Topic: Sony PCM-M10 (Part 2)

[earmonger]

And learn from my mistake. The microSD card has to be inserted with its label--the brand name and capacity--facing the back back of the PCM-M10.

It will snap in facing the front, but the PCM-M10 won't read it. This caused me considerable angst until I looked at the manual, and the graphic on the back of the PCM-M10.

[pafnuzzi]

Maybe it was posted already but anyway here is my question:

How much power does the M10 gives out to external mics on the mic in?

Thanks pafnuzzi

[illconditioned]

Maybe it was posted already but anyway here is my question:

How much power does the M10 gives out to external mics on the mic in?

Thanks pafnuzzi

2.8v through a 4.7k resistor.

  Richard

[pafnuzzi]

Hi

Thanks but what means through the resistor. You mean the the 4.7k mod in the mic?

pafnuzzi

[TaperedMind]

Any help appreciated on either of 2 questions:

1) does microSD card class matter recording on M10?  Is class 2 HC OK, or should you use a higher class?

2) re LCF low cut filter on the M10.  When it is on does it filter BEFORE the mic pre-amp?

Thanks.

[earmonger]

I'm having zero problems with a SanDisk Class 2 8MB card.

I'd be curious, too, about the answer to your second question--maybe you could ask Sony?

I will say that this preamp is way more robust about bass than, for instance, Sony's minidisc preamps. I've recorded rock shows with Mic-in (at Low Sensitivity) without overload,  though with a fairly low-sensitivity mic. And the built-in mics are supposed to be good to 124dB, which bears out my experience recording a band rehearsal with them.

High sensitivity does distort, and I do still bring the battery box and go line-in when I can.

[shaggy]

If isn't too much trouble for an owner with both units, do a line-in comp between a D50 and a M10 with with a good clean signal from a few commercial sourced CDs, please?

[TaperedMind]

   Many thanks, earmonger.  That's really valuable to know.
 
How do you decide between low-sensitivity and line-in?  My recordings at high OR low always sound soft to me.

[dbxp]

Continued to be impressed by the clarity and quality of the casual non-professional recordings made by M10 with just the internal mic. The same piece as I posted a while ago but played on a more percussive Yamaha C-2 piano captured with detailed texture of the instrument in my view:

http://www.box.net/shared/46eix227ex

[guysonic]

Continued to be impressed by the clarity and quality of the casual non-professional recordings made by M10 with just the internal mic. The same piece as I posted a while ago but played on a more percussive Yamaha C-2 piano captured with detailed texture of the instrument in my view:

http://www.box.net/shared/46eix227ex

Sounds very good indeed!
I am curious about deck settings, mic-deck placement position, if raw or edited recording. 

[dbxp]

No processing other than normalizing the -12 dB signal to 0 dB and converting 24 bit 48k sampling to 16 bit with sampling rate unchanged. The original 24 bit sounded even better to my ears but it's a too big a file for uploading.

The M10 placement actually was not ideal --- just sitting on the right hand music desk of the piano, pointing slightly inward. Had it been recorded from the side of the piano, it would have had more even notes in my experience, especially stronger bass, but the main task of the day was to take the piano lesson and it's a pre-lesson warm-up in a practice room.

Other than the M10, much credit is from the piano and the room. The room was acoustically optimized for the grand piano practice, actually almost a room built within a room. Vocals in these piano practice rooms of the conservatory actually sound like crap but they do have entirely different treatments for that purpose as well.

[kleiner Rainer]

Howdy,

since I am curious by profession (electronics engineer), I connected my trusty Tektronix scope to the remote interface of my PCM-M10. This is what I found:

Connector:
 
4-pole 3.5mm plug
tip = cathode "Recording" LED in remote
ring 1 = data
ring 2 = ground
sleeve = +3V, anode "Recording" LED

data protocol:
 
Sony SIRC, unmodulated (i.e. lacking the 40kHz carrier),
Start bit + 20 data bits: 7 command bits, 5 device address bits, 8 extra bits (all LSB first)

The following commands are sent in the sequence "start bit - command bits - device address - extra bits":

TMARK: $48-$1A-$E4 (S-0001001-01011-00100111)
STOP:  $18-$1A-$E4 (S-0001100-01011-00100111)
PAUSE: $19-$1A-$E4 (S-1001100-01011-00100111)
REC:   $1D-$1A-$E4 (S-1011100-01011-00100111)

Interestingly, the device address is in the group for Blu-ray recorders, as listed on this page:

http://www.hifi-remote.com/sony/

The missing commands between "PAUSE" and "REC" are (at least in the Blu-ray recorders): $1A, "PLAY", $1B, "<<" and $1C, ">>".
Maybe they are implemented in the M10?

Since I cannot guarantee that my findings are 100% correct, proceed with caution and use the information presented here at your own risk.

Greetings,

Rainer

[Ozpeter]

Continued to be impressed by the clarity and quality of the casual non-professional recordings made by M10 with just the internal mic. The same piece as I posted a while ago but played on a more percussive Yamaha C-2 piano captured with detailed texture of the instrument in my view:

Thanks for the sample.  Feeding it through my DAW software, I confirmed my suspicion that recordings from the M10 will very often benefit from stereo widening such as provided by the Voxengo MSED vst effect.  Adding an extra 6 to 8dB of width really brings the sound to life - IMHO - and in this sample it very clearly shows the alignment of the piano in relation to the recorder.  Curiously, it appears also to brighten the sound somewhat, as if reducing some HF phase cancellations from the close proximity of the omni mics to each other (wild guess there).

Sony would have done well to have provided a "width" option in the M10 menus, replicating electronically the function available in other models which have movable mics.  In terms of the processing required in the unit, it would have been very easy to do.  Normally I wouldn't recommend recording with an effect but in this case, any width manipulation can be reversed very simply later (unlike, for instance, recording with some sort of reverb).  Personally if I had an M10 (and I'm very tempted!) I would add about 6dB of width to all recordings, so it's a pity that can't be done at the outset.

[parhamm]

Does anyone have experience using the PCM-M10 with a 64-bit Windows XP machine?

The manual says 64-bit XP is not supported... Does this mean the included SoundForge software won't work, or that you can't even connect the M10 via USB to simply download recorded files?

Any help with this issue will be much appreciated as I am deciding to buy an M10 or not... Thanks.

[dbxp]

While I can't vouch for the enclosed edition of SoundForge's 64-bit XP compatibility, for file transfers, M10 is simply treated as a USB drive and thus is OS agnostic. I usually transfer to Linux machines because that's what I use often. There is always Audacity that's very capable and free for all operating systems so it really shouldn't be a concern even if SoundForge doesn't work on your computer.