Mini Disc To G5; Di To G5 Options

[mpnow]

Two related questions;

1) I have sketches of rough songs I recorded with the aid of a tiny little stereo microphone on a sony minidisc player. I would like to put them onto the hard drive of my G5. How do I do this?

2) I have been trying to start recording these sketches straight onto the mac (into Garageband) using exactly the same little microphone that I used to record onto the sony mini disc, but without any success. I do not understand why not.

I have checked that
(a) the mike still works by using it on the mini disk player again five minutes ago;
(b) in my 'system preferences' I have made sure that the 'input' is on 'audio line-in', that the volume control is up as high as it will go (though it seems to refuse to stay there and become the default volume setting);
© that the tiny little jack of the mike is plugged into the audio input jack on the back of the G5; and
(d) in Garageband, the new track is a 'real instrument' (voice).

Do not see what else I can do (I have not yet tried plugging the mike into the headphones socket on the front as I do not want to damage anything). Anyone any suggestions that will do the trick with the tools I have before me?

[ullanta]

Via the audio input... unless your MD has an optical output, which consumer devices don't (due to copyright issues). On most MDs, the "Line Output" is the same as the headphone output, with the volume at maximum.

Remember, the line input on the mac wants a much higher level than a mic will put out... does the G5 have a mic input? I have a G5, and would check, except the way it's jammed into my setup that's a major pain. However, the level of the "audio line input" (in speech prefs, anyway) can be adjusted... so it may do something reasonable. Try the battery-powered mic and see what you get... or better yet, get an MBox!