Category: Podcasting

Fixing Static/Noise Problem with Griffin iMic

Published on by Andy Affleck

audiomidi.pngI have been having a lot of trouble lately with noise on my audio in on my 15″ 1.25GHz PowerBook. I use a Griffin iMic for audio-in as the built-in line-in port has never worked and I could never part with my laptop long enough to get it fixed (though, I really should). I figured out that I could switch to the right USB port from the left and eliminate the problem but today both ports began showing the problem. So, I did some googling and found this post on Accelerate Your Mac:
News Archive for March 8th, 2004 in which it was suggested I check out Apple’s Audio/MIDI Setup utility. I did and, sure enough, the USB port had gotten itself set to 1ch-16bit instead of 2ch-16bit. Changing it back fixed the problem.

UPDATE: the culprit was Audacity. When I ran it, I changed some setting so that iMic was mono instead of stereo. This changed the port the iMic was plugged into to 1ch-8bit and left it like that forever more. Setting Audacity to stereo fixes the problem. Of course, my headset has only the one microphone so setting it to mono was a fairly obvious (to me, at least) choice. Now I know better. I generally record in stereo and mix down afterwards anyway.

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Mur got interviewed for a podcasting article!

Published on by Andy Affleck

The News & Observer (North Carolina):

Mur Lafferty (and let’s get this out of the way right now — her actual name is Mary) scoffs at the idea that she’s a podcasting pioneer. Why, hundreds of people were doing podcasts before she launched hers. Maybe even a thousand. Pioneer? Pshaw.

Modesty is an endearing trait, and precision in language is appreciated. That said, Lafferty needs to get comfortable with this description. She’s a podcaster at a moment when most of the world has yet to even hear the term. The overwhelming majority of us are still at the point where Lafferty was on Oct. 28, when she uttered these words during a talk with a friend:

‘What’s a podcast? I have no idea what you’re talking about.'”

Actually, it was October 26 and the conversation went something like this:

Me: I guess…but lately I’m obsessed with podcasting… I get all kinds of weird stuff automagically put onto my ‘pod and I’m just starting to see some NPR stuff…

Mur: Cool! And now you speak of somethingI know nothing about.

(I log everything. It’s a sickness, I know.)

It’s a great article and props to Mur for getting the attention she’s getting! She’s got a great podcast well worth checking out.

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