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Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: Howell on April 05, 2006, 02:33:16 PM

Title: phantom power options for SP c4's w/ m-audio microtrack
Post by: Howell on April 05, 2006, 02:33:16 PM

I have a pair of C4's and an m-audio microtrack.  From reading the microtrack faq on here it appears that only 30v of phantom power and I'm going to need 48v.  I've been looking at running a Denecke ps2 as the phantom power source so it would just be c4's>ps2>microtrack.  Should that setup work or am I missing something?  Are there any other options for getting phantom power to my mics that I am missing(at the same pricepoint or less).

I have done a lot of searching on here and looked at a lot of info files with the microtrack listed.  I haven't seen any with the ps2>microtrack setup it seems like most I see are either straight in or go through an AD converter.  I've looked at some of those devices but they are a little higher price range than I am looking right now.

Hopefully this is in the right section, I couldn't decide between here and general.

Thanks for any input.

Title: Re: phantom power options for SP c4's w/ m-audio microtrack
Post by: ambo on April 05, 2006, 07:40:42 PM

you may not need 48v for the C4's. There is a link on the Studio Projects site showing which condensor mics will work to spec with 30volt power. You would just need an appropriate mic cable to go in 1/4" TRS.

Title: Re: phantom power options for SP c4's w/ m-audio microtrack
Post by: Howell on April 05, 2006, 11:40:00 PM

Well I got the microtrack charged up and have been testing with it.  when I have the mics plugged straight into the microtrack the volume of the recording is very soft, even with the levels turned up very high.  When I run the mics first through a mixer and then the mixer output to the microtrack then the levels sound good ... however then I get a little noise from the cheap behringer 8 channel mixer. 

So is this a question of the amount of power being supplied to the mic or just the fact that the pre-amp in the microtrack is weak?

EDIT:  Well i've been playing with my setup for a few hours tonight and I think i'm going to run the rig with the analog berhringer mixer tomorrow for my first show(john butler trio at 9:30).  I'd definitely like to go to something smaller than that for phantom power/preamp so I guess back to hunting. 

Title: Re: phantom power options for SP c4's w/ m-audio microtrack
Post by: jcrab66 on April 08, 2006, 04:36:37 AM

i  use a ps2 into the MT all the time for stealthing, works nice. although I have never used it with the C4's

Title: Re: phantom power options for SP c4's w/ m-audio microtrack
Post by: Howell on April 08, 2006, 01:25:15 PM

I actually ran the c4's straight into the MT last night at Ben Folds(you can see my post in taper chat "ghetto stealth".

I ran it with the 27db 1/4 inch boost on and I ended up actually switching the c4's to -10db because it looked like it was peaking a lot.  I'm taping matisyahu tomorrow with another taper so as long as his gear is functioning correctly I think I'm going to experiment with some different settings throughout the show and see what i like the sound of better.