Hi Adam
I have a Sony MZ NH900 Hi-MD machine which I use a
K6/ME66 into.
It is no problem that the mini-disc has no XLR inputs
you just need to make or buy a lead. If you are using
just the one K6/ME66 then get yourself a female XLR
plug and some single core screened cable and wire the
XLR up with the centre core of the screened cable onto
pin 2 of the XLR and connect the earth/braid onto pins
1 and 3 of the XLR. If you then wire up the 3.5 mm
jack with the centre core going to the tip and ring of
the plug and the braid to the sleeve then your mic
will be recorded equally on both channels of the
mini-disc. The mini-disc only records stereo so it is
worth wiring up both tip and ring on the 3.5 mm jack
plug. [Some people make a little pad so that the mic
is recorded at a slightly lower level on the second
track. This is a safety precaution just in case
something gets really loud if it overloads on the full
level track it might be clean on the reduced level
one.]
You may find if you get too close to some electronic
equipment, such as computers, that some noise is
induced onto the recording. But as you will probably
be recording outside then you will probably be no
where near anything that might cause you problems. And
Message: 1.
Subject: 5 meters is not long at all.
You can also buy these leads made up and ready to go,
for instance here is one:
http://www.felmicamps.co.uk/products/felcablesandadap.html
As regards the 'motor noise' I find stuffing the
recorder in my pocket once I am set up and recording
is sufficient to muffle the sound. But it has to be
said as long as the recorder stays on the back of the
K6/ME66 it is likely not to be picked up as these are
fairly directional microphones.
If you listen to the file "Wilstone Comp (2).mp3" in
the files section this was made using a Hi-MD with the
recorder no more than a few feet away and I don't
think you can hear any motor noise.
Regards
Phil
--- Adam Welz <> wrote:
> Dear All
>
> I hope I'm not asking too-stupid questions here. I
> would appreciate any answers or hints on where to
> find the info I'm after.
>
> I am in the market for a relatively inexpensive,
> portable recorder that can record in some sort of
> uncompressed format (e.g. AIFF). The primary use for
> the recorder will be for ambient sound and
> interviews for radio pieces, but I also will use it
> for recording bird and frog calls that I may want to
> analyse using Raven or similar programmes (hence the
> need for an uncompressed format - I am an
> environmental journalist with a serious academic
> interest in biology and have just started becoming
> interested in sound). My primary mic is a Sennhieser
> ME 66 with K6 power module (already bought).
>
> It's important to me that the recorder be compact,
> light, reliable, and that the manual recording level
> can be easily adjusted while recording.
>
> I have excluded the Marantz flash recorders from
> consideration because they are too big and heavy.
> After looking around a lot I have whittled my list
> down to 2 options:
>
> 1) Sony MZ RH1 MiniDisc recorder
>
> 2) Zoom H4 Handy Recorder (or possibly Zoom H2)
>
> I'm leaning towards the MiniDisc for 3 reasons: 1,
> the recording level seems more easily adjustable on
> the fly, and 2 that MiniDiscs are far cheaper than
> flash memory cards (I will sometimes need to carry
> at least 5GB of storage far away from my computer
> for the type of things I do, and I'm not rolling in
> cash right now), and 3 that the MiniDisc unit is
> smaller than the Zoom.
>
> Also, I've read that the Zoom has an irritating and
> incurable low-level clicking sound on quiet tracks
> made using battery power (I will not be using the
> unit tethered to a wall plug).
>
> However (and this is where I really need some of
> your experience and insight), the MiniDisc does not
> have balanced XLR inputs.
>
> How much of a problem is this, as I will virtually
> never be using a mic cable of longer than 1.5m? Not
> being much of an audio technician, I gather that the
> chief advantage of a balanced line is that
> interference is minimised over long distance. Does
> 1.5m count as 'long distance'? I also have heard
> that the preamps of the MiniDisc deliver far cleaner
> sound than many other small recorders.
>
> I also had the occasional problem of equipment noise
> with my previous MiniDisc recorder (MZ R909) -
> sometimes the whirring of the unit interfered with
> recordings, ad I'm not sure how noisy the RH1 is.
> The 909 also died of mysterious causes, even though
> I handled it carefully.
>
> Any advice will be gratefully received - pros and
> cons of the equipment I've identified, as well as
> alternatives that I might not know about.
>
> Regards
>
> Adam Welz
>
> Cape Town, South Africa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Inbox full of unwanted email? Get leading protection
> and 1GB storage with All New Yahoo! Mail.
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>
>
> "While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray
> Schafer via Bernie Krause
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> (Yahoo! ID required)
>
>
>
>
>
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