The earlier Macbooks had headphone out and line-in. line-in is probably
the most common as mic-level preamps are delicate noise-prone things,
probably not something Apple would want to spend money on for the
handful of folks who would actually use it. For those who do care you
can get all kinds of XLR mic to USB preamp boxes. I know it's a common
issue for folks who came over from the PC which had both a line in and
mic in only to discover the mic no longer worked on the mac. Even then,
cards like the SoundBlasters had a goofy 5 volt 'phantom power' so those
mics wouldn't work on any normal sound equipment either. They were
PC-only. Some mics do require power to operate such as condensor or
ribbon mics and that is supplied over the same wires. This is known as
'phantom power' and is usually about 48v. So if you want to hook up one
of those nice mics your USB adaptor will need to also supply phantom
power. I like the Art Dual Pre which has to XLR/1/4" inputs which can be
adjusted to handle everything from Mic to line inputs and also can
supply phantom power.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=615405&Q=&is=REG&A=details
CB
On 2/9/15 4:26 PM, Michael Marshall wrote:
hey,
thanks for the stuff on electrical interference.
USB devices are particularly prone to interference i have found.
This is the one major mistake that Apple have made. All maxed should have three
Jack's microphone, headphones and line-in i believe.
Michael
On 10 Feb 2015, at 8:10 am, 'Chris Blouch' via MacVisionaries
<macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Related to this, there are four audio electrical levels. Mic levels are tiny
signals that come out of a mic and usually need to go through a pre-amp before
they can become usable 'line level' signals. Line level is typically for signal
routing such as patching the audio output from a DVD player to the line input
on your Mac. Next up is headphone which is a much stronger signal as it's going
to drive physical movement of something to make sound waves in your ears. Last
is speaker levels which, like headphones, range from a few watts to thousands
to drive room or stadium filling speakers.
All that is to say, if your TV output is for headphones, direct connecting it to the line
input of your Mac may give distorted sound. It shouldn't hurt anything but you'll know it
when you hear it. Most modern TVs have RCA output jacks (or something digital on newer
sets) which would be line level and a better source for recording. If not then you'll
need something called a "direct box" which takes a headphone level input and
generates a mic level output which you can then run to a standard mic pre-amp to record.
I have a Mac-mini headphone output going to one of these to run it into a Mackie mixing
console.
The last bit it hum. This can be any number of things including bad cables,
ground loops and picking up interference from power lines. If it's a low
pitched humm that might be 60-cycle interference as alternating current flips
polarity 60 times a second in the US and 50 in many other countries. In the
case of a ground loop, you can google the explanation but it can sometimes be
when two devices are on two different power circuits. Sometimes as little as
plugging both devices into the same circuit can make that go away. The
aforementioned direct box can also have a 'ground lift' switch which can
eliminate the buzz in some cases. If it's from interference, the only solution
is to move the cables around to try and make it go away or use better shielded
cables.
Hope this helps.
CB
On 2/9/15 3:49 PM, Tim Kilburn wrote:
Hi,
On a Mac, the headphone jack doubles as a line-in jack. You should be able to
go direct using 3.5 to 3.5 from the out on your TV to the jack on the Mac.
Using an app like Audio Hi-Jack Pro would do the recording for you nicely.
Later...
Tim Kilburn
Fort McMurray, AB Canada
On Feb 9, 2015, at 12:34, Michael Marshall <mightymaggie...@gmail.com> wrote:
hey all,
i have a TV with a 3.5MM headphone jack witch i used to connect to the mike
port on my windows computer and record the sound.
on the mac i have run into some significant difficulties with this.
Obviously the Mac has no dedicated microphone jack witch can be overcome with
the iMike USB interface witch i have got. this has a mike jack so i thought i
would be fine.
The main problem that I am having is that on that and any other computer a lot
of USB recording devices including this one have an unpleasant buzzing sound. I
have found this problem over multiple systems and multiple USB devices. My
theory is that it is electrical interference between the computer and the USB
interface.
what i would like to know is this, is there a way to use the 3.5MM patching
cable connected to the headphone port on my television to somehow Connect to
the Mac without USB? because i'm not getting the best Sound with my current
configurations.
thanks for any help on this.
Michael
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