Recording on a Mac/GarageBand... to DI or not?

[i]I work in IT between gigs...I like to think I'm familiar with what computers will amd won't do. :). And I can pretty confidently say that if you've set things up properly, this isn't a problem.[/i]

That's a pretty big IF.

I'd like to respond that I work in IT Support, and I'm familiar with what users can and can't do, but it would be untrue on two counts.

1. I don't work in IT Support.
2. The word from my friend who does work in IT Support is that users constantly find new and innovative ways to fudge things up and fail to understand the simplest of precautions.

(I love those error message haikus on your website. That takes me back to when I first saw them some twenty years ago.)

It's not really a big if. I just plug it in and go...never had a problem. True, if you make it idiot-proof, they will build a better idiot, but we are not idiots, are we? (And BTW, I used to work in tech support. My fiancée still does.)

Glad you like the haikus! I understand that the web browser in BeOS actually cribbed some of those to use as its actual error messages.

I suspect using a line in through a computer and generating post effects is going to cause significant latency (I think most programs default to 100ms buffer, I don't know about GarageBand) that would produce problems if only because by the time you heard what pitch you're playing, you've already moved on to the next note and can no longer adjust it. If you're recording in a studio setting an ASIO interface is probably the way to go, and mic your amp. That's how I've been doing it, as opposed to using direct input. I just don't think computers make good pre-effects, but that's just me. I also don't like effects loops on amps, preferring to add effects pre-amp.

What kind of effects are you trying to add? You could conceivably start investing in pedals, or you could do an "all in one" stompbox like a Line 6 Floor POD or Digitech RP355. This has disadvantages to be sure, because you use presets instead of pedals that you can control and bypass individually, but I know my RP355 allows me to toggle delay, distortion, and chorus/effects using individual pedals when in "performance mode."

So I guess to sum up, I personally prefer to do all my effects preamp, and it seems to me running the effects through a computer post-processor is going to introduce too much latency.

>>using a computer in live performance
Definitely check out kkissinger's posts here and at electro-music. He does amazing live looping and effects work with his laptop in his theremin performances.