.mspinky.com)