Static from MXL006 into Garageband

[theosbass]

Well my first on MacRumors forum but i'm hoping i've come to the right place.
A while back I bought a MXL 006 usb mic. I have never been able to use this for one reason or another.
My problem right now... I just joined a band and really need to record practices. I've got the mic connected and it is recognized, and I can even record with it. The problem is , there is so much static and noise when I use the mic especially when you speak into it . It lightens up when your rolling but not speaking into it . Once you introduce sound ( voice , guitar etc ) it distorts. I can record with built in mic but of course this is very weak and cant take the high volume of the band. I can back off , get close , it doesnt matter. The mic has a Low,Mid,and Hi switch on it. I've tried them all , still no difference.
I am going to be buying an interface with software soon but would like to fix this so I can use it now .
I hope someone has some answers for me.

 

[GibsonMarshall]

Well my first on MacRumors forum but i'm hoping i've come to the right place.
A while back I bought a MXL 006 usb mic. I have never been able to use this for one reason or another.
My problem right now... I just joined a band and really need to record practices. I've got the mic connected and it is recognized, and I can even record with it. The problem is , there is so much static and noise when I use the mic especially when you speak into it . It lightens up when your rolling but not speaking into it . Once you introduce sound ( voice , guitar etc ) it distorts. I can record with built in mic but of course this is very weak and cant take the high volume of the band. I can back off , get close , it doesnt matter. The mic has a Low,Mid,and Hi switch on it. I've tried them all , still no difference.
I am going to be buying an interface with software soon but would like to fix this so I can use it now .
I hope someone has some answers for me.

I'm not familiar with that microphone, but it sounds like it is clipping. With that aside, you may have already tried this, but here goes:

With the mic connected do this:

Go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES
Click on SOUND
Select INPUT from the top tabs
You should see the mic connected in the window pane
Select the Mic in the window pane
If you can, adjust the input volume until the static is gone.

If you haven't tried this, I hope it works.

 

[GibsonMarshall]

One more thing...

Look at the LED meters on each track band within GarageBand. If the LED meters are shooting all the way to the far right, you're clipping. You can remedy this by trying what I mentioned above. Also, you can adjust the volume of the track and that may have some affect on the clipping as well.

You may notice that the track loses some of its volume and punch if you're recording individual instruments. Don't worry about this right now because you can adjust this later with volume adjustments, limiting, compression, etc.. Just use your ears!

If you haven't done this already, look around the web for free Audio Unit (AU) plugins or anything that says its Mac compatible. You can also buy a few as well if you're interested in doing that. There are some pretty good free ones on the web. Sonic Birth has a nice set of free plugins that could get you started. I believe you may have to install Pluggo, but it's not that bad.

If you ever do get into installing plugins, all you have to do is download the disk image, unzip it and install it in the following folder:

Mac HD > Libraray > Audio > Plugins > Components (You just drag and drop)

You may have already done this.

 

[theosbass]

Hey thanks for your suggestions.I had tried these steps before but to make sure I did it right before I went through this again. After you pick usb mic ( or whatever it says ) , below where it normaly has the volume slider it says that the volume can't be adjusted for this device.
I think garageband doesnt like this mic. I wish I had known that $150. ago.
Now messin around with it i'm having a hard time getting it to recognize the mic.
I thought this was an entry into recording for me without having to buy a lot of extras. I hope I can at least find out what kind of interface and software will work ok on my macbook before I buy it.

BTW I'll try sonic birth and see how it goes.

Thanks for your suggestions! Hopefully I can sort it out ( with some help ). If not I may be digging out my old cassette recorder.

 

[GibsonMarshall]

Hey thanks for your suggestions.I had tried these steps before but to make sure I did it right before I went through this again. After you pick usb mic ( or whatever it says ) , below where it normaly has the volume slider it says that the volume can't be adjusted for this device.
I think garageband doesnt like this mic. I wish I had known that $150. ago.
Now messin around with it i'm having a hard time getting it to recognize the mic.
I thought this was an entry into recording for me without having to buy a lot of extras. I hope I can at least find out what kind of interface and software will work ok on my macbook before I buy it.

BTW I'll try sonic birth and see how it goes.

Thanks for your suggestions! Hopefully I can sort it out ( with some help ). If not I may be digging out my old cassette recorder.

Man, I hate that it isn't working for you.

As far as an interface, there are tons of them out there. It mainly depends on what you want to do with it, how much money you want to spend and if you want to add more stuff to it later. I'm using a Metric Halo ULN-2 and I haven't had any problems out of it whatsoever. The Apogee Duet is a pretty good one if you're on a tight budget, but it only has two inputs and lacks a lot of the In and Out (I/O) capabilities.

If you ever decide to use Pro Tools, you will have to buy their hardware. I use Logic 8 and GarageBand. I picked up the Metric Halo and am glad that I did.

Definitely check out the Sonic Birth stuff. There are some other pretty cool free plugins out there as well. Here are some:

Audio Damage (I think there are two of them that are free)
Bismark has a free spectrum analyzer.
Camel Audio has a pretty cool plugin called Camel Crusher.
Flux has one called Bittersweet. I think it's free.
Izotope has a free one called Vinyl. It's really cool!
Massey has a Tape Head plugin that sounds cool.
mda has a bundle of plugins that I believe are free as well. It's a bunch.
Reign Design has another one called 1_time.
There are a bunch from Sonic Birth.
There is a free amp plugin called Studio Devil. It's an amp plugin.
Tritone Digital has two free ones.
UR has one called Buff Rice. It does some whacky things.
Vacuum Sound has two that are free.
And I believe there are two free ones that Voxengo offers.

Some good ones that I paid for are the Hydratone EQ and Valvetone '62 by Tritone Digital and the Mac Pack from Crysonic. I also have a reverb plugin called Rayspace and it's extremely cool!