Topic: When SBD board does not have phantom power

[phil_er_up]

Hi all,

Not sure what category to put this one in so if it needs to move then be it!

At the smaller venues I run onstage mics and SBD feed with my own cables and can turn on phantom power at either my preamps or the tascam Dr680 for the mics. Lately I have been running some bigger venues (where it is not easy to run cables or cables run are very long) with onstage mics through the venue snake and say take channels 19-23 for 4 microphones that need 48 v phantom power. Some SBD have phantom power and can turn it on for me. Last time I ran the SBD did not have phantom power and I could not get phantom power to the mics and this did not work. So need a solution.

Connections:
have mics on stage -> 4 XLR cords to the 24 channel box (inputs for channels say 19-23)->  venue house lines to SBD -> (output for channels say 19-23) XLR to my preamp -> XLR to recorder.

Question:
My questions is how can I get phantom power to the mics and not hurt anything in the chain?
Do I buy something and connect right after my mic onstage to power them?

Hope I made the above clear.

Thanks.

Patrick

[achalsey]

Are you sure the last time when the board wasn't supplying phantom power that the snake was actually through their main board and not an aux console or something?

I've run into that once, where they had a separate 24 channel snake running back to the board but not actually through their main console, so it wasn't supplying phantom.  Asked the sound guy and got the okay to feed my own phantom power through it.

[phil_er_up]

Are you sure the last time when the board wasn't supplying phantom power that the snake was actually through their main board and not an aux console or something?

I've run into that once, where they had a separate 24 channel snake running back to the board but not actually through their main console, so it wasn't supplying phantom.  Asked the sound guy and got the okay to feed my own phantom power through it.

Achalsey thanks for the response.

Not sure if I can answer that correctly. They had a second console in back and I thought it was part of the main board but it could of been a aux console. How would I know?

achalsey states:
"Asked the sound guy and got the okay to feed my own phantom power through it."

How did you power them? Where in the chain and what type of device did you use?

Thanks patrick

[runonce]

Can't  you put some 2 or 4 channel phantom power boxes before the snake?

I dont think it matters where they get powered...

[cybergaloot]

Not sure if this is an option for you but the times I have done that I take the board end of those channels straight to my rig. They don't go through the soundboard at all. Basically I'm just borrowing cables and I provide the phantom power I need.

[achalsey]

achalsey states:
"Asked the sound guy and got the okay to feed my own phantom power through it."

How did you power them? Where in the chain and what type of device did you use?

Thanks patrick

I just used the phantom power from my V2 (preamp) as I normally would.  I plugged the mics into the 24 channel snake onstage (XLR) > snake back to the board > XLR into the V2. 

I'd say just ask next time you're there if it would be safe to send phantom through.

[phil_er_up]

Not sure if this is an option for you but the times I have done that I take the board end of those channels straight to my rig. They don't go through the soundboard at all. Basically I'm just borrowing cables and I provide the phantom power I need.

Thanks for everyones post.

I asked the CO tapers who run in that venue and there response was the same as yours cybergaloot. They added that you might need male to male XLR or/and female to female XLR's so you can plug your XLR into the board end.

Thanks again. Appreciate it.

-p

[cybergaloot]

Not sure if this is an option for you but the times I have done that I take the board end of those channels straight to my rig. They don't go through the soundboard at all. Basically I'm just borrowing cables and I provide the phantom power I need.

Thanks for everyones post.

I asked the CO tapers who run in that venue and there response was the same as yours cybergaloot. They added that you might need male to male XLR or/and female to female XLR's so you can plug your XLR into the board end.

Thanks again. Appreciate it.

-p

There is a basic scheme to XLR connectors. Male is outgoing signal, female is incoming. You should be able to plug straight into your deck with no problems. If you need to extend the cable to get to where your recorder is at, a plain old mic cable should do the trick. But having gender benders handy is not a bad idea because they are cheap. I keep a bag with two M XLR>M XLR, F XLR>F XLR as well as two 1/4 TS>F XLR and two F XLR>RCA M . That allows me to adapt standard XLR mic cables to almost any circumstance.