AT4040 - crackly with pad engaged?

[JeffTD]

Alright, so I've been having this weird problem with my AT4040, which rendered it useless on hats when recording drums today!

With the pad off, it's fine. Recording vocals is no issue, which is mostly what I use this for.

Turn the pad on, however... the mic gets crackly, like it's being overdriven, regardless of the source. It could be vocals, acoustic, clean/dirty guitars, hats, as a room mic for drums, etc. When the pad is on, it sounds like ass!

I have a feeling the mic itself might just be fuxx0red, but what could've I have done to have it only do this when the pad is active? Maybe it's an internal error? I'm gonna shoot an e-mail off to AT, but I figured I'd post here as well.

 

[lolzgreg]

Crackling sounds like the diaphragm is being overloaded to me. I've gotten this with one of my condensers too close to my guitar amp before. You're saying when the pad is engaged, you get crackling; Are you hearing the signal decrease AND crackles, or just crackling?

 

[JeffTD]

Signal decreases like expect, but crackling is still there.

This happens even when I've got say a dude singing, don't need the pad. Engage pad to test for crackly sound, and lower pre gain accordingly - suddenly its scratchy, even tho the guys voice didn't change.

Or maybe I really am overloading this somehow? Something tells me this mic should be able to be used on guitar cabinets, hihats, or drum rooms??

 

[Melodeath]

Indeed. I suspect some sort of internal, electrical/mechanical malfunction. See what AT says

 

[lolzgreg]

Signal decreases like expect, but crackling is still there.

This is very strange. You should be able to use it on just about any source as long as it doesn't have the spl of a damn machine gun. I'm gonna second the above post and say its a mechanical issue inside. You do know that the diaphragm isn't fucked up though, since it works fine without the pad.

-Greg

 

[greyskull]

That doesn't sound good

 

[Soundlurker]

I don't think I've had this problem with the AT4040 I've used.

 

[JeffTD]

Does with with both Saffire 26 pres (focusrite green range) and a UA 610 I've used with it. Still no response from AT... fuckers!