[MacDV] Re: MacDV Digest, Vol 40, Issue 5

[DGH]

Thanks, Greg et al,
Here is a note I sent to iMovie group. Maybe someone can make sense  
of it. Meanwhile I will ck on what Greg recommends in GarageBand (see  
below):
The original disk that came with my G4 laptop had GBand. I transfered  
it to my desktop G4 by firewire where it asked for the valid  
instrument library. I just went back to the laptop and GBand seemed  
to come up just fine. (Maybe Apple has some way of preventing GB to  
work when it it transferred to another computer.)
Anyhow, I attached the turntable via the USB cable.  GB asked if I  
wanted to use USB Audio CODEC and I said yes, so it must have  
recognized the turntable connection. The Garage Band seems to record  
when I push the red button. The the pointer line moves across the  
screen, but I don't see any wave pattern. I hear nothing, tho
  I  went into the utilities folder Audio Midi Setup and put in USB  
Audio CODEC for the default input. I went to GB Prefs and put in the  
AudioMidi/icon USB Audio CODEC for both A input and output. I tried  
playback. Nothing. Any ideas?
George
PS to Greg:
> Then plug your turntable analog outputs directly into the line
> input on your computer and use the "Built-in" inputs in your Sound
> Preferences panel. This would also work with any Mac audio apps.
There is no line input on either of my G4 computers. ??
>
>> you can just plug it right into your USB port on the computer.  
>> Then record with any of the applications mentioned.
>
> BTW: That iMic has an input and an output and both are stereo (if  
> it's the same as my older model which still serves me well.) Both  
> sockets take a stereo mini jack. Griffin sold it with a Y cable  
> that had a stereo mini jack to two phono plugs.
>
>
> George: Sorry to jump in here so late, but here goes.
>
> Two things that have been mentioned in earlier posts on this thread  
> were
> correct (more or less). For a turntable cartridge, you typically  
> need a
> special phono pre-amp which both amplifies the signal and does a de- 
> emphasis
> RIAA equalization (someone posted a very good link to Wikipedia on  
> this).
>
> That being said, your particular turntable has a built-in pre-amp  
> which
> takes care of both of these issues. Furthermore, it has a built-in
> analog-to-digital converter, which is what comes down the USB  
> cable. My
> guess would be that the quality of the converter built into the  
> turntable is
> of higher quality than the Mac's built-in analalog-to-digital  
> converter, but
> you might want to do a comparison test to confirm this - ya never  
> know.
>
> I was just about to give you a list of steps to go through, when I  
> decided
> to do a Google on your setup and found the software manual online. The
> detailed instructions for audio setup (Mac) start on page 15. I'm  
> reading
> from your most current post (below) that you've got Audacity to  
> recognize
> the USB input, but you might want to double check the settings in  
> your Mac's
> "Audio MIDI Setup".
>
> I just downloaded Audacity and tried it out ... I see what you  
> mean ... Sort
> of arcane dialog boxes, and the thing crashed on me while trying to  
> figure
> out how to save!!
>
> It sounds like you have GarageBand already installed. If you can  
> get past
> having it find the instrument folder (these are not really needed  
> if you
> just want to record into GarageBand), then under the Track menu  
> select new
> track and create a "Real Instrument" track. On the bottom right  
> hand corner
> of the Track Info panel you'll see the input settings. Check to see  
> if your
> USB Audio driver shows up there. If not, quit GarageBand (and any  
> other open
> apps), go to your System/Sound preferences and see if you can get  
> your USB
> Audio driver to be recognized there, then open up GarageBand and  
> repeat
> above steps. If it's recognized there, you shouldn't have a problem  
> using
> any Mac software with the USB turntable output. If not, then:
>
> Worse case scenario, you could get a cable/adaptors from Radio  
> Shack or the
> equivalent. You'll need a stereo 1/8" phone plug ---> 2 split  
> female RCA
> jacks, or you could use a stereo 1/8" phone plug ---> 2 split male  
> RCA plugs
> and a couple of female-female RCA coupler adaptors if the other one  
> is hard
> to find. Then plug your turntable analog outputs directly into the  
> line
> input on your computer and use the "Built-in" inputs in your Sound
> Preferences panel. This would also work with any Mac audio apps.
>
>> From what I've heard, Bias Peak has probably got the most  
>> elaborate tools
> for cleaning up vinyl recordings, at least at the consumer price  
> level.
> Sounds like CD Spin Doctor (comes with Toast) also has some vinyl  
> clean up
> tools. I guess it depends on how detailed you want to go with it.
>
> Keep us posted on your progress!
>
> Gregg
>
>
>
>
>>> I have a Audio-Technica LP2D-USB turntable. Mac OS 10.4.1 Power PC
>>> 800 MHz G4 original flat panel Mac.
>
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