greenmachine

Why is there no medium bitrate (about 128 kbit/s) anymore with ATRAC3plus?

It doesn't prevent it, but can lower the voltage, even at full setting. Using a batterybox between the attenuator and the mics should be theoretically better, because the mics get a proper voltage in any case, practically - i don't know if it makes an obvious difference, at least it doesn't hurt to use it if you already own a battery box, even with a microphone input with 'plug-in-power'. The usual voltage from such a microphone input is about 2.5 volts average, whereas a battery box works with 9 volts usually. Electret microphones are supposed to work potentially better at higher voltages (up to 10 v).

I don't use minidisc for playback anymore, just for recording.

How would you describe this noticable difference? LOL

Thank you very much. Although I know the result, I voted for no. 3 after an unsuccessful abx test.

I would do it if I had the gear, at the moment I can only transfer SP encoded material digitally, but i guess it would be too easy anyway...

To know is better than to believe in some cases. Microphones don't cut with such a high order (extremely fast falloff), usually about 6dB/oct, only digital (or extremely complex analogue) filters can do that, so it's propably the mp3 encoder setting. I guess dBpoweramp's built-in LAME encoder is not configured optimally by default. I'd suggest to use 'alt preset standard' for optimal results (under advanced options), or - if you really have to and know what you're doing - other presets, described here. Maybe you could update the file with the suggested setting, and we'll see if it still has such a low cutoff.

With DAT you can select the sample rate and on some rare units even the resolution (Bit depth).

May I ask you which setting you used there? ATRAC3plus Hi-SP doesn't cut at 13 kHz. I wouldn't use them for music at all if accuracy is important, maybe for directional one track (mono) voice recording, like interviews.

Looks like i have been a victim of my imagination, once I didn't see which one's which, the difference disappeared mysteriously. Damn, I forgot choice #3: "I can't tell a difference..."

Your recording has some nasty resonances at about 11 kHz, what could be the cause? Also there's a somewhat too low lowpass at about 13 kHz, propably from the mp3 encoder? With an average bitrate significantly above 128 kbit/s it shouldn't cut the high frequencies so abrasively. Did you transcode from one lossy format to another?

Can you tell the difference between an uncompressed wav, ripped directly from CD, and an ATRAC (Type R) (SP mode) encoded song? Which is which? Of course, you have to listen very carefully with good equipment, it's not obvious. Pay special attention to the ride cymbal and high frequencies in general. I imagine to hear a slight difference, but have to verify it yet with a double blind abx test. no. 1 (gallery_6863_60_3198768.wav) no. 2 (gallery_6863_60_3199574.wav) Please don't cheat by looking at the frequency analysis or using similar tools, just use your ears. It's important to perform these tests blindly, in order not to underlie the effects of placebo. You can use this abx tool for accurate comparison if you're running Windows: http://www.kikeg.arrakis.es/winabx/winabx.zip Otherwise take a look at the pcabx homepage: http://www.pcabx.com/ Once the propability you are guessing gets below 1%, i believe you actually hear a difference. Please provide the log or an explanation how you compared it if possible. Also, please try to describe the sound differences if you were able to tell them apart. Since you can't *know* the correct answer, please choose the one you prefer (if you can hear a difference at all).

The extreme bass rolloff makes the recording to sound very thin and artificial. Why do I hear so much noise from the crowd by the way? Are americans listening to rock concerts at opera house levels? hehe

http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html Any recorder with a built-in microphone preamplifier should be a good point to start.

It certainly doesn't. When using line-in, you basically bypass the microphone preamplifier stage at all. Line in was not designed to be used with a microphone directly anyway, we're just 'abusing' it for extremely loud mic input levels.

I don't think so, normalization is the process of increasing (or decreasing) the amplitude (volume) of a digital audio recording. Typically normalization increases the amplitude of the audio waveform to the maximum level without introducing any distortion into the recording. It doesn't do any dynamics processing. But you have to be careful not to introduce clipping, normalization should be a more convenient way.

I think the end result is not too quiet (peaks at about -3dB). Maybe you think it's quiet because you listened to too many compressed recordings before (google for "loudness race"), you've simply managed to capture the original dynamics. If you are using your microphone(s) through the line in of your player and it turns out too be way to quiet, you propably need to use a microphone preamplifier (either built-in or external). But as I don't hear much noise, it's propably ok this way. Believe me, you don't want to cripple the original dynamics by compression just to make it somewhat louder, rather turn up the volume afterwards on your amplifier. By the way, are you recording mono or is it just a wrong encoder setting?

Why do recommend Ni-Mh batteries actually, i thought his unit needs a special Li-Ion Battery (LIP-4WM) ? http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-NH1.html

Is this the way cardioids sound in general? For me it sounds as if you would have put omnidirectional ones into a pipe, much like a horn-driven speaker. How did you place them? It may be convenient not to use an attenuator or other additional gear, but at the expense of the sound? Are there no low sensitivity, high quality omnis? I understand that there's a need for different directivities among microphones, but for my (our?) purposes (3-D ambient stereo recording in general), i've never felt the need of having to use cardioids. What you're describing as 'missing richness' and 'clinical sound' is maybe the inability to capture true 3-dimensionality combined with their limited frequency range and 'tunnel sound'.

A delta U controlled charger might avoid overcharging, but you will still have the memory effect when you don't discharge first. An external timed charger won't improve the situation at all.

Every time you replace the recorder to the docking station or reconnect the power supply, it will charge the battery for a predefined time period, no matter if the battery is fully charged or empty. If you repeat this process often and this way overcharge the battery significantly, it might react in an uncommon way, like your deformated one. The charger itself can't think, you have to do this job and ideally only charge the battery when it's empty to aviod overcharge and this way increase it's life significantly. It's a common habit to charge the battery without discharging it first, but AFAIK it only works for Li-Ion (ad Pb) Batteries without sideeffects like the memory-effect or overcharging, not for Ni-Cd or Ni-Mh.

It's all here: http://www.cellpower.com/battery_tips.cfm http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

@ deadwing: Thank you for finding the right words, exactly what i wanted to say, sometimes i feel like i can't express myself...

As soon as you will be able to capture and reproduce signals accurately, if it sounds 'as if you were there', you propably don't feel the necessity to add artificial surround effects to the signal anymore, at least I don't.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought the basic idea of BInaural recording would be to use two channels/mircrophones as described here for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural I've tested my microphones, which are normally supplied with 9 V, with just 1.5 volts. It still works with such an underpowering, but with some drawbacks like a lower sensitivity, early distortions (unable to handle high SPL's) and 'thinner' sound (don't know how to describe it, maybe the frequency range is narrowed). I really encourage you to move up to the world of stereo recording, it's a whole different world if done properly.