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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: DMBprez on February 10, 2007, 02:49:10 PM

Title: Taping Disaster
Post by: DMBprez on February 10, 2007, 02:49:10 PM: So, running this:

SPC4's->Phantom II->MIT 176's->JB3, the Phantom's light got a ton dimmer before the encore. (I put BRAND NEW batteries in before the show). And as the show went on, you can tell that the tape got quieter and quieter? Please help us out... What went wrong?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: rowjimmy on February 10, 2007, 03:13:19 PM: I'd say the what is clear. the Phantom box gradulally delivered less and less power to the mics. the why is probably a bad battery... hopefully.

oh and +t for the effort.
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: rocknroll54 on February 10, 2007, 03:50:09 PM: I was there too. The light was never very bright to start out with, but as the show went on, the brightness continued to decrease, which made my levels decrease. The sound was fuzzy as well, don't know if that had anything to do with it. Deffinetly a tough night, if anyone has any suggestions, please let us know.
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: Roving Sign on February 10, 2007, 04:06:17 PM: Sounds like a bad set of batteries...they have to be at least alkalines, too - dont count on "Eveready Heavy Duty" to do the job...

I presume you have tested the rig since?
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: batchain on February 10, 2007, 09:31:21 PM: I had exactly the same thing happen with me one night back when I had an Art Phantom II. The results were just as you described, like a long slow fade out on the show. I checked the voltage of the batteries later and sure enough one of the batteries was nearly dead. From that point I got in the habit of replacing the batteries after 3-4 nights or about 7-8 hours of recording.

I tried to salvage my recording in post with Audition, but the noise floor was so high towards the end of the recording that it was pointless being too noisy.
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: twatts (pants are so over-rated...) on February 10, 2007, 09:42:43 PM: http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,79514.new.html#new
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: Church-Audio on February 10, 2007, 10:07:55 PM: Quote from: Roving Sign on February 10, 2007, 04:06:17 PM
Sounds like a bad set of batteries...they have to be at least alkalines, too - dont count on "Eveready Heavy Duty" to do the job...

I presume you have tested the rig since?

" I dare you to knock this battery off my shoulder" ;D
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: Electric Cowgirl on February 11, 2007, 08:31:22 PM: Totally the battery. I had the same thing happen when I was running Earthworks mic (power hogs) into a MP-2 pre.

Get lithum batteries.
Title: Re: Taping Disaster
Post by: Scuba Jeremy on February 17, 2007, 12:17:56 PM: I've been running Earthworks > Denecke PS2 > R09 and loving it. The Earthworks are power hogs. I tried to run them once on a single 9v battery. I thought it would be fine - it worked for hours with Octava MC012s. After about 30 min, they crapped out.

I have since wired a mono 1/8 connection to a Radio Shack 9.6v rechargable battery pack connector, and have used that rechargable battery, works great, sound nice and clean. I don't know if you have the ability to connect external power with the Phantom II, but look into using the Rat Shack 9.6v batteries, or even the ever popular Walmart battery, assuming it runs on 9v power.