soul&folk

So attenuation is ONLY used when your in the face of extreme volumes? Otherwise it is best to not attenuate? Even if that means the gain on the preamp will be quite low in order to avoid clipping? As I think about the concert I recorded, my thought was to move the mics much closer to the stage, even if that would require attenuation and then boosting at the preamp. Al that was in order to avoid getting that slightly echo-y sound.

can you offer some help as to how to choose between a- attenuating the volume at the mic end and then adding gain at the preamp vs. b- no attenuation and a lower gain at the preamp

good stuff! great link!

thanks for responding 1) the mics were on a T bar mic stand in an XY pattern, above the heads of those seated, right next to where I was seated. It's hard for me to know if I was hearing that "room" sound from memory. 2) I wasn't using the attenuation or the low cut filter. I'd like to learn more about when I should consider using them. Any advice will be helpful

Hi, I recorded a concert last week. While it wasn't with a MD, I'm certain that this question is for this forum. I used 2 superlux s241 mics, each one was sent to a Studio Projects vtb-1 preamp, and then the line-outs went via a Y cable into the line-in of a zoom H2. The room was carpeted, about 80 feet square, and the ceiling was about 10 feet, paneled walls. I had the mics about 30 feet from the performers who were coming through a PA system, but some were also using their own amps and the feeding them to the PA, and the percussionist wasn't mic'd at all. I had my eyes on the levels of the H2 th entire time, Whenever the level approached 0db, I lowered the preamps one small notch. All in all the sound is very nice. BUT I thing I could have done better. The volume is a bit lower than I would have liked, and there is a "Somewhat distant" sound to it. I'm thinking that I should have been closer to the performers, and then if need be, turned the preamps down a bit more. Is that correct?

Check out this link. Someone named Skip Hunt has been experimenting with the onboard mics and comparing it to using a Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic at various settings (I believe he explained somewhere that the second test was recorded at a two foot distance, and the others were closer) check it out EDIT: Hey! I just noticed that skip hunt just became a member and is reading this thread right now! small world...

For $200 plus about $50 for a 4GB SD card, you can now record live in high quality (24 bit WAV format) for 4 hours straight or way more in mp3 format, and then upload via USB to your computer. Has a line in, mic in if you want to use your own mics (and yes you can adjust the volume when you record), metronome for musicians, can record in 90 degree stereo, 120 degree, or even 360 for surround sound. This is the bomb! I just got one and I'm quite pleased!! But they are very lightweight as compared to a solid rugged minidisc recorder. Check it out and a lively discussion going on right here: http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blo...rder_detai.html I'm still keeping my minidisc recorder, but I wonder how often I'm going to be using it any more... You can order it online from B&H, Sweetwater as well as J&R to name a few

Thanks for explaining this and pointing out the rolls preamp/mixer. That's very helpful information!!! BTW, if you look at the specs on that preamp, it says phantom power is only at 18VDC. In their FAQs they explain that most condenser mics no longer require 48VDC, it's more about the currect current than the volts. I just thought people need to know about that before they run to buy one of these that it might not work for all of their mics? Guitarfxr, what has your experience been with this unit and compatibility with condenser mics?

I found that shure cable in an "as new" return sale from B&Hfor just $30 including shipping. We'll see if it's a major volume boost.... I already had the sennheiser mic and the youth group I work for has a few sm5m mics. I recently received a catalogue from B&H and they had a very simlar item for only $20. Yo might want to go with that. Here it is Just wondering, for interview purposes, wouldn't you rather have an sm58, and not the sm57?

KG, please check this out, specifically the 10th paragraph As you can see, they are saying that this cable will boost the volume up a bit, so if they're right, it can't hurt. Also, I have tried the cable that came with the Nady on my mono dynamic mic (sennheiser e835) and it recorded to 2 channels. Go figure... You're probably right about losing the protection once the cable is unbalanced. That must be why both the Shure and the Nady cable are both only 18 inches long.

this cable also has a transformer that changes the impedence from low impedence to high. I think it's designed for exactly this purpose. Please keep me posted if you learn more about this. In the meantime, I think I'm going ahead and ordering one of these and will be using it a week from now for interviews. I'll let you know how it works out.

Trying to really get to the bottom of this, as I keep reading on different places on the web that the signal would be weaker without some sort of boost, I compared the sound clips from the nady mic (which is a condenser mic that has a battery inside) when just talking into it, to the sound clips of the sennheiser e835 (dynamic unpowered mic). There is a slight difference in volume. But nothing that significant, I don't think, that it would be noticeable. I think that if you keep the mic close enough to the one speaking, it compensates just fine. It also has almost no noise from handling the mic. Just to know for myself, I'm going to still do the following experiment... I've got a studio projects vtb1 preamp at home. While this can't work for my needs at conventions, since it doesn't work on batteries so I wouldn't be able to walk around a crowd of people doing interviews, I will still record the sennheiser going through it and see if it's a major difference. I'll report back. I've heard about battery packs sold from a number of dealers. If I see a drastic difference, I suppose I'll take the plunge. But I have a feeling it might be more hype than reality. We'll see. EDIT: Just learned about the following option. Sounds like it might be the perfect thing to do for interviews. Just use an sm58 or my sennheiser e835 with this cable.

You must be making some sort of mistake. Why does the Sennheiser e835 record just fine? Isn't that also a balanced mic? Just to be sure, I tried it right now once again, and there's no issues at all... What I used was the cable that came from the Nady. It's a cable that has an XLR female end (designed to pick up a stereo signal from the mic) and the other end is a TRS miniplug. Would that be the device you're talking about? This one's only 2 feet long. I looked it up on the web and I see that they're available in a few lengths for less than $15.

That would certainly work, however since the exact direction of the mics is concealed by the mic's screen, it would be hard to keep it pointed evenly the whole time. Besides, I already discovered that the nady cm2s is very sensitive to handling and it would not be the right one for interviews for that reason alone. So would an sm58 serve well for interviews? (I could always make our roady-techy guy drive to our warehouse and pull one out and see for myself, but I'd like to avoid that if I can. (sometimes he doesn't like to work too hard. :-) ) EDIT: I remembered that I've got a dynamic mic myself right here in the house. I plugged in my sehheiser e835 and checked it out. Perfect! By the way, I used the cable from the nady xlr to stereo miniplug and it recorded on both channels!! So now I'm really a happy camper. Where have I been all these years? Minidiscs will do so much so well!!!

I just bought a mz-n707. I see that my old JVC CD deck has coaxial digital out. What do I need to do to send that to the optical in of the MD recorder? A certain cable? Some sort of converter? Will SCMS prevent me from doing this?