So I've recorded a couple of band rehearsals now on the mr-1000 and played
a bit with the software.
Setup on the unit is easy. I'll bitch about the case again - you have to take it
out of the case to use it with a power supply and to get at the switches on the back.
Minor quibble. Another annoyance is the gain, phantom power, and limiter switches
are super tiny. They feel sort of fragile. Since I try and make sure to turn off the phantom
power before connecting/unconnecting the mics, I'm worried these might go
out prematurely. Wish they put bigger and more heavy duty switches on there.
The unit boots up super quick (unlike the gawd-awful MT I had previously). Hitting
record puts it into record-pause mode where you can set levels before hitting
play. Menus are easy to navigate and intuitive. I like the feel of the buttons.
Display is easy to read and there are bright red clip indicators. The gain and
headphone volume knobs are a little small, but just the right amount of stiffness
in them so it'd be hard to accidentally move them. What I don't get is why those
knobs protrude a little past the metal flanges on the left and right which I assume
are there to protect the front panel as well as to loop a shoulder strap through.
I record with an LSD2 mic that I usually place just in front of the band. I try and
capture the un-mic'd drums, monitors, and back fill amps evenly. I get pretty
good results this way. Stage volume is not too loud, not as loud as a live concert
most on this board are accustomed to recording.
Recording in this manner with the -10db pad on the mic OFF I have to have the gain set
pretty low on the unit, around 9-10o'clock to prevent clipping. The l/h gain switch
is set to low, and I have confirmed this does in fact affect the mic gain.
So I can confirm that an ACM, external attenuators or pre is needed with this unit.
I should be able to squeek by with the -10db attenuator on my LSD2 for most
of my applications. I sometimes run AT4051s that don't have pads,
so I would still very much welcome an OADE mode, and hope Doug will
allow us early adopters to get modded if he does chose to offer one eventually.
I've done two recordings on the unit so far. First was WSD/DFF/5.6Mhz. The results
are pretty amazing. First reactions from my band mates listening to these recordings
were 'warm' and 'clear'. Very detailed, no brittleness at all. No audible noise at all.
I am very happy with the results.
I converted the first recording to 24bit/44.1 with the included audiogate software.
~2x real time to convert. Transfer to my g4 mac was pretty quick. This is a little
better than I thought it would be. The AG software is simple and intuitive with
the basics to combine/split/convert tracks. The resulting conversions still sounds pretty
sweet.
Second recording I recorded straight to 24/44.1 on the unit itself. I had the gain set
just a hair lower since PCM can't handle overs as gracefully as DSD. The sound
is still excellent, but as you'd expect, not quite as good as the DSD recording.
I would say the PCM A/D is very good on this unit, but not quite as good as those
on my 400f (akm converters). Still leagues better than the microtrack and h120
though. I would love to hear others opinions how they compare to 671/hdp2/722,
though. I'm guessing for PCM recording we're in the same ballpark as those
units in terms of A/D.
I imported both recordings into Digital Performer and the waveforms looked ok.
They appeared a little close to brickwalling though, so again, an ACM mod would be nice.
The pre's themselves sounds good though. I would describe them as clean and
transparant, with little to no personality to them - not sure how you'd improve them except to lower their sensitivity a bit. Those folks that like a little more 'character'
in their pre's are probably running grace/apogee anyway.
I've got to say, both recordings came out pretty damn good. The unit seems very
reliable. Absolutely no issues with setup, the recording itself, transfer to computer,
or conversion. We're talking a night and day different experience to that
POS MT I owned previously. Overall I'm a very happy camper.
Next test will be to try the unit with a pre in front of it (onyx mixer). I expect equally
favorable results there, maybe even better since I'll have a little more degree of control
on the gain.
So far (out of 10):
Ease of Use: 10
Reliability: 9
Mic Pre: 7 (ACM mod please!)
PCM A/D: 9
DSD A/D: 10
