Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How to connect condensed Mic to PC mono mic Input

This is topic How to connect condensed Mic to PC mono mic Input in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 11-12-2009, 04:07 PM:

What is the correct way to make an adaptor for connecting a condensed microphone to a pc mono mic input. I want to try an RTA sofware and I don't want to damage something.
Demetris

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 11-12-2009, 04:54 PM:

FWIW, it's condenser mic, not condensed. [Wink]

Condenser being the old term for capacitor, which is how the mic works (it's pickup element is essentially a capacitor). Depending on the mic you have, it may require 48V phantom power down the line, or it may use an internal battery. If it uses a battery, you should be good to go - just be prepared for higher levels on the input.

Phantom power would be trickier and I don't have a quick answer for that.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 11-12-2009, 04:59 PM:

It might be a lot cheaper/easier to just get a microphone made for the PC. But if you insist on putting a professional-level microphone (like a condenser mic which probably has an XLR connector) into a PC then you can get pre-amps with USB or Firewire interfaces and that'll give you some pretty high quality sound. It might help us to give you advice if you tell us the model of microphone. I'm not sure what "RTA software" means.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 11-12-2009, 05:07 PM:

RTA = Real-Time Analyzer

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 11-12-2009, 05:46 PM:

I'll guess that the easiest way would be through microphone mixer with phantom supply and unbalanced output...assuming that the PC has an unbalanced mic input. I think Behringer make such units.

Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 11-12-2009, 06:28 PM:

Most measurement microphones work on 12-15V also, so on sound card mic input you also have voltage for it, tip is signal hot (input) ring is power....about 12V and slave is ground....so, if you have XLR on mic go this way:

GND from PC to no 1 and 3 of mic XLR
TIP to 2 of mic XLR via cca 4uF cond
Slave to 2 via 2k resistor

This cond and resistor are all ready in mic input....but newer know are they in all....so better to put them, than to kill sound card input.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-12-2009, 07:11 PM:

Would the microphone input even be good enough for such a task? Those things usually aren't built to the best of quality and feature distortion galore, especially on laptops.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-13-2009, 08:31 AM:

PSC Audio and others make inline phantom power (and T-power) supplies for connecting microphones to preamps that don't supply it. They work fine. A USB interface/preamp with phantom power would probably be simpler, though.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-13-2009, 11:23 AM:

The USB pre is an excellent unit it is supplied with the D2 also there is a good unit called Maudio which I have used for recording
be carefull most measurement mics are phantomed at 9-12v not the 48 volt of studio mics
I have used my d2 mics for recording and Tim provided a set of adapters to protect the mic

Posted by Robert Minichino (Member # 3495) on 11-13-2009, 03:55 PM:

The MXL Mic Mate is excellent; it's a USB-powered microphone preamp with 48V phantom power. It has an XLR jack on one end and a USB jack on the other, and it has three fixed gain settings, which is good if you calibrate your microphone in software.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-13-2009, 05:45 PM:

http://www.m-audio.ca/products/en_ca/MobilePreUSB.html

http://www.sounddevices.com/products/usbpremaster.htm

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 11-18-2009, 09:31 PM:

quote: Gordon McLeod
I have used my d2 mics for recording and Tim provided a set of adapters to protect the mic

What adapters? Don't you connect the mics through the multiplexer when you use your D2?

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-19-2009, 07:15 AM:

yes i do but i sometimes use the mics by themselves for recording directly into the usb pre and the 48v phantom would fry them

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 11-19-2009, 09:21 PM:

That sounds like a good idea also when you want to just set up one mic, e.g. for a quick check, but I suspect the displayed SPL reading in the software would be totally off then as the level will be much lower than what you get from the multiplexer.