Members Goofball Jones Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Okay, let's say I get a USB keyboard, hook it up to Logic Studio on my Mac and I can sit there and play some music...through the Mac's speakers. I can record all kinds of things and save them as mp3's to my hearts content. But what about a live situation? But what am I looking for to get the sound out of Logic and into some sort of amplification or speaker/PA system or what. I have a small Crate keyboard amp with the normal input jacks in it...how do I hook my Mac up to that so sound is coming out of there? For like a live gig. The info on that last step seems to be missing in most of the info sites. Or else I'm not looking in the right area. What are the products I'm looking to get? Any suggetions? DevilRaysFan? HELP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverend179 Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Okay, let's say I get a USB keyboard, hook it up to Logic Studio on my Mac and I can sit there and play some music...through the Mac's speakers. I can record all kinds of things and save them as mp3's to my hearts content. But what about a live situation? But what am I looking for to get the sound out of Logic and into some sort of amplification or speaker/PA system or what. I have a small Crate keyboard amp with the normal input jacks in it...how do I hook my Mac up to that so sound is coming out of there? For like a live gig. The info on that last step seems to be missing in most of the info sites. Or else I'm not looking in the right area. What are the products I'm looking to get? Any suggetions? DevilRaysFan? HELP! Interface, my good man, interface. Does your Mac have Firewire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lokidecat Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 I use the outs on http://line6.com/toneportgx/ into my combo. works fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted December 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Interface, my good man, interface. Does your Mac have Firewire? Yes, it has Firewire 400 I believe...not sure if it's 800 or not. Doesn't matter what I have now though, I'm eying a new MacBook Pro and that has Firewire 800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverend179 Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Yes, it has Firewire 400 I believe...not sure if it's 800 or not. Inspire 1394 would be my bet man. Firewire, so less lag than a USB interface, 200 bucks. Cheapest FW interface that you can get, I believe. http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-INSPIRE-1394-FireWire-Audio-Interface?sku=241483 Next option up from that (IMO) is the Presonus Firebox. Same idea, with mic preamps in the front. 260-300 bucks depending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lokidecat Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Inspire 1394 would be my bet man. Firewire, so less lag than a USB interface, 200 bucks. Cheapest FW interface that you can get, I believe.http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-INSPIRE-1394-FireWire-Audio-Interface?sku=241483Next option up from that (IMO) is the Presonus Firebox. Same idea, with mic preamps in the front. 260-300 bucks depending. that's sexy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverend179 Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 that's sexy I sold a load of them to DJ's when I worked at GC- they're great for Ableton, or someone not concerned with inputs as much as outputs. Plus they're chainable so you can put two together and have double the I/O. Not the BEST cheapy interface in the world (I think that the Focusrite Saffire easily wins on that accounts with it's 10 channels of I/O) but for specific applications it's hard to beat for the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flâneur Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Your Mac, like a PC or whatever, has analog-digital and digital-analog converters built into it. So you can plug a mic into the mic socket and headphones into the headphone socket and not worry about the clever stuff going on inside. These AD and DA converters aren't terribly good for pro music, so most people buy an external one (called an interface, usually). Most of them now are Firewire or USB 2.0 (doesn't make a huge diff though many people prefer FW). It gives you generally more inputs, outputs and perhaps midi sockets too. And the ins and outs are 1/4" too. I have M-Audio FW410. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Goofball Jones Posted December 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 Inspire 1394 would be my bet man. Firewire, so less lag than a USB interface, 200 bucks. Cheapest FW interface that you can get, I believe. http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-INSPIRE-1394-FireWire-Audio-Interface?sku=241483 Next option up from that (IMO) is the Presonus Firebox. Same idea, with mic preamps in the front. 260-300 bucks depending. That looks cool...but I mainly need 1/4" jacks coming out so I can make my Mac play through an amp...namely my keyboard Amp. What I'm thinking is Keyboard to USB to Mac to Logic....then from Logic to Interface to Keyboard Amp. All going live. So I play my keyboard which controls a software synth on Logic on the Mac and it all comes out of the keyboard amp. Now, doing that, will there be any signifigant lag time from what I play to what I'm hearing? Then again, I may just chuck all of this and go with a Kurzweil PC3x straight to the keyboard amp.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LanEvo Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 What I'm thinking is Keyboard to USB to Mac to Logic....then from Logic to Interface to Keyboard Amp. All going live. So I play my keyboard which controls a software synth on Logic on the Mac and it all comes out of the keyboard amp. Now, doing that, will there be any signifigant lag time from what I play to what I'm hearing?Well, do you have any lag now? If there's no noticeable lag using your computer's built-in speakers, there won't be any when you use an audio interface. In fact, if you use a good audio interface connected to your laptop via Firewire, there should be even less lag (if anything). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverend179 Posted December 22, 2008 Members Share Posted December 22, 2008 That looks cool...but I mainly need 1/4" jacks coming out so I can make my Mac play through an amp...namely my keyboard Amp. What I'm thinking is Keyboard to USB to Mac to Logic....then from Logic to Interface to Keyboard Amp. All going live. So I play my keyboard which controls a software synth on Logic on the Mac and it all comes out of the keyboard amp. Now, doing that, will there be any signifigant lag time from what I play to what I'm hearing? Then again, I may just chuck all of this and go with a Kurzweil PC3x straight to the keyboard amp.... It all depends on your transmission type and computer's processing power. Rule of thumb is that firewire is going to have less latency than USB when it comes to audio transmission. If you need 1/4 inch outs, I would suggest the Presonus Firebox then. 100 dollars more but it has actual preamps, 1/4" outputs, etc etc. Also it has a true-blue MIDI connection, so you could only have to hook up to one source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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