Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

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garyshell
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Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

Post by garyshell » Mon Sep 03, 2012 9:57 am

Most of the interfaces I see in the recommendations list have an all or none setting for phantom power. That's a BIG problem for those of us who need to use a combination of ribbon and condenser mics. The Firefly has separate switches for each channel, but you can't daisy chain another interface to it via an ADAT connection.

I hear rumors of some new interfaces hitting the market in the next quarter, but no indication of the phantom power configuration, or the ability to work with Auria.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Gary

ajmack302
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Re: Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

Post by ajmack302 » Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:41 am

Hi, the Presonus 1818vsl has 8XLR inputs with the option of using phantom power on inputs 1-4 or 5-8 so a combination of mic types seems feasible.

ChromeDome
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Re: Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

Post by ChromeDome » Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:21 pm

Hi,
There's a couple easy ways to deal with this. As ajmack302 says you can go with the Presonus 1818VSL (which I have and use) and put you ribbons and condensors in different banks so some get phantom power ans some do not. If it's only a few condensors you could use an outboard phantom power box to provide power to the condensors. Something like this would do the trick:

http://www.long-mcquade.com/products/16 ... dapter.htm

For my (less portable) setup, I use an external mixer that has switchable phantom power. This has the added advantage of allowing monitoring from the mixer, letting me set up several different headphone mixes, and let's me set the buffer at a more CPU friendly level since I'm not monitoring from the iPad in real time.
One other thing though, most modern ribbons that are assembled correctly are OK with phantom power as long as it is turned on AFTER all connections have been made and turned off BEFORE disconnecting anything. See the following links for reference:

http://recordinghacks.com/2008/04/02/ph ... s-fiction/

And from the grand-daddy of ribbon mics:

http://www.royerlabs.com/phantompower.html

Doug

garyshell
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Re: Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

Post by garyshell » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:31 pm

Didn't realize that the presonus had two phantom power banks. That does solve the issue.

I am coming to the realization that I really cannot use Auria and an interface alone in a studio situation. Only one stereo mix out kills that. I'll need to use a mixer for headphone monitors. (At least until iOs 6, I hope!) I'll need to route the iPad outputs to the mixer as well to allow for in studio playback in the artists headphones. But all of that is very doable we still have an analog board tucked away in a corner of the control room.

Thanks for the responses.

Gary

mandodon
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Re: Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

Post by mandodon » Mon Sep 03, 2012 9:00 pm

You could also get a CloudLifter or a FetHead which use phantom power to boost the signal of ribbon mics--you probably don't have enough gain on most interfaces to use a ribbon mic without getting a lot of noise/hiss.

DrApostropheX
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Re: Mixture of Ribbons and Condensors

Post by DrApostropheX » Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:02 pm

I'm using an ART Dual Tube Pre. It has two tube preamps which are perfect for ribbon mics, and a pretty solid USB interface which is compatible with the CCK without the use of a hub. It's only 16/44.1k, but it does have a SPDIF output which you can use with another interface.

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