Mics

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recwall

New member
I bought a Audio Technica Condensor mic - I think it's the 8441 or something. Before that I was using a realistic PZM for everything. Mostely because it has a 20hz to 20 khz Flat frequency response and I always got quality clean recordings. They don't make them anymore... maybe because they were as good if not better than the Crown's and they were only 60 bucks. ( by the way if you go to a radio shack ask if they still have them around, no one in the store usually knows what they are much less how good they one at the one near me. I made the guy go back and look - he had no clue what it was, he was happy to get 20 bucks for it.

So I buy this condensor mic thinking it's time to step up, at least for vocals. I plug the Audio Technica into a behringer 6 track mixer and I get nice tone but some hum anlong with it. I change cables - same Hum, I use a seperate mic pre and go direct, same Hum, but The PZM is silent in comparison. I take the mic back - they check it out at the store - No Hum, sounds great... They let me take a new one anyway, I take it home -- same hum. It's not horrible, I can tweak it out in post. But I wanted to love this mic, it came reccomended by a friend of mine who loves it and doesn't have the same problem. I have a flat screen monitor, so it's not the monitor, no florescent lights or other electrical interference I can pin point. Any Ideas, anyone, ...beuler?
 
My guess is that it's the mixer.

I've got a Behringer MX802a (8 track behringer), and I've recently noticed that the mic preamps in the mixer suck, they suck real bad. You probably didn't notice this too much before, because you didn't have to use the preamps too much to use the PZM (because I'm assuming it had a 1/4" cable, instead of an XLR [3 pin] cable.)

Anyways, I have the same problem with one of the channels. It has an electrical hum when you turn up the gain, even if you don't put anything in it.

What I would do is bring your mic over to your friends' house and test it out on his mixer.

If it is the mixer I would suggest that you either get a new mixer (I'm working on saving the dough to get a new one) or get a cheap outboard preamp, and plug the mic into it, and it into your mixer through the 1/4" jacks.

Could you describe the hum? Is it an electrical hum, or is it just a hissing sound?

It also might be that if you are in the same room as your computer, you might be picking up fan noise, etc. - try recording in another room.

Edit: PS... you might have better luck with getting an answer if you post in a topic related to mics or mixers. I don't know if Cool Edit is the best place for an answer.
 
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