Griffin iMic - no signal

Have done that many times before.

With cable plugged into Input (the Speaker logo), no signal comes through iMic in either switch position. No bars in Sound Pref.

With cable plugged into Output (the Mic logo), it looks like the iMic is blasting a signal in either switch position. All the bars lit up in Sound Pref. And Audacity shows huge amount of blue waveform.

So I guess my original silver iMic is broken. I will see about buying the newer white model (discontinued) on eBay

But a signal only comes to the computer if I plug the tape deck into the iMic's Mic/Speaker Out port.

No signal comes if I plug the tape deck into the Line/Turntable In port.

"The mic port is for Input to your mac, and therefore is where you connec the output from your deck.

You were trying to output from the deck to your mac, so that is the proper port."

I thought I was using the ports correctly, based on the iMic's package. I did plug the tape deck into the Input, as the package said, even though the plastic case of the iMic showed a speaker symbol by that port. The port with a mic symbol is actually the Output. Yet that is where you told me to plug the tape deck, and then side the switch the other way to the Input port.

So I don't understand why that worked, but it does put the song's signal through. Now have to check out the ideas about the static, and have ordered another iMic on eBay.

"Connect your tape deck to the mic port (1); move the slider to the right (2) - this is for "line level", which seems to be what your deck is outputting."

This seems contrary to the iMic instructions, connecting a deck to the Mic port rather than the Line port. But I did it.

"Open Quicktime Player ->New Audio Recording."

I use Quicktime Player a lot but had never noticed its beautiful recording interface. So I did it.

"Choose iMic USB Audio System as input for the recording."

I set all that up.

So listened to a song on the deck's tape through headphones, and as Quicktime was merely launched, loud static overlaid the song in the headphones.

I proceeded to record ten seconds of the song, save it and played it back in Quicktime. It was fouled with the static.

At least I had succeeded in recording the song through the iMic, but it was no good for listening.

This has been SO informative for me, and I appreciate it greatly. Maybe there is yet more I should do?

I have played around with that.

I think the toggle slider just switches the internal card between the input and output port. I plug the iMic into the input port and push the toggle toward that side. No signal comes through the iMic.

When I plug the iMic into the output port, and push the toggle slider toward that side, Sound Pref lights up all the dots, overloaded with signal that must be meant for headphones or speakers, not recording.

Maybe the iMac is broken, though I did use it twelve hears ago for recording from a cassette player.

As for the volume control in Sound Pref, when the signal is blasting through the iMic's Out port, all the bars are lit and adjusting the volume slider has no effect.

Similarly, when there is no signal coming through the iMic's In port, no bars are lit and adjust the volume slider also has no effect.

That is clearer than Griffin! I have saved those words to a doc and stored it in an iMic folder with manual, pictures etc, and printed it to keep with the iMic.