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Mic not very hot
I have an sennheiser me80 – which sounds great – but my problem is the mic isn’t very hot. By that I mean, I have to crank it up as far as the pots will go to get a decent level on it. It doesn’t seem to matter how far away the subject is. Anyone have any advice on this?
RJ Thomas
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6 Replies
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I’m not familiar with the ME-80, but some mics have higher output levels than others. Dynamic mics, for example, tend do be much quieter than condensor mics.
If you’re not getting enough level out of your camera’s mic preamps, consider using a portable mixer such as a Sound Devices MixPre or SD 302 and going line level into the camera. A good portable mixer will give you plenty of clean gain for even relatively insensitive dynamic mics.
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What are you plugging it into? Are you feeding it Phantom Power?
Regards,
Ty Ford
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The me90 requires phantom power to operate correctly. However, it will still pass audio without it. The result will be a very low audio signal with distortion in the peaks (transients) of the audio. Confirm that you have turned on phantom power.
I’m not familiar with the me90. It sounds like it has the k6 power module and then a screw on mic capsule. I believe the k6 can also be battery powered. If you are operating with a battery, make sure it is a new battery.
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Just reread your post – you said ME80, not ME90. It doesn’t use the k6 power module but the older k3 and k3u modules. Should still be a good mic.
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It does take Phantom and I did have the power on. I had an Audio Technica mic with me last week that also runs on 48 (though I can’t remember the model) and that worked fine – so my power source doesn’t seem to be the issue.
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[RJ] ” had an Audio Technica mic with me last week that also runs on 48″
Did the AT mic have a place for an internal battery such as a AA battery? If so, you could still have a issue with phantom if the AT worked but was running off an “Internal to the Mic” battery.
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