At 10:12 PM 1/7/2006, Steven wrote:
How did you go from the XLR outputs (I assume the mikes had those) to the phone-plug or RCA-plug inputs of the recorders...particularly given the different impedances?
Steven,
The wiring is different in each case.
The Audio Technica AT-822 runs off a single, internal AA cell which is one of the joys and why I decided to purchase a second. In this case, it comes with an approx 1 m XLR to 1/8" stereo phone plug that mates with the MD recorder. The AT-822 while using an XLR is an unbalanced mic with pin 2 left and pin 3 right and 1 ground.
When I decided to use the Sennheiser MD-421U, I took a headphone extension cable with 1/8" stereo plugs (which I keep a few of in stock for just such purposes) cut it to about 2 m and put a female XLR on it, wiring pins 1 and 3 to the shield and pin 2 to the tip and ring so the mic would feed both channels.
When I used the AKG C-451s or the Sennheiser MKH-416T short shotguns, I used a battery box that I made in a small aluminum enclosure. It has two XLR females on it and four RCA jacks on it, two for each mic so that I didn't need Y cords to feed two recorders for one mic. I use standard pre-made dual RCA to 1/8" stereo phone cables from the box to the recorder and standard XLR-XLR mic cables between the mics and the battery box. The battery box uses 8 AA cells and has a centre-off toggle switch that provides standard 12 V T powering for the MKH-416Ts and in the other position 12 V phantom powering which is fine for most AKG mics, but not for Neumann mics.
For other applications where 48 V phantom is available, I made inline in Switchcraft S3FM barrels 48 V phantom to 12 V adapters to power the Sennheiser short shotguns off my Mackie 1604 VLZ or my Spirit Folio Notepad.
As you can see, all of the options other than the Sennheiser mono MD-421U and the Audio Technica stereo AT-822 require additional hardware between the recorder and the mic which was what I was trying to avoid with the MD-421U and why I bought a second AT-822.
I usually carry at least one spare cable of each type in addition to all the ones needed to assemble the complete kit(s).
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada http://www.richardhess.com/
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm