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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fmhill" data-source="post: 1860209" data-attributes="member: 86560">Hi Luiz,At 05:10 PM 6/26/2010 -0400, you wrote:"Okay Mitch, sorry for the lack of information.The problem I'm having is pretty much the same of the creator of the thread. The built-in microfone of my recorder (PCM-M10) works perfectly. But when I plug in the external mic (Sony ECM 674/9x) the sound is very low. Even in "manual" mode and leveling up the "Rec level" to the maximum. The first problem is that the sound comes out only in the left side of the headphones. The second is the low volume of the sound, even in the maximum of the recording level."My answer:First thing you need to do is solve the monaural (mono) problem.  One possibility is to look in the PCM-10 recorder menus for a setting for recording in "mono" mode. If you don't have any luck with this, then, yes, put a 3.5mm TRS stereo plug on the cable and wire both the tip and the ring to pin 2 of the XLR3F connector going to the microphone.    You wrote:"I'm using a cable with XLR female in one side (connected to the mic) and a 3.5mm pin on the other side. I didn't found any cable to buy here in my town, so I asked this guy to build one for me. The problem could be the cable, or it could be the microfone. That's why I'm asking if anyone has ever used this mic (Sony ECM 674/9x)." My answer:Regrettably I do not know of anyone to use this Sony microphone and I was not able to find complete specifications for it however, if it works the same as the Sennheiser ME66/K6 which it sounds very much like from what I did find for information, it should work reasonably well with the Sony PCM-M10 recorder.  Specifications are very much like the ME66/K6 with the exception of sensitivity, shows the Sony mic about the same as the Sennheiser MKE300...You wrote:"If I understand, I need a cable that transform the mono sound coming from the mic to the stereo receiver input of the recorder. Am I correct? (I don't really master this electrical stuff, more of a amateur user). If yes, and having in mind that I pretty much won't be able to buy this cable online (only available in the US stores, and it's very expensive the shipping to Brazil), I need to tell the guy that built the first cable to me, to design the correct cable."My answer:Yes, you are correct however, switching the recorder to "mono" record mode should cause it to work with a cable with the 3.5mm TS mono plug.  On the XLR3F connector, pins 1 and 3 should be tied together and the audio signal is on pin 2.  The mic cable signal wire goes to pin 2 and the second wire, the signal common wire and/or shield goes to pins 1 & 3. The wire coming from pin 2 of the XLR3F should go to both tip & ring of the 3.5mm TRS stereo connector if you decide you need to make another cable. One other item in the menus of the recorder may be a "Plug in power" (PIP) option command to turn PIP off.  When you use a microphone with its own battery or external phantom power, this PIP function should be turned off...  Otherwise you may get a higher than normal background noise in the recording...Hope this helps...</blockquote>

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