more audio shenanigans
so, i got this old mic. it's my second from the sennheiser MKH series of RF mics (they use radio circuitry to cut down noise and withstand moisture in the air, instead of just being normal audio circuits). in both cases, they use T-power or AB power (same thing), which is totally different from and dangerously incompatible with phantom power, which most modern equipment uses. these mics are older than me, i could afford them because they're so old and so unsupported but they sound fucking good. mostly people get the newer versions, they work phantom powered and sound mostly identical. not me!
my bigger field mixer and recording rig both have switches for T power (the switch in my FP33 is what got me looking for these mics) so mostly it's not a problem.
except my smaller recorder (this old MR-1 in the pictures) and my very tiny FP24 very much do not have T power.
so, i found the manuals for these old mics of mine online and in both there's a little circuit diagram for powering them with a 12v supply and that's what i did here in a cable: attached a couple 180-ohm resistors to the ends of the leads of this A23 battery holder (this would also work with smaller A27 batteries) and stuck them to pins 2 and 3 of an XLR connector, finished up this cable, stuck it inline.
turning everything on, i listened to the resistors charge up and come online, and the sound over the mic was,
i forgot to turn down the gain in the recorder!
i went into the menu of the MR-1 and set gain to -26dB, and the sound over the mic was just silky.
this whole rig fits in my purse, without emptying it.
i ordered a few more resistors to go with some capacitors i have to make a low cut filter inline, and then i'll have all the channel strip i want for this rig.
my FP24 does not work with this setup (i'd tried to use it for its LCF during this whole process) so i'm guessing i'll need to make an adapter to go from phantom power to T power so that it can hopefully more easily pretend this mic is no different from the other mics, but that's not urgent or anything i'm super curious about just yet. soon enough.
including screenshots here of the manuals for the MKH 406T and the MKH 815T showing identical schematics for providing power to a T powered mic. looking at the simplicity of it, i don't know why phantom power became the standard.