classic II microphone, voice record

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classic II microphone, voice record

I got an Apple microphone for my Classic II like the one it came with originally. But I can't get it to record a sound.
When I bring up the Alert Sounds and try to add a new one and hit Record I get a bunch of hissing.
When I try to open the Voice Record application it says that the program can't be run on this Mac.
Is something broken or am I missing something?

Classic II, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Posted on May 14, 2006 11:19 AM

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Answer 1

May 14, 2006 2:42 PM in response to Dr Zaius

Dr Zaius,

"Is something broken or am I missing something? "

Probably neither. About a year ago a fellow in England asked the same question. I tore apart two mac audio ports and took pictures. Bottom line is that Apple changed jacks and the microphones do not interchange. One is longer than the other. (The pictures are on a different machine. I can post them later.)

Pull the plug out 1/8th of an inch and see if it works. Otherwise, the plug you have may need to go IN 1/8th of an inch farther than the plastic allows.

Here is the Apple reference with pictures and better explanations - they just give pictures of the plugs, no pictures of the inside of the socket :

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=15884

Good luck.

Jim

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Answer 2

Denis Eddy

Level 4

3,571 points

May 15, 2006 2:00 AM in response to Dr Zaius

Dr Zaius
The Classic II's microphone input is designed for an electret microphone with an output of 4mV PP. It is not designed for line-level input, so take care that apparent 'mismatch' of input jack and port is not intentional, so as to prevent overload of the audio input.

Edit: The link provided by Jim will elucidate.

Message was edited by: Denis Eddy

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Answer 3

Dr Zaius Author

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May 21, 2006 1:13 PM in response to Dr Zaius

thanks for your replies.
I definitely have a Mac omni-directional microphone, not the longer one.
I tried pulling it out a bit but still get nothing. Are you saying I should try shoving it in further? I could saw off some of the metal knob so that it'll go deeper. But that doesn't seem right...it seems this is the right mike for this mac, its not a plaintalk one for sure.
I got the mike off ebay, so maybe its broken? thoughts?

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Answer 4

May 22, 2006 6:58 AM in response to Dr Zaius

Dr. Z

No need to pull out the saw or pocket knife. After eliminating hardware problems as the suspect, time to shift to software ideas and posibilities. My computer is going on a field trip so more on that when the mini comes back!

Jim

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Answer 5

Dr Zaius Author

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May 22, 2006 1:48 PM in response to Dr Zaius

a couple of other things, especially since you mentioned software:
-when I open the sound control panel item and select Sound In it says There is no source for recording.
-when I click on this Voice Record program (the icon has a microphone) it says that this application can't run on this mac.
-as part of another project I installed Sound Manager 3.1

thanks in advance

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Answer 6

May 22, 2006 6:31 PM in response to Dr Zaius

What version of the Mac OS are you running on this mac?
Where does Sound Manager 3.1 normally come in?

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Answer 7

Dr Zaius Author

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May 23, 2006 5:53 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

OS version 7. I don't recall what dot-rev it is, I don't have it in front of me right now.
I downloaded the sound manager because I needed it to run MPEGDEC, an application that plays mp3s on 68K macs. MPEGDEC works, but the poor mac doesn't have enough horses to keep up so the tunes are choppy (that's a whole other thread we could talk about if you'd like: I bumped up the memory to 10Mb, played with the file size and bitrates, etc... but the program author does claim that you need something more than a 16mhz 68030 to get usable sound).

One thing: I haven't actually confirmed that the mic works. I got it off ebay, the seller says it works fine. Tonight I was going to plug it into a regular PC to see if that would work at all. If it doesn't, I'm not sure what that would even tell me.

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Answer 8

Dr Zaius Author

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May 24, 2006 11:05 AM in response to Dr Zaius

FYI I confirmed that the mic does indeed work. So either its a board issue or some software problem. Any ideas?

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Answer 9

Denis Eddy

Level 4

3,571 points

May 24, 2006 11:37 AM in response to Dr Zaius

Dr Zaius
The Sound Control Panel is giving the clear indication that there is a hardware problem. It cannot detect a suitable input.

1) There may be no input.
2) The attached device may not be giving a signal.
3) The port may not be passing on a signal.
4) The audio circuitry may have failed.
5) The signal may be unsuitable.

You seem to have ruled out 1), 2), and perhaps 5). Yours would not be the first report of a non-functional sound port in an old Mac in these Discussions. It is at least worth ruling out.

Apple IIe; 15 x 68K; 7 x PPC; 5 x G3 System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x

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Answer 10

Dr Zaius Author

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May 25, 2006 5:14 AM in response to Denis Eddy

Thanks. I think you're right. I'm going to mark this as solved.

Thanks a lot for all the detective work.

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Answer 11

Dr Zaius Author

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Jun 5, 2006 5:57 AM in response to Dr Zaius

I got another motherboard and I still get the symptoms I've described. Here's an update:
-new motherboard
-I tested the mic on a WINTEL PC and it works
-the mic is the round one, the correct one for the Mac Classic II
-when I go into the control panel sounds and select the Alert Sounds, then try to add a new one I get static
-also in the sound control panel when I click on input devices the list table is empty, like it cannot detect the mic
-I found this icon called Voice Record. When I try to run that it says it cannot be run on this Mac
-finally, I installed Sound Manager 3.1 as part of a different project. COuld that have disrupted something?

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Answer 12

Jun 5, 2006 6:39 AM in response to Dr Zaius

It seems like you have now ruled out microphone failure and all 5 possibilities on Denis's list above.

That leaves software quirks. Consider upgrading to the System which first introduced sound Manager 3.1. This article has some interesting issues in it, and notes that sound manager was part of the System Software at System 7.5:

15872- Sound Manager: Digitizing, Down-Sampling, and Static

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