Is there a way to listen to the input sound on Mac OS X?

74

19

Is there any easy way to listen to the input on a Mac?

For example, assume I have a microphone hooked up to the input (i.e. line in) of my Mac, and I have headphones hooked up to the output of my Mac: is there any way that I can hear what I say in the microphone through the headphones?

This is very easy in Windows XP: simply go to the sound settings for recording devices, check "select" on the line in, and increase the volume – this makes it so you can hear what is said into the microphone.

It has to be in real time; a solution where you record the input and then playback the output later doesn't help.

Senseful

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 3 285

I know this is (years!) old, but you may want to update the accepted answer to the one about QuickTime Player. Line In has substantial buffering/delay issues (when you restart, it's fine, but after a few minutes, it creeps back in) plus it's a third-party app let alone one that's no longer supported by them. Using QuickTime Player however, it's part of the native OS, there seems to be zero delay, and you get a volume control to boot! Anyway, just throwing that out there Hope it helps! – Mark A. Donohoe – 2018-09-20T00:43:37.267

Answers

69

Take a look at Rogue Amoeba's LineIn. It is a free application which will allow you to do what you want.

Richard Hoskins

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 10 260

7delay introduced is significant. I'd love to see a LineIn-like app working with fast ASIO drivers of the available soundcards. – Serg ikS – 2014-08-28T07:07:18.363

2Rogue Ameoba released version 2.3 on 2014.09.03 that has completely eliminated delay. – xizor – 2014-09-24T23:00:31.930

1

Currently the free version stops working after 10 mins. I was about to try it anyway but had trouble downloading it. Then I found http://lifehacker.com/5630844/audio-monitor-simplifies-monitoring-an-audio-input-source-on-your-mac, which works.

– Ryan – 2017-03-27T14:16:56.520

In SoundSource look for "Open Play-Thru Window" and then "Start Play-Thru". I tried, it technically does what I want but the sound is very bad, there is a lot of echo despite tweaking to the settings.. I don't know if it's my mic or my headphones that are bad or sth else. – eloone – 2017-07-07T21:03:08.387

The free version of SoundSource stops working after 10 minutes, but on their legacy page they still have a download option for LineIn which still works on High Sierra currently. – rich – 2018-01-14T19:07:57.420

Well, as of 9/19/2018, Line In still has the delay. It's not at first. It seems to be buffering or something. Restarting it fixes the issue, temporarily. However, as @BrianAshe said in his answer below, use the QuickTime Player! It's built-in, there's never any delay, and best part, you get a volume control for it too! – Mark A. Donohoe – 2018-09-20T00:38:23.687

1LineIn can select line-in/mic/digital-in etc, and there are independent volume control. – deddebme – 2009-10-21T05:39:54.613

32

With 10.6 (and newer, AFAIK) you can launch QuickTime Player.app and choose File -> New Audio Recording. Then just turn up the volume control that is part of the window that appears. You might hear a bit of white noise when there's no sound and the volume is all the way up but the Rogue Amoeba app does the same thing.

Brian Ashe

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 421

1MAN, I wish I had found this a while ago! This should be the answer, not Line In. This is part of the OS. That's not only third-party, but currently it's legacy, but worse, the biggest issue with 'Line In' is it tends to start to buffer the input, so for instance, using it to route my TV's sound through my computer, it routinely gets out of sync. That doesn't seem to happen with this method. Plus... volume control!! WOOT! – Mark A. Donohoe – 2018-09-20T00:36:25.610

2There's a ~30 millisecond delay when using this method. – Merchako – 2018-11-27T20:34:47.533

11

You can also use Garage Band. Choose for example the Acoustic Instrument template (the default audio track in it has no effects) and set monitor to on.

Lri

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 34 501

this seems to work just as well as linein, maybe a bit better – chrismarx – 2014-11-09T00:09:35.663

Check out the QuickTime Player approach. Even better/simpler and zero lag! – Mark A. Donohoe – 2018-09-20T00:39:47.840

6

If you're using an older Mac, the application Audio MIDI Setup.app in the Utilties folder (found in the Applications folder) allows* the ability to pass-through input straight to your output.

To do so; click on your input device and then check off the "Thru" checkboxes to pass audio through. However oddly enough I've never seen anyone to get it to correctly work on an Intel based Mac, I've had it work great on some PowerBook G4s however.

The better alternative is to use Rogue Amoeba's LineIn (as said by Richard Hoskins). Personally I use this and find it easier to use.

Chealion

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 22 932

6Using Intel based Mac.. can't check the 'thru' checkbox.. looks like it is disabled. – Umair – 2015-05-24T18:44:17.303

1This only controls the analog passthrough in a single device/sound card, it will not connect one device to another through software. – endolith – 2015-11-19T16:24:27.170

I tried LineIn it's free and does the job. Still a bit of echo but less then with SoundSource. – eloone – 2017-07-07T21:13:07.193

Have you tried the QuickTime Player trick above? That seems to do the trick great! Not only is there no delay, but you get volume control to boot! – Mark A. Donohoe – 2018-09-20T00:41:02.633

4

Another option is "AU Lab" in Developer tools (Developer/Applications/Audio/AU Lab).

qu1j0t3

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 141

I couldn't find this in the Xcode developer tools, and had to download it from the Apple Developer website. – evolutionxbox – 2020-01-29T15:09:15.870

4

As originally suggested by qu1j0t3, Apple's "AU Lab" provides the ability to listen to the audio input in real-time. (Well, nearly in real-time; for me there is a slight delay from input to output.)

(If those links die, it can also be downloaded from Apple Developer Tools, which may require an Apple Developer account.)

Usage:

In the Document Configuration window, select the existing "Stereo In/Stereo Out" configuration. (If the Document Configuration window is not already open, click File → New to open it.) Then click the Create Document button in the bottom right corner.

In the new "Untitled" window that opens, ensure the icon at the bottom says "Audio Engine Running" (or click to toggle if it says "Audio Engine Stopped"). If necessary, adjust the system's overall input and output volume settings in System Preferences → Sound → Input.

Chris Tollefson

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 41

1

Another answer already mentions AU Lab. Your answer is better because it basically follows this outline while the other one does not.

– Kamil Maciorowski – 2018-09-15T06:09:45.460

@KamilMaciorowski Yes, you are correct - AU Lab was already mentioned in a previous answer, so I have edited mine to mention that. I would have commented/added to the previous answer, but I don't have enough reputation and my suggested edit was rejected, with the reviewer recommending that I add it as a new answer instead. (Sorry, noob problems, not really sure what etiquette I should follow.) – Chris Tollefson – 2018-09-15T23:36:37.690

1

This is a good solution and well explained.

The problem is (or at least was for me) that Xcode is currently only available via MacAppStore and one has to use the latest macOS to download it.

But luckily Apple still provides AU Lab on this iTunes-Site I found: https://www.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/

– alex r. g. – 2019-05-09T21:19:13.200

Thanks @alexr.g. - that link is much easier to get to, so I've updated my answer with it. – Chris Tollefson – 2019-05-10T07:17:50.003

0

I tried several things and was getting pretty frustrated until I discovered an old 2010 article by Adam Dachis about using AudioMonitor, part of MTCoreAudio’s developer package for Apple products. (You can download MTCoreAudio for Mac for free at https://mac.softpedia.com/get/Developer-Tools/MTCoreAudio.shtml.) It works perfectly on my Powerbook (OS El Capitan). Once opened up, just click on "Play Through". Now when I travel and my wife or I want to watch Hotel TV while the other doesn’t, to use headphones (you'll need to bring along a fairly long mini plug cable) she or I can just plug my laptop into the TV’s “speaker out” port via the computer’s line in mini plug port (my laptop has two mini ports, unlike the newer models) and the headphones into the computer’s audio out port. The sound is perfectly synched to the TV (no delay) and to avoid any irritating white noise in the background we simply unplug the computer’s power cord and run it on battery mode. Much better than Quicktime (delay) or any other trick I tried.

Graham T.

Posted 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Reputation: 9

For those who are having issues with the softpedia website, here is the program's github page. Simply click the "Clone or Download" button and then click the "Download ZIP" button. Extract the ZIP file and you will see the AudioMonitor.app file. – flamewave000 – 2019-01-31T15:54:10.813

Asked: 2009-10-21T04:12:34.180

Viewed: 129 411 times

Active: 2019-05-10T07:16:42.600