I recently tried to use a computer headset microphone to record into a mixer. After getting tons of help from the guys on here, learning A LOT and spending lots of money and time, however, I decided I had reached the point of diminishing returns and had to give up.
Ultimately my goal was to be able to use Aux Send to route the signal from several headset mics through the mixer and to a phone and record the mix as an interview (using a headphone amp to send the mix to the headsets).
I got a couple real microphones and stands and that problem was solved. I decided to try to use my android as the phone. It, of course, has only one jack so I wondered how I was going to “give” it the mixed signal from my board and “get” the caller’s voice out of one hole. That’s when I found this cable:
It splits the 4 pin jack into “mic in” and “headphone out”.
The pinout on the 4 pin plug is:
Tip: Left
R1: Right
R2: Ground
Sleeve: Mic
(Notice no “mic power +5v” pin)
So my question is, where does the cheap headset mic that comes with every smart phone get it’s power if all 4 pins are busy? (and none are designated “Power”?)
I don’t know for sure (I definitely looked) but I assume this splitter cable goes:
Headphone out jack:
left, right, ground (TRS)
Mic in jack:
mic signal, ground (TS)
I know that the pinout for a computer mic is:
mic signal, +5v, ground (TRS)
My first thought was that maybe there was no power on any pin so I tried a different headset mic (the one I had tried to use with the mixer) and it worked (with lots of noise) - which meant it was getting power from somewhere.
That meant that the power must be sent up through the “mic” (#4) pin. Because it wouldn’t be sent up though the “ground”. Can that be right?
My other question then is this:
I’m using the Aux Send on my board (Yamaha MG102c) to send the mixed signal (minus the caller) to the “mic” jack on this splitter cable. I’m assuming now that this jack is “looking” for a condenser mic and sending +5 volts down the line.
I didn’t think of this until after hooking everything up and finding that everything worked perfectly - no noise our delay or anything. It sounds great.
So…
(A) Is my little Galaxy S2 phone really sending +5 volts down the line back into my Aux Send?
and
(B) If it is, can it hurt it? Or hurt it over time?
Like I said everything sounds great and crystal clear.
The only thing I noticed was when plugging in both stereo headphones and speakers to test the signal. Instead of my Aux Send only sending signal to the Left, like it should, it sends perfectly to the Left and a tiny bit to the Right.
Is this normal? It won’t really affect anything and I know you’ll never use a stereo plug in a mono jack, but is this strange? Did the +5v damage something already? Is this a Yamaha thing? Should I be worried?
Just want to know, since I’m already thinking of upgrading my mixer and I don’t want to damage that one if the Aux Send jack was something I did.
Thanks!!!