Older MKH50 Picking Up Electrical Whine

[timist025]

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this on their mkh50 or other mics. Had an older mkh50 on a corporate shoot recently in a meeting room and was picking up a consistent high pitched electrical whine where the pitch would modulate as i moved and rotated the mic through the room. I narrowed it down to a light switch in the room as the volume of it increased when i moved near it. Ended up just switching to an 8060 and the noise was gone. Boom is a ktek 144ccr with kopul xlr from B&H into a mix pre 10ii. 

 

Bought the mic on here used about a year ago but as far as i can tell it was either serviced or has the newer design with gold pins to eliminate rf interference. I recall a similar experience in a different building but that interference was quieter and intermittent.

 

Any one have any experiences like this or advice?

[fieldsound]

There are a few locations here in Toronto that I’ve had a similar issue with one of my (gold pin) 50s. Something that has worked for me in the past is to tighten up the little screw at the XLR end of the mic. If this doesn’t work I will switch to another 50. Annoying to deal with on location but thankfully rare.

 

 

[timist025]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll try to find a source of interference at home to test this method out!

[Derek H]

Also worth experimenting with is how your XLR is wired. Specifically if the female end that plugs into the 50 has pin 1 tied to the shell or not. You might find that one way works better than another.