I've recently started learning about screencasting, which resulted in discovering some problems on my MacBook where the microphone on my headset wouldn't work.
This appears to be a common problem with MacBooks, I think it affects the complete range from the consumer white and black versions, right through to the Pro versions. Basically the MacBook has a headphone jack and line-in jack on the side, which should allow you to use any multimedia headset for screencasting, using Skype etc. I thought it was working for me until a good friend told me that my volume was really low on a recent Skype call.
I tried everything, making sure the line-in microphone was selected as default in System Preferences, adjusting the microphone volume upwards, opening the midi manager and selecting line-in as default and also increasing volume there, and none of it worked. Luckily I found out why and have been able to fix it.
You see the problem on the MacBook range of laptops is that the line-in jack is exactly that, a line-in jack, which means your microphone needs a preamp or it's own power supply to give enough signal for the Mac to hear what the microphone is broadcasting. Windows based machines don't suffer from this problem since they actually have a microphone jack on them. You can tell the difference by the icon next to the input jack. If it looks like a microphone, then you have a microphone jack, and then a standard headset with input and output jacks will work.
On the other hand if the icon shows two inwards facing triangles with a circle between them, then you have a line-in jack, and a standard headset is unlikely to work, or if it does, your volume is likely to be so low as to be unusable.
The solution is to buy a headset that uses USB.
I couldn't be bothered dealing with the Christmas shopping traffic to go to my local Mac shop, so ended up at Saturn in the suburbs. The range of headsets they have is pretty poor, and nothing that is dedicated to the Mac even though they sell MacBooks and iPods. I think they should seriously consider setting up a dedicated Mac counter but I digress.
I ended up buying (drumroll...) a Microsoft headset rather than one of those no name brands Saturn seem to like. For 30 euros I got a LifeChat LX-3000 which is a solid well made type headset with cup headphones and a much sturdier and longer boom for the microphone. Being a Mac user you might expect me to stay well away from MS products. On the software side I have no use fot their stuff but their hardware has always been top notch in my opinion, and best of all OS X instantly recognised the headset, loaded the correct driver and everything works great.
My very first screencast,
Uploading Themes on Ning, isn't very professional, I'd like to do a lot better, my voice sounds a bit flat and I want to add some titles and transitions for future episodes. It's funny, whan I do live public talks I've developed a great showvoice, but recording a screencast without getting audience feedback is much harder. Maybe I need to find some online tutorials on developing a 'radio voice'.
