Issue when recording audio

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

Hi there everybody,

I have a MacBook Air (Summer 2013) with OS X (10.9.1) and Audacity 2.0.5. I’ve been trying to record my voice through the built-in microphone while listening to a speech with headphones. The idea is to record just my voice, but I get recorded everything which the sound card “plays”, both my voice and whatever I play on the computer (even though I play it with the headphones so the micro doesn’t get it). There must be some feature to turn this thing off, but I can’t find it. Any ideas?

Thank you very much in advance,

Hugo.

2

This will sound a little odd, but are you sure the speakers go off? Sound routing on a Mac is a software switch, not hardware.

Do you have and use SoundFlower?

Audacity > Preferences > Devices > Recording.
Does that say Built-In-Microphone?

Koz

3

while listening to a speech with headphones.

Closed, Sealed Headphones, or open frame headphones or earbuds? Earbuds notoriously leak sound. Remember standing behind somebody at a crosswalk and hearing the Nine Inch Nails they were listening to?

Koz

4

Really weird… I was using Apple EarPods, and also tried with GarageBand with the same result. Then I tried the old Apple earphones, and it stopped. But the thing is, even putting the earbuds inside a pillow (which obviously took out all leak sound), it still recorded the audio clear and loud, like if it had been recorded right from the source, which makes me think that these “EarPods” may make make something to the Mac settings or something… :question: :unamused:

P.S. What is Soundflower?

Thanks for the quick answer and for the help!

5

Are you sure they were plugged all the way in?

these “EarPods” may make make something to the Mac settings or something…

Earbuds. You plug your earbuds into your iPod.

You have to get all these mac-isms right or they come for you in the night.
Just kidding.

Soundflower is the free software package you can use with Audacity to allow recording internet audio or whatever is playing on the computer.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_mac.html

Koz

6

It’s just the commercial name of the product: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD827LL/A/apple-earpods-with-remote-and-mic; the model :wink: I just wanted to make a distinction between models, due to the named issue (which seems to happen only with the EarPods). :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the help anyway! :slight_smile:

7

I’ve been trying to record my voice through the built-in microphone

I bet you’re not doing that.
Those aren’t “earphones.” Those are communications or conferencing headsets with a built-in microphone.
Remember this:

Audacity > Preferences > Devices > Recording.
Does that say Built-In-Microphone?

Does it? I bet it doesn’t. I bet you’re recording from your earpods, not the built-in microphone.

Koz’