Phantom Power

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robbieaz62

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Possibly a stupid question but I have to ask. I recently bought a dbx 266xs. I am running an SM58 and an AKG C1000S directly into it's xlr inputs. I have the xlr outputs going into a Yamaha AW1600. Now to the question: Can phantom power from the AW1600 damage this dbx unit with it connected this way?
 
no,,theres no phantom power coming from the outs,,it only goes to the mic ins to power the mic,,,like on a cpu usb ,,,it only sends power to the device
power is not sent out of the the headpnone jack
 
Yes the phantom will fry the output of the dbx, you have it connected wrong, the dbx does not have mic inputs it has line inputs. You have to connect the mics directly to the Yamaha. As I don;t think the Yamaha has insert points I don't think you can connect the dbx unless you get an external mic pre and connect the dbx between the mic pre and the yamaha, with the phantom turned off on the yamaha.

Alan
 
suringe said:
no,,theres no phantom power coming from the outs,,it only goes to the mic ins to power the mic,,,like on a cpu usb ,,,it only sends power to the device
power is not sent out of the the headpnone jack
Click to expand...

What the heck are you talking about?
 
witzendoz said:
What the heck are you talking about?
Click to expand...

Like wise....The AW1600 has insert points on the first two channels. That is where you want to plug in the compressor NOT run the mics THROUGH it. I cant imagine theres a lot of gain on anything this way as has been said the INPUTS of the 266 are LINE LEVEL.

Get a book.
 
If you're plugging your condenser mic into your dbx, it's probably not going to work anyway, as the dbx won't provide phantom power
 
I had the mics running through the dbx (the condenser was running on battery) and I had plenty of gain into the AW1600. It actually sounded good, quiet, and appeared to be working. The only reason I did that was because my Behringer Ultragain Pro 2200 mic preamp was not giving me enough gain into the 1600 so I bypassed it (I can't figure out what the problem is there but that's another story). I had the phantom power off on the 1600 but I'd rather group all 4 of my mics together and leave it on and not have to mess with it (it's split switchable, 1-4 and 5-8).

I'm really not a total noob, just new to the 1600 and mic'ing everything. I used to use a drum machine and run line level for guitar, bass and synth and a vocal mic straight into my old Tascam 488. The AW1600 only has a pair of global aux outs that must be returned into a pair of input channels (for stereo, that is). You can route channels to the aux outs (I have yet to try this) but there are no actual hard insert points. So to be able to use the dbx for tracking I would need to route the pre-recorder mic signal to the aux outs, into the dbx, and back into the track?
 
I don't really understand the dbx unit, but if it has two independent channels (a reasonable assumption) and your AW1600 has two inserts on channels 1/2 (according to the picture I'm looking at) then I'm not seeing the problem, apart from not having the requisite insert cables at hand.

What cavedog said....
 
If you're connecting a microphone to a dbx line level input, and a line level output from the dbx into a microphone level input of a mixer with phantom power, then you are using your equipment wrong.

Whether or not +48 will cause damage, i'm not sure,

but you need to make sure line level outputs go to line level inputs,
or as others have suggested, put the compressor in an insert loop.
 
You DO understand that an INSERT POINT has the signal going both ways??? There's a gozinta and a gozouta. A manual will explain the way that they do their inserts.....ie: the insert will need a tip/ring/sleeve connector. One will be in and one will be out.


How you patch it to the compressor will be up to you.

The ONLY way you had enough gain was simply because you had enough make-up gain on the line outs into the mic pre ins. Really theres nothing wrong with this as long as you keep the phantom off. It will work but its not optimal to the design of your gear.
 
A chance to use the little guy. LOL!
 

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Tascam 488......Behringer Ultragain pro 2200.......dbx 266xl.......switchover to digital standalone........this is rather deja vu !
You can, in a crude way run mics or whatever directly through the 266 but if you have the ultragain 2200 and you're not getting enough gain, are you connecting your mics with a male to female XLR cable and going out via at least a female XLR ? I've found that if I use an XLR to jack cable connected to a male XLR connector or straight into the jack input of the 2200, I'll get hum and I can't get a decent level. However, going in with a straight male~female XLR cable into the 2200 and then using an XLR~jack cable on output going into either my 488 or my Akai DPS 12i, there are no issues. No hum of any kind and a level so clear and high that even my shitty mics will pick up the kids arguing downstairs or enable whoever is singing to sing from 7 feet away and be picked up loud and clear. The standalones have their own on board preamps too which helps. One other thing, check that the battery in the condenser isn't dying.
 
I appreciate the input, but please don't assume I'm an idiot just because I was unclear about what kind of inputs the dbx unit had. My question was unit specific and does not mean that I don't inderstand signal flow. My confusion arose because the thing has XLR inputs and outputs as well as TRS 1/4" jacks and I thought perhaps the XLRs were mic level and the 1/4" jacks were line level. I've never used any other gear that had XLR jacks that wasn't mic level.

I don't know what picture you're looking at but I can tell you that there are no insert jacks on the AW1600. There are only the 8 combo XLR/TRS channel inputs. And there is no traditional effects loop. There is a pair of stereo/aux outs that must be brought back in on channel inputs. That is the way I'll be attempting to hook it up in the future since I now know what kind of inputs/outputs I'm dealing with.

And for record, according to a support guy at dbx, phantom power will not harm the unit, though since I won't be connecting it that way the point is moot.
 
Grimtraveller, to answer your question, I was using XLR/XLR cables from the mic into the Ultragain and XLR/XLR cables out of the Ultragain to the AW1600 channel inputs. You're saying that it works better to use an XLR to 1/4" from the Ultragain to the channel inputs? I'm going to try this. Hopefully it will fix my problem because it's driving me nuts!

I had a new battery in the condenser mic. But I was having the same level problem on my dynamic as well.
 
robbieaz62 said:
You're saying that it works better to use an XLR to 1/4" from the Ultragain to the channel inputs?
Click to expand...
I wasn't saying that that was the answer because I don't know that it is. All the inputs of my two units are 1/4" jack so that's how I came to use XLR~jack as the output cable. I've tried various combinations out of {and for that matter, into} the ultragain. The particular one that worked works on both dynamics and condensers. To be honest, I would've thought that XLR~XLR would do just as well if not better as an output cable if your DAW has XLR inputs.
Keep persevering. Unless the ultragain is damaged in some way, the answer is out there, somewhere. Though I read the manuals, alot of this is trial and error for me because the language of the manual isn't always clear. Once the ultragain works, it really works well and it's not noisy.
 
Stupid Yamaha. The images they supply for this unit include a top view and another view and then a back view of an AW2400, which has inserts. WTF?
 
I have to say, the manual that came with the ultragain is one of the best I've seen. I've had this ultragain for several years but had never used it (I wasn't using any of my gear for awhile). It's possible it's bad. The tube glows for what that's worth ... I have a CXR Telcom 702 test set and am going to run some level tests with various cable combinations to see if there's a difference. The impedance is a little high to get really accurate information but I can at least do some comparative measurements.
 
I wish I had the 2400. Inserts would be nice, as would the extra tracks ...
 
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