Next month we're hosting a dramatic production in which most of the action takes place in a boardroom setting with an oblong table and people seated around it. I bought two flat-profile conference mics that I thought would be perfect for the job, as they would pick up the dialogue but not be seen by the audience. But in spite of using adapters to make their 1/8" plugs fit into the 1/4" leads into my Peavy amp, I can't get either mic to work. No voice, no static, no NUTHIN'. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? 😡
What no mixer? You need something with a mic preamp for starters and as already mentioned you likely need something that provides phantom power(+48v dc) to those mics. Both of these things can be found in a compact desktop mixer.
"Phantom power" for computer type microphones is in the order of 2-3V not the 48V for "professional" microphones.
Thanks for the help
My Peavy 200-watt amp seems to work much better with instruments than with mics. Even with the handheld mics it does work with, the performance is not exactly overwhelming. Any ideas for an economical way to get a hold of this 48V Phantom stuff, and splice it between my mics and amplifier? I've never heard of these being sold separately.
My Peavy 200-watt amp seems to work much better with instruments than with mics. Even with the handheld mics it does work with, the performance is not exactly overwhelming. Any ideas for an economical way to get a hold of this 48V Phantom stuff, and splice it between my mics and amplifier? I've never heard of these being sold separately.
You can't just plug microphones into a power amp and expect it to work.
You need a microphone preamplifier of some kind and there are multiples of them in even the most basic of mixing consoles.
However if by "amp" you are referring to a "guitar amplifier" you will get working sound, but nothing of really great quality and not much control of it.
You also could have a "mixer-amplifier" sometimes referred to as a "box-mixer" or a "PA Head" which have preamplifiers, mixer and power amps all in one unit.
So until you actually let us all know what equipment you actually have, you are not going to get many helpful responses.
Proper microphones and preamplifiers for PA use the XLR type connector, so start with that.
If it's something different then you probably won't have much luck with consumer grade equipment intended for computers or telecom use
Sierra, there is a lot of knowledge and experience here on this forum, but I recommend you talk to a professional. In the USA, a company like Sweetwater has sales engineers who know the products and can talk to you about what you need. Of course there are other companies as well. yes, they want to sell you the gear you need, but they are not like the classic high-pressure used car salesmen.
We can amplify on details, and answer specifics more in depth, but really, I think a conversation with someone like that would get you better oriented so you can then ask more detailed questions as they arise. I don't know what Peavey amp you have, but when you say MICs don;t work so well with it, I have to wonder if you are not using impedance matching.
And on specifics to your production, boundary mics - the little ping pong paddle mics that sit on a table - will indeed pick up everyone at a table, but they won;t mix them. In other words one talker might be twice as loud as another just naturally - -some folks project, others do not. By using individual mics and a mixer, you can bring all voices into agreement of tone and level. A church choir is trained to sing as a group. PAnel discussions are not.
We can amplify on details, and answer specifics more in depth, but really, I think a conversation with someone like that would get you better oriented so you can then ask more detailed questions as they arise. I don't know what Peavey amp you have, but when you say MICs don;t work so well with it, I have to wonder if you are not using impedance matching.
And on specifics to your production, boundary mics - the little ping pong paddle mics that sit on a table - will indeed pick up everyone at a table, but they won;t mix them. In other words one talker might be twice as loud as another just naturally - -some folks project, others do not. By using individual mics and a mixer, you can bring all voices into agreement of tone and level. A church choir is trained to sing as a group. PAnel discussions are not.
Where are you located, I'm sure there is an actual PA sound system provider that could set you up with what you need.
Don't try to cheap out on your event, the audience in attendance will be expecting to hear the performance and presentation, if they can't hear why did the actors spend all that time practicing!
Don't try to cheap out on your event, the audience in attendance will be expecting to hear the performance and presentation, if they can't hear why did the actors spend all that time practicing!
Great point. If this is an event rather than an ongoing need, I sure would consider just hiring professionals to come in and do the sound.
Even if this is in a permanent theater setting of some sort a proper sound system should be installed.
I read an article about sound re-enforcement in theater and the author of the article went to the same play in two different theaters, one with no sound re-enforcement and the other with re-enforcement. He said the show was better with the sound re-enforcement not only could you hear the dialog and all the little details of the actors speech inflection that played into the delivery of the lines the actors could actually work the mic so to speak and not just try to speak loud so everyone could hear.
I read an article about sound re-enforcement in theater and the author of the article went to the same play in two different theaters, one with no sound re-enforcement and the other with re-enforcement. He said the show was better with the sound re-enforcement not only could you hear the dialog and all the little details of the actors speech inflection that played into the delivery of the lines the actors could actually work the mic so to speak and not just try to speak loud so everyone could hear.
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