Re: OT: portable audio recorders

["d.nix" <d.nix@comcast.net>]

Hey Andy,

I'd be happy to send you a file if you'd like to look at the peaks and what
not. I doubt my recordings are pristine by any measure; I'm not doing any
critical recording for sure, these are just rehearsal and jam recordings,
and I'm using the 192k MP3 settings to keep file sizes portable, and using
the 90 deg angle front stereo pair. I have a permanent mount, a mike
gooseneck, about 6 ' high on the wall in the corner of our rehearsal space
that the H2 is mounted on. It's a rectangular room about 20' x 12' with 10'
ceiling that slopes. The drummer is in the far corner diagonally away from
the H2, I (guitar) am on the long wall, basically facing the drums, and the
bass player is on the far short wall, facing the drum kit, so no speakers
directly face the H2. The drums/cymbols are the only thing that directly
face the mikes. The room is about 80% carpeted on all surfaces, save for 
the
ceiling and upper portions of the walls.

Typically, it's drums or cymbols that cause hot peaks when they happen... I
think I just have it far enough away that I'm not hammering the mike
capsules, plus the fact we dont have the guitar or bass aimed at the mikes.

When I record I'm generally getting about -7db levels on average, and run
everything thru the normalizing processor on Audacity post recording to
bring thing up to -3db before I cut things into individual songs and post
them for my band mates. I do keep the raw recording around, so I can grab 
an
example should you want to see it. Again, it's just documenting things, not
critical recording - though I have set the H2 up in my living room and
recorded a moderate volume guitar/amp rig using the medium gain settings 
and
more critical mike placement and gotten really nice results... maybe not as
nice as a true studio mike like a Sennheiser or Rode would give, but pretty
darn good.

I am however really dissapointed with the line in level on the H2, it's
complete rubbish. We wasted a whole day close miking everyone only to
discover we couldnt pad the signal down enough to not clip the input...

Regards-

Dave

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "andy butler" <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 3:49 AM
Subject: Re: OT: portable audio recorders


> d.nix wrote:
> >> er, it's a total waste of time dropping the recording volume to 75.
> >> The distortion happens in the analog domain, and that vol
> >> control is digital.
> >>
> >
> > All I know is that if I *dont* lower that setting it _digitally_ clips
and
> > distorts, and if I do set it to 75 it does not distort. Therefore it's
not a
> > waste of time, regardless...
> >
> > :-)
> >
>
> It's not impossible that your H2 behaves different to mine..
> ...but surely that's very unlikely.
>
> I'd not argue that your "75" recording was actually distorted
> ...but I have to admit my first thought was that your band played a bit
> quieter, or the H2 was in a different position.
> ;-)
>
> Easy to settle the question (if you could be bothered :-)
> I'd be expecting to see that your file didn't have
> any peaks over what would correspond to the level of a distorted 
>recording
> made at 75.
> If you've got bigger peaks than that in your file, then you're right
> and it's worth using the 75 setting.
>
> I've seen a number of comments on forums to say that the
> volume range beneath 100 on the Zoom H2 offers no advantage.
> I can assure you that I test stuff very thoroughly before
> criticising it, and that my only motivation is to help folks
> get best results on their recordings.
>
>
>
> I always have the volume at 100, I've never got digital clipping
> ..always analog. (it *is* very sharp clipping, but it's caused by the
input to the D/A)
> I'm 100% certain you'd only get digital clipping
> if you put the volume up beyond 100...because at 100
> you're getting exactly the full range of the converters.
>
>
>  For critical recordings I use 24 bit and then
> convert to 16 after sorting the levels in an editor.
>
>
> The H2
> *Is Capable Of Really Good Results*
>
> andy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>