Slightly OT - ATR3350 very very low audio level.

safrican wrote on 12/1/2011, 2:41 PM

Hi. Ordered my ATR-3350. Arrive today, all excited, opened it up, installed the battery, then plugged it into my Zoom H2. Audio levels hardly move. So I bumped up the gain to high, same thing.

Okay, so I start to scratch my head, check the battery, yep it is in the right way. Plug it into my camcorder, similar thing although my camcorder can go slightly higher in gain than the H2, but then the hiss was terrible.

Okay, pulled out my mixer, at default setting same thing, if I increase the gain all the way (to the point where the hiss is 90% of what you hear) then there are almost acceptable levels, except the hiss will kill everything.

Hmm, so I packed it back in the box and back to Amazon, a replacement is on the way.

Is this out of the ordinary ? Any other experiences with the ATR-3350 ?

Comments

Laurence wrote on 12/1/2011, 2:52 PM

The one other thing it could be is a bad battery. You could have used a meter just to check and make sure the included battery was outputting the 1.5 volts (or whatever it is supposed to output).

dxdy wrote on 12/1/2011, 4:18 PM

I use the ATR 3350s with my Zoom H1 and I get excellent volume. I also replace the battery (they are real cheap on Amazon) after every significant use (meaning after an hour or more usage,) although I had a battery last 4 hours on a bike riding adventure on a cold day.

Are you sure you aren't telling the Zoom to expect line level input?

They also work well with my Tascam HN-05.

PeterDuke wrote on 12/1/2011, 7:00 PM

When checking a battery's voltage, you should check it while it is under load. That can be a bit tricky, unfortunately.

safrican wrote on 12/1/2011, 7:10 PM

A replacement is on it's way, I also ordered a 10 pack of batteries from amazon, $1.89 so I will just replace the battery if the new one has similar issues.

Thanks

amendegw wrote on 12/1/2011, 7:27 PM

First, my disclaimer... I'm not an audio expert (for that matter I don't know I'm an expert on anything [heh, heh]). I do have an ATR3350 & a Zoom H1, so I ran a little test. I've never been excited about with the volume of the H1 (regardless of microphone), however, I've always been able to fix any volume issues in Vegas or Sound Forge.

Here's what I just recorded: zoom0021.mp3

Here's the processed audio after normalization in Sound Forge: ZOOM0021-Normalized.mp3

Maybe this will give you some insight into whether your newly ordered ATR3350 is defective.

...Jerry

Geoff_Wood wrote on 12/1/2011, 7:56 PM

To repeat what dxdy said - are you sure yor H2 is expecting mic level, rather than line level input ?

geoff

musicvid10 wrote on 12/1/2011, 8:39 PM

Testing a battery under load is unnecessary when the battery will not be used under load. Current draw in modern condenser mics is so low (probably .5 ma or less) that if the battery registers the correct voltage on a meter, it will run the mic.

PeterDuke wrote on 12/1/2011, 8:56 PM

The H2 has both line input and mic input.

safrican wrote on 12/1/2011, 10:03 PM

Jerry, thanks for the sounds bites.

I got nowhere near those levels. Not even close.

Even when I bumped it in vegas I could not achieve 25% of your levels.

John_Cline wrote on 12/2/2011, 5:02 AM

The H2 has 2.5 volt "plug-in" power on the external microphone inputs, it's possible that it is turned on and is interfering with the ATR-3350 microphone. Make sure it is turned off (see page 80 of the H2 user manual.) Also, since the ATR-3350 is mono, when plugged into the H2, it will only record on the left channel.

Laurence wrote on 12/2/2011, 8:31 AM

The only affect of this bias voltage should be a bit of a pop at the beginning and end of the recording. You can see the DC bias if you zoom way into the waveform. Yeah I would turn it off with that mic but it shouldn't be a show stopper.

By the way, that bias voltage will power any of DC-Bias powered mics at microphonemadness.com I have a stereo pair of their best cardioids and they sound wonderful.

musicvid10 wrote on 12/2/2011, 9:52 AM

A quick google shows that many defective ATR3350's have been shipped and are returned. However the consumer ratings are still high.

I second (or third) the microphonemadness product. The use EV and Sennheiser elements, and are well built. Don't use their less expensive line in high-SPL environments such as live performances, though.

Laurence wrote on 12/2/2011, 10:30 AM

How are their less expensive mics in regular recording environments?