Feedback and phantom power

  • Thread starter Thread starter thetmg84
  • Start date Start date
T

thetmg84

New member
This is my first post so be gentle with me!
Iv been using my pc with a line6 ux2 interface and ableton live lite to record guitars and vocals with no problems. I recently acquired some drum mics so me and my drummer friend went about setting everything to record.
All 7 drum mics went to a mixer and then into one input on the interface, my guitar went into another input on the interface so we could record guitar and drums on separate tracks *at the same time. We had a set of headphones each coming from a splitter in the headphone socket of the interface. I had the phantom power switch on the mixer as the 2 overhead mics needed it, when the drums were played an awful feedback type noise would occur through our headphones and would only go away after everything was unplugged. I thought it might have been the phantom power so I turned it off and we proceeded without overheads. Everything worked and we managed to record.*
The next day I thought I'd try again. I added a headphone amp to the headphone output so 3 of us could listen. The same noise occurred like before. removing the overheads and turning off the phantom power did not help this time either. I played back a recording from the previous day and that set the noise off again! I then removed the headphone amp and used only one set of headphones to listen to the recording and it was ok. By this point I had given up on recording drums so I tried the overhead mics straight into the interface and everything sounded fine. I'm very new to recording and maybe I'm making an obvious mistake. Could it be some dodgy cables? Too many headphones? The phantom power? The interface? the mixer? Or all of them! I'm really confused so any help is gratefully appreciated.*
 
Your problem is most likely not related to dodgy cables, too many headphones, phantom power, the interface or the mixer. Most likely they are all doing exactly what they are supposed to do.

It seems to me that the problem lies in how things are wired up, and it sounds like you have set up a feedback loop somehow. Exactly how you've done this, I'm not sure.
 
Cheers for the reply.
I set it up like this........
Drum mics to Samson mpl 1502 mixer then tape out to instrument input on interface.
Guitar amp mic'd into mic1 input of interface and headphones out of interface.
Should I be using the 'line inputs' on the intreface instead of mic or instrument inputs?
Mixer outputs are 'main out' 'aux send' and 'tape out'
Interface inputs are 'mic 1&2' 'instrument-normal and pad' and 'line inputs 1&2'
Interface outputs are 'analog out 1/L & 2/R' and 'headphones'
 
1 Drum mikes into mixer is fine. Tape out of mixer is fine. This should go to a line in on the interface, not an instrument in.
2 Guitar amp miked into mic1 is fine.

You can usually run a headphone amp from the headphones out, though it would work better on the analog out. You may have speakers connected to these. If so, do yo have them turned off when you record?
 
Isolate the source of feedback. Unplug one mic at a time, keep turning on the system and see when it DOESN'T happen. Maybe you've got a mixer channel that is shorting out, for example.
 
Last edited:
I don't have any speakers plugged in.
Il try going in the line inputs and out of the analog outpts and see what happens.
Thank you very much for your help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top