Ok, I got a new Rode NTG2 and it seems to be working much better and I'm working on returning the AT897.
There is still some humm in the lines, I'm 90% sure it's from the XLR to 3.5mm cord, so I grabbed a Beachtek DXA-2s and some XLR to XLR cables. I'll let you know how it turns out when they...