Microphones 12
Connecting a ribbon microphone

Level of challenge Easy

Welcome to this tutorial on connecting a ribbon microphone.

 

Caption - Phantom power

Connecting and powering up a ribbon microphone is similar to connecting a capacitor microphone but care should be taken to check any phantom power requirements. Most ribbon microphones do not require phantom power, and may be damaged if you accidentally enable it, so take care to disabled it before connecting your mic.

 

Caption - Setting up and interconnection

Demonstration

To avoid damaging your hearing, speakers, mic pre-amp, or microphone follow this procedure ...

  1. Check the phantom power requirements of the mic
  2. Set the microphone up as necessary, eg on a mic stand
  3. Connect any required headphone monitoring for your performer
  4. Ensure the mic pre-amp is turned off
  5. Ensure phantom power is disabled
  6. Ensure the gain, and audio output level of the mic pre-amp is turned down
  7. Ensure the gain, and or monitor output level of the destination device, eg an audio interface or mixer, is turned down
  8. Ensure the headphone monitoring level is turned down
  9. Connect the mic pre-amp to the destination device
  10. Connect your microphone to the mic pre-amp using a balanced XLR mic lead
  11. Check again that phantom power is disabled
  12. Turn on the mic pre-amp - if it is a valve device you will need to wait at least 15 mins before it is at its optimal performance state
  13. If the mic pre-amp has a ribbon mode, enable it
  14. If the mic requires phantom power enable it
  15. Turn on the headphone monitoring system
  16. Ask the performer to perform
  17. Slowly raise the input gain on the mic pre-amp until you have an average level around 0dB, or a level at which the clip LED does not light
  18. Slowly raise the gain on the destination device until you have an average level of 0dB
  19. Slowly raise the monitoring level and headphone monitoring level to a suitable and safe level

 

Caption - Thanks for watching

The script for this video, with accompanying images, can be found at projectstudiohandbook.com 

 

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Thanks for watching.

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