Vautex

Hi again all. Its been a while since Ive been here. Couldnt stay away it seems. Ok here is my problem. I have a relatively limited budget which can theoretically finance but 1 task and I have 2 tasks at hand. I love going to music events and would love even more to record them. Second, I also like to play my didgeridoo and djembe and would like to record myself and my mates doing so. The simple question would be can 1 mic do it all for me? The didge has lots of bass with a fundamental frequency probably as low as 50HZ and a range well into the kHZ. Therefore id like a responce to be no more than 40HZ at the lower end which rules out most carioids ive seen. Ive seen a lot of artists use AKG C418/9 in a live situation and these are condensers with a range about 50HZ - 18kHZ I think. Im sure they only have 1 element to them aswell as opposed to 2 used for binaural recordings. Im guessing cardioids with a good low end would be the choice if I could only have 1 mic but I would also like a set of good omni's too for both purposes. How would a set of stealth type binaurals go in a instrument recording situation when most instrument mics have only 1 capsule. Can I have 2 seperate elements that can be kept seperate when recording my didge which also allow me mic different locations and mix them, and then be able to join them together via an adaptor of some sort for binaural concert recording. Is there any major disadvantage to doing this? Another potential problem may be the SPL when attached to end of a didge which can be pretty loud. Will the stealths be sufficient? Also most instrument mics have a XLR connector for which I happen to already have cable. So is it possible to get an adaptor to XLR. Also im guessing the impedance will differ from the stealths to the standard instrument mics and im not really sure what the implications of this are. Maybe someone can help here also. The clips and mounting problem is another issue all together but it would be good to keep the elements fairly basic and be able to fit whatever type of clip I want to attach. My hope was pretty much that 1 pair of binaurals used for concert recording could potentially be used to on two didgeridoo's for recording or a live pick-up situation. If one mic does suit both purposes the next problem will be if someone like sound pros or core sounds has it available of the shelf or be able to make it for me within my budget. I know this is a lot to take in and answer all at once but any help certainly would be appreciated. PS my emails to core-sound have been rejected. the email address doesnt seem to exist. Can anyone help here also. Thanks again.

I just bought a NH900 and a 1GB disc for $400 AUS and if Im luck I can claim some GST coz im going overseas. Thatll make it about $360 which im pretty happy with. I was actually going to get one from minidisc.com.au and I had it on the page where I add it to my cart. I come back like an hour later and refreshed it and it was gone, out of stock. I was dissapointed at first but then scored a deal I reckon. It didnt have the bundle though, however I already have the mic and a pouch and some discs so I didnt really need it. I couldnt believe how light and flimsy it felt compared to my R909 and they are probably gonna get worse too !

Raintheory - I have been playing didge for almost a year now. I live in small unit and so I dont get to play very much. I picked it up very quickly and then plateaued very quickly too. Im hoping that mucking around with recording will help with new ideas and give me more reason to practice. A few of my mates reckon I sound pretty good and keep insisting I at least give recording a go to help me fine tune my playing. Good to have encouragement. Maybe Ill post something soon to give you an idea. Ive had a few guys say Im pretty good for the practice Ive had but I know Ive got a long way to go yet before Im playing like I want too.....its time for bed now..later Keep didgin.

Cheers for the advice guys. I didnt think you were harsh Volta, in fact I reckon you did a great job of explaining things for me, very clear and concise. Ive done a lot of reading here as I said and you, along with a couple of others give really good answers, you seem to know your stuff. Id like to think its worth getting but I guess my biggest fear is having a problem with my unit when it arrives and not having the time to sort it before going overseas. Its hard to resist a unit with PCM recording features and cheap media though! I may be going to Jazz festival in Belgium to see Van Morrsion and record that. Im also going to a Didgeridoo festival in Switzerland followed closely by an Underworld concert. Plenty of recording opportunities I dont want to miss. Im going to download the software first which should prove to be invaluable advise I reckon. Cheers for that tip. Ill let ya know how it goes.

Cheers for your reply mate. I understand that each recode is lossy Im just wondering which bitrate to recode 128k mp3s to. I got mixed up on Hi-LP bitrate, sorry. What your telling me is that if I have 1 particular song @ Hi-SP on my puter I can only transfer that song to my unit in Hi-SP. If I want that song on a different disc at a lower bitrate say only 105k then I have to recode my Hi-Sp version altogether. I could understand not being able to send it to the unit at a higher bitrate but I thought you would be able to send it to the unit at a lower bitrate than the file on the computer. Thats seems ludacris to me. Can I have 2 different bitrate versions of 1 mp3 stored in the library? I am leaving for Europe (Italy, France, London, Belgium and a few others) in a few weeks and wanted a new unit before then. I play the didge and wanted a unit for recording mostly, but Im hardly gonna fork out for a seperate player too. I just cant believe what a let down the playback features seem at the moment. I also cant get the 2nd gen units in OZ at the moment and from what Ive read Id hardly want too. Ive put in tons of research, countless hours in fact, into the minidisc format, mostly on live recording and I have totally neglected the software side of things. Im running out of time so please excuse me. Normally I would read through forums for hours before asking questions that have been asked countless times before, but like I say, time is a factor at the moment. Ive got about 11gig of mp3s but I wouldnt dream of playing them all back on my minidisc. Almost $500 ozzie big ones is starting to seem like a waste for a NH900! Thanks for you help people.

Hi. I dont own a Hi-Md but was thinking of a NH900 but Im not sure if its worth it with all this SonicStage and DRM crap. So basically I need to know a couple of things. When I convert to Atrac do I have to convert to the bitrate that I want to transfer to the player ie if I want to transfer to the unit in Hi-LP do I have to convert my mp3s into Hi-Lp. If I convert it into Hi-Sp can I still transfer it to the unit quickly in Hi-Lp........I guess Im worried Ill have to transfer it all into different bitrate libraries. For example I may want to convert to Hi-Sp in my library but then transfer to an old MD @ ordinary SP. Can this be done. So if you havent figured yet I want to have the highest quality in my library and have the option of sending a leeser quality to the unit so I only ever have convert once. OK that being said, if I have 128k mp3s, what is the highest quality I should bother converting to, I mean, should I bother converting a 128k mp3 to Hi-Sp when Hi-LP is better quality than 128k mp3 anyway. I hope you know what i mean. In other words you cant make a 128k mp3 sound any better than a 128k mp3 - which is what in Atrac terms. Can I convert mp3 on a particular computer to Atrac files, then do nothing else with the .omg's but copy them to another computer, can I then copy them from the new computer they werent ripped on to my Hi-MD. In fact instead of asking all these what ifs can someone give a clear and concise rundown of the process and its consequences of using sonic stage etc coz I just dont know. It really does seem all a bit too hard to me right now. Thank you so much, I hope you can bear with me.

Hey guys first post here. Done lots of reading before posting this but couldnt find a definitive answer to my questions. Basically Im about to buy a NH900 if possible and then go overseas in three weeks and will catch a couple of shows hopefully. One is Van Morrison, the other is Underworld. God I hope I get to do this! Anyway I once recorded a guy called Xavier Rudd with a R900 and the sony mic which they put in bundles these days. The quality was good for my first recording and the bass wasnt over the top (not that it could ever be with that mic). Where i was really disappointed though was with the excessive crowd noise which ruined an otherwise good recording. I now cant decide between omni's or cardoid's. Here are the problems and my level of understanding. 1) Omni's will take it all in from all directions which may help if I cant help but dance a little. Problem here is I may pick up tons of crowd noise. 2) Cardoids should help with crowd noise if constantly directed to the stage. Onlt problem is I cant see myself standing still the whole time and turing my head, not to mention dancing, may stuff up the recording yeah. Any help, suggestions and corrections are greatly appreciated. One more thing. I also play the didgeridoo and want to record myself and was wondering how good a job stealth style mics will work. I will definatelt need a low frequency response, 20HZ is ideal. I was thing of a Shure SM57 and a AKG C419 (clip on is perfect if I want to move and record). Both of these however I dont think go below 50HZ. Anyway this is too long now and Im keen for info since since I need my gear in 3 weeks before I go. Thanks ppl.