Recording settings for MZ-RH10?

[orangezero]

Ok, finally got my recorder today in the mail. built my new mic battery box last night (thanks, greenmachine, for the help. I'll update with pics soon).

So, i'm a little new to all this sony recoring. Anyone care to shed some light on things to avoid and or be sure to do while recording. Little background, i started off with a japanese sharp s701 silver, then got an 821. from there i went to an archos hd recorder, mainly out of laziness. quality not nearly as good. finally felt like sony got its act together a bit.

so, i have an rh10. i was wondering specifically about actual battery life while recording pcm (and/or hisp) with the nihm and also with the AA attachment. I assume keeping the screen on is a big battery drain, but any specifics??

here will be my setup in the next few days.

panasonic unmodded caps ==>battery box with 10kohm resistor % 0.33uF caps ===> line in on rh10 @pcm

i have done a similar setup probably over 100 times in the past and know the basics, i basically asking about differences between modern sony recorders and older sharp recorders. if that makes sense.

i had planned on setting the t.mark to every 10minutes, is this a good idea? i'd rather loose 10minutes rather than a whole 90 min show if something happens in transfer. or should i go 5min? for a while it was recording about 1min segments but i guess it was on group record. dont care for that much, dont want 100+tracks for my one concert, ha.

ok, anyone read this before tomorrow and have an idea on settings and such. i wish sony had a way to remember to keep it at manual recording level, and also to remember the recoring level. how hard could that be.

while i'm here, what is the difficulty technologically with transfering a regular old md into my computer with my rh10? is it just a copyright thing? i have tons of older concerts, and personal recordings. it would be so much less time consuming to transfer this way. i've thought of using my himd as a passthrough, recording to pcm and then uploading to md that way. wouldnt' that be better than using an older md deck with optical out into a pc card that has optical in (its not bit to bit perfect).

ok, i'm done rambling, i shoudl have some pics of my mics and battery box up soon, need to convert them down a bit.

thanks for reading this far.

any ideas on rh10 recording would be appreciated.

[A440]

You might as well use 10 minutes. SonicStage 3.2 is fairly reliable--please use it no matter what came with your RH10--and even if an upload fails you can try it again (yes!) or use the TotalRecorder method.

The file formats for the old MDs are different from the uploadable ones. Sony in its short-sightedness--trying to sell more Hi-MDs for the uploading feature--saw no reason to make the older formats uploadable.

[orangezero]

You might as well use 10 minutes. SonicStage 3.2 is fairly reliable--please use it no matter what came with your RH10--and even if an upload fails you can try it again (yes!) or use the TotalRecorder method.

The file formats for the old MDs are different from the uploadable ones. Sony in its short-sightedness--trying to sell more Hi-MDs for the uploading feature--saw no reason to make the older formats uploadable.

darn, i was hoping someone would have figured out a way to upload standard MD by now. i've always been fond of mindisc, but it is frustrating to say the least.

i took away the group recording and it still records a 15 recording session as tons of individual tracks, why is that and how do i avoid?

thanks for the quick reply also.

[Roamer]

The default for recording is always automatic gain, so you will have to switch to manual before starting any record.

[greenmachine]

I should make you aware of some major annoyances / limitations:

If you record via line-in, the recorder will place auto track marks between quiet and loud passages. Unfortunately this feature can't be turned off, so you'll propably end up with lots of individual tracks. If you combine / remove track marks on the unit, you'll most likely get into troubles during the upload. It's better not to edit the disc at all before uploading. There's a combine feature in SonicStage (definitely use the latest version - 3.2), which doesn't work perfectly (short repetitions around the combining point) and uses lots of resources but is more convenient than combining individual tracks in an audio editor, so the whole upload/conversion process will be a pain in the ass and rather time consuming.

[The Low Volta]

line in will always automatically add track when sound levels drop too low... so with a rock show, you probably won't get lots, but when recording acoustic shows, more silent stuff, better to use the mic in if you really do not want an overload of marks...

btw, do not edit the trackmarks out before uploading, as that is one way to create errors almost for sure... just upload and merge on your PC after uploading

[orangezero]

line in will always automatically add track when sound levels drop too low... so with a rock show, you probably won't get lots, but when recording acoustic shows, more silent stuff, better to use the mic in if you really do not want an overload of marks...

btw, do not edit the trackmarks out before uploading, as that is one way to create errors almost for sure... just upload and merge on your PC after uploading

thanks for the help guys, geez. what did i just buy into??? i understand why they are still the only company making these now. is it impossible to upgrade the firmware on these things? i assume so, just because its not making them anymore money. too bad, with my archos i was able to add a new firmware into the rom so that it loaded superfast instead of taking 25 seconds.

i suppose you are right though, don't suspect it will matter much at a rock concert.

like i've said before, i wouldn't be surprised if i don't even use audio/video technology with all the stranglehold they will have on the devices (hd dvd, blu ray, hdmi, etc.) i'm being paranoid i know but the transition will be bumpy and time comsuming.

anyway, i did ad some extra pics of my battery box in the recording sticky at top if anyone is interested. and some in the gallery too.

one more question, when i upload, it says my recordings were released in 1899. how do i change this? in the recorder?

ok rant mode off.

[The Low Volta]

one more question, when i upload, it says my recordings were released in 1899. how do i change this? in the recorder?

that's quite strange... I'd guess it would be some PC fault (but granted...perhaps caused by installing SS kidding) as the datemarking is solely a SS application... except for the NH1, no HiMD model had an internal clock nor timestamp function, so I really doubt that this is an RH10 error

[orangezero]

i'll have to check that out, i just thought the date was odd.

so, after messing around with it tonight, i noticed it makes a decent amount of noise when seeking. is that normal?? not so much for spinning, but more when the optical head slides down from the inside to out, or out to in. i dont remember it being this loud before with my sharps, but is this genrally acceptable for sonys. i know its a hard question to quantify, but thought i'd ask anyway.

also, i've heard conflicting things about quick mode. keep it on for recording or turn it off. i usually just keep the batter out of it until i get to the show, to avoid drainage of the battery, no matter how slight.

thanks again guys.

[ynos]

btw, do not edit the trackmarks out before uploading, as that is one way to create errors almost for sure... just upload and merge on your PC after uploading

Low Volta, is this problem still occur in SS3.2? I had this problem in SS30. I did some tests and it looks like no problem now with SS3.2. Well it is just time saving to delete the track marks in MD than SS say if you are combining about 50 tracks (30 mins lecture). In my PC it will combine about 20 to 30 mins. So if you add the time of uploading you will end up the same recording time using realtime.

Just wondering if there is way in SS to delete the pause between tracks like other burners so no need for me to combine the tracks before burning.

[The Low Volta]

Low Volta, is this problem still occur in SS3.2?

I think I read about this happening with SS3.2 as well... besides, I think it is more a prob with the recorders than with the software to be honest... like the editing bug the NH900 has where bits and pieces of deleted music pop up again or won't disappear at all...

... if you are combining about 50 tracks (30 mins lecture).

a lecture is quiet to midrange loudness (unless the speaker is more a shouter, but even then) so you should use 'mic in'. With 'mic in', you can set the autotrackmark to whatever value you like (30 min, 10min, 1 hour,...) so you will only get one or two rackmarks instead of the 'thousends' (or 50) with silence-triggered auto trackmarks...

the only problem is that when going 'line in' this trick doesn't work... but then again you should only use 'line in' for loud sources so there will be less silence, hence less track marks, hence less trouble combining afterwards

I really think this is mostly a non issue... I've recorded a lot of lectures/interviews/speeches/debates and a few concerts and I have never felt that I had way too much trackmarks... at all (except for one time when I'd set automark to 1 min in stead of 1 hour, which I did once )

[greenmachine]

also, i've heard conflicting things about quick mode. keep it on for recording or turn it off. i usually just keep the batter out of it until i get to the show, to avoid drainage of the battery, no matter how slight.

The quick mode avoids re-reading the whole file system of a disc each time you start the recorder, which can take a while when using 1GB discs but has a somewhat higher power consumption when idle ('off'). My NH700 takes about 1.2 mA with quick mode on, or 0.04 mA without. If you use the device regularly, don't worry about it, but if you use it like every few months once, it's better to take the battery out or at least turn the quick mode off to avoid deep-discharging the battery. A few hours / days won't drain it noticeably. The noise of the transport system is propably nothing to worry about.

[ynos]

the only problem is that when going 'line in' this trick doesn't work... but then again you should only use 'line in' for loud sources so there will be less silence, hence less track marks, hence less trouble combining afterwards

I really think this is mostly a non issue... I've recorded a lot of lectures/interviews/speeches/debates and a few concerts and I have never felt that I had way too much trackmarks... at all (except for one time when I'd set automark to 1 min in stead of 1 hour, which I did once )

Thanks for the input, BTW most of my recording are line input through my yamaha 01v96 board. After trying some settings I realize that if I increase my input signal just before clipping I've got less mark tracks.

[Christopher]

Perhaps you'll find the perfect threshold and never have an unwanted track mark again..

(yeah right )