Owners Manual

Operating the MPA-201

Using PHANTOM Power

e MPA-201 provides a standard 48-volt phantom power supply for

using condenser microphones, active ribbon microphones and active

directboxes.PressthePHANTOMpowerswitchin,andtheLEDwill

illuminateindicatingthephantompowerisactive.IMPORTANTNOTE:

As with any mic input, there will be a noticeable pop in the audio when

plugging and unplugging a mic cable with the Phantom power on.

Toavoidanypossibledamagetoyourgearorears,besuretomuteyour

headphones or studio monitors when plugging and unplugging mic

cables with the Phantom power on.

PHASE

e MPA-201 has a PHASE switch, which allows you to invert the

polarity of the channel output. Inverting the phase on a microphone

can be critical especially when multiple mics are used to capture the

samesoundsource.Oneofthemostcommonexamplesiswhenasnare

drum is miked from the top and the bottom. Because the microphone

diaphragms are facing opposite directions the two mics are out of phase

and some or a lot of cancellation will occur.

SMOOTH

Sometime around the end of the 1970’s and early 1980’s, and perhaps

before that, engineers and studio techs started to remove modules,

particularly mic pre’s and EQ’s from their favorite large format

recording consoles. is enabled them to take a smaller set of choice

signal processors and ﬁt them into smaller cases or standard 19-

inch equipment racks. Many mic pre modules were stripped from

their frame, however their outputs had a terminating resistor at the

patchbay, which was left behind. Without the terminating resistor, the

transformers start to saturate or ring when presented with high SPL

broadband signals. For many sources and many applications we like

thissaturation!eSMOOTHfunctionaddsbacktheseterminating

resistors producing a subtle yet dramatic diﬀerence depending on

thesoundsource.Inanycase,theSMOOTHfunctionisanotherway

to slightly color your sound, so check it out, give a listen and see if it

works for the signal you are recording.