Why doesn't my external microphone work?

Yesterday I opened up Garage Band to do a recording. I have been using my Blue SnowBall microphone, and in the past, even as recently as the day before, Garage Band always recognized that mic by name, and would ask me if I wanted to use it. Now the only option it gives me is “USB Advanced Audio Device”. Obviously an automatic update had changed the way it handled recognition of my microphone. As I selected this option, I found that wasn’t the only change that occurred. The instant I made the selection all audio functions within Garage Band immediately failed, not just recording, but playing audio as well. Once I reverted back to “built in microphone” then my audio functions returned. So my Blu Snowball is no longer compatable with Garage Band. Coincidently, seconds later Garage Band advised me of the newest version of Garage Band, and asked me if I would like to update. I have seen that question before, and the answer is no. I have had too many problems before with updating. Most recently I updated to Yosemite OS X and all my projects in i-Movie became corrupted. I also read on the net that the new Garage Band frequently causes older Macs to crash. So how do I return functionality to my microphone? If it worked before it should work now. Functions should not be taken away from me. I should not be forced into updates that bring me more headaches.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Jan 19, 2015 7:49 PM

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1 reply

Jan 23, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Photo Al

Today I found that when I select "USB Advanced Audio Device" for my "input source" that if I go to garage band "preferences" and check my "audio output" it has also been automatically changed to "USB Advanced Audio Device". I'm not sure what kind devices this update was designed to accomodate , but my device is nothing more than a microphone, thence the reason I have no sound. This will happen every time I turn on or plug in the microphone, but I can still use the microphone by manually going into preferences and changing the audio output to either "system setting" or "built-in output" every time I connect my external microphone. I thought I checked all my settings and preferences before when I was trying to figure out why I had no sound, but either I missed it before or there has been another update.

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Why doesn't my external microphone work?

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