So Phantom Power... what is it?

[Y-T]

so i recently bought a new condensor mic, plugged into my new Sound Audigy soundcard and realized it didn't work at all. man said i needed a phantom power, power source. Does this mean a mixer? if not, what do I need for this condensor mic!

 

[Big Kenny]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_power

 

[SRR]

Phantom Power is the power phantoms radiate as they fly thru walls. Or what Kenny is alluding to.....

 

[cusebassman]

Phantom power is essentially a power source that gets sent to the microphone through the mic cable. The specific reason why condensers require power gets more complex than I care to delve into at the moment.

So, your options...

The Soundblaster Audix sound card doesn't have built-in phantom power. I don't even know if you can connect a mic (aside from a PC mic) to it and get a useable signal. You would essentially need a mic preamp or an interface, which I will explain now

Mic preamp: this is a stand-alone unit that you plug the microphone into, which (if the unit offers it), powers the mic, and then allows you to turn up the gain to the point that what is getting played into the microphone comes out at line-level. Line-level is what your Audix sound card accepts, so you would need the mic preamp to do all these things. An inexpensive but very good model is the M-Audio DMP-3.

The only problem with this is that Soundblaster cards aren't designed for audio recording, and as such, the other option makes more sense, and is in about the same budget range.

The audio recording interface. This is a device that connects to your computer via USB or firewire (or moreso, back in the day, by PCI card, but you still see these around too). It allows you to plug various audio devices into it (be it mic, keyboard controller, etc), and then converts the analog signal to digital and passes it into the computer. It does this at a much higher quality than a Soundblaster card will. And since it offers the full package (mic preamp with phantom power, good analog-to-digital converters), it seems like the logical choice. The following is just one of many different interfaces that you can get, but its an inexpensive one that gets decent reviews:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Lexicon-Lambda-USB-Audio-Interface?sku=245506

Poke around the computer recording forum for more information on this, but hopefully it'll get you started. Feel free to ask more questions as they come!

 

[cusebassman]

Oh yeah, you might want to direct future questions to the newbie forum, as out here in the other forums, people are much more abbrasive, and less forgiving of simpler questions... just a heads up

 

[elementary]

If you want a really cheap way round it, look at a behringer mic100 preamp. They are good for the money, although as the guy above said, a decent interface could probably sound a little better.
The difference in sound that hardware eg mics, converters, preamps etc makes is very minimal compared to the difference a well played/tuned instrument makes in a good room, so dont stress too much about mics and pres.

 

[elementary]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar...=yes&session=91c47722f073eb059f1ec4d722332ced

 

[cusebassman]

The Ultragain, another decent pre, especially for its cost... I ran a dynamic through one, and out to the line-in on my powerBook, and it actually sounded pretty clear. Nothing exciting, but if you are looking for something cheap to work with what ya got, then somethin like this might be the way to go. The interface will offer you more flexibility as time goes on, but there's the tossup....

 

[KaveKong]

I bought a phantom power unit for about 40 bucks at Guitar Center. It makes the mic buzz a little, so I have to use a noisegate when I record.

Electricity is great but can really be a pain sometimes.

 

[junplugged]

for a first time phantom, get one that is also a mic preamp. art tube pre with a meter is good if it's less than $50 it has some more uses and is built to last, afaiac ymmv

 

[junplugged]

I bought a phantom power unit for about 40 bucks at Guitar Center. It makes the mic buzz a little, so I have to use a noisegate when I record.

Electricity is great but can really be a pain sometimes.

these days even cheap stuff shouldn't buzz, bring it back or figure out why it's not clean.

 

[cusebassman]

Buy a mic preamp. Im not sure what they are talking about that JUST supplies phantom power (Ive seen such units, but they are the exception)... a mic pre will give you the full package, and you can run its output straight to a line-in jack on your audio card, if you choose not to go with a full-on interface (which will serve you better in the long run, as you won't be so quick to upgrade, but that's your call )

 

[pohaku]

There are lots of stand alone phantom power units around. I've got a couple. But they aren't going to help you if you need a preamp as well. They are useful if your preamp doesn't provide phantom power or doesn't provide enough phantom power.

 

[cusebassman]

Just curious, what pre's don't have phantom built in?

I suppose they would be handy when you are using a mixer that hs mic inputs but either has no phantom, or only has on/off across the board, and you only need it on a few channels... now that I think about it, that would be quite handy

However, I stand by getting a standalone mic pre. The pre (if any) in a SOundblaster isnt going to be anywhere near close to the quality even of the DMP-3, VTB-1, etc... or at least that's been my experience.

 

[pohaku]

I agree, in this circumstance the OP should get a standalone pre or channel strip with phantom.

There are some pres without phantom. The AEA ribbon pre for example. As you already noted, when you have a board that is an all or nothing phantom power arrangement on all channels and you really only want phantom on a couple channels. I've also used it for small venue performing when I have an instrument amp with a vocal channel, but it doesn't have phantom. There are also some preamps, such as the DMP-2, that have poor phantom power. While some mics will work with a range of phantom power -- say 12-48v, some are very particular and really have to have 48v to work right.