Seeking Some Pointers for Recording into Garage Band

Mark Hershey · Post by **Mark Hershey** » 25 Mar 2015 1:14 pm

I have an Apogee one and I use a direct input with guitar through a Garageband amp to record my ideas.

Any pointers for best way to record pedal steel into Garageband mostly for just practice purposes. I really just want to record along with jam tracks and listen back to my playing.

I have to say I haven't got a good sound out of it yet was looking for any guidance on how to get a reasonable sound with this setup.

As is there's definitely something lacking from recording technique.

Les Cargill · Post by **Les Cargill** » 25 Mar 2015 3:27 pm

It should sound fine. I mostly record direct to a Focusrite A/D and just add some EQ and reverb in mixdown.

The only thing you might need is some sort of DI. I tend to use a Samson dual "Sdirect Plus" , which is quite cheap. There are better out there. It'll run on a 9V battery but sounds better with phantom ( which the Apogee claims to have ).

Other than gain management - you do not want to overload it - there's not much to go wrong there.

John Owen · Post by **John Owen** » 25 Mar 2015 7:49 pm

Mark - I chased your thread over to this section. I opened Garage Band and fooled around with some settings to try to get close to what I was doing in Logic. I tried a couple of the amp simulators and got pretty good results out of both the 'blackface' and 'English Combo' versions of the general category they call "Clean Combo".

I put the settings pretty close to what I described in the other thread: Gain 3, Bass 6, Mid 6, Treble 4, Reverb 4, Master and Output both at around 6. That gave me what I consider to be a pretty decent sound for pedal steel. Give it a try and see what you think. Season to taste.

Have fun,
John

John Owen · Post by **John Owen** » 25 Mar 2015 7:52 pm

Les is giving you a good tip on checking the input level to your interface. If you are clipping the signal going in, you will get a ratty sounding output no matter how much knob twiddling you do with the amp simulator. Keep it in the green and you should get a pretty good sound.

Mark Hershey · Post by **Mark Hershey** » 26 Mar 2015 4:38 am

John Owen wrote:Les is giving you a good tip on checking the input level to your interface. If you are clipping the signal going in, you will get a ratty sounding output no matter how much knob twiddling you do with the amp simulator. Keep it in the green and you should get a pretty good sound.

Les and John,

I think this is probably the problem. For Tele I always had that level in the yellow but right on the edge of the red but it sounded fine. Is that alright to have that level for a guitar? I'm far from a recording expert. I thought I read somewhere that you wanted to have your mic levels as close to red as possible and applied the same to the apogee.

At any rate, I bet that's the problem I was always doing the same technique for pedal steel. Will try keeping the reading on the apogee down in the pure greenand see what happens.

Thanks to you both for the pointers I will report back this evening when I try it out.

Mark

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 26 Mar 2015 7:49 am

Mark...hereâ€™s a link to my YouTube channel, Personal Recording Playlist...Iâ€™ve just recently started recording with Tracks that Iâ€™ve gotten from both Junior Knight and Zane King...Iâ€™m micâ€™ing with an SM-57 at a Session 500 and into a Presonus Audio Interface and from there into my Macbook Air using Garageband...Iâ€™m not bright enough or a little fearful of trying direct so Iâ€™m even recording wet with a Profex ll...Anyhow this is what this VERY inexperienced nubby to recording is doing...BTW, Iâ€™ve done pretty much zip as far as eqâ€™ing...Iâ€™ve tried evening out the volume peaks a little but thats about it...hope this helps a little.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... VHl6OkHZBa

Mark Hershey · Post by **Mark Hershey** » 26 Mar 2015 8:27 am

Dale Rottacker wrote:Mark...hereâ€™s a link to my YouTube channel, Personal Recording Playlist...Iâ€™ve just recently started recording with Tracks that Iâ€™ve gotten from both Junior Knight and Zane King...Iâ€™m micâ€™ing with an SM-57 at a Session 500 and into a Presonus Audio Interface and from there into my Macbook Air using Garageband...Iâ€™m not bright enough or a little fearful of trying direct so Iâ€™m even recording wet with a Profex ll...Anyhow this is what this VERY inexperienced nubby to recording is doing...BTW, Iâ€™ve done pretty much zip as far as eqâ€™ing...Iâ€™ve tried evening out the volume peaks a little but thats about it...hope this helps a little.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... VHl6OkHZBa

Dale, sounds good to me. That type of sounds would work for what I'm after. Only problem with your setup for me is I want to avoid getting all the mic's out. i just want something reasonably quick and simple as I do this during the evenings and have about an hour or so practice time every night.

I do have a Shure-57 and will probably experiment with that at some point down the road. I just bought an awesome Shobud 70's amp and am really digging the tone.

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 26 Mar 2015 8:47 am

Mark Hershey wrote:
Dale Rottacker wrote:Mark...hereâ€™s a link to my YouTube channel, Personal Recording Playlist...Iâ€™ve just recently started recording with Tracks that Iâ€™ve gotten from both Junior Knight and Zane King...Iâ€™m micâ€™ing with an SM-57 at a Session 500 and into a Presonus Audio Interface and from there into my Macbook Air using Garageband...Iâ€™m not bright enough or a little fearful of trying direct so Iâ€™m even recording wet with a Profex ll...Anyhow this is what this VERY inexperienced nubby to recording is doing...BTW, Iâ€™ve done pretty much zip as far as eqâ€™ing...Iâ€™ve tried evening out the volume peaks a little but thats about it...hope this helps a little.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... VHl6OkHZBa
Dale, sounds good to me. That type of sounds would work for what I'm after. Only problem with your setup for me is I want to avoid getting all the mic's out. i just want something reasonably quick and simple as I do this during the evenings and have about an hour or so practice time every night.

I do have a Shure-57 and will probably experiment with that at some point down the road. I just bought an awesome Shobud 70's amp and am really digging the tone.

Mark, you could plug directly into your audio interface and use one of the amps included in Garageband...a friend of mine does that...hereâ€™s a link to one of his recordings...Scott Anderson is his name... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXN5hD_CxGQ ... I didnâ€™t find the mic a real big deal, just one cord and if Iâ€™m not recording, itâ€™s not listening

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 26 Mar 2015 8:48 am

BTW...Scottâ€™s way further up the curve than I am...in a lot of ways...

Mark Hershey · Post by **Mark Hershey** » 26 Mar 2015 3:33 pm

Just wanted to thank all of you for your replies, I think I'm on my merry way.

I think the main issue was that I was not keeping the levels on the Apogee one in the 'green'.

The tone of my recording sounds much much better and sounds like a steel.

Dale, at some point I'll bust out the Shure 57 and record with that.