New Mic Day

[WhiskeyJack]

20 bucks. Looks familiar. May need some modifications. No idea if it works. Whatever. don't judge me you savages.

[musicturtle]

Interesting find. Just did a quick look. Looks like it needs a four pin MC4F Amphenol connector. Seems like that would cost you more than you paid for the mic from what I have found, so a DIY mod may be the best route.

[liv_rong]

Interesting.

[WhiskeyJack]

Cabling options are looking pretty grim here. I~THINK~ I might have found a connector / converter on amazon but i will have to research more. I also have a friend who has a big trunk of old cables and fittings from way back and he may have what i need or at the very least parts to Frankenstein one together.

musicturtle i may look at seeing if a mod can be done on this. If it is just a simple matter of removing the 4pin connection with a 3 pin modern one, i could live with but if i have to replace all the innards i may as well just buy another 57.

[Lt. Bob]

all ya' gotta do is look up what goes to what and stick some wires up in there

[Greg_L]

all ya' gotta do is look up what goes to what and stick some wires up in there

Right. It can't be that hard. It's just wires.

[Lt. Bob]

I'd take the wires .... double them over until they're about the right size to make good contact ..... solder them up and not you've got a homemade banana plug of the right size to shove in.

And Unidynes are good mics ..... essentially a SM57.
I have several of them although they're a bit more recent and have xlr connectors

[WhiskeyJack]

all ya' gotta do is look up what goes to what and stick some wires up in there

I am sort of thinking that might be what i want to do. I found this on another forum:

Amphenol
MC4F------------XLR---------polarity?--------wire colour

pin 4------------pin 3--------(+/hot)-----------white
pin 3------------pin 2--------(-/cold)-----------black
pin 1------------pin 1-------(g/chassis g)-------shield
Pin 2 ---unused


Seems pretty straight forward enough to me if this was factual. I am going to spend some time on the shure site as they seem to have a pretty extensive FAQ library.

In what research i did do i have heard this is pretty much very similar to a SM57 except it was a bit of boosted uppermid / high section. TBD i guess.

[Greg_L]

XLR pin 1 = shield, Amphenol pin 1
XLR pin 2 = low impedance audio hot (Amphenol pin 4, white wire, typically)
XLR pin 3 = low impedance audio return (Amphenol pin 3, black wire, typically)

You need to figure out which slots are what on the back of that mic.

[WhiskeyJack]

XLR pin 1 = shield, Amphenol pin 1
XLR pin 2 = low impedance audio hot (Amphenol pin 4, white wire, typically)
XLR pin 3 = low impedance audio return (Amphenol pin 3, black wire, typically)

You need to figure out which slots are what on the back of that mic.

They are numbered pretty clearly actually. man good find thanks. that is a much clearer description.




So if this is a low impedance mic am i going to need additional pre amps in front of my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2?

[Greg_L]

No, just hook it up matching the XLR pins to what they should go to on the 4-pin on the mic and see what happens. Looks like pin 2 on the mic will be unused, so that makes it easy.

[Lt. Bob]

They are numbered pretty clearly actually. man good find thanks. that is a much clearer description.

I was about to say they should be marked so there ya' go

So if this is a low impedance mic am i going to need additional pre amps in front of my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2?

An Sm57 is low impedance .... basically anything with an XLR is low impedance so whatever works with your other mics will work with this.

[Armistice]

I found this on another forum:

Oh you're a slut..

[WhiskeyJack]

I found this on another forum:

Oh you're a slut..

I am aren't i. I wasn't even a registered user and i just went in there like i owned the place and took what i want.

[JD01]

Woohoo, got another C1000s. So that's my first pair of drum overheads sorted.

[einstein magoo]

WJ i have one quite similar not same. I just took a quick look but my stuff is in disarray so cant show a photo, i'll keep looking though cause i know I know its here somewhere and it is a good one.
Mine is Unidyne III model 5xx, and I have used it for vocals and for snare top. Really similar to a 57, may be my ears or imagination but the 57s seem to be a tiny bit hotter.
Mine was wired to a long 30 ft cable from the factory, fixed wiring, no jack/plug at the mic, and terminated to a standard 3 pin xlr connector. It had a small noose with a mic holder to wrap around your neck and wear as you walkmaround talking or something. Found it in a basement of a building i was working in in a cheep real to reel case and liberated it about 35 years ago when i was a bit of a thief. The one i have is kind of rounded at the bottom where the cable comes out. Tried to figure a way to fit it with a connector and then just decided if it aint broke dont fix it. Should be a good mixed use, miscellaneous mic for you.

[WhiskeyJack]

Hey [mention]muttley[/mention] [mention]Greg_L[/mention]

I am in the process of getting this thing converted to XLR. I have a few questions. I am going to wire it up as per the specs Greg posted here earlier (same advice is given on the Shure website), if for whatever reason this is not done correctly and i go to test it out am i going to blow up my audio interface or computer? I have no other real means of plugging it into anything to test it out?

Whats the worst thing i can expect from having wires crossed or not grounded correctly?

[Greg_L]

Hey @muttley @Greg_L

I am in the process of getting this thing converted to XLR. I have a few questions. I am going to wire it up as per the specs Greg posted here earlier (same advice is given on the Shure website), if for whatever reason this is not done correctly and i go to test it out am i going to blow up my audio interface or computer? I have no other real means of plugging it into anything to test it out?

Whats the worst thing i can expect from having wires crossed or not grounded correctly?

Hmmm, I'm not totally sure. If you have the signal wires crossed, I don't think that will matter too much. The polarity will be flipped but should still work. If you connect the hot to shield though....that could potentially be bad. You will short something. Shield isn't technically "ground", but it goes to ground through the interface and out to the wall outlet. I think as long as you verify the shield pin on the mic and connect it to the shield of an XLR cable, you're good to go.

[muttley]

Hey @muttley @Greg_L

I am in the process of getting this thing converted to XLR. I have a few questions. I am going to wire it up as per the specs Greg posted here earlier (same advice is given on the Shure website), if for whatever reason this is not done correctly and i go to test it out am i going to blow up my audio interface or computer? I have no other real means of plugging it into anything to test it out?

Whats the worst thing i can expect from having wires crossed or not grounded correctly?

I couldn't really supply any more info than gerg has so its over to other bbs for you me thinks. Mics and are not some thing I have ever really messed with.

[WhiskeyJack]

Ok cool. I just spent three hours driving around town trying to find freaking small guage wire and it is literally a unicorn. All was not lost, i found a little hole in the wall electronics repair place i had no idea even existed and that guy was a pretty decent dude. He gave a few lengths of small guage wire he had laying around and all kind of free advice. First thing he suggested i didn't even consider. Like testing for continuity on the capsule and the voice filter on their own before wasting time and energy even converting it to XLR. I was like "yea but i want to know if it will work" he just looked at me and responded kindly 'i can see you are new to this but just trust me and check the continuity first or else you are wasting time'. Luckily i had some photos on my phone of the thing taken apart and he showed me where to check for stuff and confirmed a few other things.

First thing i did when i got home was just that. Interesting results. So the continuity check worked on both the capsule and voice filter. However:

- i don't know if it is my 20 dollar multi-meter but it took a little bit for the continuity alarm to chime. But when it did it was pretty present and each successive try after that the response of the chime got a little quicker.

- each test on both the voice filter and the capsule made audible crackles and static in the top of the capsule. almost like a speaker? I suspect that could possible a bad thing? But also maybe not? If it makes noise out it must take noise in? I mean that's a thing right ?


In any case based on those two thing i am still going to wire it up here sometime in the next day or so once i find a respectable new soldering iron. My dad said he is going to pack up his Unger and send it out to me but knowing him that could be weeks. I only have so much time off the next little while so.