This is obviously a funky edge-case as I imagine most people will use the V2 sensors with the Portal, but in my case there’s not really enough inputs for the other stuff I’ve doing.
I don’t recommend doing this. The v2 sensors are not using Phantom power – it’s a custom power amount (I’m not even sure off the top of my head the amount) that is being sent from the Portal to the v2 sensor.
For your use case, we’re considering adding the option to use the portal in a “pass-through” mode where you could assign the portal inputs to outputs on the back and enable use with other interfaces (without a computer connected to the portal). This might be useful in big studios. Let me know if you think that would work for you. That would require a firmware update.
Indeed, a funky edge case here. I was mainly looking to augment my current setup and, at the time, assumed it would be Phantom-over-TRS based on how the V1 one sensors worked and figured I’d ask on the forum before trying to plug anything in (glad I did!). And since the V1 sensors aren’t available any more, I ordered a V2 one.
Having a “pass-through” mode would definitely be useful, as I can see plenty of cases where the Portal wouldn’t be enough I/O on its own, or using it alongside an existing setup in a studio (closer to my use case).
The main thing for me is that I don’t have a Portal interface at all, just the single V2 sensor.
I realize this thread hinges on you not having the Portal - but in regard to not having enough I/O for your studio setup, I’ve had good success just using the ADAT out from the Portal into my primary interface for recording. Just one cable to connect the two interfaces is pretty convenient and easy.
Yeah that’s definitely a good addition and a decent solution to having an “all-in-one” solution, while still working inside larger/existing contexts.
Would still be good to know if it’s possible to run the V2 sensors without a Portal by supplying it with the right voltage in the right place. And I’ll just keep my eyes peeled for V1 sensors popping up used more often since I definitely have no need/desire for a dedicated “thru” hardware unit.
Would pass-through mode still be able to make use of the built in mic on Portal for cross talk cancellation? Seems like that could have to be manually configured? I would appreciate still being able to utilize that.
I was initially thinking that it would work like most other ADAT daisy chain devices where it does the ADC then passes audio on while all the same clock, but since there’s only an ADAT out I don’t know how it would get clock from the next device.
Looking at this page in the manual it suggests using Loopback to do audio routing, but that’s perhaps before the official “pass-through” mode is enabled.
I would suspect that approach would potentially add another vector of delay.
Sorry, tangent brain!
I would think the cross talk would happen within the software itself, so my guess is if you use a (hardware) “pass-through” that it wouldn’t be available, but I don’t know.
You could use a DAW to create a passthrough mode. Just routing the inputs directly to the output. But the passthrough mode I mentioned would be useable without a computer connected to the portal. For cross talk, we’d need to let you choose the input for the on-board mic for that to work. Hope that helps!
