Oct 14, 2004 08:20 am Matt,
I am redicent to make recomendation. It's an art and each of us goes about it differently. Jazz is a very wide genre which also makes opinions differ a lot. I do a lot with a swing band and I will share what I have learned in general "getting started" terms. Flute and Sax are pretty recording friendly instruments and I find a Shure 57 or 58 will do well. Piano is a little difficult to get an even sound on with only one mic. I would recomend two small diaphram condensers in a conincedental pair. For the drums I would recomend a Shure B52 for the kick, the rest of the kit is pretty open. If you are going for a live open sound do some research on microphone array techniques and critical distance measurements. The latter will add a dB sound strength meter to your arsonal. You might want to take a peak at Cubase SX as it has midi, audio, and score editing features. Again not making recomendation, just another option to look at. As far as the Mac, can't help. I live in a PC world. The last point is real estate. A nice big room, low internal noise and have some portable accoustic pannels at some point. You will find this invaluable in getting a clean open natural sound.