Slight Hum/Buzz/Electrical Noise on condenser mic

[trickster223]

Hi everyone.

I recently purchased a Red5 RV6 Condenser Microphone. Loving it so far, but one problem. The mighty buzz. I can't figure out what is causing it, i've tried everything, separating wires etc.. I have the microphone sitting on my desk and I am using balanced XLR cables, although I do a have a bit of a
different set up to what most people would use.

My red5 condenser microphone goes into the input of the phantom power supply (Stagg PCO-S PSU Mic/Microphone Phantom Power Supply) with a usual XLR input cable female/male, and the output cable is an XLR TO 6.3mm STEREO JACK, which then goes into the back of my DM2050 Numark Mixer. The mixer lets me control the gain, and then the RECORD-OUT from the mixer goes into the 'line in' on my PC (using double phono cables to single stereo line cable.) Search google images for 'phono to line cable' to see what I mean.

I recently ordered an M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface to use instead of my mixer. I'm hoping this will reduce the hum. It hasn't arrived yet though.

Is there anything you can suggest for me to do in the mean time that could fix the cause of this hum? Is my setup bad? Have I got a bad phantom power supply? Wrong cables? Something not 'grounded'? PC static?

Also as I mentioned before, all of the XLR cables are balance, except the phono to stereo cable.

I'll try and get an mp3 of the buzz in tomorrow morning.

Help would be appreciated,

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[mshilarious]

Also as I mentioned before, all of the XLR cables are balance, except the phono to stereo cable.

No, they aren't! To have a balanced connection, you have to send a balanced output to a balanced input. The phantom power supply is just a power supply, it's not a transformer or an amplifier. So your connection is unbalanced for the whole chain.

The USB interface with balanced input should fix your problem.

 

[trickster223]

Ok, thanks for the quick reply.

The USB interface arrives today, so i'll hook it up when I get back from work and let you know what happens.

Thanks.

 

[trickster223]

Ok the interface hasn't arrived yet but here is the buzz i'm getting:

Normal or something wrong?

DC.

 

[mshilarious]

Ok the interface hasn't arrived yet but here is the buzz i'm getting:

Normal or something wrong?

DC.

Well, it's typical 50Hz interference, but no, it's not normal for a balanced microphone into a balanced input.. Also there is a peak at 14.5kHz, that's often from a video monitor or sometimes lighting.

 

[trickster223]

Well, the M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface seems to have done it. I have a very nice clean signal. Although I do have another question.

The fast track usb interface doesn't have a built in phatom power suppy, so what I am doing is:

CONDENSER MIC ---> PHANTOM POWER INPUT :: PHANTOM POWER OUTPUT ---> FAST TRACK ---> COMPUTER USB.

Will this type of setup affect my signal? Or am I better off getting something like the M-Audio MobilePre USB which has a built in phantom power supply?

Thanks,

Dan.