Hey now,
So i ran my newly purchased rig additions @ phish's merriweather gigs this weekend. On the first night, to my disgust, I realized during the middle of "Daniel Saw the Stone" (first song of the first set of the first night) that I had neglected to engage my phantom power switch. I was running Schoeps MK41 > KCY > Schoeps VMS 5-U > Mytek 192 > Tascam HD-P2 @ 96/24. What threw me was that, visually, my levels looked as expected during "daniel." As soon as the tune ended, I threw the phantom power switch on. On previous incarnations of my rig (ad1000, mini-mp > hd-p2, V2 > ADC, V2 > Ad1000), if you flipped the phantom on or off during recording, you ALWAYS got a digital pop. Also, while you would get some signal to pass, and some levels, the sound was always hollow and crappy, and the levels were totally anemic.
To my surprise, when I auditioned the recording later that night, "Daniel" sounds as though phantom was on, and both levels & sound quality are stellar. At the point where I flipped the phantom switch (I had notated the time during the gig), there are NO sound anomalies, pops, or glitches at all.
My question is this,
does the VMS/KCY combo AUTOMATICALLY engage and run phantom power? Should I therefore NOT engage the switch for any reason? Does the switch have any function at all with this combo?
I don't want to trash any recordings, but also don't want to eat up any more battery than needed (I wasn't sure how the phantom on/off would affect battery draw), and also wasn't sure if having the phantom on would OVER POWER the caps by any chance.
Any knowledgeable help would be GREATLY appreciated. Either way, it sure was a nice safety net to have at the time!
thanks for the help,
-bry