Phantom Power

[Jordan Niknejad]

I'm going to be recording my drums with a Tascam us1800, i'm using 7 mics, 2 of them are condensers so they need phantom power however you can only supply phantom power to either mics 1-4 or 5-8 on the us1800, but in the tascam manual it says that you shouldnt supply phantom power to mics that don't need it so i don't know what to do, does anyone know if it matters if i do that and if it does do you know what to do thanks

 

[Steenamaroo]

999 times out of 1000 you can safely ignore that warning.
Phantom power will do no harm to your 58s/57s/421s etc, as long as the mics+cables are balanced, the cables are good, and nothing's faulty.

If the manufacturer of a particular mic explicitly states that it shouldn't be exposed to phantom power then that's a different story, but I haven't encountered that yet.

What mics will you be using?

 

[Jordan Niknejad]

Ill be using these cheap ones that come with cables as i don't have much money to spend there called just called ISK drum mics, i would send a link but the page wont let me

 

[Jordan Niknejad]

The mics are called BMD-2, TDM-2 and CM-30

 

[RAMI]

Phantom power is called "Phantom" power for a reason. It works if you need it, and it doesn't work if you don't. It's not going to damage your mic. I know at least one person is going to come in here and post about the .00000001% chance of it damaging .0000001% of mics, but I seriously wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Jordan Niknejad]

Alright awesome that's good to know thanks for you help man!

 

[BroKen_H]

Even if it WOULD damage the mics, just hook up one and turn the phantom on for half an hour or so and see if the smoke comes out....I know it's hard to get the smoke back in, but you'll only be out one cheap mic...

 

[Jordan Niknejad]

Alright cool, what's the smoke?

 

[BroKen_H]

Alright cool, what's the smoke?

The smoke comes when you burn up the wiring...it's a joke, son.

 

[RAMI]

The smoke comes when you burn up the wiring...it's a joke, son.

Your humor isn't that obscure, but I seem to be the only one that gets it. I'm still laughing about the condensed milk.

 

[witzendoz]

The smoke comes when you burn up the wiring...it's a joke, son.

Actually it's when you pop a smoke seal and the smoke escapes.

Alan.

 

[Farview]

I had a console with 32 channels for 20 years. All of the channels had the phantom switched on the entire time I owned it. Nothing bad happened because of it.

 

[dainbramage]

I've heard it could be risky if we're dealing with ribbon mics. Is that wrong?

 

[Farview]

I've heard it could be risky if we're dealing with ribbon mics. Is that wrong?

Only when you are dealing with older ribbon designs. But, since these are very rare and insanely expensive, it's a good bet that someone on a home recording forum asking this question doesn't have one.

As always, look in the owners manual for the mic to see if it is a problem or not.

 

[Jordan Niknejad]

I've been using them all day to day and they've been fine, thanks for everyone's help! Im new to recording so if anyone has any general tips that would be great, thanks!