Shermy

I use Audacity. There's an Amplify feature in the TONs of available effects. I select the whole track, specify how many decibels I want to amplify and click on OK. I've been using between 15 and 20 db on most of the recordings I've done with excellent results.

I've got the Microphone Madness Combination Madness Pak MM-COMBO-2. It's their MM-MCSM-4 Deluxe Stereo Cardioids and MM-EBM-1 Battery Box. I love the set up!! Of course, it's pretty much all I know - that is...nothing to compare them to.

Hey Mgdimo, Great Topic!! I personally hope more chime in. I use the MM-COMBO-2 (Stereo Cardioids MM-MCSM-4 and MM-EBM-1 Battery Box). I have almost exclusively recorded via line in with the manual recording levels set at around 24/30 to 27/30. The results have been PHENOMENAL!!!! However, like ewakko, they are not that loud (with the exception of audience members clapping around where the mics are placed). The mics SPL is pretty large at 130db with batt box, so I haven't experienced any distortion. Some simple track editting in Audacity resolves the low volume with no audible reduction in sound quality. I'd like to see what the difference is if a pre-amp is used with a batt box, or on its own in comparison to the batt box or built in pre-amp. Hey ewakko, I clip my mics on a cheapo radioshack standard mic clip so they are in an X-Y pattern much like a Rode NT-4 and put it on a mic stand extended to about 6 feet about twenty feet in front of the band. Stereo separation is excellent. However, your set-up may need to be a bit different since your mics are omni-directional. Perhaps make yourself a jeklin disc. They're very easy to make. Do a search on jeklin disk in this forum for ideas. Google it as well. There's plenty of stuff out there. I personally made one out of a 10" circle of 1/4" plywood with 3/4" foam glued to either side. I then cut an equalateral triangle of 1/8" melamine (about 6" wide on all sides) with a 2" by 1/4" perpendicular slit in the middle of one of the sides. I then cut a 4" by 1/8" slit in the disk for the triangle to slide into. I mounted the base of a microphone clip to the bottom of the disk (so the 4" slit is parallel to the ground when mounted) and mounted it to a mic stand. I clipped the mics onto the tips of the triangles facing forward and slightly out from the disc (about 10 degrees). I wasn't too impressed with the results. I think it's because of my mics being cardioid rather than omni. The results are no center presence. Thats why I now use the X-Y pattern almost exclusively. I'll post some clips of some drums I've recorded with my set-up that have a wide dynamic range if I can find the time to do it.

Hey Wallypike69, Another reason you don't want to use stop to make tracks is the fact that it wipes out any settings you may have had when you initially started recording. I found this out the hard way. I was making a 4 hour recording of a concert I was performing in and wanted to save battery life. I had the recorder set up using manual recording levels (rather than the default AGC). When I stopped the recording between sets and started it up again, it switched to the default AGC. This wouldn't have been a big deal if the dynamic range of the performance wasn't so vast. However, since it was, all the soft passages were louder and all the loud passages were softer. You can also tell when the AGC kicks in. 3 1/2 hours of a 4 hour concert down the drain in my book. I have recorded a 4 hour concert since this without pressing stop and the results were amazing. Also, the battery indicator only went down two bars. Just curious, what kind of recording rig do you have? Happy Recording!!

Hi again Javertim, The MM-MCSM-4s have "alligator" clips that are completely adjustable. You can pretty much point them in any direction you like. When I'm recording non-stealthy, I usually set them up in a X-Y pattern, much like the Rode NT-4. I acheive this with a cheapo radioshack microphone clip. I then mount it on a mic stand raised to about 6 feet. I'm looking for a better way to set this up. Any suggestions are more than welcome. As for stealthy recording, I've clipped them to my shirt under a button down collar back about a half inch so you can't see them from looking at me without already knowing they're there. The stereo seperation isn't quite as good, but not so distracting that it's a pain to listen to it. My next recording of my own stuff, I'm going to experiment with mic-in with and without the batt box. To get back on the topic. From what I've read, the Line-in is much cleaner because of the powersource (i.e. batt box with 9v battery) being a much cleaner source of power than the pre-amp because it is closer to the ultimate amount of power for the mics (around 9.5 volts). Also, if an external pre-amp that utilizes a 9v battery is connected to line-in, isn't it going to be much cleaner than the built in mic-in pre-amp on the recorder (i.e. less hiss because it's closer to that max voltage for the mic)?

Hey Javertim, I'm curious about the same stuff. What are the specs on your mics? In particular what is the maximum input sound level (SPL?)? If it's lower than the actual volume of what you are recording, isn't it always going to distort? Or, will reducing the volume control that? (more of a question for my own knowledge) Also, binaurals, being omni-directional, are going to pick up a lot more audience noise, correct? With my set-up, (Microphone Madness Deluxe Stereo Cardioids (MM-MCSM-4) and their Battery Box with Bass Roll-off (MM-EBM-1) into my NH900) I've always recorded line in with the manual level set around 24/30 or 25/30 with Bass Roll-off set at no Bass reduction. It usually comes out fairly quiet unless it's an extremely loud concert, but never distorted. The last time I converted a recording of a jazz concert, I used Audacity and amplified the entire track by about 15db, then used the fade-in and out features mentioned above. Sounds awesome. However, unlike many rock concerts, the audience only clapped after solos and at the ends, and I don't think they screamed . I will say that the clapping of the audience members around where the microphones were placed was very loud (louder than the amplified performers) but not to the point of distortion. If the recording has a weakness, it would be the loudness of the applause in the middle of the tracks. I too would like to know how to reduce this without affecting the rest of the recording. BTW the max input sound level (SPL I think) for my mics is 120db alone and 130db with the bat box.

Hi Dex, I actually uploaded all the tracks into SonicStage and then recorded the tracks that were in My Library. What I ended up doing is deleting the tracks on the HiMD and altering the track marks on the tracks in My Library. I then converted them via WAV converter. Then I opened the converted tracks in Audacity, where I amplified, faded in and faded out. No slowing down and it still sounds GREAT!! I'll see if the settings were as you stated in Audacity, Dex and report back. Thanks for all the help everyone!

Well, I tried editing track marks on the recorder on tracks I actually uploaded to SonicStage and got the following message on the recorder: TrkFromPC NO EDIT So, I guess I'm stuck with connecting my recorder and deleting the tracks on it before editing track marks. And I guess A440's wish for something wonderful to slip past SONY's anal retentive programmer's is just that...wishful thinking. Back to the mixing board!

Thanks to both of you Dex and A440 for the warning about uploading a second time wiping out the tracks on the HiMD and not uploading them. I noticed in what I think is the HiMD Upload FAQ that you can edit tracks in SonicStage. Do you have to have the recorder attached and delete the tracks on the HiMD disk through SonicStage so the software actually knows the tracks have been deleted? This seems pretty wacky, but I think I understand why. This might answer A440's question of whether altering tracks on the HiMD disk will allow multiple uploads. My thinking on this is that the HiMD disk has to match what's in the SonicStage library in order to tell if a track has previously been uploaded. Of course, I'm not going to try altering the tracks on this "precious" recording and attempting to upload them again. I might do some experimental recordings of stuff I could care less about and try it. Has anyone already done this? From that same FAQ page, it looks like I can do the track mark changes on the recorder, attach the recorder via USB, open Audacity and click on record, then press play in SonicStage in the HiMD window. So I wouldn't have to upload the tracks again. Is my thinking correct?? I'm going to try this method. If the tracks slow down again, I'm probably going to download Total Recorder and try again. However, the last time I downloaded Total Recorder and tried to use it my system crashed (Windows XP)(this was about a year ago so improvements may have come along). I searched Audacity's FAQs on their website for info about tracks being slower when recording via WAVE-in to no avail. I sent them an e-mail. I'll post the results if they know anything.

Thanks for the warning A440!! I totally forgot about that! However, I'm planning on using the HiMD disc again, so they're going to get erased eventually anyway. I'll let you all know how the converted files via HiMDrenderer and Sony's Wave converter turn out. I'm also going to edit the track marks on the recorder and upload them again if the results from above aren't satisfactory. I'm still going to need to edit the tracks via Audacity. I'm going to look up the problem I had with Audacity slowing the tracks down and post anything I find here just as a warning to others, if it is truly a common problem. Hey, is there a way to edit track marks in SonicStage?? If not, sounds like another little annoying inconvenience from those brilliant programmers at Sony!

Thanks A440, You're always so helpful! I uploaded the tracks into SonicStage via USB before I did any of the conversion. That is, I played the tracks from "My Library" in SonicStage while recording it in real time via Audacity. When I played back the track to see where to fade out applause and fade in to the beginning of tracks I noticed the pitch drop somewhat, but it seems even more obvious (slower) on the burned CDs. I've already started editing my tracks on the recorder...seems like this is going to take longer than the original process in its entirety. Oh well, the final result will be WELL WORTH IT!!

Hi Folks, I recently made a live recording in Hi-Sp on a Hi-MD 1Gb disc with the following equipment: NH900 MM-MCSM-4 MM-EBM-1 and the following settings: Mics plugged into Line-in Manual record level at 24/30 It sounds incredible!! However, when I go to convert it to .wav files to burn onto a CD using Audacity, it slows down the speed of the tracks so much that the pitch has dropped by close to a whole step!! I did this in real time using Audacity rather than the HiMDrenderer or Sony Wave Converter because of the way that the recorder assigned track numbers (puts them in the middle of "tracks" and sometimes one song is actually multiple tracks). There were a total of 89 track marks for 19 songs. Most of these extra tracks are the performers talking between tunes. A few questions: Does the HiMDrenderer tool add extra stuff on to the beginnings and endings of tracks to where, if they are combined, there will be a noticeable "transition" to the next track (be it silence or a noise)? Does Sony's Wave converter do anything like this? If the answer is yes to the above, I guess I'll have to go and edit my track marks. If the answer is no, is there a way to speed up the newly created .wav files in Audacity without distorting the track in any way besides raising the pitch back up that whole step? It took me close to 3 hours to get the actual CDs created, so I really don't want to have to spend that much more time to correct. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks!

All Right, I think I spoke too soon. In fact, I know I spoke too soon. I was getting all paranoid that my battery was going to die when it got down to two bars on the meter. Well, about 18 hours later, it finally quit playing. I had a 1GB HiMD disk filled to the brim with music in Hi-LP mode (around 35 hours of music) with the player set on shuffle. I only used the original battery (NH-10WM) with no AA battery attached. So, the so called "pitiful" battery supplied with the player lasted close to 21 hours!! It omly took about 3 hours of continuous playing time for the first two bars on the meter to disappear, which is why I was getting panicky. I realize that Hi-LP is not a big drain on the battery, however, 21 hours is more than twice the amount of play time mentioned in the specs for Hi-LP (10 hours). I'm still not going to go out and record a 2+ hour show in PCM without an AA battery attached. However, I'm shocked and pleased that the NH-10WM battery performed well above spec. I need to clarify something said before. Tiesto, The AA battery I used was not a LiIon rechargeable it was a Lithium battery...the blue and silver Energizers. Sorry for the confusion. I did get 2 of the NH-14WM batteries in the mail. They are in the player now. It does seem to take longer for those first few bars to go away on the meter. I'll post a more detailed review later. I have only drained them from the level they were at when they came from the company, which was reading two bars in the meter.

Thanks for clearing things up ROMBUSTERS!!

That's good to know. If I recall, I was able to use that LiIon AA battery I used for a 4+ hour recording session for a good week or two afterwords before it began to drain. So perhaps, I'm being a bit paranoid. I did order two of these batteries. I also switched to Quick Mode Off. Hopefully this will resolve one of the two frustrations I have with my NH900. The other one is one I share with you Dex. That is AGC being the default recording mode. I'm hoping a hack is discovered. Has there ever been a hack for the older models that have AGC as the default?