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Author Topic: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?  (Read 108691 times)

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Offline Jamos

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #180 on: December 28, 2017, 05:14:57 PM »
I think their point was (and correct me if I'm wrong) that even the Marantz recorder, that's aimed at amateur film/DSLR type applications, could really benefit from quiet preamps.  Almost moreso for these folks than people recording concerts, where it is usually far less quiet (not always, but often).

It's too bad Marantz didn't include high-end components right out of the box, but very cool that Doug Oade will do the proper upgrades.  For an extra $100, that seems like a great deal. 
We've still got an Oade Super Mod Marantz 661 that makes great recordings.



^  The majority of people here aren't using their recorders for working on films, but for concert taping!!

Online goodcooker

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #181 on: December 29, 2017, 11:54:42 AM »
Everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon of this deck not being good enough to use as is. I don't get it. I've made the only recording that I've seen surface with this deck and it seems totally adequate to me. Pure speculation about modification being necessary to use it for most of our intended purposes.

It may be time to split this thread into two different ones like was done in the early Tascam DR70 threads where the modification discussion (and whether or not it was even necessary) was broken out from discussion about how to use the recorder and it's functions.

Don't get me wrong - if Oade can put much better preamps in it for a decent price I may get it modified - but I think it's unfair to people who may come looking here for info about this recorder that people who haven't had one in hand are claiming that it's unusable as is. That's just not true.

I respect Doug and his contributions to our little corner of the world- but let's be honest - he doesn't back up his claims with any real data and he never has - and in field anecdotal experience is still very scarce. Unfortunately info from Marantz themselves is a little lacking as well.

All that being said I get a chance to run the deck on NYE so I may try to mix it up and switch from internal preamps to Aerco mid set on one of the openers to get an unscientific comparison.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2017, 11:02:40 PM by goodcooker »
Line Audio CM3/OM1 || MBHO KA500 hyper>PFA|| ADK A51 type IV || AKG C522XY
Oade Warm Mod and Presence+ Mod UA5s || Aerco MP2(needs help) || Neve Portico 5012 || Apogee MMP
SD Mixpre6 || Oade Concert Mod DR100mkii

pocket sized - CA11 cards > SP SB10 > Sony PCM A10

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Offline Cheesecadet

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #182 on: December 29, 2017, 12:49:31 PM »
I would like someone to just take a board feed and see how it fares. Running mics into it shouldn’t be an issue.
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Offline Jamos

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #183 on: December 29, 2017, 02:14:57 PM »
I didn't mean to make it seem like the deck is not adequate as-is.  I have no real world experience with it.

Offline heva

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #184 on: December 29, 2017, 03:39:14 PM »
@goodcooker: I agree, hence my question about the micpres and AD.
Let's (first) find out how it is 'stock/as-is'. Details, specs, internals, comparisons.


Online goodcooker

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #185 on: December 31, 2017, 12:42:51 PM »

Taking out the deck for Split Lip Rayfield show tonight. May be able to get a patch to see how this thing acts with an XLR pro level SBD output. I'll try to figure out how to set up the SBD tracks with the dual safety track feature.

Last time I was at this club (many years ago) my taping partner at the time Steve Propp RIP just walked up to the board before the show when no one was around and plugged in. I was like "Steve you can't just patch the board without asking someone first!". He shrugged it off. Then he couldn't figure out how to get the patch through his outputs to get it to me so we had to plug it into my R4 and then send the digital out to him. It was like the blind leading the naked...
Line Audio CM3/OM1 || MBHO KA500 hyper>PFA|| ADK A51 type IV || AKG C522XY
Oade Warm Mod and Presence+ Mod UA5s || Aerco MP2(needs help) || Neve Portico 5012 || Apogee MMP
SD Mixpre6 || Oade Concert Mod DR100mkii

pocket sized - CA11 cards > SP SB10 > Sony PCM A10

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/goodcooker

"Are you the Zman?" - fan at Panic 10-08-10 Kansas City
"I don't know who left this perfectly good inflatable wook doll here, but if I'm blowing her up, I'm keeping her." -  hoppedup

Offline 2manyrocks

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #186 on: December 31, 2017, 02:14:00 PM »
My experience has been that making a piano recording and careful listening will expose whether a deck is good or not.  There is so much going on in a band recording that it can be harder to hear how a deck is performing.  But ....record what you have the opportunity to record and then listen to the results. 

Not too long ago, people would have jumped at the opportunity to get 6 channels from marantz at this price point in this form factor, IMO. 




Online goodcooker

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #187 on: January 01, 2018, 09:25:44 PM »

So good news and bad news from last nights outing.

3 bands on the bill. I took an XLR matrix out from the Digidesign Venue console. Ran MK41>nBobs>PFA into 1/2 (mic in low gain) with phantom on. SBD feed via XLR into 3/4 (line in low gain) ganged both stereo pairs and ran the knobs at 12 o'clock. Bluegrass first and got very conservative levels. Much louder blues band second and got more aggressive levels and the peak light one time. Routed the 3/4 SBD channels to the camera output and fed the signal to my video camera.

For the headliner Split Lip Rayfield the club got extremely crowded, even though it was already a zoo, and everyone was hammered. We were situated so we were kind of out of the way but had to run block all night and be on point about it. A kind neighbor helped keep the bogeys coming from the front steered the right direction. Everything was humming along just fine and towards the end of the show I look down and the deck was dark - nothing.

I was running the deck from an Anker hi capacity battery and had fresh AAs in as well. We were getting knocked around pretty hard so I guess at some point the battery cable got knocked loose and I was running on the AAs until they died. Didn't sweat it all that much - I was having a great time seeing one of my favorite bands and enjoying my first NYE with my girl.

So the bad news - there are no files whatsoever from when the deck lost power. I was about 1.5 hours into a smoking, hometown headliner NYE show and I walked with nada. The files are not on the card. Before I go jumping to conclusions and ripping into Marantz I'm going to do some tests at home and see if the same thing happens when I pull the plug or let it run out on the AAs. Also will contact Marantz support to find out if there is a way to recover the files - I'm positive that it had to write that data to the card and just didn't close the file header with a proper shutdown and save. I expected to see a file with 0 bytes like when other decks I had ran out of juice.

Bummer since the other two sets sound pretty damn good.

I'm relieved to know that the line in can handle a pro level line out.
Line Audio CM3/OM1 || MBHO KA500 hyper>PFA|| ADK A51 type IV || AKG C522XY
Oade Warm Mod and Presence+ Mod UA5s || Aerco MP2(needs help) || Neve Portico 5012 || Apogee MMP
SD Mixpre6 || Oade Concert Mod DR100mkii

pocket sized - CA11 cards > SP SB10 > Sony PCM A10

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/goodcooker

"Are you the Zman?" - fan at Panic 10-08-10 Kansas City
"I don't know who left this perfectly good inflatable wook doll here, but if I'm blowing her up, I'm keeping her." -  hoppedup

Offline rocksuitcase

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #188 on: January 02, 2018, 09:43:46 AM »
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ contact Marantz, they might have an idea. I had my PM-661 shut down improperly at Greyfox 2016 for Mark O'Connor duo and could not recover and have never recovered the file, although there was a file on the card showing zero bytes as you mention.
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Online goodcooker

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #189 on: January 02, 2018, 10:30:25 AM »
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ contact Marantz, they might have an idea. I had my PM-661 shut down improperly at Greyfox 2016 for Mark O'Connor duo and could not recover and have never recovered the file, although there was a file on the card showing zero bytes as you mention.

Talked to someone at Marantz Pro on the phone today. They were as surprised as I was that there were no files on the card. He took down all my info and said he would try to recreate the problem.

The good news I guess is that I ran an hour of subpar video (the 100 year old wooden floor was bouncing pretty good making the stand sway and I had my cam up on the stand trying to get over peoples heads)  and routed the SBD feed to the camera from the deck so at least there is something. :banging head:
Line Audio CM3/OM1 || MBHO KA500 hyper>PFA|| ADK A51 type IV || AKG C522XY
Oade Warm Mod and Presence+ Mod UA5s || Aerco MP2(needs help) || Neve Portico 5012 || Apogee MMP
SD Mixpre6 || Oade Concert Mod DR100mkii

pocket sized - CA11 cards > SP SB10 > Sony PCM A10

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/goodcooker

"Are you the Zman?" - fan at Panic 10-08-10 Kansas City
"I don't know who left this perfectly good inflatable wook doll here, but if I'm blowing her up, I'm keeping her." -  hoppedup

Offline willndmb

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #190 on: January 04, 2018, 08:50:04 AM »
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ contact Marantz, they might have an idea. I had my PM-661 shut down improperly at Greyfox 2016 for Mark O'Connor duo and could not recover and have never recovered the file, although there was a file on the card showing zero bytes as you mention.

Talked to someone at Marantz Pro on the phone today. They were as surprised as I was that there were no files on the card. He took down all my info and said he would try to recreate the problem.

The good news I guess is that I ran an hour of subpar video (the 100 year old wooden floor was bouncing pretty good making the stand sway and I had my cam up on the stand trying to get over peoples heads)  and routed the SBD feed to the camera from the deck so at least there is something. :banging head:
thanks for the effort and report, something is better than nothing for sure.

If you ever have a chance they try again, can you also try and do a sbd into the 5/6 TRS?
Personally that's what I would like to hear since Doug mentioned it's not very good at like 80db or something

I'm prob not the typically set up user though.
I would often times run my tb > 1/2 mini as well as use the 5/6 TRS where I think most would use the XLRs more for sure.
I would use the camera out a lotttttt compared to most as well.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2018, 08:57:46 AM by willndmb »
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Offline 2manyrocks

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #191 on: January 04, 2018, 02:30:43 PM »
I'd be interested in whether the 706 is actually supposed to save the files as it records or if the files are just lost if power is lost before normal shutdown. 

From a video standpoint, you might look at a gimbal stabilizer for situations where the wookies are making your video jump all over.  The prices have been dropping and the performance has been going up.  The Zhiyun Smooth Q was selling for $99 recently and works with smartphones and gopro size cameras.  It also has a decent size battery built into the handle that could be used to power either a camera or recorder that uses cell phone voltage.    They also make a Crane V2 for DSLR size cameras that has been about $450 on sale recently.  I think the prices will continue to come down or watch for them to go on sale if this is something of interest to anyone shooting video.  You can also use a smartphone app to make your camera tilt and pan.  There are lots of positive youtube reviews.   

Online goodcooker

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #192 on: January 16, 2018, 12:56:49 PM »
Waited for a week and hadn't heard back from Marantz Pro so I gave them another call. Talked to a different rep and he informed me that a file had been started on my issue and they were going to try and recreate the problem to see if it's my individual deck or the ones they have as well.

Next day I get a call from the first rep I spoke to and he told me their decks did the same thing and " that's how this deck works - if it loses power it will not save the file in progress ".

???

There are a couple of things that don't add up - I was 80+ minutes into a 4 channel recording when the deck lost power so where did the info - the 2 ~1.5Gb stereo wavs that had been written to the card go?
Other decks have a file with an incomplete header if this happens (including other Marantz decks) and you can recover the file by writing a new header - I've done it just by opening the file in CD Wave Editor and saving as direct wav which affixes a fresh header to the file and off you go.

The rep claimed that nothing had been written to the card since the file wasn't saved properly - that doesn't jive - when you stop a recording on the 706 a window appears that says "SAVING" for maybe 2 seconds then the deck returns to the record screen and is ready to start a new file. It's physically impossible for the deck to write the whole file to the card in a 2 second burst when you stop recording. That info is on that card! Support just can't explain where or how to recover it.

I got an email from the support department after my ticket had been opened so I will pursue the idea that this is a big problem for end users who operate in the field and face power disruptions regularly. I left a review on the B and H site where I bought the thing letting prospective buyers know about the bug.

Hopefully they will actually do something about it.

I plan to continue to use it because to be honest I like everything about it - except that my NYE headliner show went up in smoke - I'll just find a more robust probably right angle USB plug and will keep a better eye on the battery indicator from now on...
« Last Edit: January 16, 2018, 01:00:40 PM by goodcooker »
Line Audio CM3/OM1 || MBHO KA500 hyper>PFA|| ADK A51 type IV || AKG C522XY
Oade Warm Mod and Presence+ Mod UA5s || Aerco MP2(needs help) || Neve Portico 5012 || Apogee MMP
SD Mixpre6 || Oade Concert Mod DR100mkii

pocket sized - CA11 cards > SP SB10 > Sony PCM A10

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/goodcooker

"Are you the Zman?" - fan at Panic 10-08-10 Kansas City
"I don't know who left this perfectly good inflatable wook doll here, but if I'm blowing her up, I'm keeping her." -  hoppedup

Offline larrysellers

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #193 on: January 16, 2018, 12:59:23 PM »
Did you run chkdsk on the card (if you're on Windows)? It may be able to find your lost files.

Online goodcooker

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Re: Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?
« Reply #194 on: January 16, 2018, 01:04:59 PM »
Did you run chkdsk on the card (if you're on Windows)? It may be able to find your lost files.

Not yet - I wanted to give Marantz a chance to figure it out and if they needed me to send them the card I didn't want to have done anything with it.

Now that they have said their piece I will start digging into the card to see if I can find the files. I know they are there - no way does a recorder run for an hour and a half recording 2 stereo 24 bit files and not write anything to the media...
Line Audio CM3/OM1 || MBHO KA500 hyper>PFA|| ADK A51 type IV || AKG C522XY
Oade Warm Mod and Presence+ Mod UA5s || Aerco MP2(needs help) || Neve Portico 5012 || Apogee MMP
SD Mixpre6 || Oade Concert Mod DR100mkii

pocket sized - CA11 cards > SP SB10 > Sony PCM A10

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/goodcooker

"Are you the Zman?" - fan at Panic 10-08-10 Kansas City
"I don't know who left this perfectly good inflatable wook doll here, but if I'm blowing her up, I'm keeping her." -  hoppedup

 

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