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Re: Dead LED: Marantz PMD222

Subject: Re: Dead LED: Marantz PMD222
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 01:26:45 -0400
Greg Winterflood wrote:

> Thanks Dan.  I hope it is a dry joint. Easier fix.  Thanks also for 
> your advice on using the side mike jack rather than the XLR jack to 
> get around the XLR pre-amp.  In fact the noise I was complaining of 
> was ambient noise and I'm learning to get around that by taking 
> Walt's advice and finding the quiet spots.

I suppose Alice is a lot noisier than when I was there in 1979. But 
there should be a little bit of the outback that's quiet still. I poked 
around there as far as my rented camper van would allow and then some. I 
tend to like the away from people places. Ended up having to truck it 
down to the coast after some mudbogging on the way south out of there 
after the long slog out to the rock and back. Packed up the clutch, the 
alternator and the radiator with mud on the main road. So much for the 
dry center. All those roads are probably paved now. They were much more 
entertaining back then.

Position can help as to dealing with ambient noise. Your mic is 
directional, so try and position yourself so that when it's sensitive 
axis is pointed at the bird, it's least sensitive axis is pointed at the 
unwanted noise. It's also possible to limit distant pickup if you can 
get the mic high enough so that it's pointing down at your subject. Why 
movie people tend to use mics above.

If the LED is exposed enough, try poking at it when it should be lit. If 
it blinks on, time for a little soldering.

> I'm also finding that using Adobe Audition 1 can get rid of a lot of 
> the unwanted stuff by using the noise reduction feature; but I am 
> yet to learn how to make the resulting sounds "sound" more natural.  
> I guess that will come with time.

The big part about filtering is a light application works better. And in 
some cases a series of light applications work better. Most start out 
too heavy handed.

Very similar to graphics processing in photoshop. Where sharpening works 
best in the same way. Lots of light touches.

Yes it just takes time and experimentation. Experiment lots, on copies 
of the original.

> I am surprised by the quality of what I am getting with the tape.  I 
> thought I should start with it. Something like learning the 
> limitations of a crystal set before moving on to making your first 
> valve job.  Yep, I've been soldering since 6th grade when I made my 
> first receiver using a 3S4 triode.  I've always enjoyed soldering 
> (pronounced sol-dar-ing here, not 'soddering which gave me a 
> surprise when I first heard it in Pennsylvania!)

That's ok, one of the shop owners where I get electronic bits calls it 
slobbering. But soddering is a common way in the US.

And remember, if you look far enough back at nature recording you will 
find folks out trying to get something with much less sensitive dynamic 
mics and things like spring driven tape recorders, or even wire 
recorders. We are spoiled, those folks got some good stuff where it was 
hard to do. We are reduced to trivial differences in high quality 
recorders and mics by comparison.

Walt




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