« Reply #22 on: October 02, 2005, 02:46:47 PM »
another question for the kick ass knowledge base out there:). I'm currently running coresound cardioids into a sharp minidisc. I run them 'mic in' and was recently made aware that running them 'line in' may yeild better results. I tried this out with my band--loud signal; mics 3 feet from amps----even with levels cranked to the max, the signal was too weak. Any recommendations on getting better success with this? ...Or is it even worth fucking with? .............Core sounds has a little batt box powered by a 9v batt......
Line in doesn't supply the mic power, you need a battery box. The 9V battery box lets you run in higher SPLs than the mic-in power which is probably only ~3v on that MD player. Basically you're sending a hotter signal to the recorder if you use the battery box, it'll be closer to line level (1 volt peak to peak).
Is it worth f'in with? Depends on your goal. A cheap way to hear the difference is to borrow a battery box from the equipment loan page and find out!
Two things to consider:
- make sure mics are getting power, either plug-in-power from the mic input, or battery box + line in. As said above, line in will not provide power to the mics, so you need a battery box.
- mics have different sensitivities, so that may give you lower or higher levels to line in, *but* the MD units themselves may have different amount of gain as well. I know my MZ-R37 (older) MD has more gain than my newer 800 model HiMD. Gain of 30/30 on my newer unit is something like gain of 25/30 on my older unit.
My opinion is that it will sound a lot better if you run line in. If you can...
Richard
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Mics: Sennheiser MKE2002 (dummy head), Studio Projects C4, AT825 (unmodded), AT822 franken mic (x2), AT853(hc,c,sc,o), Senn. MKE2, Senn MKE40, Shure MX183/5, CA Cards, homebrew Panasonic and Transsound capsules.
Pre/ADC: Presonus Firepod & Firebox, DMIC20(x2), UA5(poorly-modded, AD8620+AD8512opamps), VX440
Recorders: Edirol R4, R09, IBM X24 laptop, NJB3(x2), HiMD(x2), MD(1).
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