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Your Macbook has an internal mic, but it isn’t that good. Off course you can buy those external USB mics from Amazon, but they are quite expensive as well. Turns out, you can use your iPhone’s mic as an audio input for your Mac. The trick here is simple. All you need is an app that transmits audio from your iPhone to your Mac and set up your Mac, to make it receive audio input. Let’s see how to do this.
Read: Best Audio Recording Software for Mac
You Will Need
- A free app – Microphone Live
- Apple’s Lightning to USB cable
- And of course, iPhone and MacBook.
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Step 1
Once you have downloaded the Microphone Live app on your iPhone, connect your iPhone and MacBook through the lightning to USB cable. Placing your iPhone on a tripod or hold it in your hand, to make the best use of the microphones placed at the bottom.
Step 2
Now, go to your Mac and open a new Finder window by pressing ‘cmd + N’. Click on ‘Applications’ under the head favorites, in the left navigation menu.
Step 3
Scroll down to find the ‘Utilities’ folder. You can also access the same in your Launchpad or even in the Spotlight search.
Step 4
Look for ‘Audio MIDI Setup’. This app is a macOS utility that manages audio and MIDI devices.
Step 4
Open the Audio MIDI Setup and look for your iPhone’s name on the left menu. Click on ‘Enable‘ right under your iPhone’s name. This allows your iPhone to appear as an audio input device on your MacBook.
Step 5
Now, go back to your iPhone and open Microphone lite app. You’ll see the input and output options at the bottom of the screen. Although initially, the app shows the input device as iPhone Bottom Mic. But in some devices, you’ll notice that as soon as you enable the device on your Mac, the audio input changes to Front iPhone Mic.
This is because your device has another microphone that you were probably not aware of. It is placed right on top along with the stereo speakers.
Step 6
On the bottom right of the app, you’ll see the output device menu. Tap on it once and select ‘Dock Connector’ if not already selected.
Step 7
Open System Preferences either through launchpad or Spotlight and look for Sounds.
Here you’ll see that iPhone is now available as an input device for your Mac. Select iPhone and you are good to go. You can check if the device is working right from this menu itself. As you speak the sound bar shows input.
Step 8
Similarly, if you use Audacity to record audio, you can now see iPhone in the input device drop-down menu.
Step 9
Now go back to your iPhone, open the microphone lite if it’s not already open and press the power button to activate iPhone mic.
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Step 10
And that’s it, hit the record button on Audacity and start recording audio on your Mac from your iPhone’s mic. You might have to do some noise removal and audio compression with Audacity, here is our step by step article on how to improve your voice over with Audacity
Recording Audio on Your MacBook
Although there are other ways to record audio on your iPhone and then transfer it to your MacBook, for better audio quality. In fact, you can even record audio on the native Voice Memo app which is common across your Apple devices and hence you can access it on your Mac as well. But then again there’s a hassle of importing the audio file into the editing software. Microphone Live and other similar apps let you record audio in apps like audacity in real-time. So make your choice and let me know your experience in the comments below.
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You can connect a microphone to your computer to record your voice, an instrument, or any other sound to an audio track in GarageBand. You can connect a microphone to an audio input port, USB port, or other port on your computer, or to an audio interface connected to your computer. You can also use your computer’s built-in microphone to record sound.
After you connect a microphone, you choose the input source for the track you want to record in, and optionally turn on monitoring. Monitoring lets you hear yourself play so that you can hear the part you want to record as well as the rest of the project.
Connect a microphone to your computer
Do one of the following:
If you’re using your computer’s built-in microphone, choose Built-in Microphone as the input source in GarageBand > Preferences > Audio > Devices.
Connect the microphone to your computer’s audio input port (if it has one), then choose Built-in Input as the track’s input source.
Connect a USB microphone to a USB port on your computer. Choose the USB microphone as the track’s input source.
Connect an audio interface to a USB or FireWire port, then connect a microphone to the audio interface for recording.
Connect an audio mixer or console to an audio interface connected to your computer.
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Set the input source for a microphone
Select the audio track.
Click the Smart Controls button to open the Smart Controls pane.
In the Recording Settings area, choose one of the following from the Input pop-up menu:
If you’re using your computer’s built-in microphone, choose Built-in Microphone.
If you’re using a microphone connected to your computer’s audio input port, choose Built-in Input.
If Built-in Input doesn’t appear in the menu, choose GarageBand > Preferences, click Audio/MIDI, and choose Built-in Input from the Audio Input pop-up menu.
If you’re using a microphone connected to a USB port, choose the microphone.
If you’re using a microphone connected to an audio interface, choose the channel number for the microphone.
If the audio interface channels don’t appear in the menu, choose GarageBand > Preferences, click Audio/MIDI, then choose the audio interface from the Audio Input pop-up menu.
Make sure the input format matches the microphone or instrument. Choose a mono input for monophonic instruments (with a single channel), and choose a stereo input for stereo instruments (with a pair of channels). To change the input format, click the Format button to the left of the Input menu.
Drag the Recording Level slider to change the input volume level for the sound source.
If the Recording Level slider is dimmed, you can’t change the input volume in GarageBand. In this case, use the device’s own volume control.
Turn on monitoring for a microphone
In the Recording Settings area, click the Monitoring button .
The Monitoring button lights orange to indicate that monitoring is turned on.
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To avoid unwanted feedback, you should usually turn off monitoring when you’re not playing or singing. Using headphones rather than speakers to listen to your projects can also help avoid feedback.