Today while I was doing some work I had the most recent Macbreak Weekly podcast going in the background. For the second time in the last few weeks one of the hosts via Skype was sounding an awful lot like a Cylon. It turns out the problem was the USB port on their Macbook Pro’s, specifically they were plugging their microphones into the one on the right side.

*Pauses*

*Scratches head*

The deal, it turns out, is that the USB port on the right hand side is connected to an internal hub that runs all the other devices like the keyboard. What this means is that there isn’t as much power to go around and it causes power hungry things like a microphone to behave oddly. The one on the left hand side however is all by itself so with it everything works great.

I find this interesting because the very same thing happened to us when we were recording some audio here. At the time we thought my MBP USB port was ok but that Jeff’s was broken because mine would work while his wouldn’t. Our theory was supported by the fact moving his connection to the left allowed it to work.

(That’s the standard by which to measure broken by the way, when one works and another does not.)

So that’s the scouting report for today, if you are having USB problems on a Macbook Pro try having it pitch left handed.

So I’ve been tinkering around with some voice and video recording lately and have come to a conclusion:

The built-in microphone on a Macbook Pro is pitiful best described as barely adequate.

Knowing how to complain to the right people, I told my sad tale of audio woe to Rick last week. Yesterday he swung by with a bag from the Apple store that looks suspiciously like the size and shape of the iPhone box. Barely had I got out, “Oh-geez-no-seriously-you-shouldn’t-have-but-I’m-glad-you-did-I-promise-to-take-real-good-care-of-it-and-not-use-too-many-minutes-on-personal-calls” that he pulled a box for a Blue Snowball.

Here it is sitting on my desk:

With the addition of this guy, playing around with GarageBand has just been barrels of fun. Plus it’s a great conversation starter when people come by.

“What is that thing?”

“That’s like retro and stuff.”

“That’s really cool looking.”

“Blue Snowball? Isn’t that the name of a Furby or a Gremlin or a My Little Pony or something?”

Little kid enchanted horse joking aside it is a fantastic microphone so far. I’m even seriously considering commandeering an empty demo room we have here and turning it into a full recording studio. Now if I only I could get a record deal or a morning drive-time talk radio show…