use of external mic vor voice over tool

[Bill Lee]

Unfortunately I too own a Griffin iMic, and a friend of mine has an iMic too. Both now lie unused, since we too had the same problem – unfixable low volume.
A couple of years ago I bought an M-Audio Firewire 410 to do the audio properly, and this has been used by me and my friend to do voice-over in FCP thereafter. I also own an Mbox2 Mini that works really well too.
Save your time – and give up on the iMic. Get something that works better – I haven’t looked recently what is cheap and good value – but we supply Mbox2 Minis to our students for this type of work. The down side is that you are paying for a copy of Pro Tools LE that you might not want if you can do all your audio work with Soundtrack Pro.

There are some other USB audio capture devices, but sorry I don’t have any experience with them.

I feel for you.

Bill Lee

[Michael Kammes]

I’m sure this has been tried, but have you experimented with Line / Mix switch on the unit?

Also, in system prefs of the Mac, there are gain faders for the incoming USB signal.

I have always used the Shure X2U for analog XLR to USB, when I don’t have analog I/O into the machine available.

https://www.shure.com/americas/products/accessories/microphone-accessories/problem-solvers/x2u-xlr-to-usb-signal-adapter

.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com

[Ron Pestes]

I have had the same problem with a Blue Snowball USB mic. It is unusable as well due to low volume. Stay away from it too.

Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
Sony EX-3
MacBook Pro

[Mark Suszko]

These may not be mic problems so much as apple setting errors in the prefs and systems panels. I’d also want to know if you’re plugging the USB in at the keyboard port, which may be handy but less advisable, or direct into the mac tower, and if the particular mic needs phantom power to run right, and if the iMic is set to line or mic. I’ve used a Griffin imic for a long time, goofing around with fun home projects without any of the problems you guys seem to be having. OTOH, I wouldn’t use the iMic for something serious for work because I want to use better mics with XLR connectors and my iMic only has a mini plug interface. You get what you pay for, if you’re lucky; generally not more than you pay for, certainly, and the A/D conversion of a $50-ish iMic is unlikely to be as good as a “real” broadcast quality product from MOTU or the like. You want better results you probably have to buy a better tool.