microphone too hot - can I just insert a resistor?

Aug 19, 2008 23 Replies

I'd suggest paying more attention to specs and buying compatible equipment in the first instance.

Graham

I doubt the mic will go up in smoke, but might be more distorted. In general it's not a good idea to put a voltage divider on the supply of something that has an internal preamp, but in the case of an electret mic it may be just fine since the elements (which have simple 1-FET preamp) are often powered through a series resistor anyway.

If you go with the earlier hardwired resistor plan, you might want to make up a little adapter that has a jack and plug with the resistors inside. Then you plug that into the preamp and plug the guitar into that when you need the extra resistance.

Best regards,

Bob Masta DAQARTA v4.00 Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

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Thanks Tim

The mic is being plugged into a mic input that is expecting to see a low impedance into it (in the 200 - 600 ohm region I would think). So would my parallel resistor be around 600 ohms? Also, does the value of the pad (series) resistors affect what the value of the parallel resistor should be? The series resistors will be in the 10K - 15K range by the looks of things.

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Wait a minute - I just found this page that explains everything nicely:

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