Macs for quite some time, have had a headphone output jack and a "Line
Input" jack. There are generally three levels of sound signals. First
are the very weak ones like microphones, then line level like the output
from a nice CD player or tape deck and then high powered
speaker/headphone levels. For microphones you usually need something
called a preamp to boost the level up to be used for a line input.
Likewise most home stereos and such expect line inputs and boost those
up to high power to drive speakers or headphones. Now a lot of folks who
do voice recording like the sound of a powered condenser mic because it
gives a nice bassy sound when you're close to the mic (proximity
effect). On a sound mixer there is usually something called "Phantom
Power" which is 48 volts running up the same wires which connect to the
mic. On PC sound cards they made up another standard and used 5 volts to
power the condenser mics. To Apple's credit, mic preamps are delicate
fiddly expensive things to get right without adding a lot of noise, a
job best left to the folks who make mixers and the like. So if you have
a real mic you would need at least a pre-amp to boost the signal to line
level, which is what your Mac expects. If you have one of those PC 5
volt mics you'll need some contraption to make it work because the Mac
isn't supplying power through the mic jack. So you don't really have a
no-cost "just plug it in" solution because Apple went the high road and
picked an existing reasonable input level that works with lots of
devices and avoided adding a lot of noise or cost in building in a
pre-amp. So the paths from here are:
1. Find some winky box that will convert a PC 5volt mic to a line level
output.
2. Something else, which could be a whole lot of options. Here are a few:
A. Get a nice USB mic and be done
B. Get a nice mic and a pre-amp or mixer and connect that to the Mac's
line input
C. Get a nice mic and a USB pre-amp/converter and connect that to the
Mac's USB port
For me, I went with C so that I could connect any mic I choose to my
Mac, or other sources like output from a mixing console or the audio
feed from a video camera. I've also done option B with a Mackie mixer
where I wanted to mix both spoken audio and voiceover from the mac (and
Jaws on a VM on the same Mac) and record all that. A separate physical
set of controls is always nice to adjust audio on the fly without
interrupting (or announcing) anything you're doing on the Mac.
Hope this helps.
CB
On 1/24/16 4:30 PM, Donna Goodin wrote:
No, it connects through the headphone jack. Does it have to be USB?
Donna
On Jan 24, 2016, at 3:27 PM, John Panarese <jpanar...@gmail.com> wrote:
What kind is it? Is it USB?
Take Care
John D. Panarese
Director
Mac for the Blind
Tel, (631) 724-4479
Email, j...@macfortheblind.com
Website, http://www.macfortheblind.com
APPLE CERTIFIED SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL and Trainer
AUTHORIZED APPLE STORE BUSINESS AFFILIATE
MAC and iOS VOICEOVER TRAINING AND SUPPORT
On Jan 24, 2016, at 4:25 PM, Donna Goodin <doniado...@me.com> wrote:
OK, I just tried restarting the Mac, still no joy.
Donna
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