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1. 

   #1 David Appleyard says:

   Great review - I’m thinking about buying one of these fellas now

2. 

   #2 Nick Santilli says:

   got one myself. works great - but I’m not doing the pro level stuff you’re doing either. I like how OS X automatically switches from internal speakers to usb iMic speakers when I’m at home and plug my USB hub in. i like automatic.

3. 

   #3 Janette Gomez-winer says:

   I have one. I love it. I used to do theatre and needed to convert cassette to cd. I also have had to do editing. I use Sound Studio and it works well for me.
   

4. 

   #4 beekeeper says:

   I’ve been using one for about 6 months now to get decent recording of rehearsals with my band(s) straight to my iBook (G4 1.2Ghz, 768MB RAM) with a little Sony stereo mic.

   I have noticed that the recording kinda freezes sometimes which results in a few seconds of sound not being recorded. No blank space either, the timline stops also, meaning I get skips in the recorded sound.

   This happened on both my iBook, and my Dual G4 machine at home. It could be an issue with the app I’m using (Audacity) and not the iMic. Any ideas on another app (cheap/free preferred) I could try to hopefully eliminate the skip?

   _cheers
   _bkpr

5. 

   #5 Steve says:

   I usually record with Cacophony (shareware). It’s a good app, but very slow post-processing large recordings. Record a 10-minute song and when you hit Stop, it will sit there churning for a few minutes. That’s uncalled for. There might be a newer version than what I have, which might address it. Hopefully.

   But yeah, the iMic is a very nice little device. I’ve had one for, hmm, seems like a year or two. I used it to transfer a bunch of tapes and records.

   The one thing I wish they’d do is put some sort of markings next to the input level switch. I can never remember which direction means mic and which means line.

6. 

   #6 Alboyjr says:

   I love my iMic. Use it with a dual G5 (1.8) and system 10.3.9. I have converted a large vinyl library to CD using CD Spin Doctor 2, which is included with Toast. It works well with cassettes, too. A snap to set up and use. Beekeeper, have you thought of using GarageBand for recording?

7. 

   #7 Cap'n Ken says:

   I’m also a fan of the iMic. It’s connected to my Mini and I use it a lot to make digital audio out of tunes broadcast over Sirius (Underground Garage rocks).

   My trick is that I have Dish Network, which carries the Sirius channels in their digital audio content. So I record a few hours of Underground Garage on the DVR and then run Audacity on the Mini using the iMic input. I go PIP with the Mini and the recorded Sirius (Dish runs the song information ala MTV) and fast forward until I find a song I want. Then it’s pretty much like the old days of recording albums onto cassette. Play the tunes on the DVR and record them through iMic and Audacity. Clean up the intro and outro, save them and import into iTunes.

   Only issue I’ve seen with iMic is that it doesn’t seem to work through the (cheap) USB expansion port I bought to give me more inputs to the Mini. I don’t think that’s the iMic’s fault, though.

8. 

   #8 mediaguru says:

   CAP’N: I do the same thing with DTV. I love metal so I’ll record 2 hours of metal on my DVD-Ram drive. Then I scan through each artist and when I find something I like I record it and write the name onto my “bands I like list.”

9. 

   #9 mb says:

   Love the iMic! I just got it for my podcast home studio.

   I use it to hook up my Powerbook G4 to a Behringer UB802 Mixer with a Shure SM-58 mic, so that I can do better-sounding podcasts. Great little device.

10. 

    #10 teekay says:

    Stupid newbie question: I bought a cheap Logitech headset to use for VoIP but neglected to consider that the mic needs to be powered, and this little unit doesn’t have a USB connector. Could it draw juice from an iMic?

11. 

    #11 eric says:

    I’ve been looking at a lot of t Amazon reviews and a lot of professional and audiophile reviews, and there seems to be a real gap in understanding on what this unit does and does not do.

    First, I see a lot of DIY folks who like it; it seems to hit a sweet-spot in cost and features for them.

    But OTOH, I see a lot of people getting it, and expecting it to solve the basic problem with the Mini’s lack of a mic-in jack, or address the fact that PowerBooks only have a line-in jack, and no mic-in.

    This doesn’t address either of those needs: You still need a powered microphone, apparently, at least from what I can see so far, in order to do something simple like hook up a headset to use Skype.

    So, if I’m mistaken this really doesn’t do much for you unless you’re using it to do audio recording. It doesn’t address the need for a simple headset input on Mac laptops. Am I mistaken, here? I’d really like to know; this is the problem *I* need to solve, and was hoping this device could help me with.

12. 

    #12 eric says:

    Erg. Should have read at beginning of last paragraph, “If I’m not mistaken…”

13. 

    #13 teekay says:

    Eric, if you have one of these babies you *don’t* need a powered Mic, at least not on the PowerBook (dunno about the Mini). I use a cheap non-USB Logitech headset plugged into an iMic to do Skype, and it works like a charm. (17″ PB).

14. 

    #14 eric says:

    Good to hear. I’m getting confusing signals on this, and just poking around a little I have yet to find a simple way to just plain amplify the line-in to mic levels. Basically, this tells me that its infeasible to use a headset with a PowerBook (or any Mac, for that matter) — which kind of makes it a dead-loss for road warriors, as far as I can see, but then I’m not in Apple’s marketing and product development councils, so maybe they’ve got some mystical wisdom on this that I’m not privy to…

15. 

    #15 teekay says:

    Well, of course the far easier route is to get a USB headset, which gets its power directly from the USB — of course, these units are also more expensive.

16. 

    #16 eric says:

    Headsets and headphones, with their thin, friable wiring, are essentially disposable. So I shudder at the thought of paying a USB premium for them. And in fact, I can’t honestly say I’ve ever actually seen one… Bluetooth would be nice, if there were a good way to deal with the power issue, but I don’t see how you get a long talk-time out of your headset with Bluetooth. In my work, it has not been uncommon for me to spend several hours a day on conference calls.

    Anyway, I’m cluttering the thread, so I’ll shut up now. The USB headset might be a better idea than this, so I’ll go look for one now.

17. 

    #17 teekay says:

    Hold on, that’s exactly my point — I decided it was better to shell out the money for an iMic and then some more for a cheap non-USB, line-in headset than for a USB headset. The USB headset may have been overall cheaper than my combination but when it’s gone, it’s gone; when my cheap headset is gone, I go out and buy another one to plug into my iMic.

    Of course an important factor is whether you’re on the road a lot. The iMic is *real* light but it’s still yet another item to shlep with you. And then there’s the issue of USB ports, of which my PowerBook only has two.

18. 

    #18 eric says:

    No, I follow you. At $25-$39, the iMic is in the same range as USB headsets — I know that now that I’ve actually seen some.

    But there’s still risk involved. You’re telling me it can handle the line volume of an unpowered headset mic just fine — other sources say that the input from the boom mic on a headset is barely audible when input through the iMic.

    The risk is much lower for me to spend $12 on a cheap audio adapter, like the one I just found at Geeks.com, that’s designed for mic volumes.

    Thanks for the input, though.

19. 

    #19 teekay says:

    That’s certainly true too, and you’re also right that I’m just speaking from personal experience which so far has been good. (I also can’t comment on anything more demanding than Skype.)

20. 

    #20 eric says:

    teekay, your input has been very helpful; I haven’t meant to imply that it’s not of value or impugn your veracity. You helped me make my decision, after all ;-). The iMic is overkill for me right now, anyway, for sure.

    Now I’m really shutting up…

21. 

    #21 rino says:

    have the same problem. there’s a from mediatech…

22. 

    #22 Tony M, Just Tony M says:

    Thanks for clearing up my distress over the “funny” little system noises. I’ll try to turn off the “nap” feature on my iMac. What puzzled me is how I didn’t hear the noices the other times I’ve used the iMic–I think I would have noticed?
    Am I the only person who thinks Soundstudio is more reliable than Final Vinyl or Roxio?

23. 

    #23 kaputto says:

    hi,

    i use the imic on a g3 500 powerbook because the internal
    audio is damaged.
    im really satisfied with my imic, but i have one problem.
    i can’t use the imic input source in cubase sx. you wrote
    that it was no problem for you, perhaps you can help me.
    under VST-Multitrack i can choose the imic audio, but under VST SYSTEM LINKS the popup for the input is empty.

    thanks

24. 

    #24 tony m, just tony m says:

    Hey TK–
    I’ve got CHUD, now what? I’m not a programmer, I’m using a Macintosh, y’know?
    Can you guide me to which tool in CHUD to use to get to the “nap” prefs you’re talking about? Thanks.

25. 

    #25 Pierre says:

    can anybody help with an imic problem? if i understand the instructions correctly, when recording the switch on the imic should be slid towards the mic icon -yet, when i do so i only get sound through the right channel of my speakers. if the switch is pointed towards the speaker icon, i get sound through both channels, but it is incredibly distorted (even with the input levels pulled right down).
    surely i am missing something dead obvious here…

26. 

    #26 Owen says:

    “I chose to use Cubase SX to be my recording software. I was able to configure SX to utilize the audio ins and outs of the iMic in just a few seconds.”

    Is there any chance you could explain on how to do this ? i have a mac mini, just got the imic and cubase SX can’t recognise the input ? - but it’s ok in garageband etc.

    Thanks

27. 

    #27 Esther says:

    Just bought an imic and am trying to use it to convert cassette to CD. My problem is when I listen using imic and final vinyl the cassette sound is speeded up almost like half-speed of FF>> (listened in preview mode, not record using final vinyl). Previous to using imic, I used SoundStudio to import and speed was normal. Playing from cassette unit, sound speed normal. Any solutions why using imic does this? What am I missing? Used the little black switch on imic and that only seemed to change volume. As you can tell, I’m a real newbie at this.

28. 

    #28 Steve says:

    The iMic can in no way change the “speed” of the incoming sound. If the casette deck plays a 60Hz wave, then the iMic will receive a 60Hz wave and transform it into a 60Hz digital wave. In order for the sound to sound speeded up, the iMic would have to be able to magically output sound that the casette deck has not yet played, because that sound is in the future. Hmm, have you checked for temporal anomalies around the iMic?

    It could be that Final Vinyl is doing something goofy with the source. I never trusted that app very much - it’s not all that well-written. Try Cacophony or Audio Hijack.

29. 

    #29 Esther says:

    Thank you for the input. Is it possible that this is a sound distortion (pitch)? If it’s possible would equalizers adj. would help?

    I’ll look into your 2 suggestions for import alternatives.

30. 

    #30 Steve says:

    No. EQ doesn’t change pitch, it filters or boosts frequency bands.

31. 

    #31 Rory says:

    I too am having the same problem as Esther, I have recently bought an imac g5 and the imic, and it was working fine for the first 2 weeks or so. then one day all of a sudden its started to raise the pitch of the incoming signal which was accompanied by a clicking noise almost as if the signal was being interferred with in some way along the signal path between the sound source and the imic.

    Is there any other possible explanations for this?

32. 

    #32 Tim says:

    Yes, I can confirm the pitch problem using final vinyl. It records ok, but when playing back (through final vinyl) the pitch is hugely out. Fortunately, once its output is saved, it seems to play back well.

    Final vinyl is dreadful; it’s full of strange bugs.

33. 

    #33 mother says:

    I have recorded a LARGE vinyl collection using audio hijack (with a usb interface, not the iMic) and i couldn’t have asked for better software. I woudl recommend it to anyone….

    mother

34. 

    #34 doc says:

    I am trying to use iMic to support output from a new Mac mini to my home stereo (Harmon-Kardin receiver). I have iTunes working on the mini and the stereo is working OK. iMic is on the USB and appears to System Prefs as expected. I have RCA plugs to the receiver “phono” jacks (it has CD and DVD player only attached) from the iMic adapter cables. When I plug the iMic adapter to the output jack I get loud hum as soon as the receiver is powered on - even with the Mac audio muted and while the stereo still has the CD selected as input. Rechecked all cabling and seems solid, any advice?

35. 

    #35 Tony Korologos says:

    A loud hum would indicat a ground problem or a short.

36. 

    #36 Nick Santilli says:

    doc -
    wow, not really sure what to tell you here. I haven’t exactly used my iMic for anything too out of the ordinary. I’ll get up a new (fresh!) post about the imic, and see if we can’t get some new voices sounding off on it for you. Sound good?

    off hand though, I might suggest using an AirPort Express, and doing the audio wirelessly over that, as the quality is great, and seems like it may be less of a hassle. That hardware solution coupled with Rogue Amoeba’s AirFoil should do you pretty good…

    Keep an eye out for a new post here on TAB in the meantime.

37. 

    #37 Steve says:

    Sounds like a short, a break, or a polarity problem. Make sure all the cables and adapters are good and connected solidly. Also try plugging the receiver and the Mac into the same outlet, and that that outlet is indeed grounded. You can get a cheap 110VAC outlet tester at Radio Shack. It will tell you if the outlet is wired correctly and if the ground is good.

38. 

    #38 Stephen says:

    I just bought the iMIC and I can’t get it to work.

    Guitar > Line In on Marshall Amp
    from Marshall Amp, Line out > Input on iMIC > USB iBook
    Output > Headphones

    Is there something I’m doing wrong? Should I be able to hear what I’m playing at all times? I’m confused. Please assist.

39. 

    #39 doc says:

    Thanks all for your suggestions. Moved receiver to same powerstrip as mini, no help. Removed the iMic from the connection, plugging onto mini audio out, same hum. So moved connection from phono to VCR2, presto, no hum! Moved back to phono, got the hum back. Returned to VCR2, fired up iTunes, and we have music - put the iMic back in line and got better volume - I guess the DSP they use is better than the mini’s on-board audio as claimed. Apparently, my problem is with the phone jacks on the receiver. Thanks again.

40. 

    #40 Steve says:

    Doc,

    First you said “phono” and then you said “phone”. If you meant that you had the iMic plugged into the Phono jack on the receiver, then that would explain it. The Phono input (most likely) has a built-in preamp, because the output level of phono cartridges is much lower than a typical line level signal (like a tape deck or CD player). So it was probably just amplifying the base hum that is normally not audible unless you really crank it up.

41. 

    #41 Stephen says:

    Sorry, I’m also confused on the difference between Mic and Line. If I am using a guitar, should it be mic or line?

    Thanks!

42. 

    #42 Tony Korologos says:

    Just think about it. Mic is obviously for you to plug a MIC in! Line is for a line level signal, such as a guitar or standard audio signal.

43. 

    #43 Kerby Rials says:

    I just bought the new (smaller) version of the iMic and had to return it. I plugged in a Shure microphone with a mini plug which worked for about 1 hour then it quit because their was a bad connection in the iMic. Anyone else have this problem? Is this a freak or are all the new smaller iMics sloppily made?

    Should I buy the older version?

    Kerby

44. 

    #44 eric says:

    kerby –by “bad connection”, if you mean that OS X lost track of the device, it could be due to the fact that a lot of audio devices don’t work well through hubs. As it’s been explained to me, that’s not an easy problem for manufacturers of audio devices to fix.

    So, while this isn’t useful to you, if one had this problem and wanted to troubleshoot, one could try a direct connection or one of those fancy “audio-capable” hubs (like, um, the one Griffin sells….).

45. 

    #45 Joe says:

    I’m trying to record vinyl LPs in GarageBand with the iMic. I have two pro dj turntables connected to a 2-channel mixer. The mixer is connected via piggyback RCA cable to both the iMic and two self-amplified monitor speakers. The iMic is plugged into the USB port of my iBook G4. I am able to record LPs in GarageBand but with a loud hiss upon playback. I tried disconnecting the monitor speakers in case they were causing a vibrational distortion, but this did not fix the hissing. Any suggestions?

46. 

    #46 Kerby Rials says:

    I also had a loud hiss when recording using iMic and the iBook G4, and found after some experimenting that somehow the built-in mike on the iBook was recording instead of the plug-in mike to the iMic (as it should have done). I can’t remember exactly what I did but there is a place in the setup of the software where you can turn off the one and turn on the other. You will know when you have succeeded as the hiss will be gone. However, it is not clear and is kind of a “you will know it when you test it” kind of thing. It is an area that needs work by either Apple or Griffin, and maybe both.

47. 

    #47 nfranke says:

    hello all. The one thing I can’t figure out is this: as headsets, the iMic seems to require a headset with a line out and a mic in line. Now, both my line telephone (a Panasonic) and my Sony Ericsson allow a headset to be plugged in—but it is a one plug headset they want. I’d like to have only one headset for all. Does the iMic support one plug headsets?

48. 

    #48 Chris says:

    I bought this device so that I could have a quick and easy way to record to my G4 tower with no built in audio input. Alas, it was of no use as it constantly crashed Peak 4.0 to the point that it was unuseable. I later bought a Motu 828 and that works great so i shelved the iMic for a while. Then I got a note book. It still crashes Peak but I can record with Final Vinyl and that seems to work fine. I can also record into GarageBand but I hate that I have to export to Itunes before opening in Peak. The Griffin site claims it can be done but I have yet to make it work with Peak under any circumstance. Overall, you get what you pay for and for $39, you get $39 worth of flexability which, in the audio world, is not much.

49. 

    #49 Russell says:

    Okay, so I bought the Imic, but can’t get it to operate on my Dell laptop, or my Compaq desktop. When I open the audio device page, it shows the computer recognizes the Imic, but doesn’t record on line or mic levels. I’m running adobe audition and I’ve tried using both a mic and a mini disc to get audio into my computer…
    Please any suggestions????

50. 

    #50 Rory Griffin says:

    I’m having problems with my imic all of a sudden. Output sound is mono and not in stereo as it was before. Checked all the sound settings in system preferences and there are all set correctly. Not sure why it is doing this. Anyone have any experience of this or potential reasons/solutions?

51. 

    #51 JM says:

    I just got my iMic recently, and downloaded ‘Audacity’ as instructed. I’m want to use it to convert my cassette music collection to CDs.
    So far, I got everything going good except for one problem; how can I record a whole (side of) a cassette, then divide it into separate tracks before burning to CD?
    My PC is running Windows xp, including sound recorder, Windows Media player, & Cyberline Power2go burning software.

52. 

    #52 Tony @ thegolfspace.com says:

    Uh, JM this is the APPLE blog. PC questions might be answered better on a site that, well, covers peecees.

53. 

    #53 Convert_Cassette says:

    Or, if you don’t have the time to digitize yourself, you could send have it done professionally. Digitize-It! specializes in archiving and restoration of audio and video recorded analog media. Convert cassette to cd, transfer tape to cd or mp3, vhs to dvd, reels, microcassettes & more.

54. 

    #54 guitarpotto says:

    My son wanted to record some old Bill Cosby records, so I set up a turntable and a mixer, connected the main out to the iMic and the iMic to the USB port of his iMac G5 keyboard. The sound control panel showed a strong signal in but could not get the sound out to the internal speakers. We played with the settings on both the sound control panel and the Audio/MIDI utilitiy. iTunes still plays as does his system sounds. Does anyone know what I may need to do to get the sound out to the internal speakers?

55. 

    #55 johnbrush says:

    I am enjoying imic and finyl vinyl with my iBook and am getting good quality recordings from vinyl. However, I get huge files which take up tons of space in my iTunes. One song of 14 minutes duration = 142 MB! Also these files play perfectly on iTunes but when transferred to iPod nano don’t work at all even if they are not exceeding the 2GB capacity of my iPod. Songs recorded on the earlier version of finyl vinyl do play on my iPod. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

56. 

    #56 Todd Ziebarth says:

    John - Were you able to solve that problem? I just bought an iMic and can record from my turntable to my laptop, import songs into iTunes, move them onto my iPod, and play them on my iPod when it’s connected to my laptop. However, I’m not able to play them on my iPod when it’s disconnected from my laptop. Any words of advice from you or anyone else who’s had this problem would be greatly appreciated.

57. 

    #57 johnbrush says:

    Todd - I have a feeling the problem depends on what format the recorded sounds are saved in. I am going to run a couple of short tests tomorrow using different save formats and see if I can resolve this. I haven’t been thinking about this problem lately as I have been trying to comprehend the Amadeus application which is supposed to do much more than the IMic. The author claims Amadues will record directly from iTunes but it is a complicated process and one I have been able to make work as yet. So, back to playing around with IMic. Also, I noticed today that Apple seels a $70.00 gadget that can accomplish these missions but they say you need a G4 or better to support it. I’ll report back.

58. 

    #58 johnbrush says:

    Todd - I think the problem is with the the application and not the encoding format. I have been using Finyl Vinyl with my iMic and no matter whether I used aiff or wav the result was that no file larger than 40 mb or so would play on the iPod. They show up there but won’t play. I think the reason your ipod songs would play when you were hooked up to the laptop is because it was playing from iTunes, not the iPod.

    Anyway, in the course of all this testing, and also fooling around with Amadeus, I found that I have Sound Studio included with my iBook G4. I have had the iBook over 2 years and am still discovering new things. The Sound Studio app works great; large files transfer thru iTunes to the iPod and they play! You still need the iMic gadget though if your laptop doesn’t have an audio input. I hope this helps you too!

59. 

    #59 Bart Driessen says:

    I have hooked up the iMiic to a turntable (through a preamplifier). The turntable is grounded. The innput level is now quite good and I can easily import songs into iTunes (had to get Final Vinyl 2.0 though, the latter version continuallly crashed).
    I do still have a problem that I have a hiss on the recording. Would anyone have a quick solution for this? Thanks!

60. 

    #60 tony video2000 says:

    i gave up on eliminating the hiss and imic. I got an a/d converter for video to edit some old VHS tapes (that’s a whole ‘nother thread) and discovered its audio line did not add hiss. so I use that into a firewire port. imic is still fine for old cassettes (they have hiss anyway), but it’s harder to put up with all that hiss on a fine LP.

    as for iPod not playing larger .aiff files, why not drag the .aiff file into iTunes and re-rip it to mp3? those files will be smaller, as .aiff or .wav are the formats you use for production and CD audio.

    I could’ve sworn my iMic didn’t have hiss on an earlier version of OSX, but as usual, my memory ain’t so great.

    I would ask griffin to look at this and try to improve their product. it’s just “this much” from being perfect.

    I prefer sound studio over final vinyl. it’s less fussy.

61. 

    #61 johnbrush says:

    “re-rip it to mp3″

    My iTunes doesn’t allow that as for as I can tell; it only allows me to export to AAF format. I am missing something?

62. 

    #62 tony video2000 says:

    johnbrush-

    not sure what version of itunes you have? if it’s like 4.8, go into prefs under “Import” and I bet AAF is the default. hopefully you can change it and select mp3. and a bit rate to your liking. I like 160 , but 128 still sounds okay and takes less space.

    after that, under the “Advanced” pull down, select “Convert” and click on the track(s) in your list. they should end up in the itunes music folder. tv2000

63. 

    #63 Bill Marjeram says:

    I can’t even get anyone to tell which are the correct cables to use, from a tower hi-fi tape player to an IMic connected to a Powerbook. Nothing seems to work.

64. 

    #64 Bart Driessen says:

    In the meantime I have learned one or two hings about eliminating hiss. First, make sure that the iMic is plugged directly into your computer, i.e., don’t use any USB divider. Second, it is best to unplug any equipment that you won’t be using (printer, scanner and such) when recording. Third, don’t do other things on your computer whilst recording. Fourth, I used a preamp (40 euros or dolars, depending on where you live) to upgrade the signal from my vinyl record player. Fifth, make sure the record player and preamp use different wall power sockets than your computer. I.e., don’t connect everything to one electricity extension cable. That creates a ground loop, causing the hiss. Lastly, in the equalizer settings of Final Vinyl I reduce the treble.
    The outcome is quite bearable, although of course you’ll never get (and should not expect) CD quality from a vinyl recording.
    I hope this helps?

65. 

    #65 Steve says:

    Tape hiss comes from tape, not from ground loops or other devices being plugged into the same USB port. The only way to eliminate tape hiss is to roll off the EQ (which also destroys the treble from the recording) or hope that the tape was recorded with Dolby or DbX (dBX? It’s been so long since tapes were considered good that I forget how they capitalized that:), and that your deck has the same noise reduction system.

66. 

    #66 tonyvideo2000 says:

    I agree with Bart. I’m a former broadcast professional who enjoys tinkering with these marvelous digital devices. I do not work for any seller or manufacturer.

    USB interface such as iMic adds very low level noise to recording. With cassettes, this doesn’t matter as much as the tape hiss “masks” this issue. However with other audio sources, like vinyl or hi-fi VHS, this can be noticeable. I have one mac with audio line in and that works well with a turntable and pre-amp (google turntable pre-amp and there’s a guy who sells like 15 different models–he’s good). As for my iMac without audio inputs, I’ve done a work-around with an analog video converter box that plugs in via firewire. it shows up in the audio input list and sounds very clean.

    But I’m not sure I’d advocate the extra expense of and video converter box unless you plain to digitize analog video like VHS? Consider HOW you’ll be listening to your vinyl rips–you may find the miniscule amount of noise added by iMic to be acceptable and hardly noticeable.

    My other 2 cents is that soundstudio and Roxio’s suite works better than final vinyl. Audio Hijack is also awesome-awesome for some situations, like capturing streams.

    I’m not planning on giving any more “tips” but I would suggest a good pair of headphones. I can’t help but recommend Grado SR60’s. They really “open up” the music experience.

67. 

    #67 johnbrush says:

    Tony Video 2000 -
    Thanks for the tips. I’m testing Audio Hijack now. I seems to be the simplest to use of any of the systems I’ve tried so far. I’m looking at the Hijack and Hijack Pro. I think I’ll buy the Pro.

68. 

    #68 Carlos says:

    I have just bought Imic to use my mac mini.

    How should set iMic to use SKYPE with Macmini?

    tks
    Carlos

69. 

    #69 Kerby says:

    I am still working on using iMic to do some recording (straight recording, not converting of cassettes or vinyl), and it still has the hiss problem. Any tips are WELCOME. Nothing seems to get rid of it. None of the tips above work (except I have not tried using an analog-digital converter running thru fire wire). It could be that the input signal is too weak. My next tactic is to use a mixer and try running the signal in from there. If that doesn’t work, then maybe I will need to abandon iMic and buy something that works.b Any suggestions there? It is sad that in the age of digital recording there is a product that injects hiss that sounds like an old cassette.

70. 

    #70 Kent says:

    I have found other discussions about pitch problems, not related to the iMic. In my case, I was using iMic with a little app called DialectX that simply replays the input after a brief delay, like an echo. With speakers, and the mic close to them, you get a cool echo effect. (It is meant to be used for pronunciation and accent practice with headphones.) I hear the speed and pitch of the sound rise about a semitone each time around.

71. 

    #71 JW says:

    Some people have suggested using iMic to free up the headphone jack for simultaneous sound from both the internal speakers and an external output. Has anyone had any success with this? Will any software help allow this to work?

    I work in an office where we pump the music to a sound system but I would also like to hear it from my internal speakers at my desk for a more surround sound experience. Also better to hear talk radio etc.
    I’ve found some forums MacForums where people are talking about this but no one has come up with a solution. I figured it was worth bringing up here. Thanks for any suggestions or discussion.

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