HEIL PR40 very quiet

F

flomman

New member
Hi. I don't have a whole lot of experience. I'm running a Heil PR40 into a Mackie ProFX8 mixer and from there into a Windows 7 laptop via USB. The thing is that when I record, it is extremely quiet and the wave form is almost invisible. This is with the slider set to normal and the gain set in the middle. Even with the gain and slider set very high it is still quiet, but there is an audible static hiss -quiet but there. If I then normalize the recording, the vocal is great but there is a huge static hiss going on. Can anyone tell me 1) Why everything is soooo quiet, and 2) why there is this static hiss and how I can avoid it? I am recording in reaper, but every recording program I have used does the same thing.

Here is an example of the unprocessed sound: (Please remove the spaced from this link, after the first 2 "W"s and before the ".com" in order to use it) ww w.dropbox .com/s/vpk0ss61uqahxay/No%20Processing.mp3

Here is an example of the same clip having been normalized: (Please remove the spaced from this link, after the first 2 "W"s and before the ".com" in order to use it) ww w.dropbox .com/s/is6661o03rv9nsd/Normalized.mp3

Anyone got any ideas?
 
What cable are you using? It should be XLR-f to XLR-m.

Dynamic mics generally require more gain than condensers so this could be normal.(I haven't checked the links.)
I rely on on preamps with plenty of gain and no hiss with my dynamic mics.
 
Thanks for the replies! I'm using an XLR cable which fits all the sockets correctly. I understand about the gain needing to be a higher for dynamic mics, but surely full gain is not normal, and even if it is, it's still not very loud. In the recordings I have linked to in the original post, I am super close to the mic as well. Reason tells me that there is something not right here. I have not tried going from the mixer directly to a speaker. I'll try it and see what happens. In the mean time if anyone thinks of anything else...! :thumbs up:
 
arcaxis said:
- Similarly to trying speakers, you could try a set of headphones into the Mackie.
- Are the LED meters on the Mackie showing any signal and if so can it be adjusted up to the yellow or red region?
- Do you have something else to plug into a channel to see how it compares with the mic and see if you can attain a recordable level.
- You had mentioned tweaking the Gain and Slider. Was the Slider just for the mic channel or did you also push the "Main" slider up as well?
Click to expand...

^^^ Go through that one by one. Good info.
 
I have used headphones directly out of the Mackie. The result is the same only the static is louder. The LED meter is showing, but I cannot get it into the Yellow without raising my voice. I have plugged some other mics into other channels and the result is more-or-less the same, but the are only cheap mics. The slider I was referring to was the channel slider, but the main slider is also up. The main slider only has an effect to the sound when listening to the headphones directly out of the Mackie. The audio which comes into the laptop via USB is not effected by the main slider.
 
I understand that there is no problem with the Heil itself, I'm just not sure what I am doing wrong which is causing this low level of sound.
 
Thanks arcaxis. I will try what you say. I do not think that the XLR cable is at fault since they were not bottom-of-the-range and I have three. All three of them perform the same. I was sitting last night and thinking through this logically. The Heil I think is fine, since the other mics I have are providing the same results. I do not think it is the XLR cable for the reasons given above. I had wondered if it might be due to using a Windows machine instead of a Mac, but the mixer is supposed to be able to work on a Windows machine, and no one on this forum has yet mentioned that it might be a problem. The only thing left is that the mixer is defective. I really did not want this to be the case, but I cannot think of any other answer. I will have to try and get another piece of kit from somewhere and test it out.
 
Sounds like you are recording directly into your computer? If so could be the source of the hiss. I understand some mixers, via USB, produce noise when going directly to PC. If that is not the case, then pushing up the gain, also pushes up the noise floor, you could try a preamp such as the Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter CL-1 $150 on Amazon, Amazon.com: Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter CL-1: Musical Instruments I have also heard good things about the Triton FetHead preamp. Might try running your mixer output to a pro recording device like the Zoom H4N $269 with a nice bundle, Amazon.com : Zoom H4n Handy Recorder Bundle with Carrying Case, 16GB SD Card, Headphones, Mini Tripod, 3.5mm Cable, 1/8-Inch-to-RCA Cable, and 8 AA Batteries : Digital Voice Recorders : Electronics then processing the audio in the computer after recording.

John Hames
 
Are you guys recording the mic dry or do you have effects (read: add hiss) on the signal? I've never found the PR40 to be noisy mic.

I have noticed that the PR40 is not the hottest mic on the market---that, like with the SM7B*, is something that is an advantage for the rejection of unwanted sounds in an otherwise imperfect/untreated recording environment. It's the condenser-like tone of the mic, coupled with its rejection of unwanted signal, that makes the PR40 so useful. All of this usually entails closer miking for maximum benefit.

Paj
8^)

*Noticeably hotter than an SM7B, though . . .
 
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