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Re: new recorder - mic pre factors

Subject: Re: new recorder - mic pre factors
From: Rob Danielson <>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:30:40 -0500
At 10:25 AM -0500 7/27/05, Curt Olson wrote:
>Rob Danielson wrote:

<snip>

>I'm anxious to see if the new M-Audio recorder lives up to its promise.
>If so, it'll definitely shoot to the top of my short list.
>
>Curt Olson

You guessed it, I'm going to reinforce caution about this recorder
(as I'm sure you are). So we have, "Pro-quality preamps complete with
phantom power will work with your favorite condenser microphones
virtually anywhere."   More than one recent "pro" disc recorder has
had only 45dB gain on the mic pre. That's a whopping 30dB less gain
than the lowly, HiMD unit I tested based on 722's pre delivering 70dB
of gain.  The only time I really know for sure that a 24 bit field
file brings home data/quality that makes it all the way to the final
product is when the location is really, really quiet and bit
depth/file saturation is inescapably low (1-3%).  I routinely kick up
my 16 bit files to 24 in post and that does seem to help a lot when I
have to do a lot of processing with them.  For my applications, a pre
with only 45dB gain would be at cross-purposes with spending $300
more for 24 bits.  Some "pros" publish specs, and some don't, I
guess.  Rob D.


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