Audio interface and software for my 13" MBA?

I just bought a new Macbook Air, the $999 13" model, and installed OSX Mavericks
I'm looking to purchase a compatible audio interface and recording/editing software to use with my XLR microphone.
Any pointers? I just don't want to spend $500 and get home and have it not work!

I'm quite impressed by Apogee Duet. 2-channel & no MIDI (still does provide some control function with its single knob) which sounds like it suits what you're looking for. Very simple & elegant design, the sound quality is supreme considering its cost.
Near field monitor of my choice is KRK V8's. Nice natural sounding set of monitors. In comparison to competitors at the price range, these sets 'breathe' & provide a bit more air in sound production without exaggerating any particular freq.
When it comes down to choosing monitor speakers, go to a local pro audio shop & try out a bunch so you can compare. Just remember to bring test CD that you know well what it should sound like.
Good luck!

Similar Messages

  • Advice on audio interface  and monitors for I-Mac

    My setup is a basement studio. Mac pro, logic pro, Mackie control, motu 896, unitor 8 channel midi, line 6 pod xt pro, lexicon mx 400. Allen & heath board 16.2 wizard, Amps, Drums, Mics. The list goes on. Networked with my I-Mac in my office 2 floors up. So I copy My project folders to my I-Mac. Im very comfortable in my office so I thought I would do my final mix and master in my office. So my question is what would be a decent 2 channel audio interface no midi, and near field monitors maybe 3 to 4 feet away to mix and master. Reasonable. Thanks Bill

    I'm quite impressed by Apogee Duet. 2-channel & no MIDI (still does provide some control function with its single knob) which sounds like it suits what you're looking for. Very simple & elegant design, the sound quality is supreme considering its cost.
    Near field monitor of my choice is KRK V8's. Nice natural sounding set of monitors. In comparison to competitors at the price range, these sets 'breathe' & provide a bit more air in sound production without exaggerating any particular freq.
    When it comes down to choosing monitor speakers, go to a local pro audio shop & try out a bunch so you can compare. Just remember to bring test CD that you know well what it should sound like.
    Good luck!

  • Audio Interface and Converter HardWare for my future Logic

    Hello, I'm French.
    I will buy a logic studio 9 software + a mac pro computer
    But i don't really know what Audio Interface and Converter HardWare take?
    I'm look for Digidesign + HD Cards or Apogee System or RME, MOTU
    After I will buy an SSL mixage table for my studio (in a long time^^)
    Sorry for the bad english :S

    Logic and Protools don't have exactly the same concept when it comes to audio hardware. But if you want Apogee hardware to use with Logic, then there are options for either PCI-based or FireWire. Go and look at the Apogee site:
    http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/symphony-system.php
    or
    http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/ensemble.php

  • I recently bought a dbx hardware compressor and am not quite sure how to use it in logic express 9. I hav a focusrite saffire 6 usb audio interface and am not dont how to use it in logic. Please help???

    I recently bought a dbx hardware compressor and am not quite sure how to use it in logic express 9. I hav a focusrite saffire 6 usb audio interface and am not dont how to use it in logic. Please help???

    MUYconfundido wrote:
    Pancenter,
    Thanks for the response, but I do not have a midi interface. I am using a midi to usb connector cable, thus bypassing the need for a Midi interface.
    The Mac reads the USB cable as a midi device, but not the keyboard that I am trying to use as a controller. I have tried it with my korg sp 300 and with my Nord Electro 2.
    Thoughts?
    Thanks,
    Tristan
    Tristan...
    This is what you have, correct?
    http://www.alesis.com/usbmidicable
    This from Alesis..
    "The AudioLink Series USB cable receives and outputs MIDI signal thanks to its internal interface. The USB-MIDI Cable connects plug-and-play to your Mac or PC for an all-in-one USB-MIDI solution."
    Notice, -internal interface-. What you have is a simple USB MIDI Interface. Most MIDI interfaces are USB.
    My point is (was), MIDI OUT of the Korg goes to the connector marked MIDI IN on the Alesis, those new to MIDI often get this wrong.
    pancenter-

  • HARDWARE interfacing and software routines

    Hello there,
    I am interested in finding out a really basic tutorial/note which will allow me to work with the basic communication protocols like SPI , RS 232, etherner, USB, etc. I am looking for tutorial with BOTH HARDWARE interfacing  and software routines.
    Multiple websites will be ok for me.
    I have searched wikipedia and lot of power point presentations but was not successful in landing up with a COMPLETE tutorial which explains the hardware interfacing connections and software.
    If you guys can suggest an evaluation kit where i can pracice the above interfacing and software routine..... by all means do let me know.
    Looking forward to your reply.

    Technically you can do everything you are talking about for free provided you have the internet tool kit installed (Full Development Suite) and depending on what level of detail you plan on going into.
    If you want to play with RS232 you can start with just taking the existing Labview example, "Basic Serial Write and Read.vi" under Labview Help -> Find Examples.  You can find a serial cable and connect it to your Comm port.  On the other end of the Comm port you can insert a small wire to short pin 2 to pin 3 (TX to RX).  You will then be able to send and recieve data on the same vi.  I would look at wikipedia to learn more:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232
    If you have the internet tool kit install then you can do all kinds of stuff with just a regular internet connection.  For example any place where you can Telnet you could test using the "Telnet Line Client.vi" provided by Labview.  Again I would start by consulting wikipedia if you have questions:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telnet
    If you are trying to do everything down to the hardware level then this is a little more involved.  Again break your post into smaller pieces and repost on the Labview forum and you will have better luck getting detailed responses.
    You should not have to spend much money to play around.  You can build a lot of this stuff yourself or you can purchase very cheep if you shop around.  For example you can implement SPI using a parallel port but you need to know what your target SPI interface will be.  Regards, SS 

  • Help with M-Audio interface and GB

    First time with any kind of audio interface and GB. I just got a M-Audio Mobile Pre USB and am a little confused by the monitor settings. Been to the web site and read the manual and they said turn the monitoring off in garageband so I don't hear double monitoring. My question is, is it possible to record and hear the effect I have chosen as well. With monitor off all I can hear is the dry signal.I never had to worry about this before since I was going directly into the Mac, no interface. Is there a FAQ or web site that can help a newb like me with these most basic questions?

    Sounds like good advice Christoph. I have been only recording bass thus far, very few effects and no latency yet. I was puzzled by the M-Audio manual that says to turn off the software monitor but on the M-Audio web site forum an expert says to turn on the monitoring in garageband. This will all makes sense to me soon I hope.

  • Input problem with UCA202 usb audio interface and Garageband

    Hello, i've tried to connect my guitar in my UCA202 Bheringer audio Interface, and the sound goes fine for few minutes and after i get a noisy distorsioned sound with a big delay...
    I dont know if the problem comes from the MacBook, the sound card, Garageband or else...
    it come only from input guitar device.
    Thanks to help.
    Alex

    There are other posts concerning this problem. I also have a UCA202 and a Peavey PV10 USB mixer. It seams that anything using the 10.4.11 or 10.5.1 mac USB drivers are having this issue. I had to go back to 10.4.10 to resolve at this point. My recordings are clean when going back. There is 10.5.2 comming soon and it is not known if this will fix it. Check this thread for updates.
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5964474#5964474

  • DMX interface and software?

    I'm looking for an interface and software to control my bands lighting on stage.
    I would like this to be for a mac, hence why im on the mac forums.
    Im looking for sometype of USB interface for the DMX wires (two inputs if possible) and software that allows me to control it visual and through sliders/controls/settings.
    Thanks
    ~RSully

    There was a product called DMXIS (DMXIS.com) that was mentioned by people on here before. It was in beta last Dec and still shows beta as of April '08. Not sure if it is being actively developed any more. It was an AU plug in. (If anyone knows anything more of this product, I would love to hear about it.)
    /carmi

  • Bus-powered audio interfaces and preamps

    I'm hoping to take a PB G4 Logic system to South Africa to do some remote recording of music in a rural village. There's no electricity in the village. Wondering what options might exist and be appropriate for bus and/or battery-powered audio interfaces and mic preamps. I will be taking 4 mics with me and would like to be able to record to 4 tracks simultaneously.
    Thank you!

    Groovy, I do think it is an option worth considering if sound quality or DSP demands exceed the Traveler's mark, as I have stated.
    ULNs are 4 lbs each, smaller, lighter, they may be battery powered, like the MOTU.
    The Mobile I/O ULN2 has been designed specifically to be... erm... 'Mobile', and of superior quality.
    The traveler is more affordable and would fit the bill, I never said it wouldn't.
    You can say I am being the devil's advocate and offering the less voiced option-I don't at all think I am off the mark by offering a real alternative which is worth considering given the prerequisites. I would have no problem recording with this setup. It is an option for some people, and for some people the best one. Of course the traveler would be recommended in this thread, and I have stated in each post the condition that ULN2 is a very good option for superior quality. And if you get +DSP you get a great processor too, 80 bit mixing bus-there are things which for some people this option would be preferred. I never said it was the only option-but a good option for location. It IS worth looking into.

  • How can I find fingerprint reader driver and software for windows 8.1 Pro - HP Dv5 1225et

    I have Hp dv5 1225et Laptop. There are drivers in Hp's web site for win 7 and vista.. I need validity sensors driver and software for windows 8.1 Pro (64Bit)... Thanks a lot all of users. 

    Hi @mfatihbodur
    Welcome to the HP Support Community. I see that you are looking for Windows 8.1 version of your Validity Sensor and SimplePass software. I have included the links below but as your model doesn't have drivers I can't guarantee that they will work but they are the latest versions.
    Validity Fingerprint Sensor Driver (Windows 8.1)
    HP SimplePass Identity Protection Software (Windows 8.1)
    Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue.
    Click the “Kudos Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!
    Thank you,
    BHK6
    I work on behalf of HP

  • FW audio interface and FW drive Q's

    Hi all, we're planning on upgrading our home studio with a quad g5's and have a couple questions regarding the audio interface. We currently have a MDD with 2 internal ATA drives running in RAID as the scratch drive. We're planning on putting them in a RAID firewire 800 enclosure to continue using them as a scratch disk. We also run a PCI audio card which will have to be replaced. Since I've seen no PCI-E audio cards, I'm looking at firewire breakout boxes. Are we going to run into problems with running both a firewire audio interface and a firewire scratch disk?

    Well I ran xbench and our current scratch disk scored consistently about 70 : ( The only high score (144) was the random uncached read with 256k blocks. The only thing is that xbench changed their base computers. I have a saved xbench file from a year or so ago and it scored a 116 with nearly equal speed if looking at MB/s/. If you still have your detailed xbench results, can you post how well it compares with mine?
    Disk Test     67.92     
              Sequential     76.94     
                   Uncached Write     97.63     59.94 MB/sec [4K blocks]
                   Uncached Write     96.64     54.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
                   Uncached Read     47.45     13.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
                   Uncached Read     96.88     48.69 MB/sec [256K blocks]
              Random     60.79     
                   Uncached Write     27.89     2.95 MB/sec [4K blocks]
                   Uncached Write     143.74     46.02 MB/sec [256K blocks]
                   Uncached Read     97.80     0.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
                   Uncached Read     78.35     14.54 MB/sec [256K blocks]

  • Bus power (firewire): both Audio interface  - and - hard drive ? Risk

    Is there a known risk to damage to the firewire controller (MacBook Pro April 2008 rev) if I connect both a Motu Traveler bus-powered audio interface and a G-Tech 5400 rpm bus-powered drive.
    I seemed to recall seeing if one does this, there is a risk of "burning out" the firewire port on the MacBook Pro. Is this a real risk ? Is anyone doing this ? More generaly, what are the risks of chaining multiple bus-powered devices together ?
    Thanks up front ...

    Is there a known risk to damage to the firewire controller (MacBook Pro April 2008 rev) if I connect both a Motu Traveler bus-powered audio interface and a G-Tech 5400 rpm bus-powered drive.
    I seemed to recall seeing if one does this, there is a risk of "burning out" the firewire port on the MacBook Pro. Is this a real risk ? Is anyone doing this ? More generaly, what are the risks of chaining multiple bus-powered devices together ?
    Thanks up front ...

  • Audio Interface that works for the new 10.6.7 Mac software?

    I just bought a new Macbook Pro and I am having trouble finding an Audio Interface for recording vocals/guitars that will actually work!!  Most of these companies have not worked out the driver for them yet....Thanks

    In addition to Stedman's spot-on reply --
    When you buy an upgrade disk, all updates in that OS can be found on Software Update.
    For instance, I bought Snow Leopard at 10.6.
    All other updates have been free and downloadable.  So I'm not a 10.6.7.
    10.4 (Tiger) went to 10.4.11.
    10.5 (Leopard) went to 1.5.8
    10.6(Snow Leopard) is currently at 10.6.7.
    Now, when Lion come out (the next major upgrade of OSX), I will have to pay to go to 10.7.
    After that, updates are free til 10.8 comes out.

  • Audio interface and external hard drive config for new imac 21"

    Hi. Just got the new imac 21" and I'm considering using it as my main daw with Logic Studio as an upgrade from my old sonar mobo. I usually run up to 40 tracks of recorded audio with fx plugs. I hope to do this at 24 bit 96 instead of 24bit 44 like I did on the old system. I also run the occasional softsynth and sequencer which I don't mind bouncing down to .wav to conserve cpu.
    I really like the specs on the m-audio profire 2626 (I need the 8 mic inputs for recording drums) which needs firewire. But at the same time I'm reading a lot of recommendations about using an fw800 external drive for audio. I've read a little about daisy chaining and I'm wondering if anyone's gotten this type of configuration to work. I'm also open to any other configuration options you have to share that would enable my goal of successfully using this mac with logic.
    thanks in advance for the help,
    dave

    I run three firewire audio interfaces daisy chained together, 2 Presonus FP10's and an Alesis Multimix8.
    This gives me 24 simultaneous inputs. I normally record 24 bit at 88.2 . My iMac has a FW800 and a FW400 port. What I tried to do was run all the interfaces through the 400 and record to a FW800 external hard drive but I it kept dropping out interfaces, even if I used only one interface. I switched firewire cables on the hard drive to a 800/400 so that the hard drive was now operating as a 400 and I did not have any more interface drop outs.
    Even though the iMac has 2 firewire ports, they connect to a single cable to the i/o inside the Mac. If I try recording to an external hard drive, that is 24 tracks going into the Mac, back out to the hard drive, back in to the Mac and then back out to the interfaces and on to the monitor speakers. That is a lot to ask of a firewire connection.
    So, I record to the internal drive and use the external for backing up and saving the projects.

  • Firewire chain for external audio interface and hard drive

    I use Logic Studio 8 on a Macbook Pro with a Presonus Firebox, an external Lacie Firewire hard drive for audio recording, and another Lacie Firewire drive for backups.
    Is there a recommended chain order when chaining my Firewire devices together? I read somewhere on a ProTools forum that they recommend putting their Firewire audio interface Mbox2Pro at the end of the chain.
    So right now I have Macbook Pro -> Backup Drive -> Audio Drive -> Presonus Firebox. I once had it in a different order with the audio drive first, but I found it was reading more slowly from/to the audio drive when it was in that order. I have no idea technologically why this would be the case.

    I just found and joined this great forum. Following up on Ray's comments about his MacBook set-up, I have a similar MacBook 2ghz, 4mb ram, 9400 chipset, and am exploring getting into Logic Pro 8 and was wondering if my MacBook was underpowered, and whether I needed to step up right away to a MacBook Pro because of my lack of PCI slots for recording audio to an external eSATA drive.
    I was encouraged to hear that the USB 2.0 connection for Ray's external WD 7200 hard drive has worked and improved things and his audio isn't getting choked and he is not getting the clicks and other problems.
    I'm wondering if Ray or anyone else has any other tips on using a MacBook for Logic and for optimizing one's setup. And Ray, did you notice a point at which the clicks started? .. in terms of number of tracks? Or were they present from the outset? I'm wondering how many tracks you are running now on your system.
    I might mention that I don't have an audio interface yet but was impressed with what I've read about the Apogee Duet. Any comments on interfaces and the Duet?
    By the way, I'm just recording one instrument/one track at a time and perhaps occasionally two instruments at a time. And right now, my main purpose for getting into Logic is for editing and mixdown of pre-existing tracks that have already been created on a standalone hard-disc based DAW. If all goes well and if I like the whole Logic experience I'd expect to get a more powerful MacBook Pro or even a Mac Pro or whatever higher end iMac exists in the future.
    To summarize, all I'm intending to do initially with the MacBook is:
    1) transfer individual digital tracks from a standalone hard disc-based DAW into Logic for mixdown and mastering.
    2) Record a few extra new tracks one at a time - probably not using any instrument plug-ins but relying on external synth/sampler/guitar sound sources ..in each song (maybe 3-4 tracks at most), and
    3) apply standard effects like reverb and EQ and panning to the mix down and master songs, each song containing a of approx 25-40 tracks.
    My basic question is, can a MacBook 2Ghz with firewire 400, 4gb memory and USB2.0 to external hard drive handle this or is it underpowered? Thanks.
    Derek

Maybe you are looking for

  • Why am I getting "Not Authorized" then when I sign in I get "This computer is already authorized"

    Hello, I migrated from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion on my new iMac.  Why when I down load using iTunes 11.0.2  I get the following loop of windows:        I click Authorize        I enter my Apple ID and Password      I click OK Then then after a co

  • How can I upgrade Compressor 1.2 to 1.2.1?

    Everything was going so well, I had DSP 3, upgraded to FCE HD and I know Compressor upgraded to 1.2.1. Life was good. For reasons...I had to re-install DSP 3, I noticed Compressor was ver. 1.2, and I wasn't able to export FCE HD "using compressor". S

  • BSP - Service is not active

    Hi all, We are currently implementing Performance Management using Appraisal (MBO). I have created a template that works fine in the R/3 backend but are having problems displaying anything via BSP - we are at 4.7 I have activated all BSP sites in tra

  • Problem with macbook pro 2011

    my macbook pro is turning on,but i can't click anywhere on the screen,only scroll.it is that way even in safe mode and in the recovery mode.any ideas how can i fix it. I olso can use the buttons combinations (i am not familiar with them though)

  • Ical stopped working, all events disappeared

    I recently downloaded one of the automatic software updates Apple launches every month or so, and now my ical is completely blank. I tried to add a new event to it and it didn't work. I also tried to restore my backed up ical file and that doesn't wo