first impressions after using the oade concert mod PMD-661 for one full show now:
In general, I think this is a great little deck. I think the sound is clean and smooth (though it's a little hard to know fur sure, because it was also my first time using the mics as well). The OLED screen is great. The meters are nice and easy to use (both the LED lights and the on-screen meters). I used my 8gb Sandisk Ultra II SDHC card (I think its a class 4). I ran at 24/48 and had no problems at all. For the first set, I had the autotrack feature set to split the files every 30 minutes. If the files aren't seamless, it's not audible. I zoomed in to view individual samples and it certainly seems to me, both audibly and visually, that the splits are seamless. For set 2, I turned off the autotrack feature and just had one long file. (~80 min, so only ~1.3 gigs. At some point, I'll do 24/96 testing and see how it handles the 4gig max file size split).
I'll post a couple of samples shortly. The only problem with the deck, is that I think I slightly brickwalled. Getting the levels right was my biggest concern going in, because I was unfamiliar with the deck, and unfamiliar with the new mics. The beyerdynamic mics have a sensitivity of 30mV/Pa. So going in, I knew that they were a LOT more sensitive compared to my old gefells (I think 13mV/Pa). I chose to not use the -15dB pad on the mics, but did use the -18dB setting on the PMD-661. I had my levels right around 4 on the knob, and I was peaking around -3dB. But, looking at the wave file, I can see that it brickwalled. BUT, it only really brickwalled for a very short time with some of the louder percussive sounds (snare drum and stuff like that). So because it was for only a very short duration, I can't really hear it. I certainly wouldn't have guessed that I was brickwalling just based on the sound. It wasn't until I opened up the files in Samplitude and saw the files that I realized what had happened... So what does this mean going forward? I think I am going to engage the -15dB pad on my mics, and then use the -12 or -6dB setting on the PMD-661. with the lower input from the mics, I expect that the problem will be resolved.
But, I would check out the specs for whatever mics you are planning to use with the PMD-661, and see how hot of a signal they output. If they output a very hot signal (like the beyerdynamic's), consider using a pad on the mic to lower the input before hand.
no full battery tests yet either. I haven't yet purchased my external, so I was using standard energizer AA's (not the lithiums, just the energizer "max" batteries). At the end of the first set (~1 hour and 35 minutes), I had only battery bar left, so I decided to switch out the batteries for set 2. I know that that seems considerably less run time compared to previous reports using the internals, but I think the beyers draw more current than what has previously been tested and reported. The beyers draw 4.6mA per mic from phantom. And, the batteries were NOT totally dead. In the middle of set 2, Ted's R09HR battery died, so I gave him two of the "used" batteries that I has used during set 1. They lasted at least 40 more minutes through the end of set 2 in Ted's r09hr, so they definitely still had some juice left. I plan on doing a full internal battery test this weekend (running it until it dies). I am also planning to test out 24/96, with both the 8gb Sandisk Ultra II and the 16gb PNY (both class 4).
