@spiral_staircase:
cakewalk/ mic/ small mixer may be fine, but i would keep the 4track anyway because computers tend to breakdown from time to time, and without a good backup medium i would not trust it. anyway, if you don?t want to spend loads of money on a fine a/d converter, the sound quality is kind of medium. so you could also use one of these 8trackallinone harddisk recorders, which you should be able to get used and relatively cheap. i would use a good mic to, but there should be cheaper alternatives to the akg c1000. be sure to get a condensator mic anyway, and try to get different characteristics (like the 8 is very nice to record two singers standing faced to each other at the same time).
@popkidu2:
the quest of the hardware on mac is a neverending theme. i don?t know what midi program you have, but most up to date programs like emagic logic audio or steinberg cubase offer software recording possibilities. then you need a rec. card, but i would suggest spending a little more and going for audio interface hardware. with the loads of interfaces on the market, it also depends on what mac you have (powerpc soso, i mac bad, G4 good for musical purposes) and if you got enough ram etc. possibilities range from event darla or layla or emagic audiowerk 8 (all sth. around 500 USD) to a full fledged protools with external hardware control. and this is just the start, you can get a/d converters that cost 20,000 USD per piece. be careful, let all the system fit together, means: if you want to use digital ins/outs sometime, include this into your decision and so on.
to your second question: it?s true, there is no sense in controlling the levels twice. but i need a hardware mixer, because without i would be totally unflexible. everytime i want to make the guitar louder or to filter it, i want to do it fast and spontaneous. this is why i don?t like to work with digital mixers. i don?t want to touch the mouse or step through 5 menus on a screen only to change simple things. in a mix situation i want to have control, and to be able to change something fast. for this i need an analogue hardware mixer. there is a point in programming everything before, but you lose some good mix ideas too. so its better to program a part (like mididata about cutoff or sth.), and to leave a part to the hands (yeah fading out in realtime *g*)
have fun
whenhiphop
