Recording/Editing Software?

[kentfrancisco]

I am a DJ and will want to record my sets through the line-in input on my shiny new MBP. Does anyone know if this is feasible through GarageBand? Seems like you can do multi-track recording, so I'm assuming it would work, but I'm curious if anyone has tried it for recording sets from an external mixer, or even ripping vinyl to mp3.

If not GarageBand, does anyone have a good recommendation for a free or not too pricey audio editing software for the Mac?

 

[mkrishnan]

Are you really using line-in or are you using an optical digital audio input? You can use the line in, but you are making a quality compromise. You're probably better with a USB or Firewire external audio input. However, you can certainly just do it and see what you think of it. In Garageband, you just chose the line-in and you make sure the track is defined as stereo.

If you want to explore other software, there's Audacity:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

And the insanely more powerful Ardour:

http://ardour.org/

Also look at some of our guides, eg:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Recording_on_a_Mac
http://guides.macrumors.com/DJing_on_the_Mac

 

[kentfrancisco]

Nice, thanks for the info.

Unfortunately, my mixer doesn't have a digital output otherwise I would definitely be using it. I have a Monster y-cable so that's about as good as it's going to get for the time being. I'm using the Torq DJ software, which allows me to record directly to the hard-drive, but that can't be done when using an external mixer.

I can get an education discount on Logic Express...do you have any experience with that? I know it's intended to be a production suite, but seems like it would also have pretty solid recording features...?