Thanks Curtis. I did a separate review of the SR-VRM1 XLR Plug-on Recorder and found it to work well, but did notice a small amount of noise in the signal that I didn't find objectionable. The video linked is using +PostColorBlog (Dave Andrade) Tascam recorder that he was kind enough to let me use, and again found a similar amount of minor noise in the signal. I think they are comparable, but like the Saramonic better simply for the better display and controls. Links are in the video description of Curtis's video above. :)
I have used the Tascam DR-10X recorder with a Rhode Reporter mic. It provides plenty of gain on the high setting. I have to hold it about a foot below my mouth on this setting or I'll clip (I have a loud voice). The medium setting will work with this if you hold it right up to your mouth. My only complaint with this recorder is that it only has 3 choices for recording levels: low, medium, and high. I find the high is a bit too hot for me and the medium is not quite hot enough. I can work around this by adjusting the distance of the mic to my mouth, but I would prefer if it had number gain settings where I could dial in the exact amount of gain needed. Other than that, though, the Tascam works beautifully with the Rhode Reporter mic, which is notorious for low output.
What's your opinion about the R0DE recording app for the iPhone? The average review score is only 2.0. There are many reviewers who complain that the app is very unstable and unusable. In your videos, you never mentioned problems about the R0DE recording app being unstable and unusable. Could it be that there were problems with the R0DE rec app in the past, that are now fixed. Or, perhaps many of the problems were caused by user errors? Please give your opinion about purchasing the R0DE rec app for the iPhone, and your opinion about a better recording app for the iPhone, or if a separate, stand alone recorder would be a better solution than trying to use an app on an iPhone to record a lavalier microphone.
Awesome , kindly may you create you explain how to use 01v96 audio mixer , I need it for my new work , and I could not find English tutorials , unfortunately there many tutorials in Spanish and I do not speak it
Hi Ahmed, I don't have a Yamaha 01v96 on hand to create a tutorial, but we did do a mixing board basics episode over here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-frwTct81Edc.html
Something went haywire with the OS and my audio interface wouldn't work even after about 10 hours of troubleshooting with the manufacturer (Antelope Audio) yet it works fine with my MacBook Pro. So I reinstalled the OS and it is at least recognized by the OS, but I suspect it is still doing some sort of real-time sample rate conversion which results in strange static/distortion in the right channel monitor, though not in the headphones. Lesson learned: I would not recommend Antelope Audio interfaces with an iMac Pro.
People may laugh or not understand but at this point, I plan to sell the Antelope Audio interface (which cost $2500 new about 18 months ago) and go with another manufacturer. Time is money. I can also invest in something that supports surround monitoring this time.
So at the point where you mention Zaxcom. You said that they are using 2 AD converters per channel to get the incredible dynamic range. Are they running these truly differential? If so then wow. That would also indicate for sure a wide dynamic range and incredible potential S/N, but no guarantee I guess. It sounds like the Zaxcom is doing fully differentially balanced. This is very expensive in that compared to just unbalanced, you need 4 times electronics to get fully differential or full complementary balanced accomplished. We use this allot in high end audio. Reduced crossover distortion and more make this the holy grail we music lovers fight for. Could you confirm please. I am not sure if Zaxcom might tell, though I can look them up. Another great video Curtis. By the way I am restoring a 1978 JVC Cassette Deck recapping it and recalibrating to factory specs should be amazing again. Nichicon Muse and Black Gate Caps look like the ones. Love your videos as always.
Hi Vincent, I’m not certain how they’re implementing the dual A/D converters per channel, but this is how it was described to me at NAB at the Zaxcom booth a few years ago: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k90PxipBxHE.html
As evidenced by your own resistance to recording at really low levels, the concept that you won’t risk audibly increasing the noise floor, by recording at a gain level that is “too low”, is a difficult idea to wrap one’s head around. Historically a really low recording level would be a sign of incompetence on the part of the sound guy, and it would still be inappropriate on lower quality preamps. I’ve heard Paul Isaacs on multiple occasions talking about how the recording level on a MixPre isn’t important as long as there is some evidence of signal, but it seemed like such an alien concept compared to how everyone still recommends setting your levels that I hardly gave it a second thought. Until I watched this video. Now I’m wondering if it really should be seen as the “correct” way to record audio when you’re using something as clean as a MIxPre device. Super low levels plus the analog limiters would mean that it would be almost impossible to find a situation with so much dynamic volume range that it could cause clipping. I’m forced to wonder what the actual lower limit would be, where you’d start introducing audible self-noise artifacts after normalizing. Maybe the room tone will always be louder than any introduced self-noise, even at the lowest possible gain setting. Actually, I feel like Julian Krause already did a relevant experiment on his channel with a MixPre. I must say this whole concept is fascinating.
Fascinating indeed! There are practical reasons for not recording at levels that low just like there are practical reasons for not shooting raw camera footage. Nevertheless, good to understand the tradeoffs.
What a strikingly perfect parallel to draw. So low-gain audio recording is like LOG profiles in video. I've never thought about it that way, but it fits. Both are attempts to extract the maximum possible dynamic range from the hardware, and both fail to be useful if the hardware isn't sensitive enough and sufficiently low noise to support the necessary manipulations that happen in post-processing. And high bit depth is at that heart of making it work properly. You've really got my neurons firing there.
@RedBearAK You are on to something here. If your recorder has a huge dynamic range setting your gain is not that critical anymore. Furthermore there is a specific gain setting where the recorder will not introduce additional ADC noise into the recording and you will get the most dynamic range. At this point turning up the gain will not decrease the noise any further and you will only lower your usable dynamic range. This specific gain setting depends on the recorder and mic combination that is used and can be calculated. I will make a video about this topic at some time!
