>Joe Lewis Wilkins wrote:
>
>> Rick Brown wrote:
>>
>> > I would like to transfer some pre-recorded sounds from cassette tape to
>> > my Mac's hard drive.  I would imagine this would involve some kind of
>> > special patch cord into the Mac's microphone input.  Has anyone had any
>> > experience doing this?
>>
>> Sure have. About 300 Hymns and Melodies. Just connect the cassette's
>>"ear" to
>> the Mac's "mike".
>
>Thanks for the quick reply.  Does this mean that I can just use a male-to-male
>stereo miniplug on both ends, without any attenuation?  This surprises me,
>because I thought the cassette's stereo headphone output would be an amplified
>signal, so I was kind of afraid to plug it directly into the mike's input,
>which
>I assumed would expect an unamplified signal.  Is it necessary to set the
>cassette's ouptut volume low when doing this?
>
>Thanks again,
>- Rick

Actually - this depends on the mac that you have. There are a number of
different ways Apple has set up the hardware.

To tell what will work (on most relatively recent machines): compare the
Apple mic 1/8 jack with a standard 1/8 jack. You will probably note that
the apple mic jack is a bit longer. This is used as a switch to indicate
than the input is from a mic (and to pull power from the port!). If you
used the long jack with "headphone" input you might do some damage!. Dont
cut up an old apple mic and make the cable yourself yourself. These macs
dont like "standard" tape recorder mics.

The shorter standard plug sets the input to line level input. You should
not have any problems as this is very close to the power required to drive
small headphones, and thus what the tape recorder is putting out.

Older macs have used different systems - but as far as I know, the quick
check of the mic plug that came with a machine works as an indicator that
what I have said above will hold. If you have an older machine the expected
input is standard mic input, and the simple patch method will not work too
well.

BTW - This info was all gained by experimentation, but I have used the mic
input as an analog to digital data recorder and pulled the power for the
external device from the mac itself by using the longer plug. It's proved
to be a really neat solution!.

Cheers

David