Bass rolloff and mic port

[nulldogmas]

Is there such a thing as a bass rolloff filter that will work with a plug-in power mic going into an MD's Mic port?

I realize that most people's first answer will be "Why the heck don't you just get a battery box and go into the Line In port?" but that's sadly not an option for me at the moment, as I have low-sens mics that don't generate enough signal for Line In. Do I have any options here, or am I fated to be EQing the crap out of my bass frequencies in Sound Studio for all eternity?

[The Low Volta]

you can use battery boxes also with the mic in... I do this almost all the time, as the batt box delivers more plug-in power to the mics and they can use their full frequency better that way

so you could use a batter box with bass roll-off into the mic-in as well... but still, like most here I would advice against bass roll-off... better to have the bass and eq it afterwards than to not have it and 'limit' your recording that way

[nulldogmas]

Oh, duh - for some reason I was thinking of battery boxes as a Line In thing. I'll give that a try next, thanks.

As for "limiting" my recording, if I use a rolloff, it'll let me turn up the gain overall without clipping (since bass uses up so much headroom). So I'm effectively throwing away treble right now by not having a bass rolloff, no?

[The Low Volta]

as I understand it (and believe me, I could be wrong ) that would only be 'throwing stuff away' if it would be too quiet to be picked up or be drowned by the preamp's noisefloor or mic's selfnoise...

I use for louder shows a full frequency mic and battery box without bass roll-off and I leav much headroom (peaks at -12db), while I do have to raise overall volume (with audacity) afterwards this still gives very clear sound (and sound info) in the higher frequencies AND I have full bass

perhaps another thing to think about is room/venue acoustics: just close your eyes to really focus on the room acoustics where you are standing (and will be recording from); if you only hear bass, the mic will as well... but moving a meter could make a big difference! Also, 15cm difference vertically makes even much more difference IMHO... I attach my mics to my glasses (right next to my ears) so what I hear is what the mics hear, if the sound is ok for yo, it wont be at chest height!

still, these are just suggestions, you are free to use bass roll-off if you want (just do not ever use cut-off as it sounds really artificial) but before you spend more money on another gadget, I really would suggest experimenting a bit with your current setup...

PS: another option is the attenuator (check A440's avatar/threads) but this isn't my preferred tool (though it is cheap, easy to use and works (only) with mic-in)