[trek2008]

I have a flat pannel iMac, and I am wanting to hook a cassette deck up to it. Maybe I am not thinking clearly, but the only thing on this computer is audio outs. Is there any way to get an audio in for a cassette deck?

[analogika]

Originally posted by trek2008:
I have a flat pannel iMac, and I am wanting to hook a cassette deck up to it. Maybe I am not thinking clearly, but the only thing on this computer is audio outs. Is there any way to get an audio in for a cassette deck?

The minijack with a headphone symbol is the out. The minijack with the circle and the two triangles to the left and right pointing inward is the input.

[hab]

The original G4 iMacs did not have an audio in. You have to use a USB input device like the Griffin iMic, Griffin Powerwave, or similar.

[analogika]

Ah, sorry - misread.

I somehow assumed "flat-panel" == G5.

Duh.

Yes, you will need an audio interface. The iMic is something like $50 and is apparently quite adequate for what you describe.

[bonniescotland]

Hi there
I have an emac and recently bought a griffin powerwave, the main reason I wanted it was to record voiceovers into my computer. I also thought it would be handy to be able to record cassettes to computer as well.

Have never used an imic, but apparently the powerwave has a built in amplifier which the imic hasn't.

I discovered that the emac has an audio input so I can hook my cassette deck directly up to the computer via that, so I didn't need the powerwave for that purpose, but I didn't realise this when I bought it, in any case I still need it to plug a mic in as the audio input doesn't take a mic (well actually it does plug in but the level is too low for a mic).

But I know a lot of macs (such as yours) don't have audio inputs, so for recording cassettes into your computer I think you will need some kind of audio interface (which is what the powerwave and imic are).

the powerwave and imic plugs in via your usb (you can also get more expensive interfaces that are firewire)

The powerwave works extremely well for getting music into the computer, it has a built in amplifier and it is very loud for inputting music! However I did end up returning the unit because I had some problems with recording mic voiceovers, you could barely hear the mic even with the input volume turned up to the max. So it was pretty useless for voiceovers which was why I returned it. I also tried it on an ibook same problem. I changed my system preferences etc made no difference. I spent days trying to figure it out, had a technically minded friend come over and we still couldn't get the mic to sound any better. (it wasn't a problem with the mic as we tried it with a mixer and also tried some other mics and they all work fine but don't work well with the powerwave.)

But for recording cassettes into the computer damn good (though not any better than my audio input). Strangely I had the opposite problem with the sound, was so loud recording in music no matter how much I turned the volume down on my cassette player and in my preferences. There is a switch on the powerwave which allows you to mute your recording or hear it, (it is the thru switch) but even with that off I could still audibly hear the recording, and with it on it was so loud it would have woken the neighbours (however when I pressed the mute button on my computer it completely muted the sound), it doesn't have a volume control on the actual powerwave, so whilst it definitely works as an amplifier with speakers I couldn't turn the volume down which is obviously a problem.

Very strange that when using a mic it is too low but when using speakers too loud!

Anyway not trying to bag the product, just letting you know of its strengths and weaknesses. If you only want to use it as a means of getting your cassettes onto the computer to convert to cd works great(you can also record the radio).

It comes with software for recording your cassettes called Final Vinyl which is pretty basic but works fine. I found it a bit difficult to use at first, for instance it records the whole tape as one track so you either have to place markers whilst recording or after you have finished to divide it into tracks, it took me a while to figure out how to divide it into tracks, but finally figured it out, but found it a bit awkward.

I have since found I have a free program called Sound Studio which was bundled on the emac which I prefer to Final Vinyl. I had one tape which has a lot of static but there didn't seem to be a way to remove static with Final Vinyl, but I would imagine any free software would have these limitations. (you can't remove static with the free sound studio either, though I think if you buy the full product you can). A friend uses Toast which he says works great for recording cassettes.

Apparently you can also hook up a turntable to the powerwave, but didn't try this.

So if all you want to do is record cassettes into your computer works fine, but if you ever want to do anything further with it such as recording a mic voiceover I wouldn't recommend it, also lack of volume control on the unit is a problem too.