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Is my Rode NTG-2 Mic Broken? (Battery works, not phantom power)


iGamer4tv
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My Rode NTG-2 mic is plugged into my BEHRINGER XENYX 302USB mixamp, and it does not power on at all. All settings turned up, it will not record a single thing. But, it does get some power? If I keep screaming into it for like a minute it'll pick up a tiny db sound in Audacity for a split second. So something is wrong somewhere.

IF I power it with a AA battery and connect to my mixamp it works as normally it would on battery, but I do not want to use a battery at all because my mixamp has Phantom Power. And my mixamp is new and it works perfect with my AT2020 XLR mic.

Is it defective? Am I doing something wrong?

Let me know! Thanks!

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On 14/02/2017 at 0:40 PM, iGamer4tv said:

My Rode NTG-2 mic is plugged into my BEHRINGER XENYX 302USB mixamp, and it does not power on at all. All settings turned up, it will not record a single thing. But, it does get some power? If I keep screaming into it for like a minute it'll pick up a tiny db sound in Audacity for a split second. So something is wrong somewhere.

IF I power it with a AA battery and connect to my mixamp it works as normally it would on battery, but I do not want to use a battery at all because my mixamp has Phantom Power. And my mixamp is new and it works perfect with my AT2020 XLR mic.

Is it defective? Am I doing something wrong?

Let me know! Thanks!

Get it checked by a sound professional you may know. 

Btw, the NTG2 has a 10 year warranty, if you register it online. I am sure you are well within that warranty period. :blush:

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17 hours ago, scotchtape said:

Have you even checked with other equipment - how do you know p48 on the mixer is working properly? You have to check all the components yourself to identify what is actually wrong...

I only have access to another copy of the same exact amp I have, so I'll try that out when I can. 

17 hours ago, Antonis said:

Could be a loose wire.

I recently had an NTG-2 mic with a broken signal wire.

If you have access to a soldering iron and are a bit handy yourself then it's an easy fix.
The microphone itself is a fairly simple device to take apart.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repairing+Rode+NTG2+disconnected-loose+wiring/45546

I will open it up ASAP and check if anything is loose! I'm very good with working with soldering, hopefully it doesn't come to that, but if it does at least I found the issue to fix it.

5 minutes ago, sanveer said:

Get it checked by a sound professional you may know. 

Btw, the NTG2 has a 10 year warranty, if you register it online. I am sure you are well within that warranty period. :blush:

Idk where to even begin to find a sound professional and figure it out. I'll try doing everything but that first, and yeah hopefully register it online if I can't figure it out! I just need it fixed the same day I begin investigating the problem. 

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On this subject...

I had a corporate shoot this week, and for some unknown reason my Sennheiser MKE 600, plugged into the XLR input of a Tascam DR100 MKII simply wouldn't work at all. AT the highest gain, it would only register a -42db sound when I tapped the front of the mic. Tried switching XLR inputs, still the same. Tried 48v phantom power, still the same. Anyone had this problem before per chance? I hate audio when it doesn't go as expected.

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28 minutes ago, Gregormannschaft said:

On this subject...

I had a corporate shoot this week, and for some unknown reason my Sennheiser MKE 600, plugged into the XLR input of a Tascam DR100 MKII simply wouldn't work at all. AT the highest gain, it would only register a -42db sound when I tapped the front of the mic. Tried switching XLR inputs, still the same. Tried 48v phantom power, still the same. Anyone had this problem before per chance? I hate audio when it doesn't go as expected.

I literally am experiencing the same issue with my NTG-2. Maybe one of the wires inside is disconnected like one of the above people said. But it works fine on battery, does yours work normal on battery? 

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4 minutes ago, iGamer4tv said:

I literally am experiencing the same issue with my NTG-2. Maybe one of the wires inside is disconnected like one of the above people said. But it works fine on battery, does yours work normal on battery? 

No, battery and phantom power didn't work at all. I switched to a XLR>3.5mm cable which seemed to work much better, with levels still a little low. But the mic plugged directly into the camera worked fine...very odd. I'm going to do a few more tests at home tonight to check, but I've had back luck with this audio recorder. I feel like I've missed a setting somewhere...

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1 minute ago, Gregormannschaft said:

No, battery and phantom power didn't work at all. I switched to a XLR>3.5mm cable which seemed to work much better, with levels still a little low. But the mic plugged directly into the camera worked fine...very odd. I'm going to do a few more tests at home tonight to check, but I've had back luck with this audio recorder. I feel like I've missed a setting somewhere...

So the only time yours worked was with a battery and 3.5mm cable into your camera? Yeah something might be wrong with both of our mic's, my cables work fine with other equipment. I'll be home in a few hours and going to open it up and post back here.

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Just now, iGamer4tv said:

So the only time yours worked was with a battery and 3.5mm cable into your camera? Yeah something might be wrong with both of our mic's, my cables work fine with other equipment. I'll be home in a few hours and going to open it up and post back here.

I have a feeling it's the audio recorder, or a setting I'm missing somewhere. The mic doesn't need phantom power, and it performed fine plugged into the camera with the xlr>3.5mm cable. So in theory there's no reason why it wouldn't record when paired with the Tascam XLR input. 

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33 minutes ago, Gregormannschaft said:

I have a feeling it's the audio recorder, or a setting I'm missing somewhere. The mic doesn't need phantom power, and it performed fine plugged into the camera with the xlr>3.5mm cable. So in theory there's no reason why it wouldn't record when paired with the Tascam XLR input. 

We are in the same boat then cause mine is fine with that cable into my camera as well. And it is fine with a battery and XLR to XLR in my amp, but not having the battery in it wont work. Even wiggling the cables to get some type of ugly sounding feedback wouldn't work, even messing with the filter switch while doing that didn't do anything at max gain. So, its either a button or setting on the receiving end, or the mics have some fault with it. Assuming all my brand new cables are perfectly fine. 

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52 minutes ago, iGamer4tv said:

We are in the same boat then cause mine is fine with that cable into my camera as well. And it is fine with a battery and XLR to XLR in my amp, but not having the battery in it wont work. Even wiggling the cables to get some type of ugly sounding feedback wouldn't work, even messing with the filter switch while doing that didn't do anything at max gain. So, its either a button or setting on the receiving end, or the mics have some fault with it. Assuming all my brand new cables are perfectly fine. 

Hmm, OK. Maybe we're just missing a setting somewhere? Very odd, but glad you made this topic!

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On 2/16/2017 at 1:07 PM, Gregormannschaft said:

So er, I found the problem. There's a tiny button at the bottom of the Tascam DR100 Mk.II where you can switch between 'Mic/Line1' - I switched it to Mic and it works perfectly now. 

Basically, this: :blush:

I wish my problem was this simple! But congrats on the fix. I think it's the cable, not sure. Waiting for Rode to reply and getting a new cable to test. 

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@Gregormannschaft There is always an issue with this recorder! But it is my favorite cheap one, a workhorse for me for a few years now. Literally hundred of TV episodes and 4 years of a music documentary series. 

1) Hold dial

2) Input dial

3) Mic/Line 1 dial at the bottom 

4) Mic Gain dial at the back

5) +48V dial at the back

and the most annoying part? I sometimes forget to press REC for the second time to record! 

I wonder how good the markIII one..

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UPDATE: I think its my mixer! So I took my mic to the store, I used a new cable I bought from them, and tested it on a mixer in the store with Garage Bang, and everything was perfectly fine with no battery in.

So this brings me to my mixer most likely being the issue. Going to have too test another one of this mixer, and contact their support to keep investigating wtf is going on. 

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