Question about ECM8000

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tradivoro

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Hi everybody, this is my first post here, I find this place to be a great forum, where people discuss equipment, as opposed to other things... :) Anyway, I bought an ECM8000 recently. If I leave it by itself connected to the preamp, I get all these low rumblings... I don't get this with my other mics... When I'm singing, sometimes these happen too... Does this mean that this is a defective mic, or is there another reason why it's happening. Any info appreciated, thanks.
 
Are all of your other mics dynamic mics? I'm guessing yes. Condensor mics are much more sensitive to noise and vibration than dynamic mics are.

H2H
 
Yea, the reason you're hearing that kind of stuff is because it's a reference mic, and it's designed to pretty much pick up everything. Which can be both good and/or bad.
 
chessrock said:
Yea, the reason you're hearing that kind of stuff is because it's _______________________, and it's designed to pretty much pick up everything. Which can be both good and/or bad.
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..... an omni microphone
 
The pickup pattern has much less to do with it than the frequency response and overall sensitivity. The Behri is probably pretty much flat all the way down to maybe 10 hz, I would imagine.

The low rumblings he's hearing could be anything . . . heating system, refrigerator . . . traffic or elephants. :D
 
chessrock said:
The pickup pattern has much less to do with it than the frequency response and overall sensitivity. The Behri is probably pretty much flat all the way down to maybe 10 hz, I would imagine.
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Yep, as any more or less well designed true omni condenser. Since its capsule doesn't have a backchamber equalisation hole, I suspect it might go even down to DC and the frequency response is limited by head electronics.

I still believe though, the omni pattern is responsible for the rumble.
 
Is your microphone located in the jungle by any chance?

War
 
Hi guys, thanks for all your replies... All my mikes are large diagphram condensers.... And they never make any noise... This thing is actually making noises, kind of pops that are like rumbles, its not like a contant low level noise, like, even if you don't have the volume up and the mike is just sitting there, you can see jumps in the preamp level... So, I'm just wondering if you guys have experienced that with this particular microphone...
 
tradivoro said:
Hi guys, thanks for all your replies... All my mikes are large diagphram condensers.... And they never make any noise... This thing is actually making noises, kind of pops that are like rumbles, its not like a contant low level noise, like, even if you don't have the volume up and the mike is just sitting there, you can see jumps in the preamp level... So, I'm just wondering if you guys have experienced that with this particular microphone...
Click to expand...

It looks like "motorboating", well known from tube amps era. Yes, I have experienced this, and the problem is in filtering of the voltage coming to internal FET of the capsule. I would not bother fixing it (unless you can do it yourself), as it will be more expensive than to buy a new one (these are very cheap.) If you want to sell it PM me with your offer--I could use it for experiments, or else, I can guide you through troubleshooting.
 
tradivoro said:
Hi guys, thanks for all your replies... All my mikes are large diagphram condensers.... And they never make any noise... This thing is actually making noises, kind of pops that are like rumbles, its not like a contant low level noise, like, even if you don't have the volume up and the mike is just sitting there, you can see jumps in the preamp level... So, I'm just wondering if you guys have experienced that with this particular microphone...
Click to expand...
I wonder if by chance the diaphragm collected a little moisture... have you tried drying out the capsule yet?
 
i had the same exact problem with one of mine after a week, and the other developed a horrible hiss (not the minimal room noise/white noise usually associated with these mics). i sent them both back, decided i didn't even want to bother with the bs. i was going to be using them as overheads, but i found a good deal on an v67 w/ shockmount on ebay, so i'll be using a pair of those instead. lesson: if buying behringer gear, especially mics, make sure you buy from a place with a good return policy.
 
I don't know... I'm using a pop filter about 4 inches away from the mic, and I'm singing about 2 inches away from the pop filter, so I don't know how moisture could have gotten there... I'll see what happens today if I get some of the same behavior... Thanks for replying...

DJL said:
I wonder if by chance the diaphragm collected a little moisture... have you tried drying out the capsule yet?
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They have a good return policy... I guess I'll just see if it does this over the next couple of days... I'd like to keep this cause everyone has spoken well of it as a real omni for very cheap... So we'll see what happens, thanks..

heroics321 said:
i had the same exact problem with one of mine after a week, and the other developed a horrible hiss (not the minimal room noise/white noise usually associated with these mics). i sent them both back, decided i didn't even want to bother with the bs. i was going to be using them as overheads, but i found a good deal on an v67 w/ shockmount on ebay, so i'll be using a pair of those instead. lesson: if buying behringer gear, especially mics, make sure you buy from a place with a good return policy.
Click to expand...
 
DJL said:
I wonder if by chance the diaphragm collected a little moisture... have you tried drying out the capsule yet?
Click to expand...

It is very unlikely with this particular mic, but who knows....
As I said, when I had similar problem in mine, it was the filtering problem.
 
Hi Marik, thanks for your reply... I'm going to keep it a couple fo days, since I have a return policy with this mic, and see if it continues to do it constantly... But yeah, motorboating would be the best description, and I thank for your offer to walk me through this, but I wouldn't have a clue fixing it... :)

Marik said:
It looks like "motorboating", well known from tube amps era. Yes, I have experienced this, and the problem is in filtering of the voltage coming to internal FET of the capsule. I would not bother fixing it (unless you can do it yourself), as it will be more expensive than to buy a new one (these are very cheap.) If you want to sell it PM me with your offer--I could use it for experiments, or else, I can guide you through troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
 
tradivoro said:
They have a good return policy... I guess I'll just see if it does this over the next couple of days... I'd like to keep this cause everyone has spoken well of it as a real omni for very cheap... So we'll see what happens, thanks..
Click to expand...
thats why i bought them, and i was very happy with them up until said problem. i hope you have some luck in getting everything worked out. if i were you, i would exchange it anyway, as the problem with mine would occasionally vanish for short periods only to reappear. my main reason for not bothering was that i took a dive and bought mine from musician's friend, and i didn't want to deal with 2-3 weeks or more of shipping packages back and forth until i got some good ones. i may purchase one in the future, but i'll have guitar center order me some to try out in the store.
 
Well, so far today, it didn't do it in another recording test, so we'll see what happens tomorrow... Maybe it will be like yours that it recurs every couple of days... But I tell you, it sounds very good for a $50 mic... :)

heroics321 said:
thats why i bought them, and i was very happy with them up until said problem. i hope you have some luck in getting everything worked out. if i were you, i would exchange it anyway, as the problem with mine would occasionally vanish for short periods only to reappear. my main reason for not bothering was that i took a dive and bought mine from musician's friend, and i didn't want to deal with 2-3 weeks or more of shipping packages back and forth until i got some good ones. i may purchase one in the future, but i'll have guitar center order me some to try out in the store.
Click to expand...
 
tradivoro... you could try drying the capsules slowly under a 100-watt light bulb or stick the mics in a plastic zip-lock bag along with some good silicon gel packs... zip it up overnight... (until morning) and see if that helps.
 
Hi thanks DJL... apparently, that is not the problem... I used it today and there was none of that rumbling, so it may be more of an intermitent thing, I gotta test it a few days more...

DJL said:
tradivoro... you could try drying the capsules slowly under a 100-watt light bulb or stick the mics in a plastic zip-lock bag along with some good silicon gel packs... zip it up overnight... (until morning) and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
 
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