How good is phantom power on Scarlet x?

[Omar N]

Hi everyone,

please pardon me if this has already been talked about, I couldn't find anything conclusive on the issue.

Can anyone tell me how good the phantom power and overall sound recording quality is on the Scarlet? I have a Senheiser MKH416 and I want to use it to record sound for a doc I am doing, but I am not sure if I should go with an external sound recorder or if the 1/8 inch audio input on the scary x brain will provide good enough phantom power and audio quality.

All help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Thomas Koba]

i use it all the time, when shooting doc style. It's perfect for me. I use the MKH416 too. I prefer it to synching afterwards, and I cannot tell the difference (but I´m not an audio technician, although I do my own edits and soundwork in Nuendo).

 

[Mike P.]

The audio quality is fine…

HOWEVER, early on I read some pretty scary horror stories about shorting out the audio board (requiring a hardware replacement) from people plugging/unplugging the 3.5mm(1/8") jack into the brain while the camera was on and while phantom power was enabled… Something about the 3.5mm jack's tip hitting/rubbing against the sleeve and ring as it's being inserted and causing short with the 48v (frying the board). So it is NOT hot-swappable and a cord accidentally being taken out while on, could fry something.

I asked in a few different threads at the time, but no one at RED confirmed or denied if this was actually happening. I think what people are doing is getting their A-box (or equivalent), plugging it in, and leaving it connected…

It'd be great if RED could chime in and put this potentially issue to bed.

 

[Scott Crawley]

Phantom power isn't like a pre-amp, it doesn't color the sound so there is no question of how good it is. Scarlet has phantom power... end of story.

 

[Jens Rosengren]

It's great. I use it all the time and I've never had any troubles!

 

[Omar N]

Thanks so much for the replies guys! This has all been very great information.

Sorry Scott, your right, I should have been more clear in my title. What I was really asking was whether or not the quality of the audio pre amps on the scarlet was good. As good as a sound devices sound recorder for instance.


Thanks!

 

[Jens Rosengren]

Thanks so much for the replies guys! This has all been very great information.

Sorry Scott, your right, I should have been more clear in my title. What I was really asking was whether or not the quality of the audio pre amps on the scarlet was good. As good as a sound devices sound recorder for instance.


Thanks!

I've had one sound guy complain waaaay back about audio recorded through the scarlet, but if I remember correctly it was audio recorded through an H4N, split through the audiojack to give a sync track to the Scarlet. Other than that, most sound guys and myself have been happy with the results