Recording guitar to a mac, high quality but cheap
 

Howdy. So I have a mac mini, and plugging in my active bass guitar to my mac's microphone input doesn't quite do it. In fact, it makes an extremely distorted noise when I hook it up to garageband.
So, what interface would you recommend that costs less than 100 dollars? And what do you think is the best recording software (preferably free)? Hey, I'm 14. I don't have income.

for your best bang for buck software wise your going to have to be a pirate and find some gold

And for an interface get something m-audio, either the fast-track or the firewire solo (im not sure if the mac minis have firewire)

i used too have that problem with GarageBand but it's because of volume levels, jst turn the bass to "2", and lower the input level until it stops clipping

That will work, but you will lose all the tone from the bass.

M-audio fast track USB would be be good especially if you plan to use a mic for anything as it has an xlr input.

If you want to record guitar/bass only, the m-audio jam lab would be the way to go.