Terrible noise when using hosa usb guitar cable with garage band

3'scompany

3'scompany

New member
Hey all,

I recently got a new mac laptop, and for some reason they decided that a line in port and a line out port were no longer a good idea, though I am befuddled as to why they thought this.

Anyways, if I want to plug in headphones, my audio port is held hostage, which meant I had to buy a guitar usb cable. I got a cheaper Hosa cable, but when I plug it in to garage band, I get this terrible, constant hissing noise in the background and a god awful beeping noise to accompany it.

Has anyone else had similar problems or know what I might do to remedy this? I thought it might be the cable, but, unless it was defective from the beginning, I doubt that Hosa would knowingly release such a crappy product (though anything is possible). I'm thinking there is probably some setting on garage band that I am missing - possibly relating to the internal microphone, because I can hear my mouse clicks quite audibly through my headphones as all this is occurring.

Any suggestions?
 
Re: Terrible noise when using hosa usb guitar cable with garage band

The only real way to do this is to get an external audio interface (USB or FireWire) and run the guitar through that. Even if you could run into the stock "line in" port on the computer, it'd produce less-than-stellar results, to be sure.

The reason they ditched the line-in port, though, is that you can use the iPhone headphone + mic set to run in/out simultaneously, and those onboard soundcard inputs were really only meant for microphones in the first place.
 
Re: Terrible noise when using hosa usb guitar cable with garage band

Hmmm...

I can't say I'm surprised to hear this. Thanks for the info. Any suggestions as to a good, cheaper interface? Given I won't need phantom power for my guitar, does this mean I can get away with a cheaper unit?
 
Re: Terrible noise when using hosa usb guitar cable with garage band

Roland S-series samplers used to be plagued by similar noises BUT only if monitored through their own headphones sockets. The problem was because the headphone socket was too close to the LCD and one other noise inducing componenet (I forget which?).

I record into my MacBook using an external Firewire interface box. I also monitor through the interface rather than the computer's headphone socket.

EXPERIMENT
With your guitar connected via the computer's Line In socket and monitoring via its headphones socket, touch the trackpad. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
 
Re: Terrible noise when using hosa usb guitar cable with garage band

Funkfingers said:
EXPERIMENT
With your guitar connected via the computer's Line In socket and monitoring via its headphones socket, touch the trackpad. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Click to expand...

I don't have a separate line in and headphone socket any more on my new computer, unfortunately.

I think I'm just gonna have to get an interface. Cue the horns.
 
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