Paul Boutin

What does it take to use your iBook/PowerBook for recording from vinyl and playing either tracks or mix sets? I’ve spent way too much time tinkering at this (I work at home, remember) and have come up with this minimum set of parts you’ll need to get DJ-quality sound without overspending.

iMic: $35. A no-frills audio in/out interface that plugs into your Mac’s USB port. Sound quality is surprisingly good: the converters are 24-bit, although OS X only supports 16-bit right now. Watch out for the trick line/mic level switch that works in reverse of what you’d expect. Also, you sometimes have to open the Sound panel in System Preferences and jiggle the volume to get it to wake up. But hey, 35 bucks. You can also buy iMic through the Apple Store for the same price.

Audio Hijack Pro: $30. An application that lets you tap into the audio stream of any application running on the Mac (or Line In, in this case), and record it as an MP3 or AIFF file. I record to AIFF and use iTunes to convert it to MP3 or AAC later.

iTunes: Free. What matters to DJ’s is the Sound Check feature that optimizes the volume of tracks recorded with the above gear. Another feature, Join Tracks, lets you import mix CD’s with the tracks merged into one seamless file. To trim the beginning and end of an audio file recorded from vinyl just select it, bring up iTunes’ File menu, choose Get Info, and go to the Options pane in the dialog box.

Cables: You’ll need two 1/8″ to stereo RCA cables to connect your DJ mixer to the iMic’s in and out jacks, and possibly a USB A-to-A extension cable to stretch your laptop across the room while recording or playing. I splurged on Monster Cable iCables and Belkin USB extension, all available from the Apple Store at no additional markup. But that cost more than all of the above recoding gear put togther - about $80 total. If you want to save your cash to buy more records, even Radio Shack now has cables with good insulation that are hard to break.

Recording tricks: There’s no input level adustment (other than iMic’s Line/Mic switch) on any of the above hardware or software, but you don’t need it. I found that running my mixer’s master volume at about -5dB prevented the sound from becoming distorted. Use iTunes’ Sound Check to boost the volume to the perfect level later - unlike the old tape days, there’s not much of a noise floor to worry about with digital recording. Do a short test recording before embarking on a long mix set to make sure everything is set up and working ok.

“It sounds terrible!” If your recording sounds midrangey and distant, like it’s playing through a cardboard box, it’s possible your Mac is stuck with its built-in microphone as line input rather than the iMic. Mine can get stuck like that regardless of what settings show up in System Preferences. Rebooting will fix it.

Editing: Pro Tools Free ($0) is the same software studio pros use for remixes and compiliations, minus the outboard hardware for controllers, I/O and storage. To use it on your tracks, you’ll first need to convert your MP3s to AIFF format (iTunes does this) and then reboot in OS 9 (there is no current schedule for a free OS X version). Start a new Pro Tools project file and import your AIFF track. Don’t forget to download the manual - you’ll need it at this point. But I’ve heard some great mixes, remixes, voiceovers, and mash-ups done on a Mac with Pro Tools Free. I haven’t used it much myself because one reason I play music is to get away from my computer.

Tossing your turntables for good: A few friends of mine have stopped using vinyl and CD turntables altogether and just spin straight off their laptops. Party 3.0 ($99) and MegaSeg ($149) are the most popular DJ desktop applications - every Mac jockey whose shoulder I’ve peered over is using one or the other. I’ve tried both and find Party has a more familiar DJ-table interface for mixing and matching two tracks.

Yet both programs left me frustrated compared to physical turntables, and neither are completely bug-proof, which could be a problem in live situtations. Moreover, I have a theory that people don’t come to DJ parties to watch some guy stare at a laptop as if he’s at the office. Two iPods and a Stanton mixer make a much more entertaining setup.