I sent a PM to goose, but he hasn't had a chance to get back to me...and as my decision on whether or not to get a NJB3 approaches, I wanted to put my comments and questions I asked here up for public discussion in hopes of understanding what the hell I'm doing a little better than I did when I woke up this morning.
(oh, and goose's comments from a previous message are enclosed in brackets, my comments are not.)
<<<<Schwilly is referring to a modification of the mic cabling/cable termination that will allow the mics you have to acheive their best results - which are much better than the current configuration. You may or may not want to make the modification. Search the links for 853 modification or something like that, and there are a couple posts with play by play and pictures of the modification.
The way your mics are currently terminated, the battery box is the only way to go. If you have bass roll off available, use it. If it is adjustable - use something higher. The higher from the ground you keep omnis, the better they will sound - there is more bass closer to the ground.
If you are running line in, then bass roll off settings are nullified and no bass roll off is present - this is due to the difference in mic and line level. Bass roll off only really works going mic-in. As an example, Bass roll off set at 88hz going mic in will have the exact same roll of as the 888mz setting going line in. If 888 is an option, use it for line in. I would think around 120 if mic in.
Oh yeah, Sound Pros has a new kit for modifying the mics - look at their website. May be easier to find than searching this site.>>>>
I see the SP mod on their site, but I'm not entirely sure what that will leave me with...XLR connectors? I was always under the impression that "phantom power" meant power from the unit it's connected to (with no additional power supply), as in to the minidisc, but I'm getting the impression that the mod for phantom power implies a 48v battery (pack? box?) would be needed instead.
I'm looking at the thread here -
http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=18846.0 - in the first photo shown, there's two minijacks...my mics have one, so how would that change things? It seems that, for the mod to work, I'd need to have two minijacks from the get go. I guess my confusion is that I'm missing some basic definitions on what phantom power really is and how I should go about getting the most from my mics.
I'm a bit lost now...is the inefficiency of the battery box I have now with a line-in connection something that's isolated to these mics and similar models? My previous mics seemed to work fine with the bass roll-off on the battery box, but those were cardioids.
If you had my mics, what type of setup (from top to bottom, mics to recorder) would you go with in order to maximize the effectiveness of my mics?
<<<<Cardioids will make a difference, though omnis can sound better, but must be in the right circumstances. Street Scene is a tough place to tape. For the type of recording you were doing, the best would probably have been to get as near to one of the speaker stacks (and hold on!) as you could. I got a jukebox3 recently - I like it. I have not used it for mic or line in recording, and don't really plan to.>>>>
Do you use the jukebox with the optical in? Coming from something like an Edirol UA5 (that's the first product that I could think of that is one of those 'middle man' items in a rig, but I know there's tons more out there like it)? Also, did you get your jukebox new or used? My girlfriend's looking to buy it for me, and she would rather be able to find it somewhere new instead of going out on ebay or a forum or listserv for a refurb or used one...and is trying to avoid me just having to go out and buy it myself, hehe. I just can't find it anywhere new that has it in stock, but I'd love to hear of a store or a site if you know of one.
Assuming that I get a jukebox...I'd want to run optical in, which I guess would mean I'd have to have something like the UA5...which would mean that with my mics, I'd somehow have to get some sort of XLR adapter put on there, which I don't know how I'd do since there's only one 1/8" minijack coming off my mics instead of the two I'm seeing in other pictures.
<<<<Give me some more information on your setup at the show - where were you, where were the mics, which recorder, relevant recorder settings?>>>>
I was approximately 20' back from the stage, dead center. The mics were clipped to my sunglasses, where the arm of the glasses meets the lenses. I had a hat on, as later in the evening I wanted to record with the mics on my hat to see if there was any sort of noticeable difference (there wasn't). I used my Sharp MD60 minidisc, line in, through the SP-SPSB-1 battery box with roll-off at 160Hz.
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So, basically, I'm just curious as to what, if I use these mics, and have an NJB3 or D100 at the end of the line, I should be using to get maximum output from them. From mics to pres to battery boxes (or phantoms, which I'm apparently a bit confused on) to A/Ds to whatever, for a stealther, what should I be going with? And since I'll be doing most of my recordings in small clubs (which I know my mics aren't definitely meant for), is there anything that I can do, which could be explained in relatively simple english, to control the bass of the recordings?
I'm sorry for being such a dunce about all of this, and for asking so many dumb questions...but I figure that if I'm going to do this, I'd like to do it right, and understand it as I'm doing it.