Mono into Powerbook G4

[brettfred7]

Trying to record into the built in line in on my mac and it for some reason doesnt allow monitoring, so i cant hear whats going on, but upon recording into audacity it only has one channel. I know my cables are stereo and Ive been into the system specs and it says my channel is stereo so whats going on does anyone know?
[comment removed by administrator]

[kozikowski]

Is it plugged all the way in? I'm serious. That connector does several very amusing jobs and it's easy to not get the plug all the way in -- and that will give you mono.

You could have a defective cable. Is it a dual RCA to 1/8" stereo? Plug the cable into the Mac make sure the cable is selected in Apple preferences. Make sure Audacity Preferences matches. Start Recording.

Touch the end of the RCA one at a time.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/touch.jpg
And see if each Audacity meter wakes up and jumps. The sound will be loud buzz.

Koz

[brettfred7]

Firstly thanks for the reply koz
Secondly thats not the ONLY time ive heard those words... "Is it all the way in?" but yes, its all the way in.
Thirdly at the mo im just running a 3.5mm to 3.5mm from ipod to computer. to test it i changed it to a 2 x RCA to 3.5mm and added an adaptor. so i just touched the ends and its only registered in the left channel as i thought. i just changed to a different but same RCA to 3.5 cable with the same result. The problem is def either the jack or the software interface between the Mac and Audacity. Ill try to source a different software to test the input

[billw58]

You should be able to test the input using the Sound Preferences pane. Touch the left and right RCA pins and see if you get an indication on the input level meter.

-- Bill

[brettfred7]

Thanks Bill
Just tried that and no dice on the Right channel. I am sure though that the cables im using are fine, just seems like its being received in just one. Maybe the jack is stuffed?

[brettfred7]

Yeah when I changed the input source to the internal Mic it recorded in both channels fine in audacity

[billw58]

So you've tried two different dual-RCA to stereo 3.5mm cables and got the same result? And the internal mic records in both channels? Then it seems likely that you have a hardware problem i.e. a fault with the line input socket.

You could try to get it repaired, but a cheaper solution would be the Behringer UCA-202 USB audio interface for about $30.

Have you tried upgrading to 1.3.12? You might like it.

-- Bill

[brettfred7]

Ok, thanks so much for your help. $30? so cheap! cool

[brettfred7]

Yah im running the latest beta version on my Windows, its great.

[kozikowski]

Getting your internal microphone to appear in Stereo doesn't tell you very much. It's obviously only one microphone and they play internal games with it to make one channel into Left and Right. We know your internal Left and Right are working because you can hear Music CDs, YouTube, etc. in Stereo, right?

So we swooped right into the Line-In connection -- two black arrows in a circle. That's one of the stress points in a PowerBook and nobody will be shocked that it's got problems. How old is the PowerBook? My MacBook Pro replaced my PowerBook two years ago, so the PowerBook had to be five years old. It had dropped out of AppleCare warranty and that never goes further than three years.

I have a hushed reverence for the Mac Stereo Line-In. It's way better than you think it's going to be and I capture live performances with it all the time. I have a UCA202 (fresh out of the box) but I haven't done any sound tests with it yet. It spent the weekend in a photo shoot.

Koz