MIDI Question

[sonickteam2]

OK, people in bands...you may know this.
 
  I have a friend who kinda has a band, and wants to put some of his live music onto his computer.
 
  he doesnt have it recorded already and so is trying to plug his guitar into the computer, but that just sounds horrible
 
  he was thinking of some MIDI box or something....but wasnt sure if that is what he needs, and if it is, what kind he may want to buy....
 
  any help would rock.
 
  thanks.

[MindCage]

It doesn't sound like he needs a MIDI box but more like an audio interface box. M-Audio has a few that are rather inexpensive and low latency with using either USB2.0 or Firewire.
 
 That should work for them!  
 
 MindCage
 Mindless Faith
 Deep6 Productions

[Bartelby]

If he's trying to record guitar/voice using the mic. port on the Apple series powerbook/G4-5 series, it won't work.  You can't get sufficient volume levels, and even the Apple gurus admit this.
 
 Here's what I recommend:  For an inexpensive USB interface, get the M-Audio Fast Track interface.  Since there aren't many (only one I know of) MIDI guitars on the market, he'll be recording guitar tracks thru this microphone interface.  
 
 For MIDI keyboards, I'm using a very low cost Edirol USBtoMidi connector called the UM-1SX.  Be sure - after you install the UM-LSX you select "Software Instrument" to record your midi tracks...and  you're good to go. The Shure 8900 dynamic mic works great; provides sufficient sensitivity for guitar/vocals tracks, at a reasonable price too.

[darjama]

here's a good one for the person who has, um, nothing:
 
 http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MAudioOzone-main.html
 
 you get a mini-keyboard for inputing midi, inputs for both microphone and guitar, a lite version of the abeltron software. Everything you need to become a rock star, or at least a spice girl.
 
 IF you don't need the keyboard, I'd suggest looking at Tascam's entry level stuff, it has a pretty good rep.
 
 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/240868/

[MindCage]

Originally posted by BadSushi:
 
 Here's what I recommend:  For an inexpensive USB interface, get the M-Audio Fast Track interface.  Since there aren't many (only one I know of) MIDI guitars on the market, he'll be recording guitar tracks thru this microphone interface.  
 
 For MIDI keyboards, I'm using a very low cost Edirol USBtoMidi connector called the UM-1SX.  Be sure - after you install the UM-LSX you select "Software Instrument" to record your midi tracks...and  you're good to go. The Shure 8900 dynamic mic works great; provides sufficient sensitivity for guitar/vocals tracks, at a reasonable price too.

If guitar is the only thing he's wanting to record   into the computer (audio wise) there's a product by Line 6 called a GuitarPort that will record the audio in via USB. It also will double as an amp simulator which may or may not be something of interest to them.  I've actually have another one of their products which is amazingly sick! The POD  XT Live. I can record my guitar in stereo into my laptop. Laptop only has a mic/line input so everything would be mono coming in  
 
 MindCage
 Mindless Faith
 Deep6 Productions