Baffled Newbie

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tudordingo

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Hi everyone! I am a complete beginner when it comes to recording, but I've bought some basic equipment to start recording some vocal demos and have no idea how to set it up. The equipment I have is an MXL V67Gs Condenser Mic, an Art Tube MP Pre-amp, several XLR cables, an XLR to USB converter cable and a MacBook Pro with Garageband. I'm trying, failing and getting very frustrated trying to get all of this connected and working.

I bought the pre-amp in order to get phantom power for the mic primarily, but when I plug the pre-amp in the power LED doesn't come on. When I disconnect the power the LED power indicator comes on but then fades off again. What am I missing?! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
maybe your ac connector got loose or something , are you sure u r using an AC power input instead of DC ?
 
I'm using the adaptor that came with the pre-amp. Maybe it's just a dud.
 
if it comes with the preamp so it should be ok , but it seems there s something wrong with your preamp , try to play with power connector ,but it seems it s broken if the preamp itself doesn't even turn on
 
Hold on....Seems the light only should come on for a bit. Then it only lights when signal is introduced.

From the User Manual:

Power/Peak L.E.D.
When power is applied to the TUBE MP the Power/Peak L.E.D.
lights green. This L.E.D. also serves as the signal clip indicator. If
too much signal is present this L.E.D. lights red. If the L.E.D. is
constantly lit, reduce the signal level with the Input Control. The
clip L.E.D. is positioned at the tube's output in the circuitry

Check that you get the LED to light up with a signal first. If that is working, then you have an issue with connection to your mac.

What is this XLR to USB converter you are using? Have you selected the driver for it in Garageband?
 
jimmys69 said:
Hold on....Seems the light only should come on for a bit. Then it only lights when signal is introduced.

From the User Manual:

Power/Peak L.E.D.
When power is applied to the TUBE MP the Power/Peak L.E.D.
lights green. This L.E.D. also serves as the signal clip indicator. If
too much signal is present this L.E.D. lights red. If the L.E.D. is
constantly lit, reduce the signal level with the Input Control. The
clip L.E.D. is positioned at the tube's output in the circuitry

Check that you get the LED to light up with a signal first. If that is working, then you have an issue with connection to your mac.

What is this XLR to USB converter you are using? Have you selected the driver for it in Garageband?
Click to expand...

Garageband seems to have recognised the connection itself, although I'm not sure how to check it properly. The cable I'm using is one I got from Maplin, it's a Microphone to USB recording lead (I can't post a URL here yet, but the model code is A55HZ). I was never sure how I should go about connecting the pre-amp to my laptop and couldn't seem to find a straight answer on any forum (whether XLR to USB was the only option, since I've read there are other, better ways to do it) so I bought this cable thinking it might work as a start anyway. It says the cable can power a mic through USB, although I'm not really sure if it would power the V67 since it needs 48V of phantom power. Either way the cable itself doesn't power the mic either, or at least it doesn't seem to. So I'm not sure exactly where the problem lies.
 
The output of the preamp is line level. You do not want to connect this to the XLR to USB adapter!

Get a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter cable to connect to the mac's mic input. This is not the best route, an interface is much better choice, but it will work. Well, I am assuming the mac has a 1/8" mic input. I'm a PC, so I wouldn't know.
 
I thought this might be the problem somehow. Although I don't think my MacBook has an 1/8" input. Thank you jimmys69! Does anyone with a Mac have any solutions to get my pre-amp connected to one? :S If not the pre-amp will probably be on eBay pretty soon! :)
 
Oh wow, yeah, I just Googled and saw that it does not have an input.

You really should look for an interface with phantom power.
 
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