Rejoice.

One last note – This is a pre-release meaning… well.. I’m not entirely sure.  I suppose this is like a Beta… Well anyway, not EVERYTHING works perfectly yet with this version of pro tools (8.0.3r) and some hardware is no longer supported past this version.

Important Information
Please note that the following items have not been fully qualified with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr:

• Certain AIR instrument plug-ins
• Avid video peripherals

The following items are no longer supported with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr:

• PowerPC-based Macs
• Mbox (original version)
• Expansion|HD Chassis
• The following legacy audio interfaces: [link to End of Support page]
  • 888|24 I/O
  • 882|20 I/O
  • 1622 I/O
  • 24-bit ADAT Bridge I/O

Additional Information

Q: The last Pro Tools software update was version 8.0.1 but the prerelease is labeled 8.0.3. What happened to version 8.0.2?
A: Pro Tools M-Powered Essential 8.0.2 is a new software version specifically made for bundles with certain M-Audio hardware [ more info ]. Like Pro Tools 8.0.1, Pro Tools M-Powered Essential 8.0.2 has not been qualified with OS X 10.6.

Q: Will this prerelease run on Leopard OS?
A: While we have not yet qualified Leopard with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr, we intend to release the final version with support for both OS X 10.5.x Leopard and OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard. At this time we recommend not using Pro Tools 8.0.3pr with OS X 10.5.x Leopard.

Q: Will the final Pro Tools 8.0.3 release be free or a paid upgrade?
A: Pro Tools 8.0.3 will be a free update for all registered Pro Tools 8.0 HD, LE, M-Powered, and M-Powered Essential users.

Q: Do Avid video peripherals work in this prerelease version?
A: Avid video peripherals have not been qualified yet. We intend to support Avid video peripherals with the final release of Pro Tools 8.0.3.

Q: Will all plug-ins work on Snow Leopard, or should I expect a lengthy compatibility transition?
A: At the time of this writing we have found most plug-ins to work without problems except the following AIR instruments which exhibit a yellow user interface:

• Hybrid
• Strike
• Structure
• Transfuser
• Velvet

If you encounter additional issues please let us know by providing your feedback here:

• Snow Leopard Prerelease Forum

Q: Does Pro Tools 8.0.3pr take advantage of new OS technologies such as GrandCentral or OpenCL?
A: While both technology developments are exciting on many levels, Pro Tools 8.0.3 software will not directly take advantage of either one.

GrandCentral allows new software developers to take advantage of many-core processing without requiring complicated and lengthy development work. Pro Tools already employs a modern multi-threaded processing engine that is fully compatible with many-core CPUs.

OpenCL affords additional processing power by taking advantage of the computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) in addition to the CPU. While extremely powerful, GPUs will work best with only certain kinds of calculations and are not well suited for low-latency audio environments. Additionally OpenCL support is only available with certain computers and display cards.

As always, we are in close contact with Apple and will evaluate this and other new developments for future use in Pro Tools.

Q: Snow Leopard provides a 64 bit kernel mode. Will Pro Tools 8.0.3 work in 64 bit kernel mode?
A: We do not intend to qualify 64 bit kernel mode at this time as it does not offer significant performance advantages and may cause compatibility issues with other devices and software.

Q: Is Pro Tools 8.0.3 a 64 bit application?
A: Pro Tools 8.0.3 is a 32 bit application. We are investigating 64 bit support and have no release plans to share at this time.

Pedal Madness

One of the coolest things about playing electric guitar is getting to mess around with all those pedals. Fuzz pedals, distortion pedals, wah pedals, delays, reverbs, terms and vibratos, octave multipliers, and on and on… So many little units of crazy noise making.

But getting them setup in the right order can be tricky. You have so many choices and options, but inevitable you have to whittle it down to a couple of chains that you learn and use, because you cant spend half of every practice repatching your pedal board to get a new sound… unless that’s how you roll.  If you DO have that much time, then disregard what I’m about to write, because you’ll encounter all sorts of nuanced and extreme sounds messing with your pedals.

BUT, if you’re just trying to get the most out of your pedals, and want to get on with your life, then read on.

Categories of Pedals:

1) Gain-Based Pedals – These are your fuzz boxes, distortion pedals, and some other funky-named things, like a “line-amp” pedal, etc.  These also include the various “amp-sim” pedals like Boss’s Fender Bassman emulator.

I tend to think of these as “tone” pedals – They tend to have huge pronounced effects on your sound, and once you slap on a fuzz pedals there’s no going back to clean later down the line.

I’d also include compressor/sustainer pedals in this category, but they tend to show up in different places in your pedal chain than the rest.

2) Modulators – These are Tremelo, Vibrato, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Octave Multipliers, and Wah-Wah pedals.  Think of these as your “FX” pedals .  They alter your sound, by performing operations on your audio. They let you create crazy, spacey, and out-of-this-world sounds when pushed to limits.  However, used sparingly, they’l give you a different “sound” while maintaing the “tone” or crunch or fuzz of your guitar sound.

3) Time-Based Pedals – These are Reverbs, Delays and Echos, and to a lesser extent, various Modulators.  In reality, your Modulators are operating based on “timing” so they’re technically time-based pedals, but guitarists tend to group them separately from reverbs and delays.

Reverbs and Delays allow you to create artificial “spaces” with your sound, while again, leaving the basic “tone” of your guitar the same.  They do this by creating delayed duplicates or “reflections” and adding them to your sound.

4) Loop Stations – These are the pedals with “memory.” Some of the fancier delays have these built in, but most are stand-alone pedals.  They record part of your performance and play it back, looped or one-shot.  I mention these, because where you place them in the chain can be really important.

5) Multi-FX Pedals – These are those monsters that have a version of all the other categories included, often allowing you to swap them around, or turn them on/off individually.  These are another special case when it comes to Pedal Chaing.

Ordering Your Pedals:

With so many categories, it can be a little nuts trying to sort them all out.  Here’s a basic way of looking at it, that will be useful for most types of guitar playing.  My suggestion would be to start with this, and as you grow dissatisfied with it, make changes to suit your particular style.

The Basic Chain is

Guitar > Gain-Based Pedals > Compressor/Sustainers > Modulators > Loop Stations > Time-Based Pedals

This Basic Setup lets you create a tone with gain-based pedals, use comps/sustainers to make wailing solo tones, tweak your sound with modulators, create clean loops, then put them in a sonic space with Reverbs and Delays.  This works for most traditional styles of playing.

You might have notice that I avoided mentioned where to put multi-effects.  That’s mostly because there isn’t any GREAT place to put them with other pedals.  Obviously if you use them with loopers, you need them before the loop station for the FX to be recorded.  But other than that, it really depends on what you use it for, and trial an error to see what works for you.  My basic suggestion is either get a bunch of individual pedals OR a Multi-FX processor, but don’t go overboard mixing the to together. That can turn into a pedal mess pretty quickly.

Also, within your Gain-based Pedals, I’d further divide things up between Fuzz boxes, which are on/off distortion and Overdrives, which are gradual, volume-based distortions.  Put your overdrives in front of fuzz boxes in order to give yourself more options. Setting distortion/gain levels on these will create varying levels of grit and distortion, while fuzz boxes tend to be “on and distorted” or “off and clean.” If you have an overdrive feeding a fuzz box with both on, you’ll hear a difference as you gain up the overdrive.  With a fuzz box feeding an overdrive, you tend to hear less difference as you gain things up because your fuzz box automatically slams your sound into white-noise territory.

Lastly, I want to leave you with some suggested Deviations.  Here’s some samples played with a Fuzz/Distortion (Big Muff), Crybaby Wah, and Reverb (Holy Grail Reverb) in various orders.

I created the samples by recording a DI-ed guitar and then reamped the same sample through different chains into a Vox Pathfinder 15R without changing settings.

Clean DI (There’s a little clipping in it, but I think it still works)

[See post to listen to audio]

Standard: Fuzz, Wah, Reverb

[See post to listen to audio]

Wah, Fuzz with Lower Gain, Reverb – this mellows out the wah’s effect a bit, and leaves the sound rougher.

[See post to listen to audio]

Wah, Fuzz with High Gain, Reverb – this makes the wah even less pronounced.

[See post to listen to audio]

Reverb, Fuzz, No Wah – This is one way to generate lots of “white-noise” sounds while still having a basic pitch to follow.  The reverb creates lots of high-frequency reflections which the fuzz pedals turns into straight up NOISE.

[See post to listen to audio]

Well, hope this gives you some ideas for your own setup.  Send in some suggestions/examples of your pedal chains, because we’d love to hear ‘em.

It adds both a 2 and 16 channel bus to your “sound card” listings.  What that means is, anywhere you can decide where to route audio – in DAW’s, in Core Audio, in Screen Capture utilities like iShowU.  For example: If  I really wanted to record a voice chat I had over Skype, then I could route the output of Skype (Skype>Preferences>Audio) to Soundflower (2ch) like this:

Audio Preferences in Skype

Then I could throw open an audio recorder – Lets use Audacity because it’s simple.

Audio Preferences in Audacity.

Then I go to the menu Audacity>Preferences>Audio I/O tab.  Set the Recording Device to Soundflower (2ch) and leave the Output device Built-in Output (or your normal sound card hooked up to speakers).  Hit Okay, and record enable a track.  

There, you’ve successfully rewired Skype into Audacity.  It’s just as easy to do with any other recording application that doesn’t use proprietary hardware (sorry, this won’t work with Pro Tools because you have to use the I/O on the physical hardware).

But what about apps that don’t let me choose the audio output like Firefox?  Well that’s easily remedied because you actually can choose the output of Firefox – it’s just not in a Firefox menu.  Go to your computer’s System Preferences>Sound tab>Output.  You’ll see Soundflower listed there as your options right along with Internal Speakers, Headphone Output, and any other USB/Firewire Interface you have hooked up.  

Select Soundflower (2ch) as your output here, and all the sounds any apps going through your computer’s core audio (the system preferences) will be playing their audio into the Soundflower stereo bus. Now to hear it, just open up you’re recording software and select the input as Soundflower (2ch) and monitor that input on a track. 

You should be realizing by now, that you can do all sorts of funky pirating with this, but that’s not why I want people to know about Soundflower – and I’m not going to explicitly described how to do it either.   

But take this one step further than lowly pirating and there’s lots of options that open up.  You setup an MC on skype with his own mic in L.A. and route audio in of Skype with the Soundflower (16ch) bus and Skype’s Out to the Soundflower (2ch) bus. Play the beat back for him into skype and record his rhymes through skype over the voice chat.  Yes, the quality won’t be great and it’ll be subject to intense compression due to streaming, but isn’t it cool that you can do it?

Anyway, you’re all resourceful, so I’m sure you can think of lots of cool things to do with this – like recording the audio from your Alladin Dvd into Garageband so you can finally get the REAL version of “A Whole New World” with all the sound effects and ambience left in.  Right?  

(BTW there are a lot of programs that do things like this on macs & PC’s, but I’ve yet to find one as elegant and easy as Soundflower.)

Input Modes in Logic.

 When it comes to recording in DAW’s, a little function tends to go a long way.  Input Modes, however can drive you crazy pretty quickly, especially when the guy you’re recording wants to keep playing between takes (not always a bad thing, you just don’t want to hear it when you’re playing back a take).   So here’s a quick rundown of the two common input modes that you’ll find in DAW’s (and tape machines/ large recording consoles).

What you hear with different Input Modes Selected.

Record Enable:

The more common input mode is “Record Enable,” which does different things depending on what you’re doing.  Confused yet?  Well don’t worry it’s pretty straightforward.  Activate it by pressing the “R” button on that Track (In Garageband it’s a Red Circle like a Record Button).

Once activated it will let you hear the Input of that track.  So say you’ve got a bass guitar plugged into your interface and Record Enable that Track.  You should now be able to hear the bass guitar has it is played.

When you hit play (but not record) the input of the track should be muted.  So if you’re playing back the session, the noodling of your bass guitarist should be muted inside the DAW.  

When you hit record you’ll be able to hear the input again, so that you can monitor the bass being played as it is being recorded. 

Input Only:

The less common input mode (some smaller/cheaper DAW’s don’t implement this) is called “Input Only.” This input mode allows you to hear that input All The Time.  To Activate this mode you click on the “I” button in most DAW’s.  Some call this function “input monitoring” or “monitor input” but they all tend to work the same.  Once activated you hear the input of that track.  Also even when playing back and recording, you’ll still hear the input to that track.  

That’s where this mode gets tricky.  If you have this activated and record a take onto that track.  Everything will work fine up until you want to play what you just recorded.  The recording sitting on the playlist of that track will be ignored, and you’ll still be listening to the input.  There have been times I’ve left Input Only on while trying to play back and heard silence where I should have heard an over-dub.  This is especially bad when your artist is listening on headphones, waiting to hear back the most tremendous guitar solo of his life.  Nothing ruins a mood more than making an artist think you didn’t record that take. 

Probably the more confusing part of this mode, is it doesn’t “record enable” the track be default.  So if you have just the Input Only mode on but not Record Enable, then hitting record won’t actually record anything to that track.  (If you have other tracks record enabled, they will record, but the Input Only track won’t.)

Both:

You can also work with both modes activated – clicking on bot I and R buttons.  This lets you always hear the input to the track, and record to that track.  

Basically the only difference is when you hit playback, you won’t hear the track playlist, you’ll hear the input of the track.

So When Do I Use What?

The original intention for the two modes hearkens back to the days of tape.  Back then, to do a different take, you didn’t have the option to make a new track and mute the last one.  Basically to record a new take you often had to record over an older one.  

That’s why “Input Only” mode came about.  It let your artist practice an overdub while prevent accidental recordings.  If you put a guitar track on Input Only mode and hit play, your guitarist could hear himself play along to the other tracks.  If yo accidentally hit record while this was happening – no big deal, Input Only mode wouldn’t let you record over what was already on that track.

Then when your artist was ready to record and say good bye to old take, you switched over to Record Enable and were able to record the take.  

Nowadays you don’t really need the Input Only mode in most small studio setups.  If you’re monitoring and input, then you might as well be able to record.  And if you record over something, it’s still there on your hard drive and not gone forever (unless you turn on Destructive Record mode… but WHY would you do that?)

So my main suggestion is use input only mode if you’re troubleshooting a signal and you want it always on, or you’re doing lots of practice/rehearsal runs of a song (some DAW’s “record” your audio as soon as record enable, which is a great backup feature but fills up a hard drive fast if you’re just practicing).

If you’re tracking or overdubbing and moving pretty quick from take to take, just leave things in Record Enable, and don’t bother with Input Only.  

Hope that’s helpful, and as always, happy sound hunting.

Picture of my Electro Voice 664 from the eBay listing I won.

So I got a new microphone – an Electro Voice 664.

It’s a 60’s heavy, chrome ray-gun mic with some insanely cool features.  Some basics:

Cardioid Polar Pattern

Two Output “Modes” – High and Low Impedance

Screws Directly to Mic Stand, like an SM56 or Beta 52

Output Impedance Switch

Built-in Foam Pop-filter behind metal grill. (I removed mine because it was deteriorating and smelled like cigarettes).

Some of the original marketing reads: “It is practically indestructible with normal use.” That’s what sound guys like to hear about their mics.

Here’s a quick recording of my Silvertone Parlor Acoustic with a mimimum of reverb – no EQ or compression.

Mp3 (Streaming is Faster but there’s definite distortion.)

[See post to listen to audio]

You can also Download the Wav if you’d like to hear it sans compression artifacts.

One funny thing about the mic is that it uses a particular kind of output plug – a four-pin plug (not your normal xlr).  This requires a cable with an Amphenol 91MC4M connector on one end and either a TRS (High Impedance) or XLR (Low Impedance) plug on the other.

These Amphenol connectors can get pretty pricey, even if you buy it by itself and make your own cable so I opted for a less elegant solution.  I used an extra 3-pin xlr output plug (a replacment part for a standard SM58) and replaced the four pin output.  It only works in Low-Impedance mode now, but thats the only way I use it.

The rewiring took a little forum-trolling to find some advice/old spec sheets.  There are four leads for the output of the mic – White, Yellow, Red, and Green.  They correspond to the Ground, Unbalanced Hi-Z output, and Balanced Lo-Z output. With a little trial and error I was able to come up with this:

XLR Pins:

Pin 1: White (I also soldered Yellow to this, which seemed to kill a buzz in the mic)

Pin 2: Red

Pin 3:Green

I had Red and Green leads switched originally but the signal was horrendously out of phase with an SM57 I had setup with it’s capsules coincident.  After I resoldered the leads I got the signal flipped back into phase.

1. Do I need a preamp?
2. Which preamp should I buy?

Continue reading to see the exciting answers to these questions!

Q. What is a preamp?
A preamp is a device (circuit) that takes a low-level signal (microphone, pickup, turntable) into a line-level signal.

Q. Do I need  a preamp?
A. If you’re contemplating buying a preamp, you should ask yourself this: what will I be recording? You should also consider your role in the realm of production: are you an engineer, that is, do you plan on recording bands, singer-songwriters, or projects along those lines? Are you a DJ that needs to record mixes and MAYBE do some MC work? Are you a drum & bass/dubstep producer who plans on living in the digital audio world? Thinking about these topics will help you out, a lot.

If you plan on recording bands…yes
Yes, you WILL need a preamp. And more than just one, mind you. You’ll  need a preamp for every microphone you plan on having. For example, I’m recording a five piece indie band. Drums, bass, guitar, keys and a singer.

- For a typical drum setup, I’ll use a dynamic mic on the kick, a dynamic mic on the snare, probably a dynamic mic for each tom (rack & floor), a condenser on the hi-hat, and two condensers for the overheads.

- For bass and keys, its DI all the way.

- For guitar, I’ll use two dynamics on the amp.

- For vocals, another condenser.

For this scenario, you will need at least 13 preamps. And, aside from that, you’ll need preamps with phantom power (because dynamics don’t need phantom power but condensers do).

Your best bet is to not buy 13 separate preamps, however. Rather you should invest in an interface with built-in preamps (see list of gear below).

If you’re a DJ…no
I say this using the typical DJ scenario: you have two CDJs and a mixer; you want to record your mixes and MAYBE do some MC work. You want to do very basic recording. The reason you won’t need a preamp is because your mixer probably already has a preamp. That, and you don’t even need an interface to record your mixes. All you need is a computer with a line-in input and a Y-cable (dual RCA to 1/8″ mini).

If you’re really set on doing some mic work and your mixer doesn’t have any type of preamp, see my list of gear below for some mixers that have built-in pres.

If you’re producing original music…maybe
Again, it really depends. Most electronic music/hip-hop producers are making beats. Some more experienced hip-hop guys might record vocals, but the every day run-of-the-mill guys will probably not do this right away.

Most of your stuff will be MIDI or samples pulled from CDs, DVDs, etc. Your gear will be connected either via MIDI or thru a USB/FireWire port, so no need for a preamp there.

If you decide to record vocals, you will need a preamp (and a decent condenser). In this case, you might consider buying something like a small interface (MBox, etc). Check the list for some decent stuff.

***

The Gear List! In this part, I’ll list potential gear (suiting different budgets) for the DJ, producer, or engineer. Be sure to do a little research on every piece of gear you buy, though.

For the engineers…
On a Budget: PreSonus FP10 – around $400 – FireWire, 8 pres plus 2 instrument inputs, able to daisy-chain
Little Cash to Spend: Focusrite Saffire PRO 26 – around $600 – 8 pres, 2 instrument inputs, total of 26 ins/outs, 2 headphone buses
No Budget: M-Audio ProFire 2626 – around $700 – 8 pres, total of 26 ins/outs

For the DJs…
On a Budget: Gemini PDM-02 19 – around $200 – 7 line inputs, 3 mic inputs and 2 phono/line RCAs
Little Cash to Spend: Gemini CS-02 Professional – around $350 – 10 line inputs, 3 mic inputs, 3 phono/line RCAs
No Budget: Allen & Heath Xone:02 Battle Mixer - around $500 – 4 line inputs, 2 mic inputs (its a Xone, you’re not really paying for inputs, you’re paying for the Xone brand)

For the producers…
On a Budget: M-Audio Fast Track – around $99 – XLR, RCA, and instrument input – USB
Little Cash to Spend: Digidesign Mbox 2 Mini - around $300 – XLR and line inputs – USB
No Budget: Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro – around $700 – XLR/TRS with phantom power and RCA ins

Keep in mind that the gear list should be a starting point. There is cheaper and way more expensive gear, but I tried to choose pretty moderately priced, quality gear. Do some research, and tailor-fit your gear around what you need to accomplish.

Big Red Button is our weekly recording advice column.  Check it out every for tips on all things recording.

 So you’ve practiced and practiced and you’re finally feeling ready to record that killer guitar line for your next track.  …You did practice…right?

Well, even if you didn’t (and I think you always should before recording), here’s some tips to get you started.  

Use Your Ears

Seems kind of stupid, but the best way to get the recording RIGHT is to listen.  

Setup your amp, plug in with a long cord and start playing.  Walk around your room and really listen to how the amp sounds from different distances.  Stand up, sit down, get close, move away, try everything.  Move your amp around the room, it makes a bigger difference than you think.  If you’ve got a smaller amp, try placing it on a table or other sturdy piece of furniture.  You can also try putting rugs underneath the amp an pillows behind it.  Try to find a place in your room and a setup that sound good to you.  

OK, so you might be asking, “What am I supposed to be listening for?”  Well I try to listen for things like, am I getting enough bass/treble?  Are the effects too much or too little?  Is the part sounding clear, or is it muddy and hard to determine notes? Am hearing too much street/AC/dishwasher/roommate noise?

Now when you find some setups that sound good to you, remember where your head was, literally.  Here’s a little insight into how a lot of sound guys think about miking things.  Our mics are like ears.  Each one kind of “hears” things differently, and just like an ear, moving it around really changes what it hears.  So to start out, try putting your mic where your ear was happy.  It’s not always the most obvious choice, and doesn’t always end up getting used in the end, but try it out.  

I’ve come up with some weird, cool, terrible, awesome results with this “technique.”  And Artists tend to like getting recordings that actually sound like what they’re hearing when they play.  

If That Fails

Other times, I tend to go with the old stand-by of a dynamic cardioid mic close up on the front of the amp.  Still, even in these scenarios using your ear helps. Get down on the ground and listen to your amp (someone else will probably have to playing through it) and move your head around the front of the amp.  Note: Try not to get too close to really loud amp, it doesn’t take much to damage your ears.

Generally you’ll find that as you get closer to the center of a speaker cone you’ll hear more high-end and more sizzle/hum/buzz amp noise.  This tends to get you a more aggressive, harsh tone. As you move towards the outer rim of the speaker you’ll start to hear more bass, and you start to get a more mellow, “round” tone.  

Tip: If you can’t see  the speaker cones on your amp through the try shining a flashlight at an angle on the amp front and it’ll generally help you see through the fabric. 

If your amp has multiple speaker cones, definitely listen to each one, because speakers are kind of like people.  Each one has some slight difference that might or might not be what you’re looking for.  

Funky Stuff

Now if you’re looking for a funky, wonky, or experimental sound, there’s a WORLD of possibilities.  And don’t rule these out, especially if you’ve got a lot of guitar tracks stacked up, because sometime the weird recording sits better in your mix than the standard “proper” approach.

Port miking is one of my favorite weird things to try.  A lot amps, especially bass amps and guitar amps with closed backs, have sizable holes in their front, sides or even backs, that are usually designed to let more bass frequencies out.  The sizing of the port tends to determine what frequencies escape the amp casing through the hole.  

Sticking a mic in front of that will get you some weird results, and sometimes give you that lowest part of your “wall of sound” if you’re guitar track stacking.  You might even try some kick drum mics to capture more of that low end.

If you want some other weird tones, try sticking a mic around the back of your amp. Get in there and point it at some corners inside the amp, or at the back of the speaker cones, etc.  At this point, you might as well try anything and everything. 

Lastly, my favorite weird thing to do is putting the amp itself in a weird place.  Try your bathroom, kitchen or garage (rooms that tend to have more hard,reflective surfaces) to get more bright reverberant sounds.  If you’ve got your own dryer (or your landlord doesn’t care/find out) try playing your amp towards an open front-loading dryer with the mic facing into the dryer just outside opening.  Get ready for weird $@#! to happen.  

Don’t Forget…

To get good recordings, you’ve got to put in the time, and really try things out.  And as always, listen as you’re trying.  Until next week, happy sound-hunting!

So this post is a wealth of beginner DJ/producer knowledge! Let’s begin!

First of all, here’s what I think the poster is trying to say: he was recording a mix (probably two CDJs and a mixer, for the sake of this post, we’ll say its a Xone) onto his MacBook.

It’s fairly easy to record a mix, under this scenario, onto your MacBook. Using the Xone, you can either take the Mix Out (two XLRs) or the Record Out (two RCAs). I’d recommend using the record out as you’d want to listen to your mix while performing it, right?

To record your mix from the Record Out, you’ll need an RCA to mini 1/4″ Y-cable (something like this). Plug the RCA into the Record Outs and plug the mini your Mac’s line-in.

Next, you’ll need to setup Audacity to record.

Recording options in preferences

1. Go to your Preferences (Cmd+,) in Audacity
2. Change your recording input

3. Exit the preferences; on the main window (Arrangement window), make sure it says “Line In.” This means Audacity will now record your line input.

4. Notice the microphone to the left of Line In. This is your input gain. The more you turn it closer to +, the louder your mix will be. If you’re mixing, you know that peaking your music/other audio is not a good thing. It can (and usually will) result in harsh clipping that is NOT nice to listen to, so keep this in mind while adjusting the gain. Your meters should be in the green/yellow area. The occasional peak may not ruin a performance, but if you’re spending the time to record, why take the chance?

5. Hit record and start your mix. You should be good!

***

Why shouldn’t you use an interface like the M-Audio MobilePre? Well, the short answer is this: preamps, like the MobilePre, are made for microphones (low impedance) and instruments like guitars (high impedance). You can control the gain on the preamp to get the levels right so you can record into the selected DAW. Your Xone (or other DJ mixers) are putting out a line-level signal. Your MacBook accepts line-level signals, therefore you don’t need a preamp to record anything. Adding a pre in this scenario will only add more bullshit to deal with while recording.

So, in short:

- If you’re recording a guitar or mic, you need a preamp
- If you’re recording the outs of your DJ mixer into your MacBook, you do NOT need a preamp

The pops and cracks the poster is talking about is most likely him/her driving the preamp too hard. Clipping a preamp will NEVER make your stuff sound good. It will clip and your shit will pop, crackle, and distort.

***

Conclusion:

- If you’re doing a DJ mix from your mixer to your laptop, use Audacity and skip the preamp.
- Do some research before using a preamp. They’re not hard to use but do require some fundamental signal flow knowledge in order to use them correctly.
- On that note, learn something about gain staging! I’ll write more about that later.