ART Tube MP Studio for on cam mic pre?

[Chris Leong]

Hi all

I'm looking for viable alternatives to a Beachtek, and I'm thinking about battery life with the ART. Can't be great, not with the tube and the phantom power on board, but has anybody at least tried this out so I can discount it as an option (or not)?

Anyone used the ART MP tube mic pre to go into an 1/8" camcorder input?

Thanks!

[Steve Lang]

I am way late to this post, but recently got an Art Tube preamp for my HV20, along with an Azden SGM-1X mic.

I get pretty good results with the setup, the preamp allows me to dial the noisy HV20 internal preamp way down. I know the Art Tube unit is better than my overall recording setup (making a dramatic short), in any case. Initially there was a buzz coming from the Art Tube, but that totally disappeared when I turned on mic attentuation in the HV20. I don't have $289 to spend on a JuicedLink CX231, and since I am mainly shooting interiors without too much movement, I didn't need a totally mobile solution for now.

I also just bought a Black and Decker Power To Go which is a 100W power source with 4 amp hours of battery life. The Art Tube uses a 9V 700 mA AC adapter, so I am thinking it should run for a few hours with the Power To Go. For a total investment of $65 or so (of which $30 was already sunk cost), I have a (potentially) good mobile solution for now.

I am interested in hearing anyone else's feedback with similar equipment.

Thanks, Steve

[Steve House]

Test your B&D power unit by making some recordings using it as your power source before you try a shoot 'for real.' Inverter power supplies often put out other then proper sine wave AC and it could show up as noise in your audio. I reckon you'll get about an hour to an hour and a half runinng time on a full charge.

[Steve Lang]

Thanks for the tip. I have tried hooking it all up and monitoring the sound through headphones, and it sounded fine. I will also try actually recording to tape, just to be absolutely sure.

Do you think I'll only get 1-1.5 hours? I was hoping for more, since the unit is rated at 4 amp hours and the Art Tube draws no more than 700 mAh or so max. For the time being I don't need a lot of run time anyway, so it's no big deal.

EDIT- The Azden mic is battery powered, so I don't need phantom power from the Art Tube. That's one of the reasons why I'm hoping battery life will be okay.

[Jay Massengill]

The plug-in transformer that came with my ART Tube MP Studio is listed with an output of 9v AC, 800 mA. But more importantly for your calculation the transformer is listed as 9 watts on the input at 120v AC 60Hz.

[Steve Lang]

Thanks, my knowledge of electrical matters is minor.

I do know that W = V * A. The Art Tube obviously does not use too much juice. I also know that people can run laptop computers off the Black and Decker unit for an hour to hour and a half, which can typically draw 50 W or so.

So that would lead me to believe that potentially my upper end here would be 5 to 8 hours or so. If I can get at least a couple of hours I will be very satisfied considering the price of the unit. It's light enough to hang on my belt (it comes with a little pouch w/ drawstring.)

I built a DIY steadicam, so am going to try to mount the Art Tube on that, and play around with that setup.

[Steve House]

I'm going by the Black & Decker's statement that the unit will supply power for 5 minutes into a 100 watt draw. As I think about it, I misread the specs - I think what they mean is it's rated for a continuous load of 80 watts and can sustain a load of 100 watts for up to 5 minutes. That's I get for trying to resd specs and do math in my head at 4am BC (Before Coffee).

4aH @ 12 volts is 48 watt hours. If the power supply for the ART preamp draws 9 watts, that means you should get in ballpark of 5 hours run time, disregarding system losses.

It seems like you're jumping through hoops here. Is there some reason you want to avoid a Beach or its equivalent or for that matter a real mixer like an SD MixPre?

[Steve Lang]

Hi Steve,

Yes, there is a reason I'm jumping through hoops... $$$ ;)

I had previously bought the Art Tube for a shoot that did not require mobility, and it worked great for what I needed. I got good clean pre-amplification, which can be very important with the Canon HV20 and external mics.

Since it was so cheap on EBay, I added the Black & Decker unit to add some portability to what I already had, plus it is a reasonably handy power source for other uses.

Down the road, I definitely want to get a JuicedLink CX231. But for now, I am making do with limited means (this is a side hobby for me, so I'm happy to have found some cheap tools to go with my HV20.)

Thanks, Steve

[Steve Lang]

Hi Steve,

Yes, there is a reason I'm jumping through hoops... $$$ ;)

I had previously bought the Art Tube for a shoot that did not require mobility, and it worked great for what I needed. I got good clean pre-amplification, which can be very important with the Canon HV20 and external mics.

Since it was so cheap on EBay, I added the Black & Decker unit to add some portability to what I already had, plus it is a reasonably handy power source for other uses.

Down the road, I definitely want to get a JuicedLink CX231 or equivalent. But for now, I am making do with limited means (this is a side hobby for me, so I'm happy to have found some cheap tools to go with my HV20.)

Thanks, Steve