Topic: MicroTrack 24/96 Beta 1.2.0

[silentmark]

- I don't care if it's not 24 bit it sounds fine to me.

Ummmm why would you think it is not 24bit ?

If you'd done your homework you should know...


http://home.rustradio.org/~rdvdijk/microtrack/index-old.html

Ummmmm, right back at cha ...

[silentmark]

i guess i still don't get what you're getting at, the unit records 24bit.

If I'm understanding the link correctly http://home.rustradio.org/~rdvdijk/microtrack/index-old.html I think the point is whilst the microtrack is recording 24bit, due to the noise floor there's really only 18 bit of "good" data to use.

The tests on that page do look very odd, particularly the left channel "wavering" it would be interesting to run the same test on other peoples MT's to see if it's just a problem with the one they tested.

I believe these are old tests done when the MT first came out ... If you do your 'homework' and search this site abit, you'll find folks recording at 24 bit. If I am wrong, please provide me (and others) with more documentation showing this.

[John Kelly]

- I don't care if it's not 24 bit it sounds fine to me.

Ummmm why would you think it is not 24bit ?

If you'd done your homework you should know...

http://home.rustradio.org/~rdvdijk/microtrack/index-old.html

Great link!  Very interesting results as well.  Looks like running analog in on 24 bit may be pointless.

[cybermansrev]

I believe these are old tests done when the MT first came out ... If you do your 'homework' and search this site abit, you'll find folks recording at 24 bit. If I am wrong, please provide me (and others) with more documentation showing this.

My post was aiming to try and explain to Ed what I thought koops was alluding to with his link.

[John Kelly]

I believe these are old tests done when the MT first came out ... If you do your 'homework' and search this site abit, you'll find folks recording at 24 bit. If I am wrong, please provide me (and others) with more documentation showing this.

My post was aiming to try and explain to Ed what I thought koops was alluding to with his link. Although I must admit I haven't seen any of the "new tests" you refer to showing a lower noise level from line input, could you kindly point them out?
I would never be a rude as to suggest anyone does their "homework" 

I could be wrong, but I don't think a new firmware could change the noise floor of a preamp - you'd have to swap out the preamp to do that.

[silentmark]

I believe these are old tests done when the MT first came out ... If you do your 'homework' and search this site abit, you'll find folks recording at 24 bit. If I am wrong, please provide me (and others) with more documentation showing this.

My post was aiming to try and explain to Ed what I thought koops was alluding to with his link. Although I must admit I haven't seen any of the "new tests" you refer to showing a lower noise level from line input, could you kindly point them out?
I would never be as rude as to suggest anyone does their "homework" 

My post was not directed at you cyberman, but koops, who suggested I do my homework. Sorry for the confusion ...

[cybermansrev]

I could be wrong, but I don't think a new firmware could change the noise floor of a preamp - you'd have to swap out the preamp to do that.

I must say I was thinking the same thing, especially since running analog in according to many on here seems to have ~13db of gain. Suggesting even "line in" is going via the preamp, however M-Audio did flip the LMH switch via firmware so maybe it's possible to at least erradicate the preamp noise and use an external preamp.

[koops]

By posting to this forum my intention was not to get caught up in an arguement about the lack of 24 bit recording (except via digi-in), but to provide the users of this forum with a list of compatible CF cards as given directly from the horses mouth, I'm sorry if I offended anybody by doing this.

If however you are interested in the link I supplied about the noise floor analysis, there is an updated page on that very website with more results (but still omitting digi-in):

http://home.rustradio.org/~rdvdijk/microtrack/

I agree it would be nice to have more results from different units, as that comb-filtering effect does appear to be rather odd.  Having done several of my own tests, I concluded similar results - that analogue recording is only capable of a dynamic range of around 96 dB (16 bit), but I'm not entirely skilled in the art of spectral analysis. 

As I stated in my initial post; I don't care if it's not 24 bit, it sounds great to me! 

Has anyone seen this rather cheesy, but cool, vid yet?..

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=media.video&ID=032c69c4299f8d8017566448f7bed0b4

Funny how it doesn't show him getting frustrated with the clunky nav wheel!

[Ed.]

i don't think you offended, no need to worry.  I was just a bit confused there at first, but the digi in on the thing is all i really care about.

as for the vid, thats new to me, and its hilarious!

[Brian Skalinder]

By posting to this forum my intention was not to get caught up in an arguement about the lack of 24 bit recording (except via digi-in)

Well, to be fair - and thanks to Boogie and others for highlighting this some time ago - I don't know of an external portable pre/ADC used by tapers that provides a full 24-bit digital stream, since that would require 144dB of dynamic range.  Commonly used taper gear, (A) = A-weighted:

123 dB (A)  | Mytek Stereo192 ADC
120 dB (A)  | Benchmark ADC1
117 dB (A)  | Benchmark 2402 (Sonic AD2K+)
114 dB (A)  | Sound Devices 722/744
110 dB (A)  | Grace Design Lunatec V3
108 dB (A)  | M-Audio Firewire 410
105 dB      | Mini-Me
100 dB      | Fostex FR-2
 98 dB (A)  | M-Audio MicroTrack
 94 dB      | Marantz PMD-671
  ?         | Tascam HD-P2
unpublished | Edirol UA-5
unpublished | Edirol R-1
unpublished | Edirol R-4
unpublished | Tascam DV-RA1000

And koops - you'll get used to threads rambling swiftly off-topic if you hang around for a while. 

Edit: to update list per replies with gear I left out.

[JasonSobel]

Well, to be fair - and thanks to Boogie and others for highlighting this some time ago - I don't know of an external portable pre/ADC used by tapers that provides a full 24-bit digital stream, since that would require 144dB of dynamic range

that statement is a bit mis-leading, as all "24 bit gear" (i.e. the mytek, the V3, the Mini-Me, etc, etc..) does output a "full 24-bit digital stream"  the question is whether or not all the bits contain useful information, or are just encoding the noise from the analog gear in front of it, and therefore taking advantage of the full capability of 24 bit encoding.  regardless of the analog noise of a pre-amp or A/D converter, a 24-bit signal is being transmitted and recorded.

[udovdh]

did anyone see this review for the noise analysis?

http://www.sonicstudios.com/mt2496rv.htm#

[bconnolly]

Has anyone seen this rather cheesy, but cool, vid yet?..

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=media.video&ID=032c69c4299f8d8017566448f7bed0b4

Funny how it doesn't show him getting frustrated with the clunky nav wheel!

If I were him, I'd be more concerned with getting frustrated with my fake dread locks.  Seriously, those can't be real.

[Brian Skalinder]

that statement is a bit mis-leading [snip]

Good clarification, Jason, thanks. 

[Nick Graham]

By posting to this forum my intention was not to get caught up in an arguement about the lack of 24 bit recording (except via digi-in)

Well, to be fair - and thanks to Boogie and others for highlighting this some time ago - I don't know of an external portable pre/ADC used by tapers that provides a full 24-bit digital stream, since that would require 144dB of dynamic range. 

Exactly. I first brought up the 144dB issue 3 or 4 pages back, and someone pointed out that even the $8000 Nagra V only has 96dB of dynamic range, so running analog into it is even more "pointless" than with the Microtrack.