Topic: recording in 24b... run hot or not?

[RobertNC]

I'm not really in one camp or the other.  I'm a hobbyist not an audio engineer.  It is just my personal experience that with my specific gear as I run hotter the final sound has a harsher quality to it that I don't like.  If I run cooler it sounds more natural.

For all I know it is my imagination.  Most people tell me I should not even be running a 722 without a Grace in front of it, but from a strictly empirical point of view, I run cool, and like the results.

[Dede2002]

I'm not really in one camp or the other.  I'm a hobbyist not an audio engineer.  It is just my personal experience that with my specific gear as I run hotter the final sound has a harsher quality to it that I don't like.  If I run cooler it sounds more natural.

For all I know it is my imagination.  Most people tell me I should not even be running a 722 without a Grace in front of it, but from a strictly empirical point of view, I run cool, and like the results.

I know what you mean. Same thing happens to me.
It's not your imagination. There's a very solid explanation for that.

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,69144.msg929333.html#msg929333

Take care.

[DSatz]

Um, no--sorry to say, the whole three-paragraph-long core of that message, about supposed distortion above "0 dBVU" levels, is completely unfounded. Also, some of the numbers he gives seem to be just made-up numbers. The "functional 100 db of S/N" as the limit for any digital recorder might have been true in the early 1980s, but A/D converters have been available for 10 years now with an honest dynamic range 15 - 20 dB better than that.

Look, any particular piece of gear can have problems, but most digital recording equipment doesn't sound any worse--or any different--in its top 10 dB from the rest of its range. If someone has a 24-bit recorder that really and truly sounds better when you don't use the top 10 dB of its range, I'd say get it looked at by a competent technician, because it's not supposed to behave that way. Or try padding down its outputs and recording at normal levels, because you may be overloading the input stage of the equipment you were listening to it through.

--best regards

[Dede2002]

DSatz,

Well, I'm here to learn. That's my only goal BTW. For that,I really thank you. It's just that this piece of writing has been praised for so many members that I took it for granted.
Anyway, thanks for your message. It's always a pleasure to read your posts.

[DSatz]

Dede2002, "0 VU" just doesn't mean what the author of the message seems to think it does; he seems to have guessed, and guessed wrong. (It's not any one voltage level, so you can't really say that signals at or above that level are difficult for circuits to handle; they could even be very small signals, just as long as they're in linear proportion to the voltage of other signals in the same system.)

And as I said earlier, the 100 dB (or thereabouts) "functional" limit on possible signal-to-noise ratios simply doesn't exist--one Prism converter gets around 122 dB as I recall, and Apogees get 120 dB or thereabouts, for example.

But there definitely are points in the message that I agree with, and that I think are very well put. Maybe I'll have a little talk off-line with the person who wrote it, since we all have the right to revise our postings here.

--best regards

[boyacrobat]

8.2 db below 0 for 16.44
12.5 db below 0 for 24.96

my law

g

[Dede2002]

Dede2002, "0 VU" just doesn't mean what the author of the message seems to think it does; he seems to have guessed, and guessed wrong. (It's not any one voltage level, so you can't really say that signals at or above that level are difficult for circuits to handle; they could even be very small signals, just as long as they're in linear proportion to the voltage of other signals in the same system.)

And as I said earlier, the 100 dB (or thereabouts) "functional" limit on possible signal-to-noise ratios simply doesn't exist--one Prism converter gets around 122 dB as I recall, and Apogees get 120 dB or thereabouts, for example.

But there definitely are points in the message that I agree with, and that I think are very well put. Maybe I'll have a little talk off-line with the person who wrote it, since we all have the right to revise our postings here.

--best regards

That would be awesome. One more time, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Happy 2009.

[jeromejello]

i would like to thank everyone for the dialogue... it has been very informative.

both of my main concerns were raised thus far... if running the 722 too hot would some how have a negative effect on the sound quality and if adding gain in post would have a negative effect on the sound quality.

i guess it seems to run more conservatively in 24 bit is the way to go... i dont know if i would be -12 peak conservative, but i dont think i will ride it to 0 either.