bassclarinet69

Hello, I'm currently mastering the first live recordings done with the DR-1. Here's my findings and hints: - when recording, don't aim for the highest possible recording level. The DR-1's mic preamp noise is in any case larger than the one of the AD converter, so you're not giving up anything when choosing a lower gain. For me, setting the mic gain to LOW and the thumbwheel to 10 (max) gave best results. Pulling the gain up during the mastering was better for the overall noise figure than to put the mic preamp gain to MEDium and then reduce it with the potentiometer... - The midrangyness of the mics can be reduced substantially using a parametric eq: cf 4500 Hz, gain -2dB, bw 4octaves. Plus, to compensate for lack of bass, apply a low shelf at 120 Hz, steepness 6db/oct, gain between 3 and 6 dB depending on your preferences. Using these tricks, plus a nice convolution reverb, I did some really nice-sounding stuff. The noise floor (mics, room A/C and audience) sometimes reaching as low as -65 dB RMS in the final mix. Not too bad, considering the my old setup using Sennheiser mics, self-designed preamps, and a DA-40 gives around 75 dB in a comparable situation :-) So, on my wishlist for a DR-1 MkII would be improved mics and mic preamps. For the nearer future, I'm looking forward to an improved firmware which fixes the digital distorsion 'bug' and which brings a calibrated level meter - if I'm allowed to dream, a true RMS + peak level meter according to the K-14 or K-20 standard would be way cool (have a look at the DigiCheck software by RME Audio) best regards

Hello everybody, Since last week I'm, also a DR-1 owner, and having had some issues, I found this forum... First of all: Guitarfxr, thank you for your efforts in contacting Tascam! Here is another issue with the unit, using firmware versions 1.02 or 1.10 (yes, I upgraded as well). As we all know, clipping is a bad thing in digital systems. But if the clipping is only very short, i.e. an impulsive sound gets one peak slightly shaved off, that's not a problem at all - it's inaudible unless the recording was made with the DR-1 in 16 bit or any MP3 mode. In that case, once the +MAX sample value of +32767 is exceeded, instead of holding it there for the duration of the overdrive, it rolls over to -MIN (-32768). So instead of a perfectly inaudible mild clipping, you get a harsh full scale impulse which is a very loud and unpleasant click or knock. Even worse, if the overdrive gets more important, e.g. due to low frequency wind noise that is added to the desired signal, the waveform jumps from +MAX to -MIN and then ramps up again. In the sound editor, for a sine wave, that looks like the missing part on the positive half wave is 'moved' down to -MIN, i.e. as if 65536 was substracted from the original signal. This behaviour can be seen at least in the following configurations: 16/44.1, any MP3/44.1, ALC or LIMITER off, LOW/MED or HI Gain, MIC1 used. I did not test the line input for its overdrive behaviour... yet. In 24 bit mode, the clipping behaves as expected, that is, the sample value holds at either min or max value, which lets me believe that the AD converter is clean and that this digital distorsion issue is due to some post-processing in the DR-1 firmware. Needless to say that this weird overdrive makes the 16 bit or MP3 modes nearly unusable unless you intend to a) leave a lot of headroom and b ) use the limiter and c) be prepared for some manual editing sessions. But I am confident that this description is helpful for the Tascam people to hunt down and fix that bug in a matter of no time. As for the noise, I couldn't really compare before/after behaviour since I did upgrade relatively soon. Regarding the bass issue, I did notice that recordings with 1.10 do have less energy in the DC to 25 Hz part of the spectrum, and that the sound is really somewhat midrangy. However, it is quite easy to correct with a parametric EQ, so I can live with that. brgds