Hi all,
Having quite happily recorded bird sounds for a few years with a Sony
PCM-M10, I recently decided that I wanted a recorder with an XLR mic input.
After reading some reviews and comparing features between especially the
the Tascam DR-100 MKII and Marantz PMD661, I decided to go for the former.
Advantages that I saw relative to the Marantz were chiefly the Tascam's
lower price, its dual battery system, its smaller size, and the fact that a
remote is included with it, one with wireless capabilities to boot.
I gave it a test run in the field yesterday, recording birds with a Rode
NTG-2 mic, but found out that recording levels were extremely low. These
and subsequent tests were done with recording volume as high as possible:
the turning wheel(s) at 10, and the mic sensitivity on "high" (with "low"
and "medium" as the other options).
Comparing to the Sony PCM-M10 connected to the same Rode mic, if find that
a sound source registering at -3dB in the Sony (also with mic sensitivity
on high, and the turning wheel on 10), registers on the Tascam as -18dB
with phantom power off, and -12dB with phantom power on. This is a huge
difference! And given that I already thought that the Sony + Rode mic
levels were on the low side (I always have input volume on max, and usually
still need to amplify the resulting recordings of bird sounds on the
computer before e.g. putting them on the xeno-canto website), these Tascam
levels are simply unusable for me -- the white noise is overpowering after
amplification to decent levels.
I was surprised to see that even when using the internal mics, the Tascam
records softly: the same sound source as above, at the same distance,
registers as -19dB on the unidirectional mics (pointed towards the sound),
and -14dB on the ominidirectional ones. Meanwhile, with the Sony's internal
(omni) mics, the input volume has to be turned all the way down to around
Message: 5.
Subject: 5 before it is not "OVER" anymore, so here the difference is even much
larger between the two devices. I.e. in the Sony, as I knew, there is a
rather large difference in recording volume between the internal mic and
when using my Rode mic, but the Tascam appears to be recording softly all
around.
What can be going on here? Is this normal for the Tascam, do I have a
faulty device, or am I missing something? I have read that the predecessor
of the DR-100 MKII (simply called DR-100) had a serious problem with,
indeed, low recording levels, but that this was fixed in the MKII. I can
confirm it says MKII on my device :). Also, I can actually see the input
levels increasing when I turn the volume wheel or set the mic sensitivity
from low to high, so no obvious faults there either.
I was also struck by the battery life. Whereas the Sony PCM-M10 can record
for many, many hours on a single pair of AA, I already knew battery life
would be much reduced for the Tascam. But what was unexpected was that
merely being turned on also appears to be very power costly for the Tascam:
I had it on for ca 6 hours, of which some 30min of actual (pre)recording,
and had run through both its fixed battery and a pair of mediocre AAs.
Any input on the recording volume issue is most welcome.
Thanks in advance and best wishes,
Jelmer Poelstra
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