Re: 5:1 sound output on a mac?

Brent Harding Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:57:40 -0700

I bet that mistake I made on an old PC once was using the mic instead of line 
in to be cute and record me playing DJ with the mic and winamp on a tape. After 
taping off that sound card input, using the tape machine's tiny monitor 
function, I plugged in my speakers and got the worst wining noise ever. I did 
this in middle or high school, but one can blow stuff up trying to digitize 
tapes so that that input is no good for anything but making noise.

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Blouch
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 3:36 PM
Subject: Re: 5:1 sound output on a mac?

Or you just need a pre-amp. I actually use a real Mackie mixer so I can mix
my Mac speech output and Mic audio for demos, but a simple XLR to line level
audio preamp would be fine. I think there are even XLR to USB preamp digitizer
combos. In some ways I'm glad it's just a line level input. More often the
external gear I'm plugging into the Mac is line and not mic level. Mics also
need a bit of control to make them sound good which would probably not be baked
in well if Apple did put Mic pre-amps inside their boxes. At least the didn't
do the goofy PC thing by trying to do fake phantom power that doesn't work with
any normal sound equipment.

On 4/9/12 4:31 PM, Brent Harding wrote:
What I'm surprised, and maybe the older mac books are different is that the
input won't work as a mic jack, it's line level or optical only. One of those
dragon headsets won't do it, and neither will the Aftershokz bone conducting
earphones. They work good for hearing from, but that internal mic picks up too
much of that bad proximity effect. That's another way boot camp was locked
down. I wonder where you get an optical microphone?

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Blouch
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: 5:1 sound output on a mac?

I don't think you have to switch it. If I plug in an optical cable to my
5.1 receiver the Mac just switches over to optical output. If I plug in a mini
to RCA cable and run that to my receiver for just stereo sound it uses that.
One odd thing is that when running digital optical output I can no longer
adjust the volume on the Mac. If you want something to decode the 5.1 optical
into discrete RCA outputs I used one of these:

http://sewelldirect.com/Sewell-Digital-to-Analog-51-DTS-Surround-Sound-Decoder-SPDIF-to-RCA.asp

which has optical inputs and 6 RCA outputs for the left, right, center,
surround left, surround right and subwoofer. I used this in a larger venue
where I had a Mac Mini connected to a rack of amps through a Mackie mixer.

Main trick is to find one of those otical (mini TOS Link) cables since
the Mac optical output is just the regular mini headphone jack. When I first
set mine up I tried all the usual places like Best Buy and Radio Shack and none
of them had any idea what I was talking about. So I just found some online for
a few dollars. I can give you specific links if you decide to go this route.

On 4/9/12 10:47 AM, Brent Harding wrote:
That analog out jack can be switched to optical digital, so use an
optical digital cable with the mini plug on the end, or they make adapters from
the optical kind of plug.

----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Foret Jr
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 4:48 AM
Subject: Re: 5:1 sound output on a mac?

I tell you that it's in 5.1 channel sound. I know. I have played
DVD's in 5.1 channel sound through that digital output.

Sincerely,
The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!

Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!!

Skype name:
barefootedray

Facebook:
facebook.com/ray.foretjr.1

On Apr 9, 2012, at 4:01 AM, Eric Oyen wrote:

no problem redirecting vo to a 2 channel usb device (I have one of
those). the only issue is: is that SP/DIF output in 5:1 sound or analog. that
does make a difference as I have a 5:1 capable sound receiver that uses SP/DIF.

-eric

On Apr 9, 2012, at 1:32 AM, Ray Foret Jr wrote:

Actually, I've done 5.1 channel sound from my Mac. The sound for
5.1 channels is taken directly from what is normally the ear phone output jack.
You'll want to be aware that when you run 5.1 channel sound out of your Mac,
you will lose VO unless you direct VO to another output; say, a grifin Imike
for example.

Other than that, a Braille display will work nicely.

One further thing. You'll need to tell what ever app your going
to use to output to 5.1 channel sound, and also, you will notice that 5.1
channel sound will only show up when a receiver which can take it is connected.

Sincerely,

The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!

Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!!

Skype name:

barefootedray

Facebook:

facebook.com/ray.foretjr.1

On Apr 9, 2012, at 12:44 AM, Eric Oyen wrote:

Hello everyone.

I am cross posting this to 2 groups that have some of the best
experts for macs around (and also deal with the blind).

what i am looking for is this: I woold like to be able to have
5:1 or higher surround sound output from my mac (either via firewater or USB
device) and haven't had a lot of luck finding anything. can any of you suggest
a manufacturer or some place that has this hardware and also... does anyone
have any experience setting up such devices. I would like to be able to use my
Mac as part of a home theater system and this is the last stumbling block.

thanks.

-eric

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Re: 5:1 sound output on a mac?

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