On-The-Fly Manual Level Control on NHF-800

[stevetoney]

I was surprised :ohmy: to discover that I can adjust levels on the fly in manual level control mode on the NHF-800. Someone recently suggested that it was only the audio monitoring volume level that can be adjusted on the fly, but that's not true.

When I adjusted the level control while recording, the actual recording level is changed. In other words, you don't have to hit pause while in manual level control. :smile:

Not sure why this hasn't been heralded a little bit more because it essentially resolves a gripe people had with the non-hi-MD Sony units, and was why alot of people opted for the Sharp units instead.

Course, it's not all good news, because the Sony unit still defaults to auto whenever the unit is started from the off or stopped mode. Also, it's still a litle cumbersome to wade through the menu to get the manual control function switched on.

1) Press TMark and Pause buttons at the same time

2) Press the NAVI/MENU button for two seconds

3) REC SET

4) REC Volume

5) Manual

6) Adjust record level to desired while recording is paused

7) Press Pause Button again to start recording

8) Adjust level up or down while monitoring peak levels...no need to pause unit again to adjust level.

Even though there are a number of steps, it really only takes about 5 - 10 seconds to do this if you just practice it once or twice before you're ready to start recording.

BTW, for those that haven't gone manual, my taping is in a club setting with fairly loud volume and setting the unit on 19/30 pretty much assures that I'll have pretty reasonable levels. Also, 19/30 would be a good starting point and adjusting up or down one or two should be all that's needed for perfect levels.

[KJ_Palmer]

We've had the 'on the fly' facility for some time, actually, since about the R909 or N707 generation of old MD recorders (ie. about 2-3 years). Still, as you say, it's perhaps not widely known or used - the Sharp system of keeping the recording level (if desired) is still much easier. If I'm using a Sony to record, I usually use auto gain as I can't often be bothered to fiddle around (to my shame)...