greenmachine

What's the point of recommending stereo cardioid microphones with two elements opposite to each other (180 degrees)? You will get something like a figure of eight pickup pattern, which is not really suited to isolate background noise. I'd suggest to use either a mono cardioid mic or a stereo cardioid mic with both elements directing forward.

Available at: Fry's Electronics GE AV22604 Audio Cable - 6 Ft 3.5mm Plugs # 3983028 Radio Shack 6' 1/8" Stereo to 1/8" Stereo Cord # 42-2387

Is it possible that you are trying to use an optical digital cable for analogue transfer? lol You need an electrical cable for this task and it doesn't necessarily have to be expensive to give good results, any standard cable should be fine.

microphones with a cardioid pickup pattern are designed for this task

even if there's no possibility to properly set the levels beforehand, it's still better to correct it during the show and to get at least a part of it in acceptable quality than having a throughout unenjoyable result

ignore this post

Why don't you just set the levels depending on the situation? The level meter may not be the fastest, most accurate and detailed, but is still usable to some extent. There's always a possibility to take a look, even if you're aiming for extreme stealth. 20/30 might be too loud for amplified music.

I've had halfway acceptable results with resistors parallel to the microphones, about 3.3 kOhm (or somewhat less, like 2.2 kOhm, for more attenuation) - determined by trial and error, but then i've built a battery box and never looked back...

But the point is that it only works as it is supposed to (about 12 dB attenuation) if the mic is powered separately. Otherwise the levels were significantly too low ('almost zero'), thus the mic doesn't get enough voltage to work properly and may even distort before the preamp does. If you need to power your mic separately anyway, it makes no sense to use an attenuator, you can go directly to line-in with potentially better results.

I'd like to tell you, but i can't see what you're doing, maybe if you describe the process..

In this case, you need a 3.5 mm stereo male-to-male cable going from your headphone output to the MD recorder's line input. If the 'ear jack' of your cassette recorder is 5.3 mm in diameter, you'll need an additional 3.5 to 5.3 mm adapter.

...to be continued here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=10280

See operation manual, page 08,10,11

If your mics are properly powered (batt. box) and you use the line-in of the recorder, you will most likely get no distortion even with loud bass, thus you simply don't need to cut off anything from the signal, which can sound thin and unnatural.

It's by no means silly - although microphones got better (and smaller) over the years, it is still the most critical component of the chain (as long as you don't experience other problems like preamp overload, but that's a different story).

Haha, you almost sound like you were selling it. Do you? What you are missing is that he did another comparison in front of his loudspeakers today, see post #21. If you look closely, you'll see the problem.

I see, sounds like only one of both mics will be used for directional voice recording. You can read the peak amplitude from the waveform statistics in Audition. Select 'Statistics...' from the 'Analyze' menu - there you can read the 'Peak Amplitude' for each channel separately. Definitely not, using line-in alone gives about 20 dB attenuation compared to mic-in low-sensitivity at the same level setting, which is a lot. You may want to begin with full level (30/30) if the source is not deafening loud.

But what does it do? There are recorders / mic preamplifiers without 'plug in power', where you have to use the mic's battery. Even worse: it seems to drastically restrict the 'plug in power' voltage getting to the mics. Looks like it's only usable if the mics are powered separately.What do you consider to be 1/4 the volume? Can you express it in dB? Will you test mics (battery on) to line-in too?

To quote Sony (found on page 19 of the MZ-B10's instruction manual): This has been written for standard use (mic directly to mic-in). By the way, what does this music/voice mode switch affect on your ecm-719? I couldn't find an instruction manual for the mic itself.

good luck

your turn, say: 'but it works'

-potentional lowering of the supplied voltage from the recorder with known drawbacks for the mic's dyamic range -attenuation of the microphone output degrades the signal to noise ratio -low precision components, potentially high channel variation -susceptible to mechanical wearout and dirt

Since the mic's internal battery gives just 1.5 volts and the md preamp at least the same voltage (2.5 volts for mine), it would propably be wasted energy to use the mic's internal battery. If you ever need to plug it directly to line-in (for very loud situations), you need to use the internal mic battery or an external power supply a.k.a 'battery box', since there is no power supply from the recorder.

I don't hear a constant hum, but rather a strange flanging sound in the background. Is is also present in the original, udedited recording or has it been added due to further processing (mp3 conversion?)? Did you adjust levels in the audio editor or leave it as loud 'as is'? Your current recording peaks at about -16dB but since you're recording unpredictable sounds with unpredictable peaks, i wouldn't go significantly higher with the level setting, it can't be wrong to leave some headroom in such situations. If you raise the levels, you're not only raising the signal, but also the unavoidable noisefloor. A quieter preamp seems to be a good idea.