MacBook Pro audio input

[MrGongGong]

Perhaps your hearing is better than mine - quite possibly, but I think I can detect if things are really bad. When you say that your MacBook has shockingly poor audio, what do you mean? That it doesn't play the bottom 2 bits of a 24 bit recording or that it is obviously distorted, and/or has hiss or other problems?

I wouldn't mind if you can hear problems that I can't - and obviously if someone is to produce audio material for others it makes sense to avoid problems, even if only some of the intended listeners will hear them. I often hear low frequency noises which I suspect others can't, and I wonder at some of the CD remasters which manage to faithfully reproduce the low frequency hum and rumble from the studio or concert performance. I can't honestly say that I can usually hear interference from fluorescent lights, but I am sure that it is often there. Indeed, in the quiet periods - empty hall - before I did recordings the other day, I could definitely hear noise from overhead lights, though this was effectively masked by audience noise and the performnces, and it may not have had any major impact on the recordings. I could run a spectral test on the data to check.

PS: You haven't wrecked your hearing have you, could that be part of the problem? I had some problems recently, but they did clear up largely, eventually. Sometimes hearing problems can produce distortion, which is internal (to the body) rather than external.

The quality of the audio output (hiss, clarity, frequency response etc) with the onboard sound is massively inferior to what I get with an external soundcard. I don't know of many musicians who would use the onboard sound for anything other than checking whether there is sound or not.
The high pitched sound of fluorescent lights is my benchmark... I'm 52 and I still find it annoying so all ok up there I think

I'm currently plugged into the output of a macbook pro (with a reasonably good quality pair of Sony Headphones) when I listen to a recording I made last month in Oslo with a pair of Schoeps microphones into a Sound Devices recorder I hear hiss, small distortions and a lack of clarity in the lower end. When I listen to the same recording, with the same headphones via a fairly cheap (can't afford the RME interface) USB audio interface the whole thing is much much cleaner and accurate.

[Dave2002]

OK - you are (lucky for you) somewhat younger, which probably gives you an advantage. I wish you luck and hope that things stay that way. I have a slightly younger friend who has become very deaf over the last few years. It seemed to come on fairly rapidly, and now he wears hearing aids. I'm hoping to avoid those - maybe forever.

Problems I get are with wax, and perhaps also blocked eustachian tubes. Wax can be a major problem, though dealing with it is also difficult. My mother also had problems with wax, and once (she was over 80 at the time) she complained about not being able to hear anything. I took her to the doctor who said he thought it was about time she had hearing aids, but also suggested clearing the wax out. I flooded her ears for days with olive oil, and the difference once she had her ears cleaned out was remarkable. She was most indignant that anyone had suggested she needed any form of electical/electronic assitance. Obviosly some people do need that, and we had a friend once who was very deaf. I could not believe how high up I had to turn a pair of headphones for her to hear any music which I think she claimed she liked. I hope I didn't damage her hearing further, but I don't think so - she just couldnt hear very well at all. I reckon her hearing was 30-40 dB down over most of us.

At the high end my hearing improved a few years ago, after I had an operation to remove nasal polyps. I was really surprised at that, but the sound of keys jangling became much more tinkly, and not simply a dull sort of clanking.

However, re wax in the ears, I believe (up to a point) it's best to leave alone, as within reason the body can cope and clear up problems by itself - though not always. Blocked eustachian tubes can also give similar effects, and lead to a significant loss in one or both ears - but with luck and care this can be overcome. If it's due to infection or inflammation this can be managed.

I'm currently listeningi to an old RCA recording of Dvorak's 8th symphony - from over 50 years ago - Munch and the Boston SO. Now that contains what I call distortion - though it's quite nice as a performance and it's not horribly distorted throughout. Probably got intermodulation distortion on massed strings in places, though.

[Dave2002]

I'm getting closer to understanding this now. I found this for the spec of the 2015 MacBook Pro 13 inch model:

Stereo speakers
Dual microphones
3.5 mm headphone jack
Support for Apple iPhone headset with
remote and microphone
Support for audio line out (digital/analog)

This could also be the same spec. for the model I have, though mine dates from 2013. I did indeed make recordings from tapes - there is no doubt about that. I thought that I had done it through the jack port. However, on reflection I think the the tapes were mono, so if I did indeed do things that way, the recordings would be mono. If they were stereo, we never listened to them that way, so would not have noticed.

Thinking about the technology, I believe that what Apple were supporting in 2013 was not a general microphone input, but rather a headset with mono mic. input/output. That would be feasible using a 3 ring/4 segment jack plug. I have been wondering whether such a jack could in fact support stereo, but to do that it would require some internal reconfiguring in the computer - and probably Apple didn't do that - so the view that the input is mono only is most probably correct.

It also seems that the last generation of MacBook Pros date from early 2015, and that new versions may be announced soon. As Apple has removed the 3.5 mm jack from the latest iPhones (arguably a bad thing, IMO), they might feel that there's no point in keeping that on the newest models when they emerge, perhaps in the next few weeks.

I probably won't spend too much more time on this now, though if I can verify the mono input feature cheaply, I may try that. However, what I really want is stereo input (at least). Maybe Apple feel that recording multi track music is so specialist that users will use other devices or add ons to get it done. The iPad Pro has a similar 3.5 mm jack at present, and I don't know if that behaves in exactly the same way as on the last generation MacBook Pros.

I perhaps shouldn't comment too much on the way Apple sees the market for these things going, but I think trying to shift "everyone" away from "proper computers" to tablets, which they and Microsoft are trying, is not going to work for everyone, and in particular for people with specialist needs. Yesterday I spoke to someone about my iPad Pro tablet, which she liked a lot, and some of her needs are similar to mine. However, it is an expensive thing to buy if one simply wants a computer, and there are things it won't do which are simpler on either a desktop or laptop computer. I would recommend a large iPad Pro for people who work with documents a lot, and for whom portabiliy and compactness aren't overriding concerens, and who don't worry about the things it won't do that can be done on a laptop, and can afford it. It is the wrong tool for some other applications, just as smaller tablets are the wrong tools for serioius document handling, and in the limit desktop computers with large displays are still probably the way forward for users who have very demanding requirements, but they won't work well for mobile users. Maybe in ten years things will be different.

[Dave2002]

As I have been beginning to suspect, iOS is also a big can of worms - http://familyoralhistory.us/news/vie..._ipad_hardware Getting audio into an iOS device.

That article doesn't go up as far as the iPad Pro models, though.

[MrGongGong]

However, what I really want is stereo input (at least). Maybe Apple feel that recording multi track music is so specialist that users will use other devices or add ons to get it done.

I think this is probably the case
Most people don't do recording in this way, they might compile files and send them to different devices etc
Apple devices are notoriously difficult to use in terms of simple audio file transfer and handling IF you use their own software. ITunes being one of the worst examples.

I would get a basic external USB soundcard though even if you only use it for input occasionally you are likely to hear a big improvement in audio quality on playback compared to the onboard sound.

It is likely that you can bodge something to work with the input as I would be fairly sure that this will work with a headset for VOIP calls etc and you could isolate the mic input channel and use that in Mono as you suggest. However, I wouldn't think you will get much in terms of quality from the fizzy input circuit.