TopicPosted on 09/09/2008 at 18:16:33Is my condenser microphone broken?
I have a MXL 990 Condenser microphone in my home studio and I have a cable going from that to a Rolls Phantom Power Adapter and then a mic cord from the adapter to my audio interface. I get no sound with the microphone when I try to record. The cords are brand new. The audio interface works for sure (I've recorded other instruments with it). And The mic has worked before. The phantom power supply has a switch that supplies 12V/48V. I tried both options and nothing seems to work. What could the problem be? What can I do to fix this problem?
TheStratGuy
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Member 20 years ago
2Posted on 09/10/2008 at 05:34:14
If you have something else that requires phantom power (a DI box for instance, or another condenser mic), you should try to use it with your interface to make sure that it's not the audio interface's phantom power which has failed you, and can do the same with a dynamic mic to check if the XLR input works. If your cords are new and you can record other instruments with the same equipment, then I think the aforementioned factors seem to be the only other possible problems in your sound chain apart from the mic itself.
If everything else works, did anything happen to the mic? did it take a bad fall or was it submitted to very high/low temperatures or to a very damp environment? Condenser microphones are said to be very fragile as far as I know, so a lot of possible reasons might explain it failing you...