[Nathan1709]

Sorted. A mate is hooking me up with a focusrite Saffire LE Audio Interface so I should be good to go!

[Ramshackles]

Thats a decent interface, comes with pretty good mic preamps aswell, so you dont need to limit yourself to a USB mic if you see a better one.

[Sonic-r]

I use a Mac Mini and it just about handles everything I throw at it. (You say you'll be running no more than 16 tracks so you'll be fine.) Check out Native Instruments, who offer some very powerful free vst plug ins. They'll compliment the instruments that come with Garageband.

Chris

[Nathan1709]

Cheers for the advice.  I've actually decided to go for an XLR condenser mic as I'm getting that interface.

[Schavuitje]

One thing that seems to be over-looked I think is the noise that a computer makes.

That doesn't matter when I am recording my guitar or bass but when I am doing my vocals

it obviously needs to be quiet.

There are computers built with this in mind. Everything is cushioned inside with rubber, even the casing.

The fans inside are built to run VERY quietly.

You need a really good processor and more importantly lots of fast ram.

Soundcard might not matter... It all depends on what you intend to use with it.

Just wanted to point out the need for it to be quiet.

[DailyDean]

Sonic-r,

Funnily enough I'm also using a Mac Mini and GarageBand, although my mac will struggle when there's lots of instruments playing at ocne (It'll pause and say that there are performance issues refusing it to play), so I'll sometimes have to lock tracks. This is coming from someone who has about 2GB of ram on the standard Mac Mini specs (no extra upgrades).

[Nathan1709]

I got 8Gb of compatible RAM fo rmy Mac Mini on Amazon for £35.  It's easy enough to fit and at that price cheap enough to make it an easy fix if you're running out of RAM.

[DailyDean]

£35!!!!! Buying with the mac mini was almost three times that! Wow cheers for spotting that. Definitely gonna make my purchase soon.

[Schavuitje]

That's very cheap, great buy i'd say. Although I personally use a pc I know a lot of musicians who swear that for music

a Mac is the best way to go.

[Nathan1709]

It was this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005IH3UES

I've installed it today and it works like a charm.  So much cheaper than buying direct from Apple and even better, I am led to believe that, unlike most other things, Apple do not invalidate your warranty for upgrading your RAM yourself.