Is my Mic Broken Or Am I Just Rubbish?

themachinist · #1 01-21-2011, 12:07 PM

I've experienced a weird problem over the last few recordings and I'm worried one of my mics might be malfunctioning. It basically seems to overload at random times throughout a tune. I record a piece and every here and there (and not necessarily related to volume I don't think) I hear a little strange wobble in my right ear from the recording - It's a sound that's very irritating to the ear and if I look up close at the left and right soundwaves there's a distinct sideways ziz-zag shape that looks really out of place. It's my little SE1A pencil condenser mic that is behaving thus. I have had it up close to the neck joint of the guitar many times before I started experiencing this with the same settings on the mixer and everything and it was fine. And I have dropped it once or twice. Could it be broken?

Any help would be much appreciated!

rick-slo · #2 01-21-2011, 12:12 PM

You say your right ear so I assume you are using two mikes and the left mike is sound fine. It is probably the mike. Listening live does it make any random noises when the room is quite?

themachinist · #3 01-21-2011, 06:30 PM

Yes, I'm using a large diaphragm mic panned to the left, pointing to the bridge guitar and it's behaving fine. It's just with the mic panned to the right that I'm getting the odd sounds every twenty seconds or so and the jagged soundwaves. Oh dear, is it most likely that dropping it or travelling around with it has made it kaput?

themachinist · #4 01-21-2011, 06:32 PM

Oh and it's fine when I'm just monitoring it and it's picking up the room sound.. But just seems to overload at very random points with the guitar - Doesn't seem to be linked with too much volume or anything..

Doug Young · #5 01-21-2011, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by themachinist

Yes, I'm using a large diaphragm mic panned to the left, pointing to the bridge guitar and it's behaving fine. It's just with the mic panned to the right that I'm getting the odd sounds every twenty seconds or so and the jagged soundwaves. Oh dear, is it most likely that dropping it or travelling around with it has made it kaput?

So it's the neck mic? Could you be breathing on the mic?

Bob Womack · #6 01-22-2011, 08:14 AM

The first step is to close the other channel and center the "bad" mic. Play as normal and watch both the overload light and the input meter on interface or mixer and carefully watch the levels as you play. There's a good chance you are over-modulating something in the signal chain. Remember that mics and preamps aren't flat-response instruments. At best, there are still peaks and dips in both. As a result, some of what might appear to be random could be peaks due to sympathetic resonance. If not, then you have to consider problems with the mic or preamp.

Bob

themachinist · #7 01-22-2011, 05:13 PM

Thanks for all the help guys, really appreciate it. I'm starting to have a feeling I'm just a douche and I've started breathing into the smaller mic without even noticing what I'm doing. I'm tried recording me breathing onto it and it produces that same nasty wobble of course. I'm going to record a couple more instrumentals tomorrow while keeping the mic out of harms way of my snout and hope that I find the results that I am hoping for!