Question / Help Use 3.5mm wired earbud/mic combo for Audio Input & Monitoring

[daveblinder]

Hi - Is it possible to use a single earbud w/ attached microphone through my iMac for both monitoring and recording an OBS Session? If so, what would the settings look like?

Or does OBS require a designated Mic on the 3.5mm line-in?

Reason for asking - I use basic earbuds w/ mic on my Zoom calls and I enjoy the quality and lack of feedbuck / background noise.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Narcogen]

Yes. Just use the built-in microphone as your input source for OBS, and built-in Output as your monitoring device in settings > audio. When the headset is plugged into your Mac, it should use it.

 

[daveblinder]

Yes. Just use the built-in microphone as your input source for OBS, and built-in Output as your monitoring device in settings > audio. When the headset is plugged into your Mac, it should use it.

Does not seem to be the case during monitoring, I only seem to be getting audio from iMac's built-in microphone which picks up too much fan noise. My generic webcam is also running to close to the microphone. I just found an old 3.5mm cheap plastic microphone from an old PC which I also can't figure out how to monitor yet.

So many options and nothing is working for me!

 

[daveblinder]

I was able to solve some of my own mystery via YouTube.

Why Doesn't My Headset Mic Work & How to Fix it (3.5mm audio cable)

So the microphone on your 3.5mm wired headset isn't working when you plug it into your computers headphone jack? The sound comes through the headphones just ...

www.youtube.com

I had a 3.5mm male to female extension cable hooked up to my iMac so that I could easily change from connecting a headset to my external speakers. The 3.5mm extender cable was 3 ring and not 4 ring, hence not capable of delivering mic capabilities.

My next problem is figuring out how to get the 3.5mm external Mic to work through the Audio-In jack as backup (late 2012 iMac).

 

[Ronald Cz]

Best to monitor with a third party device outside of OBS.

 

[daveblinder]

I tested my cheap 3.5mm mic on an external recorder and it does work. I am not getting anything through OBS or Settings -> Sound. I selected audio-in on my 2012 iMac and I do have the separate input for audio-in next to the headphone jack. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot?

Thanks!