M-Audio Sputnik Guide D'utilisation page 4

Now that you've ensured that the power supply is set to the correct voltage, you can begin to
set up the Sputnik mic.
1. First, make sure the power supply is turned off (and preferably, unplugged from the wall).
2. Take the Sputnik 7-pin cable and connect it to the female socket on the back of the power
supply. (Facing the arrow indentation on the male plug upward will help you align the pins
correctly.)
3. Screw the M-Audio shock mount onto a sturdy mic stand and then place the Sputnik mic
into the shock mount. The threaded mounting ring at the bottom of the shock mount
screws into the bottom of the Sputnik microphone, securing it in place. We recommend
that you always use the shock mount with the Sputnik mic as it provides a safe and stable
structure and it greatly reduces vibrations coupling to the mic stand from the floor.
4. Plug the female end of the 7-pin cable into the bottom of the mic. To help align the pins,
make sure the clip on the female plug faces the same direction as the front of the mic.
(The front of the mic is the side with "Sputnik" engraved.)
5. Connect a balanced XLR microphone cable between the power supply and your mic
preamp. We recommend you use the highest quality cable possible. Generally speaking,
the shorter the cable, the better. (Remember: because the Sputnik power supply unit
provides the voltages needed to power the Sputnik mic, you shouldn't use the +48V
phantom power function on your preamp.)
6. Connect the grounded AC power cable from the power supply mains feed to the wall
power socket.
7. Turn your mic preamp gain level all the way down. You'll gradually turn the level up once
the Sputnik is up and running.
8. Now you can turn on the power switch on the power supply. It takes about 15 seconds for
the red power LED to illuminate fully and ideally you should wait a few minutes for the
Sputnik to "warm up" and for the operating voltages to stabilize before you begin
recording. (We designed the slow "warm up" circuit in this way in order to extend the life of
the vacuum tube.)
9. Select the polar pattern and attenuation level appropriate to your recording setup by using
the switches on the body of the Sputnik mic:
The Sputnik contains a switchable 10dB attenuation pad, useful for situations where the
sound you are capturing is sufficiently loud that it may overdrive some part of the audio
signal chain.
Additionally, there is a switchable 80-Hz 2nd-order high-pass rolloff filter (12dB/octave) for
filtering out such annoyances as low-frequency rumble from traffic noise outside your
studio, or vibrations transmitted up the mic stand from a player tapping his or her foot. We
advise you to use this function judiciously since you may be capturing a sound source with
valuable information below 80Hz; furthermore, please remember that the less circuitry you
introduce into the signal path, the cleaner your output signal will be—so you should
consider switching in the highpass filter as a "last resort" problem-solving tactic. For many
applications, the M-Audio shock mount will successfully reduce the noise from low-
frequency vibrations.
10. Now you can adjust your mic preamp gain level, phase, etc. as appropriate.
11. When shutting down the mic, you should always turn off the power supply first and wait for
the red LED to go out completely before removing the cables.
4