Audio in Port with Mic - Not Loud

[AcesHigh87]

I need to do some voice-over work on my 2011 iMac so I rented a microphone, XLR cable and adapter from my school’s media pool. The people there assured me it could do the job so I trusted them. When I get it home and plug it into my iMac’s Audio In port, however, I find that the recording has barely any volume even when the input slider is set to max (any lower and it picks up nothing)

Is there something I’m doing wrong here? I’ve read online that you need a powered mic, not sure if this is one or not, but I imagine it is since I can pick up SOME audio. Then again I can’t seem to find even any batteries with the mic (or anywhere to put them) so who knows.

Any thoughts?

 

[macbookfan]

the audio in port is only for line level audio. a microphone needs phantom power to work aka mic jack. not found on the iMac by default. you need some kind of powered input usb mic adapters can be found at your local best buy ect.

 

[AcesHigh87]

If that’s he case it’s not worth it just for a class project, we’ll just have to record off of my TurtleBeach Headset.

Kinda odd that apple won’t put a mic port on their computers though.