Microphone App For Mac

In Mojave, the app restrictions panel includes a pair of new toggles for the built-in FaceTime camera and your Mac’s microphone. Without permission to use the camera or microphone, an app cannot capture video or record audio—not even silently nor in the background. Connect an external microphone. If you'd like to use an external microphone, connect it to your Mac via a USB port, an audio line-in port, or Bluetooth. Most Macs, including all laptops, have a built-in microphone, but an external microphone typically affords better sound quality.

If you want to record music or spoken word on your Mac, you’ll want a high-quality mic. You can get a microphone in dozens of styles. The most popular are headset mics (often called “gaming headsets”), USB microphones, and standard XLR microphones that connect through a digital pre-amplifier. In this tutorial, we will show you how you can set up an external microphone on macOS.

Connect the microphone Depending on the type of microphone you have, it will connect to your Mac in different ways. Regardless, all connections lead to the same place: the USB port. The easiest type of microphone to connect to a computer is a USB mic.

You simply plug the mic’s USB cable into any open USB port. These mics have a small pre-amplifier chip built into their chassis, allowing them to take in audio and output a digital signal. Headset microphones that are compatible with macOS will connect over USB or the headphone jack. Either way, it’s a plug-and-play operation. There should be no configuration required to get the microphone to pick up audio. Just make sure you select the microphone as your input (see below) before using it.

The more standard microphone connector is called XLR. This three-pin circular connector takes an XLR cable. Observant users will notice that computers do not have XLR ports. That’s what you need a USB pre-amplifier for. The pre-amplifier, or “preamp,” is an outboard USB device that can accept an XLR connection. It also powers the microphone, if the microphone uses “phantom power,” and converts the mic’s analog signal to digital.

Preamps, also known as audio interfaces, can range widely in price and quality. The Focusrite Scarlett line is popular, inexpensive, and effective. How to do a euro sign on a mac for google docs. Connect the preamp to your Mac through the USB port. Typically, the device will connect with a “printer style” USB 2.0 Type B connector. Plug that into your preamp, then plug the other end of the cable into your Mac.

Some audio interfaces also connect via Thunderbolt. These interfaces function no differently from the USB-style audio interfaces. They just use a different connection protocol and connector style. Configuring the audio interface Once you have all your devices connected and turned on, it’s time to configure the audio interface. While Windows requires drivers for audio interfaces, macOS typically does not require a driver.