New Mac Mini, FCE, Mbox 2 mini, Heil PR40 = no recorded audio!

bmowell

bmowell

Well-known member
I'm so confused and think that I may just be losing my mind!

I can record a voice over in Final Cut Express with my Oktava Mk-012 (which is a condenser mic) running on phantom power off of the Mbox 2 mini. But, when I hook up my Heil PR40 (which is a dynamic mic) and turn off the phantom power (I tried leaving it on, too, just for giggles) I hear nothing through my headphone monitors and am able to record nothing.

I thought it might be the Heil so I plugged it into my camcorder and put on my headphones and viola! The mic is fine!

Maybe it's just because it's 3am, but what the heck am I missing here?
 
At the risk of asking the obvious, have you tried cranking the gain? Dynamics generally put out a lower output than condensers.
 
Yep. Just figured that out a few minutes ago while searching on google.

Good Grief! I have to have the gain on the Mbox 2 set to the maximum before the PR40 is even useable.

Is this normal? It seems like nice mic...even if it does kinda remind me of a space-age soda can!
 
It's pretty normal with a dynamic.

I'm not sure how much gain the mbox can give you, but different preamps give different ranges of gain to work with.
 
It's normal with dynamics and the smaller, USB-based interfaces. I'd suggest an external pre-amp to make sure that you can get enough gain without too much noise introduced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top