[SYN]

Came home for the week-end, and my sister tells me she wants to make her own songs. Fair enough, all she needs is a simple audio editing app (SparkME is more than enough), and a mic, because the iMac's internal mic is useless. So I buy an external analog microphone, plug it into the machine, and... it doesn't work. Find what is supposed to be the sound control panel, hidden in the speech items, and when I want to choose a sound input, it says it's already doing so on its own.

So my question is: Is there any way I can make this mic work on OSX, aside from purchasing a USB microphone? Surely, OSX can't be limited with regards to Audio inputs???

edit : original iMac with analog input.

[ 03-30-2002: Message edited by: SYN ]

[glycer]

Yes you just need and adapter.
Try this site. http://www.griffintechnology.com/

[SYN]

this must be a joke. I actually need a 35$ USB to line-in adapter to make a 10$ mic work?

[Diggory Laycock]

you don't need an adapter - that's for newer macs with the digital audio.

Try this: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...diocorder.html

[KellyHogan]

I have an iMic. It works plug and play and also lets you input and output to and from analogue devices. If you have old records and tapes that you want to convert to mp3 then this is the thing. So yes, it is worth it.

Then use Spark ME too. This is a great free app.

[Scrod]

Originally posted by KellyHogan:
<STRONG>I have an iMic. It works plug and play and also lets you input and output to and from analogue devices.</STRONG>

Yeah, but when your motherboard already has analog out and in it's pretty darn pointless to replicate that functionality through an external device that wastes a USB port, isn't it?

Most people who've posted to this thread either haven't read the original post or can't actually grasp the problem: He needs to find a way to use an external microphone connected to his microphone jack. Yes, that's right--a microphone jack--remember those?

[starfleetX]

You need an AppleTalk microphone for that jack.
I have one from my old 8600 and it works fine with my G4 in OSX.

Check any Apple documentation from the past, oh, 7 years and it'll tell you to use an AppleTalk mic.

[Scrod]

Originally posted by starfleetX:
<STRONG>You need an AppleTalk microphone for that jack.
I have one from my old 8600 and it works fine with my G4 in OSX.

Check any Apple documentation from the past, oh, 7 years and it'll tell you to use an AppleTalk mic.</STRONG>

That would be a PlainTalk� mic, not AppleTalk. Last I heard, microphones didn't need built-in support for networking protocols.

[starfleetX]

Originally posted by Scrod:
<STRONG>That would be a PlainTalk� mic, not AppleTalk. Last I heard, microphones didn't need built-in support for networking protocols.</STRONG>

Bah! Whatever.

[Aussie John]

od:
<STRONG>

Yeah, but when your motherboard already has analog out and in it's pretty darn pointless to replicate that functionality through an external device that wastes a USB port, isn't it?
</STRONG>[/QUOTE]
the quality is bettter

[Aussie John]

Originally posted by Aussie John:
<STRONG>rboard already has analog out and in it's pretty darn pointless to replicate that functionality through an external device that wastes a USB port, isn't it?
</STRONG>

the quality is bettter

[glycer]

Yes I did read the original post but I should have been more specific about the product I was pointing you to. It is called the NE Mic , its NOT USB and its only 20 bux. http://www.griffintechnology.com/audio/mic_main.html

[SYN]

If I wanted better quality, I'd have buyed an USB mic in the first place.

Secondly, I don't think I need a plaintalk mic, those were abandonned (and the jack that goes with them) around the time the G4s first came out, and this is a summer 2k1 iMac.

What I specifically want to do is use, as Scrod put it, an plain vanilla analog mic with my already existing and working under OS9 sound input port. Heck it even has a mic drawn above it, don't tell me it doesn't work?

Has this issue never been brought up or resolved???

[Diggory Laycock]

Of course it should work - you just plug in the mic to the microphone port.

Then you select "external mic" from the app that you want to record from.

Ignore the "speech" prefpane - that just for speech recognition. Apps do not rely on system preferences to decide where the input is coming from. They have their own preferences.

did you try using the audiocorder soft i linked to above (just as a test.)

What happens?

[SYN]

Ok, well the problem seems to lie elsewhere, I've been fiddling with about anything I can plug a jack into, and the audio in of the iMac does work fine, apparently there is some problem with the mic I purchased, it's jack seems to be just a little too small... It only works in my MD recorder, surprinsingly, everywhere else I've tried it fails.

the above mentionned app does indeed work fine, with all other inputs I've tried, it's just that apparently Creative doesn't know how to make standard jacks...

Well, thanks to everybody who offered to help.

[wadesworld]

All sound-in ports on Macs are line-level jacks. 99.9% of the microphones out there are dynamic (unpowered) microphones. Therefore, their input level will be too low.

You need a mic with a pre-amp. The Plaintalk mic had one, but if you want to use another brand of mic, get the NEMic product from Griffin, as suggested above.

Wade

[BigMac2]

The answer is pretty simple... the Mic port that come on the mac since the Quadra, is a Line-in 0.5v, Apple change the 1/8 phone jack a little to include a power source pin that plaintalk mic with a longuer than normal jack connect to.

[BigMac2]

[duplicate]
sorry

[ 03-31-2002: Message edited by: BigMac2 ]

[OverclockedHomoSapien]

What a brilliant idea Apple had! Offer a Mic input that doesn't work with Mics! Wow, that's genius.

Oh, I get it, Apple wants to make the extra buck off Mac users by offering a proprietary mic that is the ONLY mic that can be used with a Mac. Good idea.

Anyone know if Apple owns Griffin stock or what?

[awaspaas]

People, this isnt that hard. Yes, the PlainTalk mic had that extra-long plug to give it more power (line level as opposed to only mic level), and no, a normal unpowered mic will not work just plugged right into the iMac. BUT the NE Mic adapter from Griffin converts your little plug on the mic to the longer one, giving it LINE LEVEL output, thereby giving it enough power to work great with the mic jack on an iMac.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/audio/mic_main.html

$20... see page for more description. problem solved!

[s_l_o_w__k_i_l_l_s]

I just worked through all this. There is _no_ mic input on the G4 (at least on my G4 tower). According to the Manual, the smaller input under the headphone jack is an "apple speaker mini-jack". Whatever.

So the only options for getting sound into your G4 are:
- A USB adaptor
- Firewire (use the mic from a DV camera, for instance)

I tried the Griffin iMic, a USB sound input/output gadget. The one I got was defective. There is a small, cheap switch on the device to switch from mic- to line-level input, and the switch seemed to be bad. Why this 5� switch in a $35 product?! (aside - as an ex-Mac Windows prisoner for the past 5 years, I sure love the ease of option-$ for a cent sign!) Fun fun in the Fry's return line!

Next I tried the Macally USB mic (www.macally.com). This is a combo microphone (omnidirectional, as far as I can tell) and sound input/output device. It seems better built (nothing that moves or looks likely to break), but you'd have to pre-amp any mic input if the built-in one doesn't meet your needs. In brief experimentation, the mic is OK, the levels from line input are a bit low. Using a headset mic directly into the input is too low to be usable. But for me it's a keeper. One problem is that it appears the mic is always live, so if I have iTunes playing loud I get a feedback loop. The quick fix is to plug something into the line input, which cuts the mic out.

Finally, as I was trying to solve this I also happened on a device from Andrea Electronics (www.andreaelectronics.com). As we order lots of headsets from them they sent me a unit for free. It is the best USB mic input device I've tried, but just has a mini-jack pass-through for audio out (so you end out plugging it into both the USB and the headphone jack).

SO I now use the Macally gadget for my sound out (better than the sound card, IMHO), and the Andrea gadget for mic input.

What a hassle! I philosophically agree with getting as much analog stuff out of the computer as possible, but wouldn't it have been cool if a USB sound in/out device was included or, better yet, built into the super-cool 17" Studio Display along with a mic?

[Developer]

Some WebCams come with an USB microphone.

[starfleetX]

Originally posted by s_l_o_w__k_i_l_l_s:
<STRONG>There is _no_ mic input on the G4 (at least on my G4 tower).</STRONG>

Not quite.

Apple made this change with the 2001 "Digital Audio" towers. All G4s before that (PCI Graphics, AGP Graphics, and Gigabit Ethernet) included mic input. My dual 500 G4 has mic input.

[waffffffle]

I have been pissed about the lack of analog audio input on recent Macs. Thankfully my Pismo has it because I use that feature. My new iBook doesn't. Having to carry around another device just for analog input is really dumb and it would cost Apple all of 5� to add that to each model. The DA-analog converter is already there since every mac has a microphone (maybe not the towers) so this should be a non-issue. Apple was the first company to offer analog audio input with a computer back in 1992. Now they are the first to take that feature away. Seems pretty dumb to me.

[Cipher13]

You need a PlainTalk mic. End of story. Like what came with the Smurfs.

Good luck finding a cheap analogue mic with a preamp that actually fits into the plug... and that isn't a PlainTalk.

[ 04-01-2002: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]