Your advice would be appreciated: I plan to commence recording some
meetings. The meetings will consist of singing accompanied by piano
followed by a talk. The recording device will be a Del Latitude fed
from a Behringer 1204 thru a UCA202.

Thus far every microphone I have plugged into the Behringer gives,
insufficient signal. With the faders at max I seem to barely have
enough sound.

At this point I am thinking of three mic.'s I could go to four if
that would be better.

Thanks

Adrian

"Adrian" wrote ...
Your advice would be appreciated: I plan to commence
recording some meetings.

Are these meetings using some sort of sound reinforcement
(PA) system already? i.e. can you tap into an existing setup,
or do you have to roll your own?

The meetings will consist of singing accompanied by piano
followed by a talk.

Is the piano player doing the singing?
Is the lecturer doing the singing (or in the same place)?
Or do you need separate mics for:
piano, singer, and lecturer?

The recording device will be a Del Latitude fed
from a Behringer 1204 thru a UCA202.

There appears to be more than one mixer called
"1204" One of them has built-in USB. Exactly
which one are you asking about?

Thus far every microphone

What microphone(s) would that be?

I have plugged into the Behringer

Assuming you mean the 1204 and not the UCA202?

gives, insufficient signal.

How are you measuring "insufficient signal"?
In the recorded computer file?
At the computer recording application input?
At the mixer LED level meter?

With the faders at max I seem to barely have
enough sound.

What does "enough sound" mean?
Are you using mics that require phantom power?
Is the phantom power turned on?
Do you have the microphones plugged into the XLR inputs?
Where do you have the gain knobs set?
Does the mixer, etc. produce "enough sound" with
any other input?

At this point I am thinking of three mic.'s I could go
to four if that would be better.

What would the fourth mic be used for?
Typically, fewer mics are better. For any
number of reasons.

"Adrian" wrote in message


Your advice would be appreciated: I plan to commence
recording some meetings. The meetings will consist of
singing accompanied by piano followed by a talk. The
recording device will be a Del Latitude fed from a
Behringer 1204 thru a UCA202.

Thus far every microphone I have plugged into the
Behringer gives, insufficient signal. With the faders at
max I seem to barely have enough sound.

Have you adjusted the "trim" control for each microphone input to maximum?

At this point I am thinking of three mic.'s I could go
to four if that would be better.

Do the microphones need phantom power? Is it turned on? If in doubt, turn it
on.

Are the channel mute buttons off (not pushed in)?

How are you monitoring the output of the mixer?

Usually, I set up a mixer like this so that it is giving a reasonble output
to a pair of headphones, and then start recording.

Arny Krueger wrote:
Do the microphones need phantom power? Is it turned on? If in doubt, turn it
on.

Watch out! Some phantom power mics blow up Behringer mixers.

In particular the Rode NTG-2. If you turn on phantom power the phantom
power permanently is destroyed in the mixer.

Fortunately the mic also takes an AA cell, so it's not a complete loss.

Who's responsible for that engineering disaster, I don't know. Behringer
or Rode.

That said, the mic works fine in the remaining mixer with the AA cell.

You can of course get even more gain by adding another mixer. They do seem to be
really quiet so you can do that.

--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:05:47 -0500, Ron Hardin
wrote:

Watch out! Some phantom power mics blow up Behringer mixers.

In particular the Rode NTG-2. If you turn on phantom power the phantom
power permanently is destroyed in the mixer.

Where on earth did you pick up that little urban legend? You can dead
short a behringer preamp without damage - as you probably can any pre.
They are current-limited by a pair of 6.2k resistors, so it would take
some extraordinary feat of engineering incompetence to make them
susceptible.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

Don Pearce wrote:

On Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:05:47 -0500, Ron Hardin
wrote:

Watch out! Some phantom power mics blow up Behringer mixers.

In particular the Rode NTG-2. If you turn on phantom power the phantom
power permanently is destroyed in the mixer.

Where on earth did you pick up that little urban legend? You can dead
short a behringer preamp without damage - as you probably can any pre.
They are current-limited by a pair of 6.2k resistors, so it would take
some extraordinary feat of engineering incompetence to make them
susceptible.

I just report. It destroyed two mixers, MX802A's. The mic didn't
work on phantom power, and the phantom power light no longer came on
when you flipped it on afterwards.

``destroyed'' means only that phantom power no longer works.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

"Ron Hardin" wrote ...
I just report. It destroyed two mixers, MX802A's. The mic
didn't work on phantom power, and the phantom power
light no longer came on when you flipped it on afterwards.

That story is just not credible without a first-hand reference.

In article ,
Ron Hardin wrote:
Arny Krueger wrote:
Do the microphones need phantom power? Is it turned on? If in doubt,
turn it on.

Watch out! Some phantom power mics blow up Behringer mixers.

In particular the Rode NTG-2. If you turn on phantom power the phantom
power permanently is destroyed in the mixer.

The specification for phantom allows you to short out an input completely
without effecting others. There are current limiting resistors supplying
the volts to each input. Anything else would be a nonsense.

Fortunately the mic also takes an AA cell, so it's not a complete loss.

Who's responsible for that engineering disaster, I don't know. Behringer
or Rode.

More likely finger problems.

That said, the mic works fine in the remaining mixer with the AA cell.

You can of course get even more gain by adding another mixer. They do
seem to be really quiet so you can do that.

Eh?

--
*How many roads must a man travel down before he admits he is lost?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
You can of course get even more gain by adding another mixer. They do
seem to be really quiet so you can do that.

Eh?

Feed one mixer into the other. They have gain.

The noise level is low enough so that you can do that.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
You can of course get even more gain by adding another mixer. They do
seem to be really quiet so you can do that.
Eh?

Feed one mixer into the other. They have gain.

The noise level is low enough so that you can do that.

I can't think of a single case where this would be necessary, still less
advisable. You would certainly end up with a poor S/N ratio.

Cheers

Ian