Connecting Two USB Mics to iBook (Samson C01U)

[caribiner23]

I have a feeling I'm a pioneer on this topic since I can find very little on the 'net about this. Hence this thread:

I am putting together a podcast where there will be two of us speaking, so I need two mics to be live at the same time. I like the idea of a condenser mic and the Samson C01U USB mic has been getting good reviews, so I decided to go that route. I intend on using either GarageBand or WireTapPro to record the program.

I already owned one Samson C01U and it works great. I bought a second Samson C01U and connected it to my iBook along with the first one. I went to Audio/MIDI setup and created an aggregated device with the two mics. Then I opened WireTapPro and used the aggregated device as input.

Both mics worked. So far so good.

Then I noticed the mic that was feeding the right channel started buzzing very badly. I went into the Aggregate Device Editor again and clicked the "Resample" button. The buzzing went away.

I also noticed that the applet that you can download from Samson stopped working as soon as two mics were connected. I guess it gets confused when it finds more than one device connected.

After some more testing, I realized that one channel recorded significantly louder than the other. And I could find nowhere to adjust the volume of each channel, even in the Aggregate Device Editor.

I killed WireTapPro and tried this with GarageBand. GarageBand's "Preferences" panel would not open for me at all while there were two mics connected. I'd click it and nothing would happen. If I removed one of the mics and restarted GarageBand, "Preferences" came up fine.

At this point, I stopped messing around with the iBook and plugged both mics into my XP machine and fired up Adobe Audition. After a couple minutes of playing around with it, both mics were recognized and it worked just fine.

My preference is to get this working on my iBook, since it's a more portable form factor.

I'll keep everyone posted on my progress, and if anyone has any comments or suggestions, you're welcome to share them here!

 

[caribiner23]

Just a quick update:

I spent the better part of last night (while watching the Sox-Astros game) trying over and over to get both mics working simultaneously on my iBook with zero success.

I'm still a bit blown away that this worked right out of the box on an XP machine, yet despite all the cajoling and tender words the Mac simply didn't work with this solution.

I've now hit the threshold where it's all about diminishing returns. I'd like to get this to work, but I really need to concentrate on the other aspects of getting my podcast up and running. And frankly, I have this thing called Real Life™ that takes up a lot of my time.

I've decided to go with a different solution involving a more traditional approach. In the meantime, there will be two perfectly-new Samson C01U USB mics up for sale on eBay later today (I would post them here, but I don't have a high enough post count).

Onward...

 

[macbodock]

Just a quick update:....{edit}......I'm still a bit blown away that this worked right out of the box on an XP machine, yet despite all the cajoling and tender words the Mac simply didn't work with this solution.

I've now hit the threshold where it's all about diminishing returns. I'd like to get this to work, but I really need to concentrate on the other aspects of getting my podcast up and running. And frankly, I have this thing called Real Life™ that takes up a lot of my time.

I've decided to go with a different solution involving a more traditional approach. In the meantime, there will be two perfectly-new Samson C01U USB mics up for sale on eBay later today (I would post them here, but I don't have a high enough post count).

Onward...

caribiner23,
Before you sell both of them on eBay, you might want to hang onto one of them. At this point not being able to use 2 USB microphone is a limit that will soon be solved by software. Only time will tell, heck you might want to keep both of them...Keep you eye on MacInTouch! They have a great Audio Section, as well as some info on the Samson C0U1. I wrote a review of the B.L.U.E. SnowBall(the "other" usb microphone) and it is in the Audio Section at MacIntouch. So think before you sell......

Warmest Regards,

 

[caribiner23]

Thanks for the info, macbodock.

Had I read the Macintouch review prior to buying the Samsons, I probably wouldn't have bought them. It's good to know of another resource out there, though.

The review on that site was pretty good, but my experience differed from what they said happened in theirs.

I would have hoped that Apple's "Aggregate Device" option would have worked with this, but clearly there's a conflict somewhere. Interestingly, I was able to aggregate a Samson C01U and a Griffin iMic without a problem-- it just wouldn't take two C01Us. If someone is working on a software solution for this, more power to them: this is a great product and would be even better if they jumped this hurdle.

I bought an M-Audio Mobile Pre and two standard mics and I was up and running in less than 5 minutes in the exact configuration I'd been shooting for all along.

Both Samson mics are on eBay now.

 

[macbodock]

Thanks for the info, macbodock..........edit........Both Samson mics are on eBay now.

caribiner23,
The USB Microphone is not for everyone. There are some limitations that will get easier to overcome. We just need some time.

Warmest Regards,