Do XLR Y cables cut your signal?

[John Trent]

I'm going to be shooting with a Canon A1 and I read (here, I think, but search turned up zero) that with a Y cable you can plug into the camera's two separate XLR inputs and set the levels differently for protection. For example, if a scene has people talking in a normal tone of voice with either moments of whispering or shouting, you can set one channel for the normal and the other to compensate for the the lower or louder moments. When you edit you choose which audio track has the best sound for the "moment".

But does the Y cable split the signal strength? I've been told it does and I've been told the phantom power stops this from happening. Is a mixer really necessary? What's your opinions? Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve House]

I'm going to be shooting with a Canon A1 and I read (here, I think, but search turned up zero) that with a Y cable you can plug into the camera's two separate XLR inputs and set the levels differently for protection. For example, if a scene has people talking in a normal tone of voice with either moments of whispering or shouting, you can set one channel for the normal and the other to compensate for the the lower or louder moments. When you edit you choose which audio track has the best sound for the "moment".

But does the Y cable split the signal strength? I've been told it does and I've been told the phantom power stops this from happening. Is a mixer really necessary? What's your opinions? Thanks in advance.

I can't see the presence of phantom power having anything to do with the signal strength seen at the inputs. Phantom simply provides power to the mic's internal electronics and the amount of power the mic uses depends on the voltage and the mic's current draw, neither of which are different when the two inputs are in parallel, as they are with a "Y", versus versus when only 1 input is connected to only the mic.

 

[Alan H. Chang]

No, the Y cable will not split the signal strength. In your situation, you can have 1 channel running lower than the other for safety reasons. When your sound source is too loud, your microphone's diaphragm is at its limit and will distort your signal. No matter what your levels are set to, your signals will distort because of the loud sound.

Sending phantom down 2 channels into 1 channel will not cause any kind of signal loss. In case one of your phantom goes out, you still have the other channel providing phantom.