Rec W/ Battery Box

[kate]

Hi,

There's a great FAQ here, but I'm still unsure of something. In the past, I used a sony MD that had no manual rec levels. I had to buy a battery box w/ bass roll off & recording levels to help.

So now I have a new rh-10 where I can set up everything. Do I still need to set the recommended levels on the md as well as the battery box? Are all the specifics mentioned in the FAQ the same if I'm using this battery box? I use binaural mics-batt box-line in for loud rock shows in clubs.

Also, can you give me an idea about what settings I'll probably want to use in my situation? I know, experience will tell me & I need to be at the show to know for sure. But it may be hard for me to fool around with this at the show, and it would help if I had an idea (I won't have time to go to a practice show before I'm going to a concert I really want to record).

Thanks

[A440]

Kate--

I most often use an attenuator into mic-in, so I can't help you with specific settings. Maybe some of the battery-box users here can.

But if you want to play it safe, you can probably use your old levels on your new MD. In my experience, the levels are pretty constant between models.

When I switched from the MZ-N707 to the MZ-NHF800, I initially left it on High Sensitivity for the mic (since the MZ-707 didn't have a Low Sens sitting) and used the other levels I had come up with. It worked, though I have since switched the mic to Low Sensitivity (since High adds noise) and jacked up the manual volume. (I don't know if Mic Sensitivity affects Line-In at all, by the way.) You could likely get away with using whatever settings you were using with your previous MD, and then experimenting later if this is an important concert.

Another thing you could try is using your home stereo and making some notes. Obviously it won't be as loud as a rock club, but you can still do a comparison. Set your regular levels on the battery box and see how high the level is on the display. Then do some tests: change the sensitivity, vary the manual volume, etc., and see what comes out looking (on the display) and sounding (on the recording) like what you were getting before.

I would suggest that you not use bass roll-off since you're going through line-in. Bass rolloff can prevent the mic preamp from overloading, but you're not going through the preamp, so your MD can probably handle the bass. Set it at 16 Hz to get rid of subsonic rumbles, but let the rest through. Unless you're in one of the more horrible arenas or clubs and the bass just overwhelms everything, the full response of the bass will really fill out the music--and if it is too much, you can always lower it on playback .