Changing patterns on mic while powered?

C

Cosmic

Active member
Hi,

One of the 'obvious but important' questions ( I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere): do you damage a phantom-powered multi-pattern mic if you change patterns on it with the Phantom power engaged?

My stereo condenser goes dead and then 'humphs' back to life when I change patterns while powered, so I just want to make sure I don't suddenly have a nasty repair bill.

Thanks for the help.

C.
 
Cosmic said:
Hi,

One of the 'obvious but important' questions ( I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere): do you damage a phantom-powered multi-pattern mic if you change patterns on it with the Phantom power engaged?

My stereo condenser goes dead and then 'humphs' back to life when I change patterns while powered, so I just want to make sure I don't suddenly have a nasty repair bill.

Thanks for the help.

C.
Click to expand...

Personally, this probably could be argued all day, but I switch with power off for the simple reason that you never know if you forgot to mute the input of the mixer, or the power amp to your speakers. One time = blown speakers or pre-amp. It is just a good habit to get into.
 
Even thought the Rode K2 has the "inifinite" positions dial to smoothly transission between patterns, it too makes those weird spikes and such.

I've done it before with the power still on, and it doesn't seem to have caused any problems, but I don't now (mainly because I rarely switch out of cardioid mode) - but I'll be wary of this in the future :)
 
It won't hurt the mic or preamp but it can blow your eardrums through your nose if you're wearing headphones and of course , the afore mentioned blown monitors.
 
I change patterns on my CAD M179 without powering off. It's "continuously variable" with a detente point for only the cardioid pattern. I hear no clicks or pops when sweeping through the patterns. I checked the CAD literature before trying it but could find no instructions or warnings about it.
 
There is no reason to power off and you don´t want to
do that espc. with tube mics
because of the wait but you can mute your monitors
from your mixer or controller or... if you are afraid of the possible spikes,
well I´m not so concerned though.
I´we made some shortcuts for Nuendo so I can mute or
take down the listening level from my wireless keyboard if
I´m not near the monitor pot or mute switch. In some 30 years never burnt any monitors so far...

Matti
 
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