Tascam 244 and condencer mics

Illsidgus

Illsidgus

Desiccated Member
This is a simple question, I hope. Can you use condenser microphones with the 244? I can't seem to make it work.

Here is the gear that I have"

MICROPHONES
AT2035
Blue Spark
Shure BG 5.0 small diaphragm (phantom power or AA battery)

POWER SUPPLY
Sterling Audio, PHP1
Behringer, Tube Ultragain MIC100

ADAPTER
Whirlwind Little Imp Lo to Hi Impedance Matcher

And my apparently non-functioning brain.

Am I putting my 244 at risk? Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
famous beagle said:
Yep ... or...

Mic -> XLR -> Berhringer Tube Ultragrain -> 1/4" -> 244 line input
Click to expand...

+1 again. Do the Behringer LEDs show signal with the AT mic? If not the most likely problem is loss of phantom power and that is probably a faulty cable.

Time to get the digital multimeter out and start checking spook volts and continuities.

Dave.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
It should work with mic -> XLR cable -> phantom power supply -> XLR cable -> Little Imp -> mic input of 244.
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Thank you for your advice. The only problem now is, what did I do with my Little Imp? I put it somewhere I would be able to find it when I needed it. I just can't remember where that is.
 
ecc83 said:
+1 again. Do the Behringer LEDs show signal with the AT mic? If not the most likely problem is loss of phantom power and that is probably a faulty cable.

Time to get the digital multimeter out and start checking spook volts and continuities.

Dave.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply. The Behringer shows that it is receiving a signal. I have also tried it with different cables without any luck
 
I've never been able to get this to work despite a lot of experimentation. I used a Rolls phantom power supply and everything. But I think it might not work due to the inputs being 1/4" unbalanced on the 244 while everything else is balanced. My condenser is a tube mic with it's own power supply, so maybe that's causing issue, too?

If someone has gotten this to work please let me know exactly what you did.
 
Nola said:
I've never been able to get this to work despite a lot of experimentation. I used a Rolls phantom power supply and everything. But I think it might not work due to the inputs being 1/4" unbalanced on the 244 while everything else is balanced. My condenser is a tube mic with it's own power supply, so maybe that's causing issue, too?

If someone has gotten this to work please let me know exactly what you did.
Click to expand...

This is a good source of info on interconnecting balanced and unbalanced devices: Sound System Interconnection
 
Illsidgus said:
Thank you for your reply. I the Little Imp not necessary in the signal chain?
Click to expand...

Not in this instance, no. This is because the Behringer is a preamp, and its output is at line level. So you're fine just running an instrument (guitar) cable to the 244's input.
 
Nola said:
I've never been able to get this to work despite a lot of experimentation. I used a Rolls phantom power supply and everything. But I think it might not work due to the inputs being 1/4" unbalanced on the 244 while everything else is balanced. My condenser is a tube mic with it's own power supply, so maybe that's causing issue, too?

If someone has gotten this to work please let me know exactly what you did.
Click to expand...

Did you use an impedance matcher like the Little Imp? If you just run this chain:

Condenser mic --> phantom power supply --> 244 input, your signal is going to be too low.

I use condenser mics with 4-tracks all the time, but I run them through an external preamp. This takes care of the phantom power and also outputs a line level signal, which the 4-track can work with nicely.
 
Some phantom power units have issues when the outputs are unbalanced - i.e. one leg shorted to ground. They are usually capacitor isolated to stop DC going the wrong way, but sometimes, it seems to move the phantom power away from equal on both legs, to one leg being biased, and some mics, especially current hungry ones just don't like their power being compromised. The Stagg ones did this a few years back, but I think the more modern ones are fine.
 
famous beagle said:
Did you use an impedance matcher like the Little Imp?
Click to expand...

Yeah I have tried that, and it still didn't work. I'll have to read up on Boulder's links.
The impedance matcher would connect to the output/xlr coming from the phantom power supply (it' a Rolls dedicated phantom supply), right?
Would using a tube mic condenser with its own power supply matter in any way?
 
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Nola said:
Yeah I have tried that, and it still didn't work. I'll have to read up on Boulder's links.
The impedance matcher would connect to the output/xlr coming from the phantom power supply (it' a Rolls dedicated phantom supply), right?
Would using a tube mic condenser with its own power supply matter in any way?
Click to expand...

No, the tube mic with its own power supply wouldn't make a difference at all. I have one as well, and I've used it with my 246 with no problems. Like I said, though, I always run through an external mic preamp and then run a 1/4" cable from the preamp to the 4-track.
 
A little late here, and I haven't read all the responses but....

I used to use an AKG 414 with a 246 which is very similar.
The chain was as follows;
AKG into AKG phantom power box, out of there to an XLR to 1/4inch adaptor (which i believe had some kind of transformer inside) plugged into the input.
No preamp of any kind. The 246 internal preamps were enough to do the job.

Always worked fine no issues.
 
Cool...but weird. I feel like there's something wrong with my Rolls phantom box.
When I get some time I'll dig out my pre-amp (moved recently) and try that.
 
I use a ART Studio V3 mic preamp, similar to the Behringer, with several condenser mics, on several Tascam / Fostex cassette recorders, without any problems. In goes the XLR of the mic, and out goes the unbalanced jack, into the recorder. The ART has 2 outputs: balanced XLR and unbalanced jack. I only use the unbalanced out.

Hope you manage to get it working!
 
mcf said:
I use a ART Studio V3 mic preamp, similar to the Behringer, with several condenser mics, on several Tascam / Fostex cassette recorders, without any problems. In goes the XLR of the mic, and out goes the unbalanced jack, into the recorder. The ART has 2 outputs: balanced XLR and unbalanced jack. I only use the unbalanced out.

Hope you manage to get it working!
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I do (albeit with a different preamp, but same exact concept).
 
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