UK/European equivalent to Electrovoice RE20?

[jamesperrett]

Quite ^ And the mic also has a high sensitivity of -33dB/22mV/Pa and that is like having an extra 20dB+ of gain over an SM58 that you cannot turn off!

Many interfaces do not go lower than 10dB of pre amp gain and so an XLR attenuator could work to bring the whole mic/pre sensitivity in line with a dynamic.

Fortunately the Dbx box that the OP is using has a more sensible gain range. The big danger is using too many of its facilities on the way into the computer. Too much compression will bring out any background noises so it would be much safer to just use the Dbx as a preamp and process afterwards if needed.

[arcaxis]

Many thanks for that, Dave - very useful. I confess that, until now, I'd never heard of XLR attenuators but will explore further (and it looks like they're a lot cheaper than a new mic!). Thanks again!

If I'm not mistaken your AT2035 has a -10dB PAD switch on it to cut the signal. No need for an extra attenuator.

[DJGJUK]

Warning Will Robinson!
Take great care with XLR pads. They're really simple - usually just 3 resistors in an XLR male to female barrel - but - most mess up your phantom power to the mic. Some have feedthrough power, but most don't. I must admit that I have never needed attenuation on my condensers from speech - the gain controls on all my kit cope with lips to grill speech, and singing as long as they're not belters. With the interface on their lowest settings all mine can even manage things like radio mic receivers and even line level XLR without peaking.

Thank you, Rob!

[DJGJUK]

Fortunately the Dbx box that the OP is using has a more sensible gain range. The big danger is using too many of its facilities on the way into the computer. Too much compression will bring out any background noises so it would be much safer to just use the Dbx as a preamp and process afterwards if needed.

Thank you very much, James. I have found the noise gate on the dbx very helpful, but when I reconnect the AT I will now relook at - and experiment with - the compressor settings.

[DJGJUK]

If I'm not mistaken your AT2035 has a -10dB PAD switch on it to cut the signal. No need for an extra attenuator.

You're absolutely correct! Thank you very much for pointing that out (the AT is still in its box so I double checked online!)

[ecc83]

Warning Will Robinson!
Take great care with XLR pads. They're really simple - usually just 3 resistors in an XLR male to female barrel - but - most mess up your phantom power to the mic. Some have feedthrough power, but most don't. I must admit that I have never needed attenuation on my condensers from speech - the gain controls on all my kit cope with lips to grill speech, and singing as long as they're not belters. With the interface on their lowest settings all mine can even manage things like radio mic receivers and even line level XLR without peaking.

Whilst I agree Rob that the series elements of a pad will reduce phantom power to soem extent they are usually in the range of 470 -510 Ohms and thus do not add much to the 6k8s already in the line. The terminating resistor is just in parallel with the source and there will be additional parallel Rs inside the mic, often another 6k8 pair.
The attenuators to steer clear of are the 4R type where the load pair are tied to pin 1 and therefore DO attenuate the DC.

The AT mic in anycase has a wide voltage range and draws a modest 3.8mA. And as the OP said, the pads are cheap enough so give one a go. Never a bad thing to have in the gig bag (along with a polarity flipper).

Dave.

[DJGJUK]

Many thanks to everyone for your really helpful advice - I very much appreciate you taking the time to respond. All things considered, I think I'll be going back to my AT2035!