If you have a Mac made within the past few years you can use it as an amp!
Discovered this neat little trick while messing about last night. I'm sure a lot of you already know this, but please bear with me while I document this for those who don't. Also, those who are proficient Mac users please bear with me while I write out instructions that are as detailed as possible for those who are not as proficient with their Macs as you are. Click the links labeled as (screenshot) in the instructions for screenshots of what I was talking about immediately before the link, other links lead to sites or files related to the phrase turned into a link.
What you need:
An electric guitar
An electrric guitar cord
A 1/4" to 1/8" audio jack adapter (like
this one)
An Apple Macintosh Computer with an audio line-in jack and either
GarageBand plus
iTunes software installed, and/or the free
Audacity audio editing software installed.
Most Macs made within the past few years have built-in audio line-in jacks. If you're unsure whether you have an audio line-in or not, look around on the back of the computer if it's a desktop or the sides if it's a laptop. Look for a jack that looks like a headphone or speaker jack but instead has an icon next to it that looks something like
this. If you
don't have an audio line-in, well..... you may as well stop reading right now.
In addition to the line-in you will need either GarageBand or Audacity (or another audio recording app) to play your guitar through your Mac. If you use GarageBand you will also need iTunes if you want to record and export your playing as an mp3. If you're using Audacity alone you will not need iTunes to save your performance as an mp3, but GarageBand + iTunes gives you MUCH more options than Audacity when it comes to applying effects to your playing. Most Macs made within the past few years have GarageBand and iTunes pre-installed. If you
don't have iTunes and/or GarageBand, iTunes is a free download
here, and GarageBand may be purchased as part of Apple's
iLife software suite. Again, if you don't have and can't afford GarageBand then
Audacity is free, but I don't recommend using Audacity for live play-through due to it's complete lack of ability to apply effects in real time. However, even if you do have GarageBand already you
might want to download Audacity also and use it for post-editing your music (unless you already have some other audio editing software that you prefer to use).
Setup Step 1:
Make sure your computer is using the audio line-in as it's default audio input rather than it's built-in microphone (if it has one). Open System Preferences (click the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner of the screen and choose "System Preferences" from the menu). Select the "Sound" preference pane (
screenshot), then click the "Input" tab. In most cases there should only be one option "line-in" (if it has a line-in jack). Laptops with built-in microphones will have both a "line-in" option (again, assuming it has the jack) and an "Internal microphone" option. If you have a desktop Mac and have installed a third party sound card you may have multiple options for that as well as the one mentioned above. Chose the appropriate input device. For most of us this will simply be "line in" and will not be "Internal microphone" for anyone. You'll probably need to turn the input volume up all the way (
screenshot).
Setup Step 2:
Plug your guitar cord into your guitar. If you have a hardware effects box you want to use, plug the other end into it's input then get another cable and use the audio adapter to plug the output of the effects box into your Mac. Otherwise just attach the audio plug adapter to the other end of your cord and plug the whole thing into you Mac's audio line-in port. Make sure your system volume is turned up, not muted, and that if you're using external speakers they are turned on and have the volume turned up. For Desktops with external speakers be careful not to turn them up too high to begin with. For laptops using their built-in speakers you might not even hear your playing with the volume turned all the way up! Laptop speakers suck. Get external speakers or headphones.
Play-through Option 1: Audacity (not recommended)
Start Audacity. Open Audacity's Preferences from the Audacity Menu (
screenshot). Select the Audio I/O tab, set "Built-In Audio" as the device for both playback and recording (unless of course, as mentioned before, you have a third-party soundcard installed that you prefer to use), and select both the hardware and software playthrough options. It is also probably was to select the option preventing AUdcity from altering your audio device settings (
screenshot). Now click "ok" and press the "record" button in Audacity. Start playing. If you've done everything right you should now hear your playing coming through you Mac's speakers. You may continue to play as long as you like (within reason) on most new systems, but if your computer is old and/or low on RAM you Audacity
might crash when you've played so long that you run out of memory. This should take quite a while, though, so play on. Unfortunately, with Audacity you cannot apply any effects at all to your playing in real time unless you have hardware effects boxes. (Click
here to subject your ears to my clumsy fingers playing some chords through Audacity). You
can, of course, apply whatever effects you have VST or Nyquist plugins for
after you've finished recording. (Click
here to listen to the same track with a little overdrive applied via a VST plugin). When you're done playing, just quit Audacity if you don't want to save what you've played or click File > Export as MP3 if you do (you may also save as .WAV or Ogg Vorbis). If you're using Audacity for playthrough, the rest of this tutorial does not apply to you. Because it can only play through while recording (and thus using up RAM) and cannot apply software effects in real time, this option is really ONLY for those who have a Mac but not an amp as a temporary solution until they can either get an amp or get GarageBand.
Play-through Option 2: GarageBand (recommended)
Start up GarageBand. If you had messed about with GarageBand without having any idea what you were doing (like I had done) you probably wound up with a saved project file already, which GarageBand will automatically open for you; in which case skip to step 4 (if you had used GarageBand and
did know what you were doing I'm assuming you don't need this tutorial). Otherwise, if you had not saved a project in GarageBand recently it will present you with a small box asking you whether you want to locate and open an existing project or start a new one (
screenshot). You'll want to select "Create a New Project". A save dialog window will appear asking you where and as what name to save your new project. This window will also ask you what tempo, time, and key to save your project as (
screenshot). What tempo, time, and key to set will not matter very much if all you'll be doing is playing your guitar but they
will matter if you decide to add any of the literally thousands of available music loops and tracks to your project. Don't worry, though, these settings can be changed later. For right now I'd recommend 4/4 time and either the key of C or the key of E, as these are the settings that most of the free tracks and loops you can find on the web are designed for.
Option 2, Step 2:
Delete all tracks in your project. (If you had just created the project in step 3 you probably have only one track, a simulated piano). Select each track by clicking it, then delete it by selecting "Track" in the menu and choosing "Delete Track" (
screenshot).
Option 2, Step 3:
Create a new track by clicking the "Track" menu and selecting, of course, "New Track" (
screenshot). A dialog window will pop up with a tab for real instruments plugged into your Mac and a tab for instruments simulated entirely with software. Of course you'll choose the "Real Instrument" tab, then choose "Guitars". To the right of "Guitars" is a range of several effects presets. These are basic effects added to the input signal to simulate clean acoustic or rock-n-roll electric and many things in-between. At the bottom of the window are options for stereo or mono (the signal from your guitar is mono, but it doesn't hurt anything to leave the selection here as stereo), an option for the input volume (you'll probably want to leave this quite high, especially if you have laptop speakers), and whether or not to actively monitor the channel. You
must select the "Monitor ON" option, otherwise you won't hear anything when you play (
screenshot). Click "Create". Now play your guitar. If all went well, you will hear it coming out of your Mac's speakers or headphones.
Option 2, Step 4:
Now that you've got the guitar playing through your Mac, you can either fine-tune the sound effects or just skip the rest of this tutorial and play on. If you want to fine-tune the sound, you can access the effect properties at any time by clicking the "Track" menu and choosing "Show Track Info" (
screenshot). You can then change the effect however you like but
you are not limited to the basic presets!!! Clicking the disclosure triangle labeled "Details..." at the bottom of the window (
screenshot) opens up a nearly infinite range of possibilities (
screenshot). Here you get full control over various features such as noise get, equalizer, echo, and reverb; but there are also two even more versatile effects channels. The ones labeled "Flanger" and "Track Echo" on the previous screenshot are both pop-up menus that allow an even wider array of effects to be added (
screenshot). In addition to simulations of popular effects boxes you can also add in Apple Audio Unit effects (these are plugins for audio editing applications. Similar to VST plugins but Audio Units are a new format developed by Apple. If you're familiar with using VST plugins with audio editing software such as pro applications
Logic and
Peak, or free apps like
Audacity, then you're familiar with the kinds of things Audio Units do.) Many ofthe effects can be even further refined by choosing one of the sub-presets that become available in the pop-up menu to the right of these two and/or manually editing the effect by clicking the "edit" button (the one that looks like a small pencil. For example, suppose I change what had been "Track Echo" in the previous screenshot to "Amp Simulation. I can then either choose a preset or manual setup and edit the settings however I like (
screenshot). Likewise changing one of them to "Distortion" allows access to distortion settings through the little button that looks like a pencil (
screenshot). These multiple levels of refinement, first through basic guitar presets, then through effect presets, then through manual adjustment of each effect, are available on most possible effects. The possibilities appear to be nearly limitless!! For those of you who are used to using hardware effects boxes, most of the settings and fine adjustments available will probably seem familiar. Since I am
not accustomed to setting up effects I'm not at all qualified to offer any tips in this area. If you (like me) don't know what you're doing you will need (like me) to simply experiment on your own. Click [url=http://homepage.mac.com/joelhacker/images/forumpics/JH_GarageBand_Test_1.mp3]here[/url to punish your ears with me playing a short intro piece with an echo-heavy acoustic sound and
here to further offend your delicate sensibilities with me playing (badly) a little 1970's Judas Priest.
Option 2 errata:
If you wish to record what you play, simply click the "Record" button at the bottom of the GarageBand window. Otherwise you may simply play straight through the computer without recording. Unlike with Audacity, doing this uses little to no RAM. If you wish to save your recording, just click "File > Export to iTunes". Then open iTunes and drag your song file out to your desktop. (I'm told that newer versions of GarageBand can export your recording directly to mp3, aiff, or wav without going through iTunes, but since I only have GarageBand version 2 released a few years ago I cannot personally verify this). GarageBand also has a built in guitar tuner!! Just choose "Show Instrument Tuner" from the "Control" menu and it appears in place of the recording time display (
screenshot).
Option 2 Summing Up:
Using GarageBand as part of a stage perfomance would be silly because while you can change presets quickly you can't change them fast enough for mid-performance like you can with a pedal you just step on and probably isn't quite as good as the higher-end hardware effects. Still, for home practice it's
much cheaper than investing in high-end hardware effects (especially if you already had the Mac anyway); allowing you to experiment with (probably) nearly every conceivable sound
without shelling out thousands of bucks for numerous different boxes, pedals, and pre-amps, and takes up
much less physical space than such a collection of hardware would.
[EDIT]
One post-script: My digging around on the web indicates that, regardless of the software you use, a CRT monitor (Mac or PC) will often badly interfere with single-coil pickups that are not properly shielded (and apparently most are not properly shielded). So if you have a CRT monitor you may want to pick up an inexpensive LCD or just sit a good long way away from the computer. Of course having someone who knows what they're doing shield your pickups and controls is a good idea, too.
Well, that's it. I hope this was informative and helpful to at least a few.
Sincerely,
Sentry: night-watchman in the land of nerd guitar
Yes, rather annoying. It's also annoying that we can't edit posts we made more than a few minutes ago. I just noticed numerous typos in my initial post in this thread that I'd like to fix but now cannot.
).
Good to know Apple brought it back on the newer models tho.
