recording newbie advice

Pittster

A question about recording guitar onto my iMac ....

I have a 2015 spec iMac and would like to record my music/guitar using Garageband. The ports on the back of the iMac are thunderbolt and USB 3.

I have absolutely no understanding of DAW, tech etc. What would be the best interface to buy in order to record guitar? Budget max of £200.

thanks for any suggestions.

TheMadMick

I use a Behringer Xenyx 8 which has 2 balanced channels and 2 stereo. Costs about £80.00. I found replacing the USB out[ut lead with an Oehlbach one (2nd hand) made a subtle but important difference to the recording quality.

You might like to try Audacity. It's simpler than garage band but a lot less flexible.

thermionic

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 would be a good one start with. My next one will likely be from this range (I have an older Focusrite Solo and has worked flawlessly with my Mac for years).

Branshen

Best interface is a subjective thing, just like best car. It depends on your needs. There are many options at the low end and the focusrite scarlett 2i2 is a decent suggestion. I happily used a focusrite 2i4 for many years. Just make sure you are buying the most current version (3rd gen), which will perform the best and be well supported with updates.

TTony

Pittster said:

I have absolutely no understanding of DAW, tech etc. What would be the best interface to buy in order to record guitar? Budget max of £200.

I was in that position, not so many months ago.

Everyone is going to recommend the specific interface that they've got, because it works for them.  Actually, pretty much all of them are going to work fine, provided that it's not some ancient interface that's being sold at a bargaintastic price on eBay!

Rather than the specific brand, consider also how many inputs you're going to want to use simultaneously.    

To begin with, you might just want to record a single electric guitar.  Single input interface = job done.  But if you might  want to start recording multiple tracks, then it can be easier to have each guitar plugged into a separate input into its own track on the DAW (saves changing input levels).  Or, you might want to add a mic.  Or, if using an acoustic, you might want a couple of acoustic mics recording the guitar simultaneously.  Those mean multiple inputs.

Different interfaces often comes with trial or free versions of a DAW.    Again, they're much of a muchness, but once you've invested time and effort into learning the interface of one, will you want to swap to another?  So, consider the upgrade path from the free version into a more functional paid version, and the level of support/forum/YTvids that are available for each DAW.

Garageband is great, as a freebie, but it's also limited.  The "obvious" upgrade path if/when you hit those limits is into Logic, but that comes with some downsides too.

Using USB3, you should have no problems with latency etc, and it's just plug & play.  It's how my set-up is connected, and I've never had any issues.

(2-input Presonus USB 96 with -free- Studio One  Prime was my entry point.  When I decided that worked for me, I upgraded the free version to the -paidfor- Artist version, and that has way more functionality than I'll ever need, plus an incredible amount of free YT resources to learn it all.  You can buy that for £80-odd).

Nerine

Generally most converters even in lower end interfaces are going to get the job done at an acceptable level nowadays. 

There’s a really good YouTube channel called Present Day Productions that does sift through and debunk quite a lot of the garbage that is spouted in pro audio communities. 

They did a really interesting video on an Audient and SSL interface. They round tripped through them something like 500 times each to see how much the converters (in comparatively inexpensive, whilst not “low end” devices) degraded the audio. 

Up to about 50 round trips through the converters, the degradation was basically unnoticeable. 

Get one that has the feature set that you think you’d require. That will be more important than worrying too much about the sound or conversion quality. 

The creative aspect of recording is probably more important than the audiophile converter spec diatribe. Get a device that will enable you to be as creative as possible/won’t limit what you want to do.