Sony ECM-MS907 Mic Help

[Dodgerman4EVA]

Hey you guys! I'm new to the forum.

Me and my friend found a Sony ECM-MS907 mic after cleaning out his dad's office. He gave it to me, I was pretty psyched because I heard it was a pretty good mic, especially for free. So when I made it home I recorded immediately and was shocked to see the poor audio quality and ridiculously loud background static, along with random high pitched noises. I thought, this couldn't be right, so I looked on you tube and found a video with someone using it and they didn't have the same problem. The audio sounded pretty clear and decent enough for what I was going to use it for. I have used other mics before but they were never this bad. I am a noob when it comes to audio recording and mic optimization so I wouldn't know what to do in this situation. So I will attach a sample of what it sounds like (keep in mind the room is nearly silent) I would like to know if the mic is bad, if I just need to tweak the system settings, or if there is some software that will fix it.

Thanks!

[kozikowski]

Did you put a fresh battery in it? It takes an AA battery and the performance of the microphone will go into the mud with a weak battery and it will stop dead with the battery does. That frying mosquitoes noise is coming from the soundcard. Your job is to get the microphone a lot louder than that.

What exactly are you plugging it into?
Koz

[kozikowski]

Oh it gets better. It's a stereo microphone.

Mid/Side (MS) capsules for natural stereo panorama; the Mid capsule picks up monophonic sound while the Side capsule picks up left/right difference sound; subtracting and adding the two capsule signals yield separate Left and Right channels - also permit electronic adjustment of pickup angle.

That means you need to plug it into your Sony stereo recorder, not your generic laptop.

Koz

[Dodgerman4EVA]

Thanks for the help! I did put a fresh battery into it, but I plugged it straight into my desktop.

[kozikowski]

The plug on this microphone is not compatible with computer soundcards whether they're on laptops or desktops. It's designed to have a sound signal on a portion of the plug usually reserved for a computer microphone's battery connection. So without a Sony recorder to plug it into, the best you can do is record stereo left-only which means the front of the microphone isn't where you think it is. That could cause the volume and noise problem you're having.

The solution is find a compatible Sony recorder. It's not unusual for Sony to try and lock you into their brand by selling "not compatible with anything else" products.

It's also possible it was in the bottom of a drawer because it stopped working.

Koz

[flynwill]

Well I don't think it will ONLY work with a Sony camcoder, but Koz is right the stereo mini-phone plug on that mic is NOT compatible with the mic jack on your laptop or computer. However there are lots of combinations of adapters that could make it work. At the very least a MONO mini-phone extension cable should get you the left channel without any issues.

One of these:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/YMP434/

would allow it to be plugged into most prosumer mixers or audio interfaces.

There is some chance that the supply voltage from your computer connector has damaged the circuitry in the mic but not very likely.

[Dodgerman4EVA]

Yeah it's pretty cheap that Sony would lock someone out of using their mics on desktops... Anyways I know my PC's mic jacks and voltage are fine, because I've used many other mics (ie. gaming, and my friends high quality studio mics) with no problems. The Sony mic does somewhat work, actually the sound comes out pretty clear, but with that loud static and mosquito screaming drowning everything out (obviously can't work with that) So yeah I'll look into Sony recorders, and that jack adapter, but I think the work I put into it won't really pay off for the kind of mic it is... Thanks again guys.

[kozikowski]

We have run into the Return On Investment problem several times in recent weeks.

This microphone in full operation is a stereo microphone but it does not have a "Left" pickup and a "Right" pickup inside the cover. It uses a combination of oddball pickups and it makes Left and Right. That's a perfectly valid and correct way to run a microphone system and as you noticed, it can sound pretty good — for other people — but you can't be only using a portion of it in your show. It's a matched system.

This never caught on because it really is trying to cram five pounds/kilos of technology in a three pound/kilo box.

If you stick with the frying mosquitoes long enough you will be able to hear the computer thinking. The buzz is not all one tone. It shifts around depending on what the computer is doing. I have one machine that I can hear the hard drive working. This almost always happens when you have microphone signals too close to the computer. It can happen with USB microphones, too. That's where it's particularly annoying because there's no easy to to solve it.

The 10,000 foot view of this is you are trying to produce a theatrical sound production with a Skype system. And you have that in common with a lot of other people.

Koz

[Dodgerman4EVA]

Honestly I never expected studio quality sound from this mic. This mic is advertized as something you can record short commentaries with, or record a class lecture or a concert with. I wasn't planning on recording professional music with it, or recording high quality foley with it. I just expected it to be clear enough for me to record better audio for let's just say a you tube video, or a narration for some projects I was working on... Just a good mic to use to record stuff quickly when I need to...

[kozikowski]

Which makes sense under the assumption that it's plugged into a dedicated recorder which would be missing computer noises / frying mosquitoes.

Koz