Is this the sound of my microphone dying?

[themachinist]

Morning folks!

I've had an SE2200A LD Condenser mic for about a year and a half now - it's served me very well as a bridge mic for solo guitar recordings up till now. Yesterday evening I was messing around with mic setups and decided to practice recording guitar and vocals (SD on the guitar, LD for my voice). When I powered the mics up and monitored through headphones, I could hear some strange noises in my left ear - all sorts of beeps and wheezes. Then suddenly it stopped and all was peaceful again. Then I started to record a take and this happened (warning - turn your volume way down before listening!):

http://www.seansiegfried.com/Sean's%20Mic%20Problem.wav

You can hear me stop playing as I was wearing headphones and suddenly heard what sounded like a guinea pig in it's throes of death. My question is, has anyone encountered this before? Does it mean my microphone is completely buggered? After I stopped playing the microphone just kept making a constant rasping sound - sort of like the sound of a rough sea.

[Steev]

I can't get the sound to play...
but leaving your mic out on a stand can expose it to humidity which can make it sound like it's in the wind or frying bacon.
If that is the problem, it's fixable. Silica in the case or even sit it near a heater.

[Bob Womack]

The low frequency component I hear on the left side sounds like the mic experiencing intermittent phantom power. I couldn't tell you what the high frequency component is - all kinds of poop occurs when the internal preamp is cycling on and off. you might check and clean your connectors. Hope that helps!

Bob

[themachinist]

Thanks for the help Steev and Bob! I put it in a drawer (the driest place in my room) for about a day after I read your posts, checked the cables and it seems ok this morning. Boy am I relieved!