Hi everyone. I've recently bought a second hand Apogee mini me which i
find a very fine piece of harwdware except for the problem i've been
facing lately. I'm using the onboard mic pre-amps with the following LD
mics: AT4050, KSM44, GT66, C414BULS and the Mini Me pre-amps clip
before any over indication in the meters and maybe a couple of dBs
before reaching 0dbfs (soft limit and compression curve 2 engaged). So
recording turns into a very painful practice as i can't actually
predict when the preamp in going to clip or distort. This happened
recording not very loud sources (vocals mostly)... so i can't imagine
the mini me handling loud sources such as percussion or amps.
There's the option to pad the inputs by 18dbs but it requires to open
the unit and to permanently switch 4 sets of jumpers, which isn't
exactly handy.
Do you think this is a normal behavior for a relatively expensive box
like this? What can i loose using the lower gain settting? Will it be
wiser to use mics level attenuation?

Thanx in advance for your help.

Hey man, how are you doing over there in Peru?

I don't think it's normal, no, especially since the Soft Clip circuit is
supposed to AVOID this type of problem.

It's possible that your unit has developped a fault.

The 414 ULS is a moderatley hot mic and mic pre clipping shoudln't occur
especially on vocals. It will perform well when fed P48 down to around 12V
so I don't think that your Phantom PS has a problem although it's possible
that it can't supply enough current though.

First test would be to try your mics with an extrernal P48 supply.

If the problem is still there, you might want to consider getting the unit
looked at by your local Apogee service center.

JP


"Rokko101" a écrit dans le message de
ups.com...
Hi everyone. I've recently bought a second hand Apogee mini me which i
find a very fine piece of harwdware except for the problem i've been
facing lately. I'm using the onboard mic pre-amps with the following LD
mics: AT4050, KSM44, GT66, C414BULS and the Mini Me pre-amps clip
before any over indication in the meters and maybe a couple of dBs
before reaching 0dbfs (soft limit and compression curve 2 engaged). So
recording turns into a very painful practice as i can't actually
predict when the preamp in going to clip or distort. This happened
recording not very loud sources (vocals mostly)... so i can't imagine
the mini me handling loud sources such as percussion or amps.
There's the option to pad the inputs by 18dbs but it requires to open
the unit and to permanently switch 4 sets of jumpers, which isn't
exactly handy.
Do you think this is a normal behavior for a relatively expensive box
like this? What can i loose using the lower gain settting? Will it be
wiser to use mics level attenuation?

Thanx in advance for your help.

Rokko101 wrote:

The Mini Me pre-amps clip
before any over indication in the meters and maybe a couple of dBs
before reaching 0dbfs (soft limit and compression curve 2 engaged).

Soft Limit will prevent the digital output from reaching full scale.
Turn Soft Limit off, set the input gain, and then turn it back on if
you want it. If you're setting the input gain with Soft Limit and
compression turned on, you could have the input gain set too high (and
clipping the input of the preamp stage) while the limiter is sitting on
the output of the preamp stage to keep the A/D converter from clipping.
You might find that with a hot mic on a loud source, you may need to
engage a pad to drop the level coming from the mic before it hits the
preamp.

Or it could be broken. Do both inputs work the same way with the same
mic on the same source?

Rokko101 wrote:
Hi everyone. I've recently bought a second hand Apogee mini me which i
find a very fine piece of harwdware except for the problem i've been
facing lately. I'm using the onboard mic pre-amps with the following LD
mics: AT4050, KSM44, GT66, C414BULS and the Mini Me pre-amps clip
before any over indication in the meters and maybe a couple of dBs
before reaching 0dbfs (soft limit and compression curve 2 engaged). So
recording turns into a very painful practice as i can't actually
predict when the preamp in going to clip or distort. This happened
recording not very loud sources (vocals mostly)... so i can't imagine
the mini me handling loud sources such as percussion or amps.
There's the option to pad the inputs by 18dbs but it requires to open
the unit and to permanently switch 4 sets of jumpers, which isn't
exactly handy.

First of all, make sure it is producing a full 48V phantom power. Secondly
get a bag of the Shure adjustable attenuators.

Do you think this is a normal behavior for a relatively expensive box
like this? What can i loose using the lower gain settting? Will it be
wiser to use mics level attenuation?

If something is clipping, you have to attenuate before the stage that
is clipping. This means attenuation before the preamp, if the preamp
is clipping. Invest in some of the Shure attenuators. Everybody should
have a drawer full of them.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

It's really a relief to count on you guys (almost a privilege). Well
you put me in the right direction. I guess I got a bit too excited with
this soft limit and push it stuff. To my surprise the input stage was
overloading badly when i turned it off... but it was not apparent since
softlimit was engaged. I was too lazy just guessing those were Input
meters on the mini me... too bad for me (not very professional). This
problem aside, i find the mini-me inputs extremely sensitive as i can
still overload them with an AT4050 (-10db pad engaged)...that is
shouting in front of the mic... Thanx again... i'm doing fine down here
JP... Bye!