3.5mm mic's into mixer output to pc?

[aighead]

Does it involve "the Tickler"? That's my favorite handshake...

[kozikowski]

No. We compare "greenies."

http://www.filmtools.com/xcelitegreenie.html

Koz

[aighead]

The things one can learn... Good stuff.

Koz, have you decided if you'd like to head up this construction process and come up with a price quote? I'm not in a hurry, just making sure you know I'm still interested...

[kozikowski]

See Private Message.

Koz

[akscooter]

so I'm about to construct a version of this power inserter, and was wondering if anyone had thought of the idea of making the connection to the mixer an XLR type, then step down the voltage from phantom power to provide the 5v or so to the inserter?

Or, instead of a 9v lead, use a wall wart adapter to eliminate the need for a battery all together?

Thanks for the great idea, this will save me a bundle!!

Jon

[kozikowski]

It might. Getting the power from a USB connection puts you in touch with the noise generated by the computer. Getting the power from a wall wart connects you to, not so much the problems in the house power, which isn't terrible, but the the power grounding system which can create some entertaining problems.

Re-regulating the 48V phantom power is possible, but you do need to keep in mind how phantom works and if you do it wrong, you may not be able to send the microphone audio back down the same lines. Phantom power only works with microphone that have three connections on the bottom -- XLR3 -- not unbalanced types like computer microphones.

Putting 48V across a computer microphone will rapidly turn it into electronic trash.

Koz

[akscooter]

I understand the noise issues you speak of. I'll make it with a 9v battery power source.

I am going to use this power inserter for three camera operators at three points in the arena. I'm running Siamese (RG6/CAT5) cable to each location. The long runs being close to 200 ft. At the end, I plan to use a RG45 connector to link the cable and the power inserter. On the box will be two 1/8" female jacks; one for mic, one for headphones. Back at the producer, I was going to simply (and I pray simply works) plug in the mics into one channel on the field mixer. I'll turn the volume up as high as we can as each headphone has its own volume control.

I do have a few questions.

1. Do I have to make a power inserter for each headset/mic?
2. What lengths will this signal reach via one pair in cat5 cable? another pair for headphones.
3. Will I need to amplify the signal at the headset end, or should I get a headphone amplifier/splitter?
4. Can I even plug all three mics into the same input on the mixer?

I know this is a bit unorthodox, but I've just about spent my budget for this season, so more headphones and XLR niceties will have to wait.

Thanks

[ericdano]

Ok, I need to build one of these for a drum studio. We want to be able to take something like the Sennheiser PC 350 headphones with the microphone and have them plugged into a mixer (Mackie).

I have a couple of questions. On kozikowski post on Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:00 am http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... =60#p81920
he has a picture of a box that has a XLR cable coming off it and a 3.5mm headphone plugin. Only one wire is used on the XLR cable? Which one? And are the wires on the left actually soldered to the box? And the power is still a 9v battery?

And what part would the 3.5 input connector be?

This would be exactly what we've been searching for if we got it built......

[steve]

We want to be able to take something like the Sennheiser PC 350 headphones with the microphone and have them plugged into a mixer (Mackie).

To clarify what you are wanting to do:
You mean "like the Sennheiser PC 350 headphones with the microphone" but costing only $10?
And this is for the drummer to sing into?

Only one wire is used on the XLR cable?

No, both wires and the shielding are used.
The pin-out for XLR microphone plugs is shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR_connector

The box should be securely connect to "ground".
Basic electret microphone wiring diagrams can be found here: http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/micro ... tml#basics

[garton]

Hi! I've been following this thread with great interest. There's clearly a great deal of knowledge in audio hardware here. I'd like to present a possible software-only (almost) solution.

Have you considered solving the many-headsets-connected-to-one-computer-problem using JACK? JACK ( jackaudio.org ) is a piece of software (open source, so it's free, and it's available for Windows, Mac and Linux) that, as I understand it, works as some sort of virtual patch panel, allowing you to wire virtual audio paths in your PC. And it works with multiple sound cards.

So my idea here is to get a USB sound card for each headset (they're really inexpensive, I found several on Amazon for less than $1) and a USB hub to connect them. Each of those acts as a sound card. Adding a USB sound dongle adds a sound card. Go ahead and use JACK to connect the inputs from all the headset microphones into a software mixer. Use JACK again to connect the output from the software mixer to the input of skype.

Please note; this is an idea. I have investigated it briefly, but I'm not sure it will work.

However, if it *does* work, it will solve this problem in a very elegant way. No soldering, no tabletop mixer, nothing.

(I've been looking into this beacuse I need to host a series of telephone conference calls where 3-5 people will be sitting in the same room, using headsets, with 2-3 other people calling in from other places. So far, we've been using a regular conference telephone with integrated speaker and microphone, with horrible results. The people who call in can barely hear the people physically present in the conference room.)