DR680 and a wired lav, extremely low levels.

S

sblfilms

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I don't normally do any sort of sound production as most of my work has no location sound at all. BUT I have a shoot that needs a very short amount of location sound. I got a bunch of stuff from a friend and would have asked him but he is out of country right now. He has a Tascam DR680 and some ATR3350 wired lav mics from Audio Technica. I plugged them into the 680 with the 1/4" adapters and get extremely faint pick up. I pretty much have to put them up to my lips to get any sound. I plugged it into my H4n and got the same thing, until I plugged it into the "external mic" port on the back. All of the sudden it works just fine. What am I missing to be able to get normal levels on the regular ins?

Thanks in advance,
-Andrew
 
sblfilms said:
Hi guys,

I don't normally do any sort of sound production as most of my work has no location sound at all. BUT I have a shoot that needs a very short amount of location sound. I got a bunch of stuff from a friend and would have asked him but he is out of country right now. He has a Tascam DR680 and some ATR3350 wired lav mics from Audio Technica. I plugged them into the 680 with the 1/4" adapters and get extremely faint pick up. I pretty much have to put them up to my lips to get any sound. I plugged it into my H4n and got the same thing, until I plugged it into the "external mic" port on the back. All of the sudden it works just fine. What am I missing to be able to get normal levels on the regular ins?

Thanks in advance,
-Andrew
Click to expand...
Sound like you're trying to plug the mic into a line level input. Make sure the selector switches on the top panel for the inputs you're using are set to "mic" and then experiment with the high, med, or low settings on the "mic gain" switch for that input to see which gives the best results. Still no joy? Check the mic batteries to make sure they're fresh.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, with the switch set to line I get zero sound and with it set to mic I get very minimal sound. The high or low settings don't make much difference.

-Andrew
 
I have such a cheap lav (either the same or another model that is pretty much the same). And I know that it works with DR680. Since there isn't much to do to make them work together, I have no clear clue what went wrong with your settings, perhaps except for the following:

sblfilms said:
The high or low settings don't make much difference.
Click to expand...

If so, there must be something not right. I think the lav works fine even with it set to Low. You can do a Google search for DR680's user manual.
 
How are you powering the mics? Typically lavs require "plug-in" power, supplied by most wireless systems. Using a 1/4" adapter is not enough. You'll need either an in-line power supply or an adapter which coverts phantom power to plug-in power. It would terminate in an XLR, and then adapt to the microphone connector you are using, likely 3.5mm TRS or 4 pin mini xlr..
 
ATR3350 is self powered. By OP, it works in a different setup so the battery should be no issue, unless he turned it off by accident.
 
Yes, the mic has an inline battery for power. As far as I can tell, the mic performs just fine when using the "external mic" input on the H4n, doesn't work on the other two inputs or on any of the 6 ins on the DR680. Maybe a better question is what is a good wired lav I could by that terminates in an XLR and uses phantom 48 for power? Hoping to stay under $200/mic. I need to have it in hand by Wednesday, so I still have time to order something or try and track it down locally.

-Andrew
 
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