griffin GB guitar cable problems

Question

griffin GB guitar cable problems

I just bought a Griffin Garageband guitar cable that goes from my guitar straight into the 1/8th inch headphone jack on my iBookG4. Whenever I start recording on GB it doesn't pick up the music through the cable. Instead it records through the external mic resulting in alot of static and faint twanging noises of me playing my electric guitar.

I have been to the sound section in the system preferences, but under input the only option I have is the built-in internal microphone. It won't let me deactivate it and tell the computer to pick up the data coming in through the guitar cable. Does anyone know what to do? I am still using Garageband 1, is that part of the problem?

iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.0.x)

Posted on Jan 1, 2006 5:23 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 1, 2006 5:43 PM in response to Luke Sharrett1

1) you cannot get "input" through the headphone "output"

2), the iBook doesn't have an audio input. So, you'll need a USB or Firewire interface to get audio into you iBook.

I don't have a machine with an internal mic, so I don't know the proper selection to turn it off. Someone else will probably answer that for you.

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Answer 2

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jan 1, 2006 6:12 PM in response to Scott Laughlin-Richard

I don't know the proper selection to turn it off.

I don't beleive you can. If you have a Line-In or external device you can switch to one of them, but something always has to be selected.

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Answer 3

Jan 1, 2006 7:08 PM in response to HangTime

OK. I thought I had seen where someone had both a device and the internal mic working at the same time, and had to do something else to turn it off.

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Answer 4

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jan 1, 2006 11:18 PM in response to Scott Laughlin-Richard

No, it's an Either/Or situation (think like a Mac OS (X) Radio Button. Any one can be selected. Only one. And One has to be selected (any software not following that behavior had a naughty programmer).

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Answer 5

kevkoch

Level 1

0 points

Jan 2, 2006 2:22 PM in response to Luke Sharrett1

I've used the Griffin iMic and plugged it into a USB port. It's worked pretty well for me. The faint twanging might be your internal mic picking up the sound of you playing. The same thing happened the first time I plugged in my bass.

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Answer 6

Jan 3, 2006 6:24 AM in response to kevkoch

He didn't buy the iMic, he got the Griffin guitar cable. He now needs the iMic to get it to work. So the faint twanging is indeed the internal mic, since he can't use the headphone jack for that cable (or any other cable) for input, since it is an output.

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Answer 7

Jan 3, 2006 2:58 PM in response to Luke Sharrett1

why does Griffin even make the cable? Will this work on a powerbook? Or is it just to plug into the iMic?

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Answer 8

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jan 3, 2006 5:14 PM in response to Luke Sharrett1

The cable will plug into the iMic (It'll also plug into a PowerBook, but generally won't work very well without a preamp)

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Answer 9

Jan 4, 2006 7:00 AM in response to HangTime

Their own description certainly makes it sound like the cable is all you need as long as you have an audio input, and don't mention the iMic unless your Mac doesn't have an audio in. And oddly, the iMic description doesn't even mention the word pre amp in it at all. It's like they hope you buy the cable, and when you find it won't work by itself, then you'll just come running back to get the iMic, too. How many times have we heard folks here that this has happened to?

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Answer 10

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jan 4, 2006 10:03 AM in response to Scott Laughlin-Richard

How many times have we heard folks here that this has happened to?

Enough. It rather ticks me off that they market it as they do. I've also lost count of how many times after answering this question the poster replies "But Griffin says it will". I personally don't feel Griffin is being honest in their marketing.

The cable itself may work in the current iMacs, as we've heard from some folks that the line-in of these models does have a pre-amp, but since I've never gotten aroudn to testing it, I wouldn't even suggest that (some day I'll drag a guitar up here and either find or make a quickie cable to try it straight into the iMac).

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Answer 11

Jan 6, 2006 6:24 AM in response to HangTime

I suppose it'd be great to be able to just plug right in. But I recall from my old days using a mixer that the little 1/8 inch audio input sure seemed delicate. I guess I am just used to a nice solid 1/4 jack. The weight of a decent guitar cable is enough to pull down on the little jack, so you pretty much have to secure it somehow to take the weight off of the connection.

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Answer 12

G.Reed

Level 1

0 points

Feb 3, 2006 11:09 AM in response to Luke Sharrett1

I agree that this is BS. I bought the Griffin Guitar cable and am having the same problem with my PowerBook not recognizing it. Unfortunately, the packaging went out with the trash this morning or it would be going back

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Answer 13

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Feb 3, 2006 12:10 PM in response to G.Reed

The PowerBook doesn't "recognize" an analogue cable plugged in, you have to tell the PowerBook to use the Line-In.

http://thehangtime.com/gb/gbfaq2.html#recordlinein

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Answer 14

G.Reed

Level 1

0 points

Feb 3, 2006 2:08 PM in response to HangTime

How do I tell it to recognize the line-in? The directions I got were to go to the preferences and use the tab for line-in but it didn't recognize it the way I saw it recognize the imic on another powerbook.

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Answer 15

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Feb 3, 2006 5:36 PM in response to G.Reed

Hard to guess, I have no idea what yo did or what you saw. The instructions in the link above should be all you need to do.

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