Hi. An issue similar to problems raised elsewhere in this forum, but not resolved.

When I first used the Babyface a couple of months ago sound quality on recording was excellent (using NT2A and Z3300a condenser mics). Gain only needed to be about 12 or so.

A few weeks ago I couldn't get any sound through the mics. I thought it was just something simple I was doing wrong but couldn't figure out. So I unplugged the Babyface but otherwise left it alone and I used an Edirol UA101 instead. Didn't have time to get back to it until recently but now I find the left channel produces no sound at all even on max gain, and the right channel on max gain produces such a low level that even normalised using Sonar it is not very loud (and of course the background noise is very audible).

The mics and cables work fine with the UA101. I've added and then taken off the extension lead for the breakout cable, but that made no difference. The headphones and the MIDI connection on the breakout bundle work fine.

I've updated the drivers and the firmware, reset Totalmix and then replaced it with the later version. Same result. (The UA101 was de-installed in case that was causing the problem. Again, no change.)

I can confirm that the 48V botton is lit when using the condenser mics, and that the 'gain' I am referring to is the one directly under the 48V button.

An SM57 seems to work OK in both the left and the right channels. (Without phantom power, of course.)

An Electrovoice BK1 (which needs phantom power) works so-so on the right channel (needs max gain) but not on the left.

The HiZ input works fine.

So it looks like the issue is related to phantom power, but it's not clear how. I've tried it with various combinations of one USB connector and two USB connectors in different ports on the PC without any improvement. Originally it was working off just the one.

I've also tried it on a different computer.

Sorry for a long post. Does anyone know if there is anything else that might be causing the issue? Or does it look like the unit (or the cable) is broken somehow?

Thanks

John