Do lav mics require power?

K

kenwood33

Member
I bought 2 cheap lav mics from ebay with 3.5mm jack. I tested each one by plugging into the back of a zoom h4n and nothing was recorded. I plug my rode shot gun mic in and was able to record something. I notice that other lav mic are battery powered (such as the one below). Do lav mic need to be powered in general? I m trying to see if the mics are bad or if my method of testing is faulted.



Audio-Technica-ATR-3350-Lavalier-Omnidirectional-Condenser-Microphone.jpg
 
All electret condenser microphones require power. Vitually all modern lav mics are electret condenser. Which means that it would be an extraordinarily rare lav mic that did not require power.
As you have observed, some electret condenser mics (lav or othewise) have their own battery power, so they don't need power from the recorder/camcorder/whatever.

Are you saying that you plugged your Rode shotgun mic in to the 3.5mm mic input jack on the back of the H4N?
Or did you plug the shotgun into one of the XLR inputs on the end?
Did you select the 3.5mm input?
Did you turn on the plug-in power for the 3.5mm input?
Do other microphones work properly with the 3.5mm input? (You could test it even with something like a pair of ear-buds.)
 
Yep, you need to enable "plugin power" in the H4n menus and then the lavs will work when connected to the 3.5mm socket.

If you are using a Rode shotgun such as the NTG2 which takes a single AA battery then that would also work.

If you are to connect the Rode to one of the XLR sockets you need to enable 4ch on the Zoom H4n and also 48v phantom power (which will also reduce the Zoom's battery life). If you are using a Rode with a battery in it then phantom power is not necessary - I prefer to do it that way so that the Zoom batteries do not run down so fast.

Pete
 
Thanks for the replies. I don't have the zoom recorder with me at the moment, but I believe the root cause, as both of you have pointed out, is that I did not enable plug-in power on the zoom. I will give it a try when I get home tonight.
 
Yes, if your mic does not have a battery module (like the AT in the photo) Plug-in power needs to be enabled.
.. not to be confused with Phantom Power, available on the XLR connectors and a different animal all together.
 
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