{"items": [{"author": "Al", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/650683712502?comment_id=650684391142", "anchor": "fb-650684391142", "service": "fb", "text": "Right. It's useful for softer voices in a room with background noises though.", "timestamp": "1393990134"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/650683712502?comment_id=650692090712", "anchor": "fb-650692090712", "service": "fb", "text": "It's trying to tell you which parts of your music are ambient noise.", "timestamp": "1393995952"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/650683712502?comment_id=650720174432", "anchor": "fb-650720174432", "service": "fb", "text": "I've never been impressed with the sound quality of the Macbook (or any laptop) microphone, for the obvious reason that it's not a priority for most users.  If you're going to do a lot of these, it may be worth investing in a dedicated recorder like the Zoom H2n.", "timestamp": "1394035557"}, {"author": "Jeff&nbsp;Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/650683712502?comment_id=650722195382", "anchor": "fb-650722195382", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael: when I want to record properly I generally close-mic things and record multitrack with a vsl1818 [1] but this is for simple recordings where we just want to jog the memories of our future selves.  Being able to record with equipment that's already on hand is useful, and my laptop lives in my bag.<br><br>[1] Which unfortunately doesn't work with new macs; the manufacturer says they're working on it.", "timestamp": "1394037015"}, {"author": "Melissa", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/650683712502?comment_id=650786266982", "anchor": "fb-650786266982", "service": "fb", "text": "Done!  I can't wait to try this out now, I've always wondered how a recording on a mac could sound so bad... I hope this helps!!", "timestamp": "1394075296"}, {"author": "Stuart", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/650683712502?comment_id=855501650712", "anchor": "fb-855501650712", "service": "fb", "text": "Thanks so much for this.   I used my MBP's ambient mic to record an important lecture.   Sure enough it sounds awful, barely intelligible.   I've been struggling in audacity trying to figure out what could be so wrong with it, and then noticed the \"use ambient noise reduction\" setting, which indeed was turned on.  It probably decided that our visitor's voice was noise and tried to cancel it.   Damn.", "timestamp": "1489903040"}]}