Sunday, March 06, 2011

Podcasting with two USB Mic's in Garageband PICS -v2.0

After getting a few requests I have decided to update my old post to current info for OSX 10.6.4 and Garageband 3.0.5. Yes, I know that there is a new version of iLife'11 available but I have not had the need to purchase, but once I do I will update my post to v3.0. Also, new is a notes feature at the end of the post for strange things that I have come across.

This following post is an updated version of my original: Podcasting with two USB Mic's in Garageband PICS

So after searching the internet and apple forums I found some work arounds, but finally found a way that works great and is easy to setup using the utilities provided by my Mac.

So here is how I found out how to do it:

Step 1. Plug both of your USB mics into your Mac

Step 2. Open up the "Audio MIDI Setup" utility Applications -> Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup



Step 3. In the bottom left of the "Audio MIDI Setup" window click on the "+" button to add a new aggregate device.

Step 4.
Locate your two USB mics and check in the "use" column. You can now double click on the new device "Aggregate Device" and change the name. I changed mine to "Dual Blue Snowball Mics" so that I could easily identify it later on.

Step 5.
Verify that your newly created aggregate device shows up in your audio settings. You can find it under System Preferences -> Sound -> Inputs



Step 6. Open your Garageband podcast project. You now want to set your Garageband Preferences to take the input from your new aggregate device. Garageband -> Preferences -> Audio/MIDI -> Audio Input and find your device for mine I added Dual Blue Snowball.



Step 7. Now to add the input to the podcast poject. For this I added two new tracks using the Podcasting -> No effects setting (you can set this by using the track info on the right hand side after clicking on the track).



NOTE: Don't forget to change the "input" on the track info to "Channel 1 & 2 (stereo)" for one of the tracks and "Channel 3 & 4 (stereo)" for the second track. Otherwise Garageband won't pick up both mic inputs.





You should now be able to test either mic and verify that they are input and being recorded by Gargageband.

Good luck and happy podcasting.

The dude abides.


NOTES:

- Make sure you are connecting your USB mics directly into the laptop or desktop computer. If you use a USB hub you may have some interference or it may not pickup the mic correctly.

Updated: 3-6-11

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I followed you instuciton and it work for about 2-12 minutes. After that the sound went goofy. This has happen in GarageBand and Reaper. We are using 2 Blue Snowball USB mics and an iMac running SnowLepard. I went to the "Genius" Bar and the had no clue. Help!

Rob @ Rob Moses Photography Have'n Good Times! said...

Hey Anonymous, did you ever figure out what the problem was? I am having the same problem. At around 7:40 the sound goes all wonky.

Thanks, Rob

James Chagetas said...

An answer to this question would save my life. Is there anyone who knows?

The Minister of Information said...

I have been having a similar problem and pulling out my hair trying to solve it. I finally just downloaded this program WireTap Anywhere. It's kind of expensive ($125), but at least after a few tests everything is running smooth for me. It seems like it just creates a "better" aggravated device using the two mics.