Thank you Davids and Dobride for your very useful observations.
It occurred to me that there could be a lower than ideal gain issue
with the FR2-LE while studying Curt's files. I believe he is planning
more high gain tests at both 16 and 24 bits so we might be able to
address a couple of topics at once.
Hopefully, with tests, we'll determine that the FR2-LE's 24 bit
recording ability enables one to make up for a good part of any pre
gain limitations encountered when recording ambience in quiet
locations.
Should you have more than one recorder to do an a/b comparison with,
you can contribute data by making two fifteen minute recordings back
to back in the same place with the same mics and the two recorders--
both at Maximum gain. Pick the quietest~ 5 sec moment from both
recordings (the thinnest section on the wave form) and export them
untouched and post them. A remote location would be great but the
sounds on most any location will "settle" into a fairly even and
matched blend of distant sounds if one generated 15 minutes to select
from. If there is any air traffic, you may need to go to 30 minutes.
These questions should be informative to study this in principle too. Rob D=
.
At 3:59 PM +0200 5/14/07, dobroide wrote:
>Hi David and everybody,
>
>after a couple weeks of using the FR2LE I arrived to similar
>conclusions (although I couln't hear any noise on my headphone preamp,
>wonder if yours is working properly?). Just to add that the recording
>level leds are too faint to be any use under the strong light of my
>recording scenarios.
>
>So my feeling about it is bitter-sweet. Yes, the machine is nice,
>compact, and sounds good.... but I prefer my former combo
>(ShureFP24+Edirol R09) over this Fostex. Not just because it provides
>more gain and has brilliant leds; it's also smaller, rock-solid and
>less hungry for batteries.
>
>Here you may listen to a sample I recorded with FR2LE:
>http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=3D34583
>
>Saludos
>
>Dobroide
>
>> The FR2LE makes good recordings. If you are looking for a beginner's
>> all-in-one machine, this is a good choice. It is fairly rugged and
>> cheap enough to get all the rest of your gear straight and still
>> make
>> very high quality recordings. After all, it is the recorder that
>> depreciates in value the fastest of anything in your setup, so as
>> long as it does its job without a hitch, you can cut corners here.
>> Heck, given this philosophy I could probably have bought some killer
>> mic preamps and an M-Audio recorder instead (though this scenario
>> would still have been more expensive than the FR2LE which is priced
>> lower than most decent mic preamps). The recordings I got were very
>> clean with lower noise than the sound of the highway 6 miles away
>> (though I was using an MKH30/40 pair).
>>
>> Beware of one thing: the interface design is a total travesty. I can
>> forgive the cheap feeling knobs and casing (because the recordings
>> were good), but between the incomprehensible and seemingly haphazard
>> button layout, the card slot which faces up and LCD which faces
>> outward when using the unit with a strap (was it opposite day in the
>> lab?), it is painfully obvious that usability (and maybe logic
>> itself) took a backseat to feature set with this unit. I am not sure
>> there was even a design team... just engineers and marketing dudes.
>> As always, there is a reason this machine is 500 and not 1500.
>>
>> All in all, I can see myself using this machine for quite some time
>> while upgrading the small things along the way. I suppose that if it
>> was in high school, I would give it a B-... or perhaps 3 stars on
>> a 5
>> star scale. I would generally recommend it for anyone just starting
>> out with field recording.
>>
>> As soon as I get my servers straight I will post some recordings so
>> that you can judge the sound for yourselves.
>>
>> David
>> -
>> Unnature
>> New York City
>
>
>"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
>sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
--
Rob Danielson
Peck School of the Arts
Department of Film
University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
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