UncleSlacker

Q: My Mother in Law sounds like Darth Vader (in iChat) from her MacBook Air to my iPhone, iPad and iMac  - the trouble must come from her end as it the same on all our devices - any ideas what the issue may be and how to fix it?

My wife and I have an iMac, an iPhone 5S and 5C and an ipad

Whenever we receive or make iChat calls to my wife's mother (she has a MacBook Air), whichever device we use, she sounds like her voice has been slowed down

I assume it must be to do with the sound processor/microphone but wouldn't know how to solve the issue..

 

Any help would be much appreciated

 

 

Posted on Jan 29, 2016 6:20 AM

Close

Q: My Mother in Law sounds like Darth Vader (in iChat) from her MacBook Air to my iPhone, iPad and iMac  - the trouble must come ... more

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Jan 31, 2016 1:02 PM in response to UncleSlacker
    Level 9 (73,087 points)
    Applications
    Jan 31, 2016 1:02 PM in response to UncleSlacker

    Hi,

     

    Congratulations on still being able to do this as many of use are having issues with this.

     

    However at her end she need to open System Preferences > Sound > Input and check the volume is not set to high.

    This will cause the Mic gain to bounce the graphics into the right hand end and some "clipping" will occur.  (it cuts the sound to "protect" the system)

     

    The Mic should be selected here.

    It should also be selected in the app in Preferences > Video and Audio Pan and then the Microphone Drop down.

    In some cases it should be done in that order (System Preferences then App).

     

    If it is an external Mic then either it should be moved further away or the Volume in the Input pane should be reduced further.

     

    Possibly if she happens to use a Firewire or USB based Midi Audio sound system then that might add complications.

    Check Applications/Utilities and the Audio MIDI Set up.

    This can add further "gain" to the Mic used which might be causing distortion.

     

    Is there any chance she ia actually using a Distortion Add-on ?

    SoundFlower can add functions to the Sound set up and might responsible https://rogueamoeba.com/freebies/soundflower/

    There are others.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    9:02 pm      Sunday; January 31, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     Couple of iPhones and an iPad
  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jan 31, 2016 1:32 PM in response to UncleSlacker
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 31, 2016 1:32 PM in response to UncleSlacker

    UncleSlacker wrote:

     

    My wife and I have an iMac, an iPhone 5S and 5C and an ipad

    Whenever we receive or make iChat calls to my wife's mother (she has a MacBook Air), whichever device we use, she sounds like her voice has been slowed down

    I assume it must be to do with the sound processor/microphone but wouldn't know how to solve the issue..

     

    Any help would be much appreciated

     

     

     

    Can you or someone in your family be with your mother-in-law when she is on a call with you to see if she is shouting or leaning too close to the microphone and still shouting - as some people do when use speaker phones - hands free - conference room.    Work on her using low tones to be heard.

  • by UncleSlacker,

    UncleSlacker UncleSlacker Feb 3, 2016 2:06 AM in response to UncleSlacker
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 3, 2016 2:06 AM in response to UncleSlacker

    Thank you for the replies

     

    For some reason the problem seems to have resolved itself without any action on our parts... I will bear in mind the answers should the issue arise again..

     

    All the best

     

    Colin

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Feb 3, 2016 11:53 AM in response to UncleSlacker
    Level 9 (73,087 points)
    Applications
    Feb 3, 2016 11:53 AM in response to UncleSlacker

    Thanks for letting us know.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    7:53 pm      Wednesday; February 3, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     Couple of iPhones and an iPad