I have a MZ-N505. Bought it before I even thought of "Hey I could do with something to do live recordings"
I've read the forums/FAQ and know that I might have been better off with the 707 or that I might need a preamp. Too late to change the model and I don't want to pay above the odds for a preamp.
I have a shotgun mic (with a AAA battery in it for improving it's response pattern) for my camcorder. The output is too low for the N505 (with everything ramped up to 30/30 you can barely hear it).
I plugged the mic into my tape recorder walkman and patch the headphone into the minidisc. Everything worked perfectly - except that (1) you can hear the motor from the tape unit in the recording (2) It stops after 45 minutes if you have a tape in it (pain in the ass) (3) I look like I am blatantly recording something with all the wires and boxes!
I borrowed a friends Audio Technica microphone. It had a battery box attached to it (kind of like a wireless lapel mic without the wireless bit).
It worked better than the shotgun mic, but unless I close mic-ed it I didn't get above 1 bar on the record meter (close mic-ing it brought it up to about 3 bars).
I'm not planning on recording loud live gigs for a good long while (wait until the non-caleb part of my username goes on tour again). However I might have need to do a recording a lecture in a large lecture theater soon (very soon).
I'd love to make use of the MD unit to record stuff. I'd like to add a preamp to the setup. What are my options?
When I was 12, I could have drawn you a schematic for a preamp circuit with my eyes closed. but that was many years ago. I don't own a soldering iron, nor do I really have the time (well I might but...). And I don't want to spend above the odds to solve the problem.
Is there something that I buy/make that will be simple, small and cheap. By small I also mean that it doesn't look like an explosive device (If I am sneaking it into lectures)? I have about a week to come up with a solution (otherwise I will rely on my friend with a N707 to record the lecture for me - does the 707 have a digital optical out if I wanted to do a digital dub of their version in that case?)
Any good suggestions? Would buying a digital voice recorder to act as a preamp work?
Steve