SCHOEPS MK xx - Manual (Page 22)

a loop of slack cable should be isolated and
tied off so that it does not become another
way for vibrations to reach the microphone.
Unlike a wind screen, a shock mount will not
affect the characteristics of a microphone. In
many kinds of work it is well justified to use a
shock mount ”by default.”
Overload
When dealing with problems of overload, it is
useful to think of your recording equipment
as a series of circuit stages. The goal is to find
the first stage that is being overloaded, and to
attenuate the signal at the input to that stage.
Reducing the gain at any earlier stage would
add unnecessary noise, while reducing it at a
later stage would not solve the problem.
A condenser microphone represents two cir-
cuit stages: the capsule and the amplifier. In
practice, capsules are rarely overloaded except
by explosions or very strong wind; the only
sound pressure levels that could overload a
SCHOEPS
capsule are so extreme – ca. 150 dB
SPL – that they would quickly damage human
hearing. Properly powered SCHOEPS CMC
amplifiers can normally handle 130+ dB sound
pressure levels, depending on the capsule type.
Such levels rarely occur in unamplified sound,
though their equivalents can be caused by wind
when directional capsules are used. In addition,
proper powering should not be taken for
granted; insufficient or incorrect microphone
powering has proved to be the cause of many
otherwise mysterious “overload” problems.
Not only the microphone, but also the
input circuitry of mixe rs, preamps or recorders
can be overloaded. This is true particularly
with consumer audio equipment, though even
today some professional equipment is still
designed primarily for use with dynamic micro -
phones or with earlier, less sensitive condenser
microphones. If an input sensitivity control is
available, it should be set low enough to avoid
input overload, but not so low as to cause
excess noise – though a few dB of extra hiss is
preferable to the risk of hard clipping. Level
meters and overload indicators don’t generally
detect input overload even in fully professional
equipment; they operate only at later stages
of the circuitry.
If overload occurs where powering, high
sound pressure levels and air movement are
not the problem and an input sensitivity con-
trol cannot be turned down, the next logical
step is to plug in a balanced resistive ”pad”
(attenuator) such as the SCHOEPS MDZ 10 or
MDZ 20 at the preamp input. If the sound
quality improves, leave the pad in place. With
respect to RF interference it is always better to
pad the preamp input than the microphone.
Deshalb wurde beim V4 U darauf verzichtet.
Low-frequency disturbances may not be
directly audible as such, but infrasonic noise
can still cause overload in some stage of the
signal chain.
Um dies zu vermeiden, verfügt
das V4 U über ein permanent aktives Filter,
das Störungen unterhalb von 40Hz unter-
drückt.
r the beginning of this manual on page 5.
The least expensive, most helpful trouble -
shooting tools are:
– a known good microphone cable
– a simple pop screen such as the SCHOEPS
B 5 (or for outdoor recording, a wind
screen such as the SCHOEPS W 5)
– a balanced, in-line resistive attenuator (”pad”)
such as the SCHOEPS MDZ 10 or MDZ 20
– an ordinary multimeter or the SCHOEPS
PHS 48 phantom power tester
SCHOEPS GmbH · Spitalstr. 20 · D-76227 Karlsruhe (Durlach) · Tel: +49 721 943 20-0 · Fax: +49 721 943 2050
www.schoeps.de · [email protected]
Possible Problems
Capsules
22