For more than six months now we have been making instructions for you in video format (subscribe). I do the editing and voice acting, sometimes Nikita and Mikk help with filming, especially in the project with Alisa.
Since my “studio” is as mobile as possible, my voice recorded whatever was needed. First there was the iPhone, with the transition to Premiere Pro I started speaking directly through the microphones of the MacBook. Let me remind you that I am using a 2021 firmware with a 16-inch screen based on the M1 Pro base.
When the model came out, I paid 255,000 rubles for it, now this one costs 175,000 rubles. In general, it’s still decently.
The sound was recorded normally. With “auto-tune”, or, more precisely, with quick voice processing lessons, it sounded even impressive. But it didn’t reach the quality that I got from my friend’s regular buttonhole a couple of months ago.
I decided that since we are already seriously doing roller skates here, it’s time to tighten up the hardware. It turned out that going to the store and taking anything would be useless.
The Mac just won’t work, and it’s not the microphone.
I bought the simplest buttonhole. MacBook refused to see it
Pay attention to the plug. Two stripes ruined everything
I wanted to sort out the purchase quickly, but it turned out that ordinary electronics stores don’t really stock lavaliers.
I went around about six times, and eventually came across a network that offers basic Godox models like LMS 12A and LMS-60G or Boya BY-M1. There are reviews in Russian about them, and in direct comparison.
It took me a long time to choose because I first tried to figure it out theoretically – I don’t recommend doing that, it’s better to listen right away if the consultants allow it.
As a result, Godox sounded cleaner in reviews and settled on the simple LMS 12A model. Absolutely basic, cost 1400 rubles. I didn’t expect much, but it turned out that I was overly optimistic here too. The microphone didn’t work.
macOS mistook the microphone for headphones due to the special 3.5mm port in the MacBook Pro
There is no microphone at the “input”, but at the output the Mac sees them as headphones
I came to the store, of course, without a laptop. Even at the purchasing stage, I was looking for a model with a USB-C output, but there wasn’t one, so I took one with a “male” port on a mini-jack. The consultant saw that I had an iPhone, so he offered to buy an additional adapter, and I said “no, thanks, I’m recording on a Mac.”
At the checkout, just in case, we checked the functionality on the cheapest laptop with Windows using the built-in tools. Paid and left.
I return home, in anticipation I grab my laptop, launch Premiere Pro, connect it and… nothing.
This time it made no sense to blame the Adobe program, because for all its endless glitches in modules it works stably with computer hardware.
I came to this conclusion when the system sound settings in the “input” tab did not recognize anything, but the “output” tab confidently called the microphone headphones. I went to investigate and realized that the problem was ironclad, on the Mac side, and the engineers had not been taught this scenario. It can’t be fixed with software. You will have to buy an adapter or change it to a microphone compatible with a computer.
And this is what actually happened.
All MacBooks are compatible with only one type of microphone plug. The “problem” has been going on since the first iPhones
Like this (three stripes)
The problem turned out to be a basic thing that not everyone knows.
Analog plugs for 3.5 mm jack are divided into at least four types: TR, TRS, TRRS, TRRRS. They differ in the number of metal contacts separated by plastic rims.
Letters TRS mean the following:
Tір – tip
Ring – ring,
Sleeve – sleeve.
There is always a T tip and an S sleeve, but there may not be rings, or there may be three at once. Depending on their number, the plugs can transmit different types of data.
The sleeve is used as a grounding so that the current supplied through other contacts has something for the receiving side to compare with.
Schematically it looks like this:
As you can see from the diagram, the TS plug can record mono audio, since the T tip is used for voice recording, and the S sleeve is for grounding. At the same time, TRS supports stereo recording, as there are separate contacts for left and right inputs.
Microphones are mainly sold with two types of input: TRS and TRRS. Both record in stereo.
The only difference is that TRS plugs are only compatible with jacks that are designed exclusively for connecting headphones. They put them in cells.
But TRRS plugs, due to one new contact, are compatible with those sockets that work both for recording through a microphone and for output to headphones. These are the sockets that are installed in laptops and smartphones.
The plugs with two stripes in headphones without a microphone and in a microphone are the same. Both MacBooks are recognized as headphones
My first microphone, the Godox LMS 12A, had a TRS plug and was basically only compatible with cameras.
And the reason why the cheap Windows laptop recognized it, I suppose, was that its jack was not able to output stereo sound to headphones, and therefore three contacts were enough for it to mistake one of them for a microphone.
I couldn’t find exact technical information, but I also assume that in the MacBook Pro (and in all the latest Apple computers) the headphone jack is seen by the microphone only if the plug is divided into 4 parts, that is, if it is in TRRS format.
Headphones with a microphone have one more connector in the plug (TRRS plug) than headphones without a microphone (TRS plug)
If you insert a TRS plug into a MacBook, it recognizes the first two signals as a stereo headphone signal. This is why, I think, in the macOS settings the first microphone was displayed in the “output” column, but not in the “input” column.
This situation brought up a story from memory. I once bought cheap headphones with a microphone, which also only had three contacts separated by two rings. Now it’s clear that they sold me mono headphones with a microphone, but then I was indignant at why my iPhone 5S didn’t record the voice from the microphone.
It turned out that even then mobile phones were equipped with jacks that would support stereo headphones with a microphone, and my headset had mono sound + microphone. The smartphone read the first two pins as stereo audio and was unable to accept the microphone signal on the second pin as “input”.
And still continued to record on the built-in MacBook Pro
The new microphone with four connectors (three stripes) worked, but the recording quality of the Godox LMS-60G turned out to be worse than the built-in “studio” microphones of the MacBook Pro
As a result, I returned to the store, they knew about such problems, but for some reason the consultant did not warn me. I took a Godox LMS-60G as a replacement with an additional payment of thousands of rubles.
The microphone started working, I tried to record and edit my voice several times. The result was disappointing.
After the MacBook Pro, the sound of the external microphone seemed dry, without bass, and compressed. I could be wrong – the replacement was on the go, there was no time to delve into the equalizer for a long time.
But after three hours of playing with the same adjustments as in the track recorded on the MacBook Pro, I couldn’t bring the quality even close to similar. It’s as if I didn’t understand at all: the microphone seems to be external, but at the same volume it sounds worse.
I can’t say that I regret the purchase at all; in case of conversational filming, the device will definitely come in handy.
In the end, it turned out that in order to make voice recording better than in the MacBook Pro, budget lavaliers will no longer help, you need to look for more serious and expensive models. The main thing is that the model fits, that is, we make sure that there is a 3.5 mm input with three rings.
It’s a pity, this time the main principle of “it just works” in Apple computers… didn’t work for me.
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