XLR to 3.5mm adapters DIY Info

R

Richard Crowley

Veteran
One of the more popular pages on my website gives wiring details of making your own XLR to 3.5mm mini phone mic cable adapters. Note that this is suitable ONLY for microphones that do NOT require phantom power. It is unlikely that ANY 3.5mm mini phone mic input connectors provide anything resembling P48 phantom power, so this is suitable only for dynamic mics which require no power, or for self-powered condenser mics (the ones with internal batteries, etc.)

Note that if you are using a camcorder (etc.) which provides "plug-in power" at the mic input jack, you will likely need a DC blocking capacitor to keep this voltage OUT of the microphone, particularly if it is a dynamic mic. I provide suggestions for how to determine the value of the capacitor needed.

My web page: http://www.rcrowley.com/CamAdapt.htm

This is not a commercial promotion as I don't sell anything. I will also post this in the DIY section.
 
I'm searching for wisdom concerning the audio (mic) input on a nikon d5100 dslr, more specifically the advantage if any of placing a pre amp between the mike and input. I saw your xlr to 3.5mm wiring diagram (it's book marked now!) and it seems you might be the guy to ask!
 
Many people find it beneficial to ad an external mic preamp (often in conjunction with a mixer) to the input of their consumer video camcorder or DSLR.
The reason is because the mic preamp in low-end equipment (even expensive DSLRs are "low end" in terms of audio performance) have such noisy preamps.
So the theory is that if you feed a hotter signal into the device, you will get lower noise (better signal-to-noise Ratio, SNR)

Popular price brands for preamps/mixers include Beachtek and JuicedLink, and a premium brand is Sound Devices.
 
what's the trick to avoid mic level/line level mismatch over load? thanks for the info by the way!
 
Al MacLeod said:
what's the trick to avoid mic level/line level mismatch over load? thanks for the info by the way!
Click to expand...
There is no trick. You must feed those typical inputs with mic-level. If you have a line-level output, then you must use an attenuator to knock it back down to mic-level.
But preamps/mixers that are designed for use with DSLRs, et. al. typically have mic-level outputs, so it is a direct connection.
 
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