Connecting a 3.5mm (ATR-3350) microphone to a XLR / ¼ audio recorder (Tascam DR-40, DR-44, Zoom H4N)

OK, so here’s the problem:  You finally saved up enough money.  You washed 100 cars, cut 100 lawns, or whatever the case may be.  But you finally saved up enough money to buy your first audio recorder. And there are many reasons you would want to have one for video production.  But, the point is, you have one, or else you would not be reading this post. 







Furthermore, you also decided to get a nice fancy one that has a couple of XLR inputs, because, eventually you will want to buy one of those fancy XLR microphones.

But, in the meantime, before you can cut some more grass, you’ll want to connect your collection of cheaper  microphones or lavaliere microphones to this baby.  But those all have a 1/8" plug.  

 Simple right…?  Just get a one of those 1/8" to 1/4" microphone converters.  Since these recorders have a combo XLR / 1/4“ input.  Well, I just happen to have a couple of these around the house.  So I connected my mics to the adapter, then plugged the adapter into the recorder.

But to my dismay, it wasn’t working.  No signal.  The funny thing was that when I jiggled it around, and slightly unplugged the microphone from the adapter, I was able to get the sound.  This had me scouring the internet for answers.  Yes, the ENTIRE internet.  I found a couple users with this problem, but no solution.  Maybe the answer was such an elementary solution that they were embarrassed to post it.

But, that’s not me.  So go ahead and laugh, but I’m sure there will be at least one person out there that will say ‘hey man, I made the same mistake, thanks.  So for you sir (or Maam), here’s the solution:

The thing I didn’t know was that these adapters are not all the same.  When I started to look online, I noticed that some were stereo to stereo, some were mono to stereo, some stereo to mono, and some were mono to mono. 

The inputs on these recorder are mono.  So basically, depending on the mic you are connecting, you will want either mono to mono, or stereo to mono.  I would recommend buying two of each kind.  You may eventually need one or the other. In case you have any of these mics, these are what I needed for them:

stereo to mono	-	ATR 3350 Lavalier
stereo to mono	-	Audio-Technica PRO24CM
stereo to mono	-	Aputure V-Mic D1
mono to mono	-	Neewer 14.37 inch Shotgun

$4.43/2 - mono to mono

$3.44/1 – stereo to mono