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If you want to record your whole band at once then you'll need a multichannel audio interface. One of the Firewire ones would make the most sense.
Okay...again apologizing for my lack of knowledge...would all the instruments have to somehow plug into this? Are these kinda expensive devices?
See, my bandmate has an mp3 recorder she uses to record practices. It just has a little microphone that picks up the noise we're making pretty well. The quality is not pretty but that's okay. We basically just use the recordings to work on new songs. (However, she does not have a computer at home and it's getting to be an issue for her to burn the cds from the mp3 recording at her office.)
M-Audio just released a new gizmo specifically for GarageBand.
Yes, you'd need some microphones to plug into the interface, but you'll do all of the mixing inside the box. The interfaces start at around $300 and go up from there. The Digidesign 002 Rack that I mentioned goes for around $1300.
Okay...again apologizing for my lack of knowledge...would all the instruments have to somehow plug into this? Are these kinda expensive devices?
See, my bandmate has an mp3 recorder she uses to record practices. It just has a little microphone that picks up the noise we're making pretty well. The quality is not pretty but that's okay.
Well, if you just want to continue to record your band with a single microphone, then you just need a cheap single channel input device. But there are many advantages to giving each instrument and singer its/their own microphone, etc, and record multiple tracks at once. Then you'd need the thingie ND is talking about.
If you're happy with the mp3 recorder, then plugging in a decent mic and using that to record in garageband (or any sound recording program) would work. The nice thing about the multi-track things is you can put each instrument on its own track and listen to them one-by-one or in different combinations, which you might like a lot.
You can even to do the multitracking in Garageband with just a single input. You just need to do one track at a time and slowly build up the song that way. I think that can lead to kinda sterile sounding recordings though.
If you're happy with the mp3 recorder, then plugging in a decent mic and using that to record in garageband
So I can plug a mike right into the computer?
But there are many advantages to giving each instrument and singer its/their own microphone, etc, and record multiple tracks at once. Then you'd need the thingie ND is talking about.
Oh, yes, I totally understand that. It's just not financially feasible for me at the moment. And kind of overkill for our immediate needs. (We recorded an album professionally and just released it this year so we have something that sounds good to send out to when we need to.)
So I can plug a mike right into the computer?
Yep. You might need a 1/4" -> 1/8" adapter if you want to use a production mic, but those are $3 at radio shack and you might already have one anyway.
The 1/4" to 1/8" adapter will only work with a high impedance microphone which are very low quality. If you want to use even something like a Shure SM58 then you'll need an interface with a Mic Pre-amplifier in it. If you want to use a condensor microphone then you'll need something with Phantom power.
Something like The M-Audio FastTrack USB will do it if you don't need phantom power.
eta
The The Mobile Pre adds phantom.
I'd also like to know how to choose between an iBook and a PowerBook.
I think it depends on what you want to do with it. Since I use my computer for design work, and this is my main computer now, I was steered towards the PowerBook.
Plus it was shiny and had that groovy backlit keyboard.
