Do I Need Bass Rolloff

[ranwill]

I'm new to recording, having just done a couple outdoor concerts. I have a RH10 with small binaural SP mics. The recordings are OK, but I have noticable distortion from the bass and bass drums.

I've read that a battery box will help with this. My question is, do I need to get the optional bass rolloff? And, if so, how do I know which of the 7 rolloff positions to use?

I've tried to read past posts, but I'm just getting more and more confused. I've been recording with manual levels set to 9 or 10 for headroom, and with the sensitivity set to loud music.

Thanks

[greenmachine]

If your object is a dirtortion-free recording without altering the frequency response, you won't need any roll-off if you use the battery box with line-in. Line-in gives you way more headroom for loud sounds. If your recording sounds too 'boomy', you can always equalize it to your taste afterwards with an audio editor, you won't need a roll-off in the battery box for that.

If you're using manual levels, the loud music/standard AGC setting has no influence by the way, but the high/low sensitivity has. Set it to 'low sens' for everything except for ultra quiet sounds.

[ranwill]

Great, that's what I was confused about. The distortion is just because of headroom, not being overwhelmed by bass, so a battery box is all I need.

I was curious because one of my outings was to the annual Techno Festival in Detroit. The music was Very boomy, but the distortion wasn't that much more than a regular concert.

OK, a battery box it is!

Thank so much

[A440]

A battery box via line-in will give you a quiet recording. The cheaper, louder alternative is an attentuator, as discussed to death here:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9069

You can hear some attenuator recordings here, for instance:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?act=m...&cmd=si&img=556