Very Inexperienced & Working on Audio Book

[macmex]

One more thing. My friend asked me if he could listen to the last test I submitted, having done a recording with the Samson USB mic. You had said you heard an electric motor, or something like that, in the background. I emailed that file to him. He quickly responded that he, too, heard the sound. I listened again. But to no avail. I couldn't hear it. I suspect that my tinnitus is blanking it out. That is not a good thing.

George

[kozikowski]

That is not a good thing.

No. It's not. This may be where you pay somebody to set you up and then show you how to run it all. About every third step in the self-setup is going to be "Test and see if it sounds OK."

My final test before I submit custom filters and processing for someone is to make sure it still sounds like the client when I get done. There is a complaint in the ACX videos about people who try too hard and submit technically perfect audiobooks that sound like a bad cellphone.

We can continue with this if you wish. We stayed with Ian for something over 9 months.

Can you point to the on-line instructions for your mixer? I found a Folio Notepad and it doesn't look anything like yours (attach).

You may be able to power the Lifter directly from the mixer, but I won't know without the book.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I thought so. This is a text grab from a commentary about the SM7.

If Shure had any sense, they would offer to bundle a Cloudlifter unit with each SM7B they sell. It's a simple, elegant solution.

You can run your Lifter from the Phantom Generator you bought (MicroPower PS400 "Mic Thru"), or, even better, it's possible your mixer has a setting to run it without the generator. And we'll know when you find the instruction book.

Koz

[macmex]

It's been a wild day here. I did visit with Aaron, my sound man friend (fellow with the music group). He pulled up the file with the hum and played it for me on his computer. I had no problem at all hearing the hum then. I'm afraid that my arrangement at home is part of the problem. We don't have Internet in the house with the studio. My laptop is Linux. By wife's is Windows 8.1. We use hers to do the recording. I use mine to work on files. The good headphones are in the Studio. I came home the other night and tried listening to the file with a set of ear buds, which seem to work wonderfully, when I listen to music. But, apparently they are inferior for this work. I still need to get back over there and work on things more. But today, I'm out of time.

Incidentally, I found the source of that hum. The studio is set up in a bathroom in our modular house. There is another bathroom, really only about 18' away from the studio. Someone had left a ventilator fan on in that bathroom. I only barely noticed it. But I bet that was it.

Here's the site with the exact model of mixer we have. But I will have to call them tomorrow, during business hours, to try and get a manual. I don't see anywhere on that site with downloads.

http://www.soundcraft.com/products/spirit-notepad

I am pretty sure, with the phantom power supply we purchased, that I will be able to get the Cloudlifter to function.

George

[cyrano]

That soundcraft has phantom power, I think. There's a button marked "mic power". Have you tried that?

[macmex]

No. I haven't. Will try it today.

George

[kozikowski]

The reason I want to see/have/experience the manual is exactly the phantom power. There is at least one mixer out there that claims in big letters "Phantom Power" and way down in the fine print admit that it's the older 12 volt version, not 48 volts. I'm betting 12 volts will not run the Lifter

Somewhere it should say, clearly, 48 Volt Phantom Power, not just a euphemism "Mic Power."

Koz

[cyrano]

Look at the power plug. It's an AC connection. No problem to deliver 48V.

But you are right to check the manual as we can't identify this particular Soundcraft. There are lots of mixers, usually the older battery powered mobile stuff that only have 12, 15 or 24V phantom power. AFAIK no soundcraft, though.

And a lot of condenser mics just work on 24V. But I expect the cloudlifter to require more too.

And bus powered USB preamps are in the same boat. Full 48V for two mics requires at least 1 W. and that's only phantom power. The computer's USB bus only supplies 2,5 W. Decent mic preamps require another Watt. That leaves only about half a watt for the AD/DA and USB stuff...

[macmex]

Here's the manual. The customer service rep from Soundcraft gushed about this mixer. He was quite helpful.

George

http://soundcraft.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... -guide.pdf

[kozikowski]

Look at the power plug. It's an AC connection. No problem to deliver 48V.

Not the power plug. There is a version of "Phantom Power" that sent 12v up the XLR connection instead of 48v. There was one early test where they tried to send 5v for obvious reasons. There is a current Behringer mixer that still does 12v. 48v is highly desirable because it's easy and clean to separate that from the microphone signal on one pair of wires (we assume phantomly).

Thank you for the research. I will gush, too, but I need to go play real life for a bit. Cyrano or anybody else following along can look. Either a sentence or a listing in the specifications that says "48v."

Koz