No Sound with Audio-CDs on External CD Drive

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No Sound with Audio-CDs on External CD Drive

Greetings,

I've finally gotten hold of an external SCSI-CDROM Drive for my Color Classic using a 640 DOS Compatible logic board and processor card (hence the post in this forum). The CD Drive itself is working without a hitch, yet I do experience issues when playing audio CDs. The Apple CD Player sofware works fine, it plays the disk, but I do not get *any* sound at all (if I use headphones with the connector on the front of the drive, I get sound, but not when running trough the system). The drive is connected via the line-in connector of the logic board. If I use i.e. SimpleSound I actually will be able to listen to the CD, but only if I use this application. Also, if I use the Sound Control Panel to select the input method, I am able to listen to the music, but not else... is there anything that I am not aware of...? Line-In usually should play through, shouldn't it?

Benjamin

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I can't remember if it's an O

I can't remember if it's an OS issue or a machine issue, but I remember that at one point, Macs simply couldn't get the audio data over the SCSI line. You had to have the audio outs of the drive connected via a separate cable to a jumper on the motherboard, thus ruling out external drives playing audio via the Mac.

What OS are you running? Try booting from 8.1 if you have it available and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise you're stuck with using the headphone port on the drive, the RCA outs on the back if it has them, or dismantling the drive enclosure, finding the audio outs on the drive itself, and finding or hacking a suitable cable to connect them to either the Mac or direct to amplified speakers.

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If your PDS slot is...

If your PDS slot is empty, you could grab an old Pro Audio Spectrum 16 card and use that. You simply plug the RCA outs of your CDROM drive into one of the four Stereo inputs of the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 breakout box and you're all set.

The PAS 16 card/breakout box combos are a dime a dozen these days. You get four stereo audio inputs, one microphone input, one stereo line out RCA pair, and a headphone jack. In addition, you get a MIDI in and out port and a joystick port that will let you use old PC style joysticks on your Macintosh. It's quite a cool gizmo and worth every fraction of the dime you spend on it. Smile

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Re: I can't remember if it's an O

I can't remember if it's an OS issue or a machine issue, but I remember that at one point, Macs simply couldn't get the audio data over the SCSI line. You had to have the audio outs of the drive connected via a separate cable to a jumper on the motherboard, thus ruling out external drives playing audio via the Mac.

IIRC, no Mac ever ran CDDA over SCSI. Even on internal drives, there was an audio connector attached to the drive.

The line-in on a Color Classic is pretty poor quality -- mono at 8 bit/22KHz, I believe -- so you'd probably be better off connecting the drive directly to external speakers anyway.

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Or...

The line-in on a Color Classic is pretty poor quality -- mono at 8 bit/22KHz, I believe -- so you'd probably be better off connecting the drive directly to external speakers anyway.

Or, get yourself a cheap Mediavision ProAudio Spectrum 16...

Dr. Webster is right, the line in on the Color Classic is mono and the line out is stereo. The Color Classic has only one internal speaker and all sound played by the Color Classic is mono. The Color Classic is capable of stero output, but you will need an external amplifier and/or speakers connected to the line out 1/8 mini-stereo plug.

Your options are:

Angel Get something like I suggested, ProAudio Spectrum 16 card,

(b) Connect your external CDROM drive directly to external speakers,

(c) Get software that will allow the input from your line in plug to play through.

For option (c), you will have to use your sound control panel to to select the microphone port as your input source, and you'll need a cheap shareware utility that will playthrough your single mono Color Classic internal speaker.

Regards,

Willy

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Hey Guys! Thanks for all t

Hey Guys!

Thanks for all the input you gave me, I'm glad there are people out there who know what they're doing, heh!! Well, I've looked at my options, and that's what I concluded:

As I have a modified CC using a 630 DOS Compatible board, there simply is not enough room for the PAS16 Soundcard (the Dos Card sits right-smack in the middle of the logic board, hence doesn't leave enough room for a PDS card)

I've tried some software that I found wich was supposed to take control over the various sound-input devices (such as mic-in, line-in, etc) - didn't work for me. The really funny thing is though, sound input "does" work when one uses the sound control panel and selects one's input source. After the windows is closed, sound's gone again. It just seems like the mac won't keep the sound-input port open (like line-in would do on a soundcard). And yeah, the input would be mono anyways. I don't have any external speakers available.

Now, here comes the funny part. On my Mac I also have the Apple Video Input card and TV Tuner. Audio input works if I use the connectors of the card, but only if the Apple Video Player is running. This is when I got my fingers dirty, writing my first AppleScript, heh. The script launches the Video Player, then hides it right after it's been launched. Problem is basically solved as the Video Player doesn't need much resources, plus the audio input is in stereo and volume can be controlled via the Mac.

Now if I could only figure out how to get the application to launch completely in background, without having to see the window flash by for a second. But hey! As long as it works Wink Thanks again for all the help!

Benjamin

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You didn't mention...

You didn't mention that your Color Classic was using a 630 logic board. That kind of makes a difference. Wink Cuz ya know, there is no TV tuner/video input card for the stock CC.

Anyway, glad ya got it working. Smile

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