
If you play in a live band then chances are you most likely have a modest home studio setup as well. Every musician needs a way to capture creative ideas and having a home studio setup is the best way to do that. Most musicians have at least a basic mixing console but a lot of these consoles don’t come equipped with Phantom Power. Why do you need Phantom Power? To power your large diaphragm studio microphone such as the Audio-Technica AT2050 microphone.
So you’re faced with the dilemma of either spending big bucks on a mixer that’s equipped with Phantom Power or you’ll have to find some way to power your large diaphragm studio microphone. Well, there’s a very easy way to power your studio microphone and it’s ideal for the single-user home studio. I had the very same problem and I solved it by purchasing an external phantom power supply to power my Audio-Technica microphone.
The supply I got is the Audio-Technica AT8801 Phantom Power Supply and it has worked perfectly for me powering my studio microphone. It’s every affordable and it works like a charm. All I had to do to use it with my microphone is have two XLR mic cables. I just plugged one cable from my microphone into the phantom power supply and the other cable from the phantom power supply into my mixer. My studio mic sounds fantastic and I didn’t have to buy a pricey mixer or computer interface that was equipped with phantom power.
There are also external phantom power supplies that can power multiple microphones simultaneously such as the Audio-Technica CP8506 4CH Phantom Power Supply . These are great for powering multiple condensor microphones when recording a drumset or guitar amplifier.
So as you can see, it’s very affordable and easy to power your high quality studio microphones. It’s always nice to have one or two high quality mics in your home studio to capture vocals, drums or amplifiers.