Joy Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Hi,I'm pretty new to minidisc but I'm getting the fever and intending to buy a MZRH1B soon, but I have older minidiscs on hand,(passed down, worn out or nearly so).My question is about AVLS, which I learnt means automatic volume limiter. I've noticed this and it annoys me. I guess some of the recordings I've made are too quiet and on play back this AVLS prevents me increasing the volume. I think I've seen how to turn it off but as yet, I'm not too confident at finding my way around the menus! This finding my way around the menus is holding up my interaction with the devices. I don't understand group function or anything basic like that yet. The new minidisc on order appears to have an even more involved menu. Experimentation takes time, is there a site or 'how to' for people like me to visit to get up to speed?The reason I've become interested is because I need a recorder to tape oral histories. I looked at the edirol R09 but it's expensive and poorly engineered and the on-board mic will pick up all sound. A local sound shop have advised me on an expensive lav mic and mic pre amp which can be attached to my dv camera and then I can use the camera as a recorder. But I'm expecting that some of the old folk will be intimidated by too much equipment and that the mic etc would hook up nicely to the new (or older?) minidisc and that it will produce a better quality recording anyway.Any comment would be appreciated. I've not spent the money yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Hi Joy - which unit are you using at the moment - the one you need the menu assistance with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joy Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Hi Joy - which unit are you using at the moment - the one you need the menu assistance with?MZ N707. I've also an older MZ R37 and a newer but very worn out MZ N710. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milomind Posted October 8, 2006 Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 AVLS is only applicable during playback through the headphones. It doesn't effect the recording in any way. If the volume of the source is very low, then you will need to compensate by either getting closer to it, or by increasing the recording level. Getting a microphone positioned properly is your first step. If it is for vocal recording, use a vocal mic. If a lapel mic would make the subject feel more comfortable, you might look into that as well. If you are thinking about getting the RH1, I would highly recommend it as a recorder. It isn't as hard as it looks to get through the menus, and you have an entire forum of people that will be happy to help if you need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted October 8, 2006 Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 A little lapel mic is great way to make people feel comfortable, and since it's up close to the person's face it won't pick up a lot of extraneous noise. Make sure that if you get a lapel mic that it has a stereo plug, with two bands around the jack like your stereo headphone plug. One band is mono, and will just record in the left channel. Don't go crazy on an expensive lapel mic unless you need ultimate sound quality for broadcast or something like that. A decent mic into your mic jack will give you very clear sound. Radio news reporters often use minidisc. In the United States, look at http://www.soundprofessionals.com for mics. I use their very small, very basic BMC-2 for nearly everything--clipped to a collar, they pick up speech beautifully. In Europe, your best bet is probably getting our own Greenmachine's tiny mics: it's also a pair of stereo mics, so you can clip them both to someone's lapel side by side. Look at the Affordable Mics post near the top of Live Recording. Group is very useful. With Group on, each time you start recording (or after pushing Stop from your previous session), it puts the new batch of recordings into a new folder. The RH1 will have more menu options, but you'll probably just have to set them once or perhaps not at all: the defaults should be fine for interview recording. Most of the defaults on the MZ-N707 (except AVLS and Beep) are also good for voice recording, but since yours is secondhand, someone may have fiddled with them. Take 15 minutes to click through all the menus, turn Off anything that doesn't make sense, and you'll probably be fine. There are manuals for all the units here if you need to consult them: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Manuals.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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