Topic: So an audio noob bought a mixpre-d and a mic...

[lewisfilms]

Hi,
I am an audio noobie.  I'm also a documentary filmmaker who wants to capture outstanding sound for my short films.  I bought a sound devices mixpre-d and a Countryman B3 wired xlr lavalier microphone.  I also have Sennheiser HD280 headphones for monitoring.  When I connect the lav mic into the mixpre and listen to the sound, I seem get low levels with the pot at 12 O clock.  If i increase gain too much I hear noise.  What am I doing wrong?  I have phantom power on, gain at about 12 or 1 o clock, the lav mic is clipped to my shirt about 1 inch below my neck and the signal is low/a bit noisy.  help??

Thank you!

[lewisfilms]

Can anyone help?

[JimmieC]

I never used a Sound Device or Countryman but curious and may be others would need to know more about the setup such as:  Which phantom power switched on the Mixpre, 12V or 48V?  Looks like the Countryman B3 specs say they 3 to 12V microphones (if looking at the right specs).  Does the Sound Device levels (LED lights) look good and peaking around -4 to 0 dB with source present?  May be not that much of a noobie.  May be trying to gain the mic too much and gaining the internal noise of the mic?

[lewisfilms]

Hi Jimmie,
I just tried comparing 48v and 12v phantom power.  It works on both modes but when using 12v there is less noise/hiss.  So maybe that was my problem (before I had only tried 48v).  The mic seems marginally less sensitive with 12v though. 

The levels on the MixPre D peak at around 0dbu to +4dbu when I speak slightly louder than I normally would. 

My understanding was that I wanted levels resting around +8dbu because I have my gain structure set that 0dbu on the mixer would be calibrated to -20dbfs on my camera/audio recorder.  So +8dbu would be around -12dbfs.   Correct? 

But it sounds like you're informing me that I shouldn't need to be reaching +8dbu on the mixer's meters?  Where should normal human voice be registering on the mixer's meters? 0dbu? higher? lower?

Thanks for your time and help with this!  I appreciate it!

[JimmieC]

I would worry about overpowering a 12V mic using 48V on the preamp.  However, I never used Countryman mics. 

I'll leave those questions for the more knowledgeable people on here and that do more voice and natural recording.  I have seen several members answer these types of questions.  I only record music concerts and sometimes mass homilies.  I set my preamp to peak just under -10dB (so it don't clip) and set the recorder levels to not clip (usually around 6).

[Church-Audio]

I think the million dollar question is this how are you connecting the countryman mic to the preamp? is there a countryman xlr connector on the end?

[willndmb]

Jimmy and Chris
The b&h store says the b3 runs 9-48v and the op says xlr
Lewis
Sorry I can't help any but jimmy and Chris prob can

[JimmieC]

Opps, I was reading the specs to the wireless one.

[Church-Audio]

Jimmy and Chris
The b&h store says the b3 runs 9-48v and the op says xlr
Lewis
Sorry I can't help any but jimmy and Chris prob can

if its terminated fullsize xlr that says countryman on it than its 48v if its not and just terminated to a mini xlr or anything else it's 9v plug in power. this mic does not switch from 9v to 48v by it self it needs a converter.