New to this--need some insight

[billfourth]

I'm looking into getting the Sony MZ-M100 to use as a recorder for my band's live shows. I'm considering this unit since it will interface with my Mac. On some other message boards, though, I saw that EARLIER models of Sony MD recorders did not allow you to adjust input levels manually WHILE RECORDING. I imagine this would be a huge drawback, and that's probably why the Sharp players were more accepted back in the day.

Does the MZ-M100 allow you to adjust input levels while recording? I saw that there's an "automatic" input adjustment thing going on, but I'm not sure how that would fly.

The main goal is so that I can hear each show and critique the performance. BUT, if possible, the final goal might be to be able to have a decent enough recording to post shows on our website and make them available for full downloads.

Any other info. along these lines considering what I'm shooting for would be really helpful. If there is another recorder I should be considering, I'd love to know about that too. This is all very new to me .

Thanks so much,

Bill

[The Low Volta]

the levels will be adjustable on the fly, but as soon as you press stop you'll have to go into the menus again and set it to manual again (no real problem but kinda annoying)

if you can wait for the RH1 (it'll come out in a month) it will be mac compatible as well and will remember the manual setting as well... just check the news-threads on the RH1 here on these forums for more info

[A440]

Sony levels have been adjustable (after the hassle of getting into Manual) on all models since about 2003. It's amazing how old information persists on the internet.

Adjusting the level while recording makes the volume of the recording go up and down, obviously. The important thing is to be able to go into Manual to turn off the automatic level control (no good for music), pick a manual level with enough headroom for your whole gig, and leave it alone unless there is some huge sudden potential overload.

When set to Manual with enough headroom, the MD recorder will give you a superbly faithful recording of what's going into it. That means you need good mics (better than the Sony one that might be packaged with the M-100, which has no bass) or you should record out of your mixer into Line-In if that is mixing the sound of the whole band. For fancier live recording, you could mix the sound from the board with the sound in the room. That is, put a pair of mics on a stalk high above the soundboard (six inches apart, like ears, for a nice stereo image, and raised to get away from the sound of the audience talking). Then mix both soundboard and mic input into a signal for the stereo Line-In input on the MD.