Well, you already have most of the hardware you need. One thing you will definitely need to add is a good pair of studio headphones. CLOSED studio headphones, so the monitoring you listen to does not bleed over into the microphone recording. Key here is faithful/precize reproduction and excellent damping of external noise. I myself am very satisfied with AKG-K171studio / AKG-K271studio headphones.

I do not know the quality of the Mac audio I/O system. The one of regular PCs is abysmal, thus the first recommendation there is to get a "real" audio interface. If you want to upgrade there, look for a system that already has 48V phantom power, headphone amp included, and features "real" connectors (XLR for mic, 1/4" jacks instead of 1/8"minis) and you're quite probably a step into the right direction.

As for software: as long as you do not need MIDI, I'd recommend to have a look into Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), which is open Source and available for Mac, Win and Linux. It is one of the two programs I use - the other one - the heavyweight for complex editing - unfortunately only is available for WinXP: Adobe Audition (formerly CoolEdit Pro).

Compared to Logig/Cubase the learning curve on both is very low, the programs are fast and easy to use.

Audacity has the advantage that you can share complete projects between Mac, Windows and Linux users by simply exchaning the project files. No more im-/exporting...

I can't give you advice on the hardware as I simply don't have the money to buy such equipment and thus NO experience whatsoever, but I record at home, too, with a simple headset - mainy to send the songs to Lisande, Aryana etc. to give them an idea what the song might sound like. Anyway, I, too use Audacity which vampiredaddy mentioned above. It has some neat little features and I'm really content with it. My friend Jana also uses this program for their university radio group, it's really nifty considering that it comes for free.

I really have little to add to what vampirdaddy has already said -- it's all good advice. Good headphones (my Sony 7509's are overkill given my aging ears, but I'll keep them), a USB or Firewire interface that supports 24-bit samples (you already have a preamp, it seems), and Audacity. Four channels and the ability to record at 96 KHz are good, but not essential because most CD projects are going to be recorded one or two tracks at a time at 44.1KHz to match the CD rate. You do want 24 bits, because it gives you more headroom for editing and to avoid clipping.

I'd add that you want a monitor, keyboard, and mouse on long cables so you can put the controls within arm's reach with the computer as far away as possible from the microphone. Two or three meters at least. (I'm in the process of putting together a totally silent Linux system for recording, having found that my laptop was noisy enough to be a distraction, even though it didn't come through noticably on the microphones.)

I can't recommend Audacity highly enough -- it's free, cross-platform, fast, and easy to use. It breaks tracks up into 1MB chunks that it strings together using a text file; it ought to be possible to manage a project with a web-based version control system like subversion and only ship the changes around. (Coming to my own projects Real Soon Now.) You can see a real, working Audacity project (in progress) here, though it hasn't been updated with the latest tracks -- it's what I pointed cflute at to practice with.

If you have money left over after buying the essentials, spend it on microphones.

Well, I know you can do it, since I am. ;)

Not knowing GarageBand, but being extremely familiar with the program it emulates, Acid Pro, and looking over GarageBand's specs, it should be easy. It lets you adjust tempo and key as you need to, and records up to eight live instruments, so you should be good to go there. The likeliest thing to do would be to load in the .wav (or maybe even just a lower-resolution .mp3, to save memory and processor muscle) of whatever it is you're playing along with, set another track to record, and... play along with it.

The limiting factors here are [a] how you connect the mic and pre-amp to the Mac and [b] how good the internal Mac sound recording is. No way to tell without trying. But, unless it's truly dire, you should be able to clean it up with Audacity.

A few links (including some Mac-specific) that might help are:

• Hit Squad
• engadget
• Home Recording at About.com
• HomeRecording.com

That should keep you busy for a few minutes. ;)

Yes, yes, there are lots of software solutions for 16/24/32 bit. I'm asking about her hardware, which will limit what the software can do. For instance, the general audio standard for PC sound has picked up ever since AC97 became standard on most motherboards, and it's good enough for my mobile recording with the laptop... but my Creative Audigy 2 card is better.

Also, Garageband should be already on her system, and it's got a much lower learning curve than Audacity. I'm not knocking Audacity -- I recommend it to people myself -- but, if she's got it, she might not need anything else right this second.

You definitely need a pair of closed headphones. Good microphones are very sensitive, so they will pick up earbuds and other open types of headphones. They do not have to be excellent headphones since all you are planning to do with them is listen to the scratch/partial mix to get in sync with it.

I assume your speakers are powered ones. You won't need them while recording!

You are going to need the scratch/partial mix. They could probably furnish this as MP3/AAC, since the fidelity is not that critical. Thus, you can get that over the net.

The usual problem with the built-in converters in a computer is that they are not as good as outboard converters can be. In this case, you are not that concerned with the output converters, because you are only monitoring the scratch mix with them, but the PowerBook's output converters are probably better than its inputs.

You can experiment with the input converters. If they are not good enough, you can find USB and Firewire boxes that contain good converters. Depending on the box, you may have to install device drivers. Rather than buy, say, a MOTU 828 or 828mkII Firewire converter box (which has way more channels than you'll need), you might be able to borrow one. If you were closer, I'd lend you mine. There are cheaper input converters; USB is generally cheaper than Firewire.

The big question here is, what is your input path in more detail? What is the mic you have? Is it a condenser mic? If you have a dynamic mic, I'd be less concerned about how good the input converters are. Condenser mics have to be powered, even to generate mic-level output. This power is provided either by a battery inside, or by "phantom power," which is provided by your pre-amp or mixing board or even an outboard phantom-power supply.

I assume you don't have a line-level mic (which would also require a battery), since you mentioned the pre-amp. Does the connection between the mic and the pre-amp use three-pin XLR connectors, or some form of 1/4-inch or 1/8-inch jack? Unless it uses XLR, phantom power is not an option, so a jack and no battery is definitely a dynamic mic. (There are other, less common types than condenser and dynamic, but in most ways types like electret and ribbon mics are similar to condensers for our purposes. Ribbon mics are fragile! Condensers are, too, but they usually aren't destroyed by a really loud noise, e.g., Ed Stauff setting off his cannon fairly near my mics at his and MEW's wedding.)

GarageBand seems to have the smarts to do what you want. It matters which version of GarageBand you have. V1 to V2, I think, was a free update. V4 came in iLife 04, and V5 came in iLife 05. I am referring to V2 at the moment, although I do have V4 here on another machine.

You can use drag-and-drop to import the scratch mix into GarageBand, then record yourself on an additional track (or tracks) as a Real Instrument. You can even convert the scratch mix into a loop, so it will play automatically over and over while you record multiple sequential takes of your part. (Recording multiple takes on parallel tracks might make the exporting into more work.)

The only output seems to be export-to-iTunes, but you export to iTunes in an uncompressed format, AIFF. You could convert that to another format, like AAC or MP3 within iTunes, but not just now. In this case, you'd want to export your mix, consisting of just your new track, or the scratch mix panned left (for synchronizing) and your new track panned right, and then pluck the AIFF file(s) out of the iTunes library or burn your mix to an Audio CD from with iTunes.

I figure you'd be better off mailing an audio CD than transferring ginormous AIFF files over the net. How fast is your connection and how much of a hurry are you in? How long will the mail take?

That's definitely a dynamic mic. It's a vocal mic, incorporating a (rather inadequate) wind screen. That's kind of a mixed bag for recording a flute. Depending on where you put the mic, there may be a bit of wind from the flute (or your lips), but vocal mics can have deviations from accuracy that are intended to make voices sound better; a flute might not fare so well.

It does have an excellent review, but that doesn't discuss its use with non-vocals.

This is a highly directional mic. That means you may be able to get away with having it farther from the instrument than otherwise. This can be good for two reasons: less need for the wind screen, and also some of the distortions intended to make voices sound better are most pronounced when the singer is very close to them; this is called, "proximity effect."

At least you do not have to worry about phantom power. On the other hand, at least the Duo has a phantom-power switch. It looks like that makes your dbx mini-pre obsolete, although you might try using the mini-pre into the Duo (line level at the Duo), because different pre-amps can sound different, and you might like that better.

I suggest you experiment with microphone placement. You're looking for good tone. If sound is off-axis (coming from other than where a directional microphone is pointed), it can be distorted, which is most likely bad in this case. Also, you want to minimize extraneous noise, such as hiss from your blowing over the flute.

If you go to buy another mic in the future, listen to it with the kind of sound you want to use it with (vocal, flute). Compare a couple of mics, or more, if possible.

Good luck with your project.

Being a bit contrarian:

Is there any particular reason why you want to record to the Mac rather than buying a small piece of dedicated hardware? Yes, I know you already own the Mac, but would you be more comfortable using something with knobs and faders than having to use a mouse for everything?

If you can work in 8 tracks, there are a number of small digital recorders out there that will supply phantom power for a condenser mic, that probably have a better analog to digital converter than the one built into your Mac, that will allow you to dump out tracks (and I'm guessing import them, although I haven't checked) via USB so that you can send them to collaborators, and the like.

You can get a 24-track wide (!) stand-alone recording system for $1200 U.S. (The 8-track units are half that price or less, depending on exactly what capability you need.) And any of these units are easier to take where you need them than hauling the Mac is likely to be.

Just a thought.

Well, yes, but she also mentioned tendonitis and I'd like to try to avoid a recurrence. :) Also, I'm looking at the ease-of-use thing which you can get with dedicated hardware, although someone who's already comfortable with a computer and mouse will have fewer problems with the computer software.

As far as remote collaboration goes, as long as the dedicated hardware box can import and export WAV files, no problem. Every one that I've looked at will export a WAV file, but you'd have to check to make sure that you can import a WAV file and add it to the project on any given device.

Thanks so much for this advice, Martin! Money is an issue re: purchasing dedicated hardware right now. Someday, tho, I'm hoping to upgrade my system.

Martin is too tactful. The biggest win about dedicated hardware is that it hardly ever crashes.

Even for the extremely computer-literate, a crash in front of customers is a bad thing. You may have that problem, but still, it loses you time and maybe a lot of work.

Computers may have subtle problems, which Martin also alluded to. However, so can fancy hardware, especially in the hands of inexperienced users. By the way, anyone can be an inexperienced user with a new piece of kit.

Martin's covered that really well. Basically, it's a stand-alone box with a hard drive and faders that you can record into. After that, you're into the assortment of bells and whistles. :)

Some folks here mentioned needing a dedicated audio interface. I happen to have a brand-new (never been opened) Focusrite Saffire for sale. (I ended up buying a more expensive interface with more simultaneous inputs, thus not needing the Saffire any more.) The Saffire works great with the Mac. It has two low-noise inputs for microphones that can be used simultaneously. Research it at focusrite.com. It's pricey, though, retailing at $499.00 US. If you'd like it, let me know, and I'll bring it to FKO. If not, I'll ebay it.

Advice in the comments so far is good. Poke me at FKO for discussions in person and I'll see if there's anything I can add.

Interested in information about recording, or interested in the Focusrite interface I've got for sale?

Ah, Okie dokie. I'll pack the Saffire interface and see if I can avoid Customs complaining about it. :-)

I forget: Are you and Dave USians, or Canadians?

Okay, it looks like you've gotten a lot of good advice here, so forgive me if I repeat anything.

As for equipment - you seem to have most of what you need. Your interfaces aren't as capable as an MBox or something, but they will do fine for what you need.

Your mic is a bit low end - but again, it's fine for what I think you want to do. If you decide to do an entire Urban Tapestry album on this rig, I'd suggest the band invest in a higher quality mic. All the processing power in the world can't make up for loss of signal.

For software, I'd go against the flow here, and suggest ProTools LE for Mac OSX. I've used it on a Mac laptop to create my reel movies and mixdowns, and it works fantastically. It's completely in line with what the pros use - and it's FREE!

http://www.digidesign.com/download/64/lemac/

Audacity is reasonable software, but since you have a Mac, you might as well use the defacto standard for Mac audio recording and processing.

The hardest part of doing home recording, of course, has nothing to do with gear. It has to do with set up, mic placement, room acoustics, artistic listening, and producer skills such as knowing when to do it again, and how to plan your album sessions for best results -- and many other factors that I just couldn't possibly teach you in an LJ post. If I were there, I'd come over and we'd set it up and go through some things. This is stuff you just have to see hands on. I guess that's why they call it an "art".

I'm not trying to discourage you at all - I think you'll do great. And the best thing to do is set it up and start recording stuff. Figure out the best room in teh house, and the best mic placement to get the sound you want out of your flute. Practice singing into the mic to get used to how you sound on tape and get the right distance for your voice and delivery.

Okay - that's enough. I've been doing this for a living for too long - I think I could write a book...

Actually, they will both save to common formats so that's not as much of an issue.