SM57 into Hi-Z

[jjhipv]

Hi,

I apologise if this has been asked a lot before (I did try the search).

I've recently bought an Apogee One and have been messing about with it and testing the different inputs and internal mic. According to Apogee there are several different input possibilities:

1)Internal Mic
2) External Mic
3) Instrument input
4) Internal mic + instrument input
5) External mic + instrument input

Just to see if it was possible I ran an SM57 into the instrument input (using an xlr - mono jack cable) and a condenser into the mic input at the same time to record two mics simultaneously. This worked just fine and recording of the SM57 through the instrument input sounded fine (not loads of noise or anything). In fact it didn't seem to sound much different at all to when I record the SM57 into the mic input as would be normal.

I get that it's not normal to send a mic into a Hi-z input, but if I'm not experiencing any noise when doing this is there any other problem that could occur? Is it likely to damage the preamp of the instrument input?

Thanks.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

It won't hurt anything.

 

[jjhipv]

Ok thanks, that's good to know.

I'm thinking I will probably get an impedance transformer though just so I don't need to pump the gain as much.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Ok thanks, that's good to know.

I'm thinking I will probably get an impedance transformer though just so I don't need to pump the gain as much.

That might help, but going from a mic to high Z is okay for short distances and when you don't need phantom. If you get the level you need and the noise isn't a problem then you don't need to solve it with a transformer.

 

[jjhipv]

Ok great.

Thanks very much for the info, that's good to know.