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Volume Attenuator

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BillyBoy

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Thanks GreenMachine.. I went to Maplins straight away and bought 3 of these gadgets.. .. There are some live concerts coming up at the end of May.. so I have some time to experiment..

Thanks again for pointing me to this..

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Sorry, i've not been on the forums today- 'twas I who bravely road-tested said unit-and it gets two thumbs up from me!!

Most of the Maplins stores seem to stock these 'behind the counter', which makes me think that maybe it's a line they will stop doing at some point, so I grabbed 4 of them.

One thing i've done is wrap a bit of tape around the body/volume controller as it seems a bit easy to accidentally turn the volume dial down, and you always want it leaving fully open-and if it's a metal gig you are recording, make sure it goes up to 11!!!! cool.gif

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Sorry, i've not been on the forums today- 'twas I who bravely road-tested said unit-and it gets two thumbs up from me!!

Most of the Maplins stores seem to stock these 'behind the counter', which makes me think that maybe it's a line they will stop doing at some point, so I grabbed 4 of them.

One thing i've done is wrap a bit of tape around the body/volume controller as  it seems a bit easy to accidentally turn the volume dial down, and you always want it leaving fully open-and if it's a metal gig you are recording, make sure it goes up to 11!!!! cool.gif

Thanks Deadwing.. the tape sounds like a good idea.. the ones I bought don't have numbers on the volume dial.. but I will turn it up till it stops.. I have read most of your posts on this subject and the good advice you've been given.. I have 3 concerts to go to at the end of May / beginning of June.. so I will take your advice and set my HiMD to manual volume and at 17/30 with the volume control gadget between the mic and the MD..

Thanks again..

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okay, no need to raise your voice

Thanks guys,

I will be recording in "stealth" mode.. so probably won't be able to carry out any adjustments after the concert has started.. apart from not wanting to be seen with a minidisc.. it might be too dark for me to see the MD properly.. I thought the best thing to do is set the volume at about 17/30.. and adjust it in Adobe Audition when I get home.. what do you think??..

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Thanks guys,

I will be recording in "stealth" mode.. so probably won't be able to carry out any adjustments after the concert has started.. apart from not wanting to be seen with a minidisc.. it might be too dark for me to see the MD properly.. I thought the best thing to do is set the volume at about 17/30.. and adjust it in Adobe Audition when I get home..  what do you think??..

I assume you're talking about low sensitivity mic in mode, right?

Hard to say what level to use.

What kind of microphones do you use or rather what's their sensitivity?

What kind of concerts are you going to listen to?

How close will you be to the stage?

For loud shows you may need to set the level even lower.

Edited by greenmachine
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okay, no need to raise your voice

No raised voice at all, just surprised at the tone of your message which seemed to be correcting something i'd said.

As Billyboy says in the post below, you often need to 'set it and forget it' so adjusting on the fly isn't always a possibility anyway. If there is no support act, then you've got nothing to use as a marker.

Billyboy, I wouldn't think you'll have much raising to do at 17/30

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I assume you're talking about low sensitivity mic in mode, right?

Hard to say what level to use.

What kind of microphones do you use or rather what's their sensitivity?

What kind of concerts are you going to listen to?

How close will you be to the stage?

For loud shows you may need to set the level even lower.

Thanks for your advice

I will use Low Sens...

Mic is Sony ECM-719

Neil Diamond concerts..

4th row from stage

It will be quite loud

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The frequency response of that mic is 100--15,000 Hz, which means you're not getting a lot of the bass that drives the MD preamp over the edge. I've never used that mic, but I would guess that if you're going through an attenuator and you have it set to Low Sens, then you are probably safe at 20/30.

While everyone else is playing with their cell phones and cameras, see if you can sneak a peek at the level during the show--it should be between the two dashes. If it's above the right-hand dash, you're in trouble, and below the left-hand dash will be good but a bit quiet. Yes, you can crank it up in Audition, but it's better to get as much as you can in the first place (without overloading of course).

Hope he does "Red, Red Wine" and "I'm a Believer."

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The frequency response of that mic is 100--15,000 Hz, which means you're not getting a lot of the bass that drives the MD preamp over the edge. I've never used that mic, but I would guess that if you're going through an attenuator and you have it set to Low Sens, then you are probably safe at 20/30.

While everyone else is playing with their cell phones and cameras, see if you can sneak a peek at the level during the show--it should be between the two dashes. If it's above the right-hand dash, you're in trouble, and below the left-hand dash will be good but a bit quiet. Yes, you can crank it up in Audition, but it's better to get as much as you can in the first place (without overloading of course).

Hope he does "Red, Red Wine"  and "I'm a Believer."

Thanks A440,

With all the good advice I've received on this subject, I feel much more confident about live recording. I think I'm just about ready to go for it..

Diamond always does all the old favourites, including the 2 songs you mention..

Thanks again for all the help with this.. it is very much appreciated..

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  • 2 weeks later...

I look forward to hearing how you get on with the Maplin volume control and the Sony ECM 719 mic, as I ordered the Maplin thing tonight, and ordered an ECM 719 too, but I cancelled the order, so that I could see first if the Volume Control does the trick with my current mic.

Maybe you can put up a recording from the gig so that I can hear how the mic sounds??

I'd really appreciate that.

thanks.

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