Taperssection.com
Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: spinneresque on October 30, 2006, 08:15:26 AM
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Hello, I am so grateful for this forum. I have had our R-09 for about 3 months and absolutely love it.
Here is the problem... I have a little sony mike with a battery (don't have the model # in front of me) that worked perfectly with our old minidisc players (we went through several). While this paired with the Edirol sounds good, the sound is *extremely* quiet.... not acceptable. We actually get better sound using the internal mikes, but too much background noise and I am not satisfied with the 'hiss' in the background either.
I need to record voice but in a musical way (archive quality), unidirectional style (little room for background noise) and I also want to eliminate the noise the Edirol itself makes (that slight hiss in the background). I thought about this, the new Edirol CS-15:
http://www.amazon.com/EDIROL-CS-15-Stereo-Microphone-Kit/dp/B000GF9IIO
But I am worried it will not get rid of the self-noise of the Edirol, because it seems it will still need to use a lot of its own power. I will buy a preamp if necessary.
I also need a recommendation for a tripod (or mike stand) that will not take up a lot of space on a table but is flexible enough to move up and down according to how high the speaker is sitting, i.e. I want it to be able to go right in front of the speaker's mouth.
Any suggestions would be super appreciated.
Many thanks!
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no Help out there?? I admit I'm a newbie but.... :-(
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Hi thanks for your reply. I tried the mike only through the Edirol's mike input, not through the line in input. I did get a slightly better result when I used the edirol as a preamp and had the line in going directly into my mac through it's line in port. The volume was louder but the white noise was still there. Let us say a budget of $700 total, not more than that! A couple more newbie questions:
-) Is there such a thing as a mini shotgun mike? Would this be practical if it was going to be sitting on the table 1-2 feet away from the mouth of the speaker?
-) Would a dynamic mike be practical for this situation because we only need sound from one source and one direction?
-) kick drum stand and a boom arm sounds like a good idea. The main thing is the whole mike stand has to be very small and must not require a lot of space on the table, in addition to being flexible in height and angle. Being a total newbie, I'm not sure how to put these two together. Perhaps Chris Church could help with that. I'm in India so calling is not so easy but have many friends coming over here from America in the next 2 months, they can bring all the bits.
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what makes you think you need a preamp with your edirol? The mic doesnt work without a preamp? Doesnt sound very portable to me.
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what makes you think you need a preamp with your edirol? The mic doesn't work without a preamp? Doesnt sound very portable to me.
Thats why we have portable mic preamps.
Here is the smallest preamplifier I make that's perfect for R-09 and useful for battery powered electret mics that can drive ~1000 ohms or less mic inputs. PA-3SX preamp is featured with 3-position gain selection switch on the front, near clip and low battery indication LED
This is a VERY quiet preamp that improves the noise performance by 20 dB compared to using the R-09 pre (see spectrum noise comparison in review at www.sonicstudios.com/r-09revw.htm (http://www.sonicstudios.com/r-09revw.htm).
The stereo input to the preamplifier can either be ordered with 3.5 mm stereo minijack, miniXLR-3F (as shown), or configured with dual standard size 1/4" TRS or XLR-3F (all unbalanced type).
Runs best on 2 AA L91 Energizer photo lithium for over 500 hours, and can run on newer OXY nickel cells (alkaline type) for ~250 hours, and regular alkaline for at least 125 hours running time.
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Here is the smallest preamplifier I make [snip]
FWIW, and for the original poster's reference, there are a good number of people making small, portable preamps: Guy, Chris Church, Sound Professionals, and others, with a broad variety of price / performance options to fit your budget.
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thanks so much for your input. Without meaning to offend anyone, I have to say that $450 seems like so much money to spend to solve what seems to me (a total newbie, granted) to be a power issue. Getting a mike with the right power or adding a phantom power adapter wouldn't solve the problem? Remember stealth is not an issue for me, though *space on the table* is.
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thanks so much for your input. Without meaning to offend anyone, I have to say that $450 seems like so much money to spend to solve what seems to me (a total newbie, granted) to be a power issue. Getting a mike with the right power or adding a phantom power adapter wouldn't solve the problem? Remember stealth is not an issue for me, though *space on the table* is.
Noise is a problem from the R-09 preamp for pure acoustic recording with most mics regardless of mic power source.
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Can anyone please offer some opinions as to which of these microphones would be more suitable for this situation? I did get replies from the sound professionals but not Chris Church.
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/AT943-SP
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/RD-NT3
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/AT897
Also any comments on this Preamp??
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-PREAMP
Many thanks.....
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I've got one of Church Audio's preamps that I sometimes use with my Iriver H140 for recording. Chris' preamps are inexpensive and sound good to me. I don't hear any noise from it. He does all of his sales on Ebay as far as I know. Here's a link for one of his preamps. It is the "improved" model from what I have.
http://cgi.ebay.com/STEREO-MICROPHONE-PREAMP-4-MINIDISC-DAT-MP3-RECORDERS_W0QQitemZ9724138312QQihZ008QQcategoryZ3281QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
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what makes you think you need a preamp with your edirol? The mic doesnt work without a preamp? Doesnt sound very portable to me.
Thats why we have portable mic preamps.
;D ::)
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Can anyone please offer some opinions as to which of these microphones would be more suitable for this situation? I did get replies from the sound professionals but not Chris Church.
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/AT943-SP
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/RD-NT3
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/AT897
Also any comments on this Preamp??
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-PREAMP
Many thanks.....
I obviously did not get your message, I reply to 100% of my emails. I am sorry what is your question?
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Hi thanks for your reply. I tried the mike only through the Edirol's mike input, not through the line in input. I did get a slightly better result when I used the edirol as a preamp and had the line in going directly into my mac through it's line in port. The volume was louder but the white noise was still there. Let us say a budget of $700 total, not more than that! A couple more newbie questions:
-) Is there such a thing as a mini shotgun mike? Would this be practical if it was going to be sitting on the table 1-2 feet away from the mouth of the speaker?
-) Would a dynamic mike be practical for this situation because we only need sound from one source and one direction?
-) kick drum stand and a boom arm sounds like a good idea. The main thing is the whole mike stand has to be very small and must not require a lot of space on the table, in addition to being flexible in height and angle. Being a total newbie, I'm not sure how to put these two together. Perhaps Chris Church could help with that. I'm in India so calling is not so easy but have many friends coming over here from America in the next 2 months, they can bring all the bits.
I think the white noise could be background noise. I think you have to look at where your recording first..
When I record vocals I use a booth or at the very least I use Sonex foam placed in corner of a room, and have the singer sing in the direction of the foam this helps kill the room sound, but does very little to reduce the envornmental noise. You might be better off with a cheap ART preamp, and a Shure SM 58 close up or a Beta 87. Now if you want to go more High end you can get a Neumann kms-105, This is a mic I use for Live vocals All the time, But it can also be used for recording vocals in a studio its a great vocal mic. You do not need much gain for close up vocals but if you want more of the room you will need a better solution then the ART preamp.