NT-1...Too Quiet???

gecko zzed said:
From the tests done so far, it seems that the mike may be defective.

However, a defective Rode is almost an oxymoron, it is such a rare occurrence.
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Not in my experience. 3 NT-1 mics bad from Sweetwater years back. Finally got a "good" one; wasn't what I would call good. Wooly bottom end and peaky top. Gave it to my nephew, couldn't imagine selling it to someone in good conscience. As always YMMV.
 
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Thank you everyone for your input! The only other computer I have available to me is an iMac desktop which I will use momentarily to see if the problem persists.
 
Thank you all for your input! So I tried the exact same setup (using 2 different interfaces, different XLR - XLR cables) with my iMac desktop and had the same exact problem; I had to crank the gain all the way to 11 in order for any sound to come through. And the sound that came through was close to inaudible. It definitely seems that the mic is the problem.

Thank you all again!
 
ecc88,
So long as we know what "sod" and "bugger" really mean, as opposed to the common usage through the 40's, 50's 60's 70' & 80's we're sweet.
 
cafehonda said:
Not in my experience. 3 NT-1 mics bad from Sweetwater years back. Finally got a "good" one; wasn't what I would call good. Wooly bottom end and peaky top. Gave it to my nephew, couldn't imagine selling it to someone in good conscience. As always YMMV.
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I am pretty sure that the OP's NT-1 (NOT 1A) is a new one and is a completely re vamped unit from the earlier NT-1s which became the NT-1A . The new model has simply reverted to the old name.

I would say that faulty new, microphones are a rare thing anyway and from the top few manufacturers, very rare indeed.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
...<snip>.....Oh! And our Imerican friends call a duffer* a "lemon" (dunno why?) We limeys also have the term, "Friday Afternoon Job", came back to work pissed.

*I would also class myself as an "Old Duffer".
Dave.
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I've just purchased a used NT-1 on eBay and am eagerly awaiting its arrival so I can use it with my new Zoom H5 recorder. It will be my first "phantom-fed mic" experience. ...so I'm interested in this trouble-shooting discussion.

In the meantime, other than collecting sounds/field recording, word-usage and origin is another of my hobbies. I'm a card-carrying, born and bred "Imerican", but did study in London (UK) for three years back in the '70s so I am able to speak and interpret English English fairly well. :rolleyes:

Over here our use of "duffer" is "an incompetent, ineffectual, or clumsy person; especially: a mediocre golfer"

We Yanks joke about products produced at the end of the work-week when the line-workers may be thinking more about their upcoming weekend fun than quality control. But, I can't say I've heard or read "Friday Afternoon Job".

Our use of a "lemon" in conjunction with sub-standard products is mainly automobile-based. Many American states have "Lemon Laws" guaranteeing buyers the ability to receive a totally new replacement vehicle after the manufacturer has failed to correct problems by making repairs.

I looked up the origin of using "lemon" in this manner and was interested to see "while to hand someone a lemon was British slang (1906) for "to pass off a sub-standard article as a good one."" as one of several possible origins. :cool:

Oh, BTW, in case of any of my fellow Imericans are wondering:
ecc83 said:
...<snip>.....came back to work pissed
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...in the UK "pissed" is drunk — Stateside "pissed" is angry, upset

I'd love to hear how cattle-rustling is associate with "duffer" down under.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!
Jim
Maine, USA
 
Hi Jim,
You can also have a "Monday morning" job, hungover!

I see the H5 does 12/24 and 48 V phantom power. If you wanted to know how it might perform with the NT-1 you could load pins 2 and 3 to pin 1 with 10k each and you should measure about 28volts.

Bit of a dark area this. Rarely do mic mnuftrs give the current pull and never do AI makers OR reviewers tell us what they can chuck out!

Dave.
 
2 versions according to the Oxford - #1 is regional & #2 covers the usage downunder.
duffer1
\duf¦fer
Pronunciation: /ˈdʌfə
noun
informal
1An incompetent or stupid person: a complete duffer at languages
More example sentencesSynonyms
2Australian/NZ An unproductive mine.
Origin
mid 19th century: from Scots dowfart 'stupid person', from douf 'spiritless'.

duffer2
duf¦fer
Pronunciation: /ˈdʌfə
noun
Australian informal
A person who steals and alters the brands on cattle.
More example sentences
Origin
mid 19th century: of unknown origin; in use earlier as thieves' slang for 'someone who sells trashy articles as if they were valuable'.
 
rayc said:
2 versions according to the Oxford - #1 is regional & #2 covers the usage downunder.
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You gotta love language! ...never a dull moment!

I really enjoyed my three years in Willesden Green, London NW3 — continuous language discovery. After three years I thought I had the whole English English thing down pat. And then I went to an auto parts store to buy a rebuilt generator for our antique Austin Mini ...the guy behind the counter started at me blankly ...I didn't need a "generator" — what I was asking for was a "DYNAMO" !! :rolleyes: :D :o

UPDATE: Okay, FedEx Home delivered the NT-1 late yesterday morning and I have had the chance to test it with the Zoom H5 and all went very well. I'm really looking forward to doing some field recording and learning how the NT-1's interpretation of the world differs from the H5's X/Y capsule.

ecc83 said:
Hi Jim,
...<snip>...I see the H5 does 12/24 and 48 V phantom power. If you wanted to know how it might perform with the NT-1 you could load pins 2 and 3 to pin 1 with 10k each and you should measure about 28volts.
...<snip>....
Click to expand...

Dave? Any chance you could provide a step-by-step, annotated explanation of the test you're suggesting? I do have a voltage multimeter somewhere around here.

I understand what you said about manufacturers' reluctance to share much exact, measured info about either power created or required. I mess around a lot with lead/acid 12 volt "deep cycle" batteries (powering electric sheep fencing) and no matter where or what I measure, nothing ever gives me a reading of "12 Volts".

Jim
 
Yes Jim,
Got yer eyes on?
Diagram A is the internal standard phantom power setup.
48 volts is fed thru' a 6k8 resistor* each to pins 2 and 3. This is referenced to pin 1 as earth/return.

I hope you can see that if you poke a meter at a mic XLR on a mixer you will read 48V (+ or - 4V ) because the meter will not load the circuit. However, if you jiggle in a pair of 10ks as per "B" a current of 5.71mA will flow and result in a voltage of 28.55 at pin 2 or 3 if everything is spot on tolerance. It won't be of course but a volt or 3 either way will not matter diddley.

If however you find a lot less than 28V this is almost certainly due to the 48V collapsing because the phantom power generator, a DC-DC converter, is running out of steam.

48V phantom supplies are supposed be able to deliver up to 10mA per XLR. To test this we would need two 2k8 or one 1k4 resistors and across such would be 14volts.
This does not seem an onerous or expensive task to perform on a mixer/AI etc in a review but tis never done AFAIK!

Do come back if I am not clear!

*These should be matched to much better than 1% to preserve a good LF CMRR.

Dave.
 

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  • spook circuit.pdf
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Oh Dave! I can tell that hanging with you is going to keep me on my toes! ;)

Please clarify your "Back of Female XLR" and "Front of ..." By "front of" are talking about looking at the plug from the end at which the cable emerges? ...I think I might have seen this perspective labelled as "solder side" ??

Here's a modified version of your drawing with an XLR diagram I found. I was going to ask about this, but think I've found the answer on my own. What I might have thought was a male XLR plug (the overall plug body fits inside the opposing plug) is actually the female — it has the female pin holes while the other has the male pins.
View attachment spook circuit_SJim_Modif.pdf

I'm hoping that in electronics I now may ALWAYS identify a plug's sexual identity by the sex of its actual pins (male) or sockets (female) rather than by the sex of the plug body. Will that work?

Okay! Lets say I was now going to try to find a couple of 10k's (I'm guessing "resistors"? But, I thought resistors were spec'd in Ohms, not "k"s ???, WHERE would I best go online to secure "10k"s

....and, lets say I was going to mess around like this, are there any other bits and bobs that I might grab at the same time?

Jim
 
Shepherd Jim said:
Oh Dave! I can tell that hanging with you is going to keep me on my toes! ;)

Please clarify your "Back of Female XLR" and "Front of ..." By "front of" are talking about looking at the plug from the end at which the cable emerges? ...I think I might have seen this perspective labelled as "solder side" ??

Here's a modified version of your drawing with an XLR diagram I found. I was going to ask about this, but think I've found the answer on my own. What I might have thought was a male XLR plug (the overall plug body fits inside the opposing plug) is actually the female — it has the female pin holes while the other has the male pins.
View attachment 88734

I'm hoping that in electronics I now may ALWAYS identify a plug's sexual identity by the sex of its actual pins (male) or sockets (female) rather than by the sex of the plug body. Will that work?

Okay! Lets say I was now going to try to find a couple of 10k's (I'm guessing "resistors"? But, I thought resistors were spec'd in Ohms, not "k"s ???, WHERE would I best go online to secure "10k"s

....and, lets say I was going to mess around like this, are there any other bits and bobs that I might grab at the same time?

Jim
Click to expand...

SOOOoo sorry Jim I had assume a level of knowledge you don't have (always tricky to avoid the "granny and egg sucking scenario!) .

"k" Ohms is 1000 of the beggers, short for "kilo". You will find "meg" as well for a million Ohms. Guitar amps and other related kit should have an input impedance (take that as "resistance") of one "meg". Not all do by any means but even the valve snobs don't notice!

Front. back, side of the XLR? I mean the bits you can get at without taking things apart, All XLR connectors are numbered anyway AFAIK.

If you want to get some resistors on the Web look for "10k 1/2 watt Metal Film" but in fact any radio repair shop should let you have a couple for a few cents, anything 10k any wattage will do you.

FYI. Sun has just come out after a very dark and stormy summers day here, tail end of Bertha!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
SOOOoo sorry Jim I had assumed a level of knowledge you don't have (always tricky to avoid the "granny and egg sucking scenario!)...<snip>... any radio repair shop should let you have a couple for a few cents...<snip>...

FYI. Sun has just come out after a very dark and stormy summers day here, tail end of Bertha!

Dave.
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Thanks Dave — no offense taken. I try to do an honest job of not pretending to know things I do not. I learned long ago that people who pretend to know things are very dangerous ...if I assume they do know what they claim, anyway. ;-(

I myself usually revel in my ignorance and attempt to soak up as much new knowledge in whichever situation I find myself.

Your reference to a "radio repair shop" made me laugh. I'm thinking any "radio repair shops" here in the eastern US were replaced by "TV repair shops" in the mid-1950's. Now, I can't remember when I might have last seen a TV repair shop. I just asked a couple of youngsters (30-somethings) from Portland about TV repair shops and they stared at me blankly. LOL

I did find some 10Ks at the Radio Shack up in town. They are "carbon" versus "metal film" but it sounded like they'd work just as well ...maybe carbon ones don't get as hot when they're doing their thing (???? , make sense?)

Glad to here that Bertha treated you well. I have to say that England seems to have its share of extreme weather since Pam and I left in 1976: HOT summers, floods, BLIZZRDS! During the three years we lived in London (1973 -76) we had one EXTREME foggy day (we remember that because we were scheduled to fly to the States for Christmas) and it snowed ONCE -- 4" in London and to the south.

Jim
 
Morning Jim.

"Carbon" resistors could be of two types. "Cracked" carbon film, rarely seen now but were used for low noise stages in hi fi gear but I suspect the Radshak ones are carbon "composition". This is just a mix of graphite and clay type material, a pencil lead in effect! They will be fine for this purpose of loading a phantom power source but are not used in audio today because they generate more noise than C carbon and much more than metal film, the latter being almost universal in gear these days.

Carbon comps' are also less linear than MFs. That is, the current through them is not accurately proportional to the applied voltage, put another way, they do not obey the Law according to Mr Ohm! The effect is tiny, especially at solid state device voltages but the more rabidly purist valve guitar amp guys swear they make a huge difference to "tone". They don't. I know of at least one instance where an amp was duplicated in CCs and MFs and nobody could tell them apart on a valid statistical basis. They tend to go even noisier in G amp front ends and I always swap them for nice, quiet, reliable metal jobbies!

I know what you mean about people's qualifications on forums. I am but a humble electronics tech' (rtrd) who has done a bit of tape recording waaaay back and has put together a modest PC "studio" for a very musical son. I try very hard to stick to the technicals and never to comment on matters of musical taste!

Dave.
 
You know, if you contact Rode service centre they will fix the mic, and quite often at no charge even if it is second hand.

Alan.
 
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