Advice needed on Sennheiser 416P and Edirol R4-Pro

[Ross Nickson]

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Hi, this is my first posting. I used the search function but couldn't find the answer to my problem on these boards or the internet

I've got a new Sennheiser 416P, and I am trying to run it through the Phantom Power on an Edirol R4-Pro. The sound hardly picks up, you need to shout from an inch away for it to register. I'm using a standard XLR wire.

I'm not a sound recordist myself, just an indie filmmaker so I'm at a loss of that I'm doing wrong.

Is it likely to be settings on my Edirol? Do I need to run it through a seperate mixer? (could it be done with a cheap KAM DJ mixer)? Or I've read that sometimes the 416P requires some sort of converter.

I've got an imminent shoot, so any help would be a lifesaver! A link to an online shop, or suggester retailer for anything I'm missing would be very helpful. I'm hoping that whatever I'm missing will not break the bank!

Also if anyone knows which BNC cable might work to get timecode between the Edirol R4Pro and a Sony PMW-EX3 that would be great. There seem to be several types of BNC cable

[Marty Wein]

If the mic and recorder are new with no reason to suspect faulty gear:

Make sure the Phantom power is on (Page 10 on the Manual)

Adjust the Sensitivity and Level (Page 31)

Is your monitor level set correctly (Page 13)

Go through some other system settings (Page 64)

http://lib.roland.co.jp/manual/en/dl.../R-4Pro_e1.pdf

[Steve Oakley]

is the input on MIC instead of LINE


skip the DJ mixer

and there are only TWO types of BNC cables, 50ohm and 75ohm. in practice, they are normally 75ohm. the difference is mainly in the connector and if it has a collar inside or not. both will work fine for short runs. only becomes a factor when you are talking 100+ft and running a digital signal like SDI.

also don't waste your money on the super expensive cables because the don't perform any better then the cheap ones ( within reason cheap that is ! ), especially at 10-20ft. good quality cables will use a major brand of cable - mogami and canare are considered the common "best" brands, not so say that there aren't others, but these are the most common. it also doesn't mean a no name cable won't work either. I've got tons of both and I've yet to see a difference. also I generally buy cable in bulk + connectors and make my own. its way cheaper that way, and you can customize the length to fit which is really important when wiring gear up in a rack. having a few hundred feet of extra wire really makes a mess of things.

[Carl Hayes]

Originally Posted by Steve Oakley

is the input on MIC instead of LINE


... there are only TWO types of BNC cables, 50ohm and 75ohm. in practice, they are normally 75ohm. the difference is mainly in the connector and if it has a collar inside or not. both will work fine for short runs. only becomes a factor when you are talking 100+ft and running a digital signal like SDI.

Some clarification is needed here. There are only two common varieties of BNC connectors (nominally 50 ohms and 75 ohms), but there are many kinds of cables with varying characteristic impedances. For baseband video, the standard is 75 ohms, and use of cables of other impedances can cause signal reflection tht results in shadowing and ghosting.

Also, there are 50-ohm BNC and 75-ohm BNC connectors. Don't intermix them! They will plug together just fine, and often work just fine for a while, but the center pin on 50-ohm BNCs is of larger diameter than the center pin on 75-ohm BNCs. Plugging a 50-ohm male into a 75-ohm female BNC will usually spread the center receptacle on the female BNC, and it will thereafter make unreliable contact with the 75-ohm males it was designed for (which have skinnier center pins). Plugging a 75-ohm male BNC with its skinny center pin into a 50-ohm female will often give you an intermittent failure from the very beginning.

The comments are correct about super-price cables like Monster -- they aren't ANY better at all, just a con game. Good quality RG-59 cable from Belden, with Amphenol 75-ohm BNCs, for example, are inexpensive and also are the best there is, at any price.

-- Carl

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Ross Nickson

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I've got a new Sennheiser 416P, and I am trying to run it through the Phantom Power on an Edirol R4-Pro. The sound hardly picks up, you need to shout from an inch away for it to register. I'm using a standard XLR wire.

If I remember correctly, the Edirol has switchable 12V or 48V phantom - it sounds as if you have it switched to 12V instead of 48V.

But it *is* the 48V phantom version of the 416 you have, isn't it? and not the 12V T-powered version???