iMac home karaoke hardware setup with displayPort

[dave]

that was my original "complicated" idea.

[fishmongr]

Yep my goal was to utilize the single audio/video miniDisplayport->hdmi connection between the computer and the a/v reciever (which I've already had set up for HTPC) with this though I didn't realize what a task it'd be.
I realize the Apogee Duet is overkill for this alone but I do only ever want to pipe 1 or 2 devices (mic or otherwise) at the best quality / connection / smallest form factor into the computer. I hear there is great integration with Garage band and Logic Pro and i'd like to get more familiar with these apps. Being able to record karaoke and run effects like auto-tune are nice perks too.

Anywho I've been playing around with my mics (the Duet is in the mail) and have made a few attempts at plugging the mic receiver's 1/8 out directly into the computer's line-in or the A/V Receiver but have been only getting the mic in one speaker. I tried using a 1/8 stereo to 1/4 mono which I am assuming is the problem, i need it the other way around. The 1/8 coming out of the mic receiver i've realized is mono and i'd need to convert that into a stereo 1/4 jack but it sounds like there isn't a straight forward adapter for this?

The latency initially wasn't too bad but after some time it seams it would be close to a .5 second delay until I restarted KJams, is this a known issue?
Thanks!
Mark

[DeusExMachina]

The problem is, in order to preserve one line out to the TV, you end up having a lot of extra equipment snaking out of your computer. That is what I meant by not seeing the benefit. It certainly doesn't get you improved audio, since you lose quality in both A/D and D/A steps in the chain.
Recording also isn't a benefit, as you can record from the analogue out from the board into the analogue in to the computer. But if you really want to do all that, you might do better to get a firewire mixer, like the Alesis FireWire8, and bring all the audio in through the FireWire port.
Now, I am not sure, but it sounds like you have your ports and adaptors backward. You write:

at plugging the mic receiver's 1/8 out directly into the computer's line-in or the A/V Receiver but have been only getting the mic in one speaker. I tried using a 1/8 stereo to 1/4 mono which I am assuming is the problem, i need it the other way around.

This makes no sense. The computer has 1/8 stereo in and the mixer more than likely has 1/4 out. In which case, you just need 1/4 TRS to 1/8" TRS.
The latency issue is not kJams, IMO, rather it is in the A/D/A buffer.

[dave]

that's what i was saying originally

[fishmongr]

Yup I meant that I had a 1/4 stereo going to a 1/8 mono. I wasn't able to find a 1/4 mono that goes to 1/8 stereo but I was able to use a mono 1/4 to mono 18 with a stereo adapter.
At http://karaoke.kjams.com/wiki/Version_History it says known bug where the mic input sometimes starts to lag. Is this an issue with the current version? Pasted reference below:

10.3.9

the last version that worked with 10.3.9 was d49r30:

* d49r30 July 28 2008 Lite Pro Note: to get this to work you may have to do this stuff about Activations.

Bugs I'm aware of that will be fixed

* the mic input sometimes starts to lag. for now use AudioHijack or GarageBand

[dave]

yes if you're doing anything serious, use GarageBand or AudioHijack, that way you can put effects on your mics too. the one built into kJams does indeed start to lag in some cases and i haven't fixed that since Pro's never use that anyway.

the reason you're getting mono is cuz a microphone is ONE channel. you can use SoundFlower and GarageBand to unmix it to stereo. your 2nd mic should come in on the other channel, which you can then unmix to stereo as well.