What do we need to make this Mac Mini w/ iMic work?

[brobson]

We bought the mac mini for garageband recording for my son. He has had so much difficulty with the microphone.

from David:
I bought the $50 mic from the Apple Store, and it didn't work. I exchanged it for a second microphone which still didn't work. The Apple Store was no help to me at all since the microphone was made by Shure. I called Shure, and the help desk told me I needed an audio input and were surprised when I told them that Apple had not informed me about needing this in order for the microphone to work. I called the Apple Store...again. They told me I should get IMic, and my problems should be solved. Now I don't particularly enjoy being a dissatisfied customer, and I was incredibly frustrated when after the IMic arrived from the seller we bought it from, the microphone's sound only recorded out of the left computer speaker. I did everything possible, but switching the sound to the right speaker only muted the sound. Every time I called the Mac store I would repeat my story (everything written here) and would get little suggestions, or no help at all. So I WENT to the Apple Store, this time face to face, and I brought both the mic and the IMic, and told them my entire story for about the tenth time. They hooked it up to a computer, and sure enough, the problem was found, supposedly in the IMic. But they said there was nothing they could do, since GRIFFIN had made the IMic and not them. But they suggested I log on to the Griffin website and tell them my situation. But unfortunately for me and every other human being with this problem, Griffin is yet to reply, and are suggesting on their support FAQ that I buy a MIXER.
I am a very resonable person but IS THIS NOT INSANE?
Please help!

 

[mkrishnan]

Now I don't particularly enjoy being a dissatisfied customer, and I was incredibly frustrated when after the IMic arrived from the seller we bought it from, the microphone's sound only recorded out of the left computer speaker.

Okay, passive aggressive snarking aside, what does this part mean?

Your setup is Mac Mini -> iMic (USB connection) -> Microphone, right? And this mic outputs mic level audio (un pre-amped) and not line level, right? And you have the switch in the iMic set accordingly.

Are you trying to record the speaker output of the computer through the mic? Why? Or do you mean that recorded content from the mic plays through the left speaker only?

This is a monophonic microphone, right? So in Garageband, you followed the following steps:

1) Preferences -> Audio/MIDI -> Audio Input, select the mic.
2) Track -> New Track, at this point, are you selecting it as a mono or stereo source?
3) Recording

To impose it on the stereophonic output field that you're recording in Garageband, you need to "position" it in stereo space with the pan control. That's the circular knob in the middle of the tab on the left of that track.

Now are you saying that when it's positioned center on this knob, you get audio from the left only, and that when you pan hard right, you get nothing?

If this is the case, it could be that your iMic is sending the audio through the left channel (since the iMic is compatible with stereo sources too).

In this case, at step (2) above, select it as a mono source on channel 1 (I think it's 1 and not 2, but if it doesn't work, then it's 2! ). And then it will record monophonically, but you should still be able to set the pan knob to center and get it to play stereophonically.

Does that make sense?

 

[brobson]

You Are A Genius!

Thanks so much!!!
It worked turning it to Mono.

Brenda

 

[mkrishnan]

Glad it's working now.