saxguy007

Hello, Based on recommendations on these boards, I chose to buy a Sharp IM-DR420 for live recording of my various jazz performances. So far, in two outdoor performances over the weekend, I have recorded from a board mix in one concert as well as with open mic placed on a music stand in front of the jazz orchestra. Since sound checks were not possible due to the venues, I set the thing to auto level record. I would concur with posters on previous threads that automatic level kills dynamics (on the other hand, it helped drown out the crickets) and I will have to experiment with an optimal manual recording level. My concern, however, is with the live mic recording (with Sony ECM-DS70P). On each of the first three numbers we did, the recording would just crap out for a couple seconds in the middle of the song. On playback I counted time across the gap and the gap covered real-time in the song. After the first three numbers, however, it was ok and never had this 1-2s skip in the recording. It did that when I tested it out at home first. I turned off the MARK feature thinking that maybe it inserted a manual track number, which then caused some kind of silence gap in playback, but it appears this is not the case. I also tried to turn SYNC off, with the hope the thing would just start recording and stay ON the whole time (80 min) regardless of stimuli. I read the sticky post on this (the fact that there is a sticky post on the problem suggests I am not alone). Based on my particular situation, what do you think caused this? Some conflict or artifact of ALS? THe music was going full bore when gaps hit, so it's not like a sudden decrescendo could have triggered a recording pause that I recall. Could the problem be Fujifilm minidiscs I got at Best Buy? I noticed that sometimes the thing takes FOREVER to "Read TOC" before I can start to record or play back on it. Specific brand recommendations on blank MDs would be helpful. Please advise. The sound from this thing is great so far, and I'd hate to think I bought a lemon. Jim B www.highergroundjazz.com