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Re: Sony PCM questions

Subject: Re: Sony PCM questions
From: "Philip Tyler" macmang4125
Date: Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:36 am ((PDT))
Hi Shirane

You have two options with connecting your MixPre to the D50, you can use th=
e 3.5mm Tape-Out or the XLR Line-Outs.

The tape out will require a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack lead, which you can make yo=
urself or buy from any good electronics shop. As mentioned right-angle jack=
 plugs are preferable to straight and try and get gold-plated plugs, it wil=
l stop lots of unwanted 'crackling' which you can get with the nickel type =
plugs.

Another suggestion which I do is to have short 3.5mm plug to socket leads o=
n the recorder. These I leave plugged in all the time and plug in and out o=
f the flying socket. This has the advantage of reducing the wear and tear o=
n the recorders sockets and allows you to easily disconnect the recorder fr=
om your rig without too much trouble.

Something like theses:

http://www.felmicamps.co.uk/products/felleadsandadapt.html

The FEL socket saver.

Your other option is to make or buy a lead which has XLR's one end and a 3.=
5mm jack the other. A word of warning the MixPre has an electronically bala=
nced output and often the way some leads are wired is not the preferred met=
hod that SD recommend, this from their manual.

Left and Right Line-Level Outputs
Active-balanced XLR line-level outputs. +22 dBu peak output level. Pin-2 =
=3D hot, pin-3 =3D cold, pin-1 =3D ground. To unbalance, use pin-2 as signa=
l and pin-1 as ground, pin-3 should not be grounded.

There is a slight advantage in using the XLR output if you look at the onli=
ne PDF:

http://www.sounddevices.com/download/guides/mixpre_en.pdf

In the specs you can see that the maximum gain mic to tape-out (3.5mm) is 5=
2dB while mic to line-out (XLR) is 66dB. Depending on what you are recordin=
g and the output of your mics that extra gain might be very useful.

I also connect another 3.5mm lead from the line-out of the recorder into th=
e tape-in of the MixPre that way you can listen back to recordings. In fact=
 I tend to leave the monitor on tape as then I know if I am at least in rec=
ord ready as you will be hearing the output.

Hope that helps you.

Phil



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