Anybody know the best way to hook a guitar up to an iMac? I tried a FastTrack and it doesn't work right. The sound is week. I want to use Garageband and to make it work you have to use "live instruments" as opposed to "a guitar track" just to get it to a work a little bit. It's useless. I'm thinking I'll have to buy a 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch cable and plug directly into the back, but I'm thinking that will be thin as well (stereo to mono couldn't be good - could it.) Apple keeps updating Garageband so somebody is getting a good sound. How?
Hopefully Nuno will come to the rescue. I believe he uses GB.
I haven't used it in quite a while but:
There will be software (driver) for the FastTrack you'd have to install and configure in the Audio/MIDI Setup utility.
No recollection of a 'live instrument' vs. a a 'guitar track' option? It's always been 'Real' vs 'Software' instruments...
Choose 'Real'. And assign an instrument sim in the dialog box that follows. Without that all you hear is the dry guitar signal, which might account for why it sounds 'weak'.
Here's a link that may help:
http://www.apple.com/support/ilife/tutorials/garageband/gb2-2.html
:)
Don
Yeah, I use GB and also Cubase LE. When I record for myself I use GB because I use the drum tracks and also some effects like reverb for the final mix. If I only need to record a track, I use both, usually Cubase.
For connecting the electric instrument I have also two options: an external card (in my case Audio Kontrol 1 but I guess it is similar to the FastTrack) or the Mac internal audio card but ALWAYS I use a device like a Korg Pandora or a multi-effects (I use a similar scheme to http://playbassnow.com/recording-videos/ ).
You can listen my recordings on SoundClick or YouTube. I also have several collabs. One of the first ones was with Boxboy and I did several with Dogbite. I think we never experienced the sound was weak.
Try to update the FastTrack drivers or modify the levels in the driver (System Preferences) if they exist.
It should work.
