Why won't my external microphone work on my Mac?

 

When selecting an input device on Macintosh, please be aware that not all external microphones will work.

Macs require a line-level signal, so plugging a conventional microphone into the audio input jack will not work.

If the Mac does not have an internal microphone, the user will need to use a USB or FireWire microphone (the FireWire iSight camera has a microphone, for example).