what is the best way to connect my guitar to the usb port on my IMac

Probably one of these:

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_babyface.php

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet.php

http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828mk3

Did you ask for the best way or did you not ask for the best way?

In audio, best means expensive.

What you mention there are roughly the cheapest 24 bits convertors you can get. Even cheaper you get 16 bit convertors, which you really don't want.

Lots of people use it, so I guess it's sort of okay-ish. I would prefer the Line 6 stuff over the Alesis stuff, though; I'm not too sure why. Heard slightly more bad things about Alesis, I guess.

This is the (one of the) "best" in quality/money value:

http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-USB

As has been said really, the less you pay the less quality, and flexibility you'll have on your sound.

For example, you could run on a 'Rocksmith Real Tone Cable' if you just wanted a cheap way of getting your guitar into the computer for some fun. Probably cost you $30 (I live in UK so can't be sure). If you're starting out then this could be considered the best option for dipping your toe in the water without spending too much.

You won't get a really nasty sound out of that if you can process it yourself in Logic afterwards to clean up, but it won't be great either. I imagine it could get quite noisy so you'd need to get heavily gating your guitar sound, if you're playing something clean that's not ideal.

Longterm, you're far better getting a decent audio interface, as you need something to play sound back through, if you have different input sources you usually have to create an aggregrate device on osx to use multple sources at once esp if you're using the built in audio chip on your mac to listen.

All this can add latency and possibly sync issues (i.e. drum tracks not in time with audio etc.), although generally it's not too bad, but it's something worth knowing if you want to do things on the cheap without buying a dedicated interface.

What kind of money did you want to spend? Are you thinking super duper cheap, and then see how it goes and maybe spend more in future if you enjoy it? Personally i would say £100-150 would get your something good to start with, like that Presonus audiobox, there's a lot of options like that available.

My local music shop always push the alesis io2 on new users, gotta say i'm not that overly impressed with it. Line 6 stuff will be good however, but limiting. Although i beleive you get their software for free with it?

Mate, that audiobox will be perfect for you - Just make sure you're sorted on speakers and have the right cabling from the audio interface, as ideally you want to be coming out of that box if you get it. Will sound much better too.

You probably won't even feel the need to upgrade to something more expensive unless the demand for more simultaneous inputs increases. You know, for when you record that epic with the local orchestra! 😉

Not sure on the tascam, never seen or used one!

kubedo wrote:

I assume the Audiobox will work with the Logic Pro X software.

Yes, one of the good qualities of Presonus is that they make reliable, stable drivers for OS X. Often underestimated by new users how important that is.

kubedo wrote:

Also, I own a TASCAM PocketStudeo DP-004 that has a USB port (I never thought of trying that but I assume the AudioBox would be much superior)

You thought right. The convertors in there are only 16 bit, which is outdated and simply not good enough anymore for recording purposes. 24 bit is the standard for every pro- or home- or bedroomstudio.

I think your plan to start off with the Audiobox and perhaps upgrade to RME or Apogee, is solid.