Recording onto my computer with my Bongo's.

[JayDawg]

I attempted to do a recording onto my wife's iMac computer of my Bongo's. I wanted to do a side by side comparison of all of them and their different pick up configurations. I'm basically going through my practice amp directly and then letting the mic on the computer record everything so I am not plugged into my computer at all. It also doesn't have an input for my bass or amps to begin with. The problem is, I am getting a very clean sound out of my amp but on the computer, when I play it back, the lower end stuff on the A and E strings sound very distorted. Does anyone know how I can record everything differently so I can get a better sound for the demo purpose?
Thanks,
Jay

 

[njhammer]

I'm not a Mac user, but I wouldn't think the built-in mic on an iMac is capable of recording those lower frequencies. In order to get something of decent quality, you probably need to use a USB mic, or a mic through a digital audio interface, into a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Just my opinion.

 

[Soulkeeper]

You could/should get a decent USB sound card for not much more than a hundred bucks. If your amp has a line out, you can then plug it directly into the sound card, or record with a decent microphone (which will cost you at least another hundred bucks, probably).

 

[TWISTEDSTRINGS]

I attempted to do a recording onto my wife's iMac computer of my Bongo's. I wanted to do a side by side comparison of all of them and their different pick up configurations. I'm basically going through my practice amp directly and then letting the mic on the computer record everything so I am not plugged into my computer at all. It also doesn't have an input for my bass or amps to begin with. The problem is, I am getting a very clean sound out of my amp but on the computer, when I play it back, the lower end stuff on the A and E strings sound very distorted. Does anyone know how I can record everything differently so I can get a better sound for the demo purpose?
Thanks,
Jay

I have a Mac and I can record directly into the comp, plug your amp output(headphones or direct out) into the headphone jack(on the comp) and then switch it over in the settings to be used as a input(comp headphone out)) but it should automatically see the it`s a input and do it for you. Then you can play plugged in, in Garage band or whatever you are using. I do it all the time. Also, it will record whatever sound your getting out of your amp or you can plug your bass straight into the comp and get the clean sound of the bass(active bass). If you can`t hear your amp after you have plugged it in to the comp(does`t have that feature) set your comp output sound to the comps speakers and hear it that way. You may have to play with it a little but it definitely works ! I use my stock sound card inputs and outputs on both my Mac and windows PC for all my recordings and it sounds perfect..

 

[JayDawg]

Cool, I will try doing that.

 

[JayDawg]

Looks like what I will have to do is plug a cable into my headphones jack on my amp and then run it into a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter and then plug it into the headphones jack on the Mac and then adjust the setting on the Mac to have it's headphones act as an input not an output. Correct?

 

[JayDawg]

I got on garage band on my Mac but it doesn't look like you can do video. Only audio. Will this same stuff work on Quicktime?

 

[TWISTEDSTRINGS]

Looks like what I will have to do is plug a cable into my headphones jack on my amp and then run it into a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter and then plug it into the headphones jack on the Mac and then adjust the setting on the Mac to have it's headphones act as an input not an output. Correct?

Yes but i`m not sure about quicktime. It should if it says you can use a plugin microphone, the only difference is your bass is in place of the mic.

 

[stingray96191]

The way to do this is to get some kind of interface to convert analog signals to digital. There are options for as little as $50 to as much as you really want to spend... The first thing i had that did this was a zoom ht4 handy recorder.? or i have never used this one, i have other Blue Microphones. There is a USB mic called Blue Spark , that is supposed to be inexpensive and sound good. Truthfully there are better forums to ask these questions on.

Sorry i tried, im a bit brain dead right now..

 

[Soulkeeper]

I have a Steinberg CI1 which is perfect for this kind of thing. It's relatively cheap IMO, sturdy, has excellent sound (at least for "home use"), simple & easy to set up and use, and there are Mac drivers for it. Recommended.

It only has two input channels (one of which can be set to high impedance (hi-Z) mode, for passive instruments) and two output channels. The inputs are XLR/mono-jack dual format. If you want RCA you have to buy some jack-to-RCA converters that cost a dollar a piece on ebay.

Here's how it looks. Well, actually, how two of them look when stacked on top of each other: