Microphone Distortion Assistance

[mitch100]

Hi. I'm wondering if I could get some help with an issue I'm having.

Using a Neumann M149 Mic, through the following:

1) Focusrite Vocal Master pre into a digi-002 1/4 in, gain on Digi002 set at unity (All the way down).

or

2) Focusrite Octo-pre into a digi-002 via optical (no gain staging available!)

in both cases I am encountering distortion during some louder passages of vocal performance. These performances are for acoustic based rock, no shouting and are reasonable level.

No peak distortions meters on protools or on any of the devices (focusrite or digi002, or protools).

I'm wondering if the problem could be:

1) Problem with the mic (this is the 2nd mic of this exact model/brand that I've tried that experienced this problem) so I believe the problem may be:

2) The m149 output is so strong, it's distorting at the mic pres....

3) My Digi002 is crapping out. (not likely, other mics don't distort...)

Does anyone have any experiences/thoughts that they could share that may help?

I'm thinking about purchasing a 10 db pad to put in line between the Mic and the preamps to see if that helps, but I wanted to ask if anyone else may have experienced a problem like this...

Thanks in advance for any/all assistance!

 

[Cosmic]

Hi Mitch,

That does sound strange. I could understand if the 149 was punching the pres so hard that they would show clipping, but you are saying that you are not seeing anything like that on the meters, just hearing it, if I get you correctly.

I have a 147, a US69 and a set of 184s and they all certainly have a hot signal, but that has always been a good thing, and not something so crazy that I can't drive them cleanly. I can't imagine that they would design the 149 to be so hot that it would not run well with something like your Focusrite. That said, of course, you never know.

Have you run another large dia. condenser through the same chains? The reason I ask is that the only 'left-field option' that comes to me is perhaps related to the phantom power. It for any reason it is lower than 48V, you could (maybe, MAYBE) be having clip issues due to the mic being starved....this is really like my 'last possible option' theory, but it doesn't hurt to bring it to the table, since little else seems to make sense in this scenario.
You are positive that nowhere in the chain, anything is getting more than it should?

C.

 

[mitch100]

Thanks for responding. The mic has it's own power supply, phantom power is off when recording....I'd hate to send the mic off for repairs if it turn out to be bad a/d converters or something else in the signal chain...