External Microphone Signal Issues

I am trying to record my guitar with a new microphone i purchased. I have the microphone on the aplifier connected to a small sound board and from the soundboard output it goes into the input (headphone Jack) on the computer. I went into preferences and tried to select input device and my only option was the internal microphone. How do I get my MBP to pick up the input signal from the mic/mixer board? There is a strong signal if i hook it up to a speaker instead of the mac it plays the music fine.

Hi, try the following:
select the external HD in the finder and press >cmd-i<
unlock and make sure you are the owner
now choose >Apply to enclosed items……<
Have a nice day!

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MacBook Pro and external microphone

We bought a MacBook Pro 15" Retina a couple of weeks ago. We wanted to use it the same way as our current PC laptop: hook up an external camera via BlackMagic Shuttle Express Thunderbolt (through the Thunderbolt port), hook up an external Sennheiser Freeport wireless microphone (through the 3.5mm combination headphone/microphone jack), and hook up a set of regular headphones (through the USB port).
The idea is to videotape an event, getting good quality audio from the presenter via the wireless microphone (our space has big limitations in terms of using wired devices), and monitoring the audio through the headphones. This is a scenario and a set up where several PC units have worked perfectly well in the past.
However, after spending over $2,000 on the MacBook Pro, we found out that the 3.5mm combination port will not take input from any of the microphones we have. This YouTube video explains exactly our situation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaiYc9Cqpis (we did not create the video, but the video shows this is a common issue). On the video they explain the plug of a regular microphone has 3 rings or pins, while the plug needed for the 3.5mm combination has four rings or pins.
We spent about 45 minutes with Apple customer support, including a senior advisor, and we were told that as the Apple headphone/mic combination, the one you use with an iPhone (seen on the video above), works in the combination jack, both as a microphone and as a headphone, then there's no issue. Apple does not have any recommendation, solution, or adapter for using a regular 3.5mm microphone with the 3.5mm combination jack, so that an external microphone can be easily used. The senior advisor also suggested a USB microphone instead, but that means a) having a wired microphone, which is not possible in our space, b) buying more equipment, when we already have our equipment, and c) adapting all our setup to the MacBook Pro, instead of the machine being easily integrated into our existing setup (more likely, we will ship the MacBook Pro back instead).
A few discussions on the web (for example, https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110505020946AA8izSV ) mention that this specific laptop expects a "line level" microphone signal, one that would come from a pre-amplifier, so that regular microphones would not be detected. The Apple senior advisor was not familiar with that claim, nor could he shed any light on it.
So our question is: has anyone successfully used an external 3.5mm microphone with the 3.5mm combination port on the MacBook Pro Retina 15"? If so, what kind of microphone did you use? Or, did you have to use any kind of adaptor or amplifier to make it work?
Thank you for any pointers you can give us.

We tried a number of 3.5mm splitters (to get separate headphone and microphone connections from the combo mic/headphone jack), and USB to 3.5mm converters (to get separate 3.5mm headphone and microphone connections from the USB port), but none of them worked.
The only solution we found to connect a microphone to a MacBook pro were the Shure XLR to USB convertor (http://www.shure.com/americas/products/accessories/microphones/microphone-proble m-solvers/x2u-xlr-to-usb-signal-adapter) and the Blue Icicle XLR to USB convertor (http://bluemic.com/icicle/). The Icicle is the cheaper back up for the more expensive Shure.
Both were recognized by the laptop, and both audio signals were detected properly. We are using them to capture voice only, so we don't know how they would fare when music and musical instruments are involved.

External microphone stopped working

Product Name and Number
HP Pavillion g6 Notebook PC, LS303EA#AB9
Operating System installed
Windows 7 SP1 x64
The external microphone line suddenly stopped working, had been working perfect untill after the update of last major application instalations.
Checked sound devices, external line shows as installed butrecognizes no sounds, attempted updating drivers but no new drivers.
Audio specifications (according to HP support application):
- IDT high defenition audio CODEC (stwrt64.sys), version 6.10.6324.0
-Intel(R) Display Audio (IntcDAud.sys), version 6.14.0.3074
PS.: internal microphone still works, also the plugged in microphone still works on other computer
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hey coolasc,
If you had a lot of updates come through, you'll want to make sure that BIOS was one of them.
BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System/Service. It is the language that all of the hardware components in your computer use to communicate with each other. There are updates which come out periodically for it so it would be best to have the latest version. The following steps were taken from here.
Windows 8: From the Start screen, type "msinfo32". Click msinfo32 from the list of results.
Windows 7&Vista: Click the Start button, type "msinfo32". Click msinfo32.exe from the list of results.
About halfway down on the right, look for BIOS Version/Date.
3. Copy and paste the information to the right of BIOS Version/Date in the value column, into your reply.
The latest version on the HP Drive Page for your particular notebook is F.66. It could be that a lot of updates other than BIOS came through and BIOS just hasn't come through quite yet (if this is the case, it would be fine to manually install the latest version). If you have a version higher than F.66 by some chance, go back to F.66 by just downloading and installing it.
The BIOS being out-of-date or just out of sync with the other updates that came through, could definitely cause an issue like this.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if these suggestions helped (this could help others with the same issue). I'll keep an eye out for your reply!

External microphone

I can't get an external microphone to work on my HP Pavillion dv7 laptop. I have read through most of the posts and nothing has helped. However, I haven't seen anyone who has had my exact experience. When I plug in either of two external microphones, one a single mike and the other connected to a headset, I can record but it is recording with the built-in microphone, not recognizing that anything is plugged in. The reason I am sure of this is because if I tap lightly on the mike, there is little or no reponse on the vertical bars in the Sound Recorder program. But if I gently tap with my fingernail anywhere on the computer frame, the bars light up right to the top. Help anyone? Thanx.

Hello pobox518
Welcome to the HP Forums!
I understand you are unable to connect an external microphone to your computer. I will do my best to assist you! First, I require the following information:
1. The computer's model number. If you require assistance locating this information, please reference this website: Guide to finding your product number
2. The computer's operating system. If you require assistance locating this information, please reference this website to determine your Windows operating system.
3. Have you installed any new hardware on this computer, before the issue appeared?
4. Have you installed any new software or drivers on this computer, before the issue appeared?
Thanks for choosing the HP Forums. Have a great day!
Mario
I worked on behalf of HP.

Lion / External Microphone problem on Line-In port

I am having a problem with an external microphone on the line-in port on side .
I now have tried two mics: 1) Logitech and 2) Gear-Head
I can't get it to be seen on the system preferences nevermind any applications.
Hardware: MacBook Pro AND iMac (purchased only 3 weeks ago).
Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (Build 11A511 from developer seed)
The USB Mic works fine.
Headphone works fine on same head set.
Any help would be appreciated.
Patrick
Keywords: mic, "no sound bars", linein, ext microphone, Lion, Screenflow, Screen Flow,

OK, here is the deal!
The audio input on the side or back of the Mac is not for passive non-amplified microphones. You need a microphone with a pre-amp or put one in-line between the mic jack (male) and the computer (female) audio port.
Watch this External Mic Issue Video for more specifics.
This is more of a general hardware issue and not that of OS X Lion.
Patrick
ExpertWitness.com
PatrickOLeary.com
Social.net

IMac i7 External Microphones not working

Out of the box, no external microphone will work!
I have tried many.
It seems the system does not even notice that something is plugged in to that port.
Is anybody else having this issue?
Could this be a factory hardware defect?
Tried Soundflower and many other things / settings. No Luck.
Normally I would not care, but I need Skype every day. The internal Mic works, but that is not good enough.

Hi DaBigness
The iMac's Audio Input is for Line- Level or amplified devices like (Stereo receivers, CD & DVD players, iPods, MP3 players, etc.) See > [Line- Level|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-level]
To connect a non-amplified microphone you will need to patch it thru an amplified stereo device such as a stereo receiver, a pre-amp, a tape player, an MXL iBoost or a Griffin iMic just to mention a few options. For example's see the > [MXL iBoost|http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/MXL-iBooster-Guitar-and-Mic rophone-Interface?sku=243800] or the > [Griffin iMic|http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic>
Dennis

How to install external microphone on windows 8.1 hp envy 17 17-j010ep

how to install external microphone on windows 8.1 hp envy 17 17-j010ep
the problem is that on the device manager sounds
it shows the external microphone but i cannot activate it, when i do activate it stays deactivated with a down arrow red

Hi Apedrodinis,
I understand you are having issues with the microphone using Windows 8.1 on your HP Envy 17 17-j010ep. Here is a generic document on resolving microphone and line-in problems Windows 8.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c03421813&lc=en&product=5397916&tmp...
Hope it helps.
Thanks
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom to say “Thanks” for helping!

Macbook Pro 13" and external microphone

Hi guys,
I have a problem with using my external microphone with my macbook pro 13"..
I have changed the 'use audio port for' options to 'audio input' in the system preference, but it is still not working..
I have tried it with two different microphones and both of them are not working. The mic that i tried was pretty basic stuff..
All helps and opinions are welcome. Thanks!

The audio input is a 'line level' input - it expect a greater signal level than most microphones deliver, such as the levels output by a mixer, preamp, or the headphone output on a music player.
There might be microphones which can drive that input, but they'd certainly have a battery driving some preamp circuitry.
For many users, the built-in microphone is all that's needed. The next step up would be a USB microphone - which has its own preamp and A/D (analog to digital) converter. The next step up would be a high quality audio interface, with inputs for professional mirophones.
USB microphones start at about $20, go up to about $200. I'd suggest a google or amazon search for 'usb podcast microphone'.

External Microphone in Windows on MBP

Hi guys,
I see this problem has been posted on the form a couple of years back but don't seem can find a solution. I'm just wondering if this has been sorted now.
I have a MBP 2011 mid model. It recognise the iphone microphone when it is under OS. However, when it is in Win 7, it seems only picking up sound by the internal microphone. It was fine using the internal microphone until the machine get heated and the cooling fan gets too noisy and the microphone picks up all the noise since it is located just above the fan.
I had to use windows as the particular software I'm using doesn't have a mac version. I tried to use virtual windows under OS but it gets so slow I could hardly do anything under it.
The most up-to-date boot camp drivers are correctly installed for Win 7.
Any one have this sorted? If I can get my MBP pick up an external microphone in Windows (doesn't matter which version)?
With many thanks

I visited the Louisville, KY Apple store today and discussed this question with Lonnie, a lead creative there. He says he is familiar with Fusion and that what Doc wants to do is no problem. Naturally, it shouldn't be, but ... like Doc A, after 30 years+ working with PCs, things are often not what they should be.
Doc - did you try this, and did it work?
Has anyone else out there tried this with a Retina MBP with at least 8gb of RAM and Fusion running at least 2 different VMs, each pinned to a different external monitor (with OSX on the Retina in the middle)?
If you did, was it with straight Thunderbolt monitors, or did you use older monitors and adapters?
BONUS POINTS: Was one of your VMs some version of Linux, by any chance?
Do you have ML OSX or some older version?
Did it work out of the box, or with issues that you had to get help on?
Your answers are much appreciated!

Audio input through external microphone not 'heard' by computer

I can record audio with any app through the builtin mic. And I know the system 'hears' sound through the builtin mic when I go to SystemPreferences->Sound->Input.
I have an external microphone that I want to record through. I went to SystemPreferences->Sound->Input and chose 'Line In' and plugged in the microphone's lead into the 'in' jack. However the SystemPreferences->Sound->Input Input Level sensor/detector is dead -- it shows no audio input. Nor does iMovie pick up any audio input when the mic is plugged in.
I know the input jack works by plugging in the output pin from a cassette-player, choosing 'Line In', and playing a cassette. The Input Level sensor/detector comes on and the sound is available to apps.
I know the external microphone works by plugging it into the cassette-player and recording from it and tapping and rubbing on its pick-up. The sounds are captured on cassette tape.
So why is audio input through external microphone not 'heard' by the computer? Is there some trick to making it work?

There are a few possibilities, but the most likely is that your microphone does not produce enough signal to be "heard" through the Mac line input. Usually this is normal, with most microphones producing perhaps 1/100th of the signal needed, which would be called "mic level".
You cassette deck probably outputs "line level", much stronger and strong enough to register in the Mac Line input. Similarly, the cassette deck microphone input is probably "mic level" and much more sensitive than the Mac line input.
There are other possibilities, such as a powered microphone, but you have not provided any model numbers or specifications to analyze.
Try this: plug in the microphone like you did before, and make a really loud sound right in front of the mike, like clapping hands. You may see or hear a faint sound register on the Mac.
The usual cure is to buy a microphone preamplifer. You can also buy a new microphone with a built-in preamplifier. You can also buy a USB microphone or preamplifier device that bypasses the analog Line input entirely.

S10-2 external microphone problem

Hello!
My problem is that I can't seem to make my external microphone work on my S10-2. The microphone can be detected by my laptop (because a pop-up from the taskbar appears indicating this), but I don't know how to switch from the built-in mic to the external mic. I've tried changing the default voice recording device in the Sounds and Audio Devices section of the Control Panel, but there is no other option other than the Realtek HD Audio Input. I've also downloaded and installed the audio driver from the Lenovo website already.
How may I go about this issue?
Thanks and God bless!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Sorry for this late update, but the problem was solved when I downloaded and installed an audio driver from this website.

There is an external microphone input on my notebook?

Hi!
I'm not sure this is the right section where I can post this question.
Anyway: I bought a pair of headphones with a microphone to use on my ENVY m6, but when I tried to find the input for the external microphone jack... I dind't find it.
I tried to plug them both in the headphones jack with a '2 to 1' jack converter but the microphone still didn't work.
There's a solution or just I can't connect an external microphone to my notebook?
Thank you so much and sorry for my bad english.
Elisa

Hi @EllieInTheSky ,
Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forums and Welcome. I have looked into your issue about your HP ENVY m6 Notebook and issues with the microphone headset. Here is a link to troubleshoot the headset and microphone. Your notebook supports a plug in stereo headphone combo jack.
What make is the headset?
Press the Windows key, type microphone, under settings you will see setup a microphone. It will bring a wizard up and you just select which one you have.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom to say “Thanks” for helping!

HP ProBook 450 G2 external microphone low gain

After updating to windows 10 my external microphone has been acting weird. At first I thought it was just broken, but after some testing and putting all the levels to the hightest, I realised that it wasn't broken, it just almost didn't pick up any sound. When testing in a recording program and skype test service, I found out that you could hear me very softly even when i was really close to the mic.

Hello @Sid1404Kj ,
Thanks for posting on the HP Forums!
I understand you are experiencing an issue with your notebook. However, since this is a commercial notebook, you should post your issue on the notebook board of the HP Enterprise Forums for a better answer.
Have a wonderful day!
Mario
I worked on behalf of HP.

External Microphone when using (external) iSight

I recently got an external iSight for my MacPro. I bought the iSight so I could record videos through iMovie directly on my computer. I usually do covers of music, or related to music videos, so I use an external microphone. It's a M-Audio Producer USB. It's plugged in into the side of my Apple Keyboard, and in every application, the external microphone works. Except for iMovie.
When I try to record a video directly from iMovie using my external iSight, iMove decides to use the iSight's built-in microphone to record the audio, even though I have an external microphone plugged in. In System Preferences, the Producer USB is chosen as the main input for audio coming in. And in iMovie, the Producer USB is also chosen as the microphone in the VoiceOver section. Even with these two options pointin to the Producer USB for audio, iMovie still records audio using the built-in microphone on the external iSight.
Does anyone know why this is happening? And how I may be able to fix it? My music covers have come to a halt because of this D:
Thanks!

Hi Appleman & David B.
Thanks for your answers. I think David has a point... - that the program could be secured against feedback - consequently! Since it's not made for music recording. (even though using headphones normally solves that problem, right?).
Not a word about this issue in the support menu, and I've checked the system preferences>sound several times.
I'll see if I can find a small mixer somewhere. That sounds like the right solution.
Yes, I ran into the same problem in GarageBand, but changing the feedback-settings at the right side, solved that problem
Kind regards
Kenneth Hermansen/Copenhagen NV.

No External Microphone option

I don't know what's going on here, and when I go through System Preferences, to Sound, to Input, there's only one choice: Internal Microphone. I'm sure there used to be another, probably called External Microphone. How could there not be? How else could I import sound from outside the computer.
Anybody have any ideas? I mean, without this option, not only could I not bring in music sounds, I couldn't even do something like Skype, right?
thank you!

Hey, I am having the same problem. I use GB alot and have always plugged a mic cable straight into the line-in jack on the back. I have also plugged bass guitars and guitars. This always worked before, but now...nope. It is not a power issue b/c GB acts as an amplifier.
What I have now is that there is no option for selecting "line-in" under the pref pane in sound. Only "internal microphone" This is bogus b/c you can't record any good music live through the internal mic. There is too much atmospheric crappy gack-sound that interferes with the capture.
What is wrong? Is it that the jack has gone kaput, and has some sort of soldering problem or loose cable? I don't understand what to do. Is there supposed to be a red LED light that signifies when a plug is in the line-in jack, just as there is in the headphone jack? If so, I am getting no light at all. I have heard of the headphone jack not releasing the setting for an line-out, and thereby disallowing the internal speakers to sound. The solution to that was fiddling around with a matchstick or a qtip in the jack. This is the opposite. I can't jet the jack to recognize when a cable is plugged into it. HELP!!!

External Microphone Signal Issues

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