Topic: a whole slew of newbie questions, (bear with me)

[Tall Adam]

after reading a for sale email in laptop tapers yahoo group, the seller mentioned that their shoeps were 48khz and perfect for 24/96 recording. as a newbie who wants to start laptop taping soon, do i need to buy different mics if i want to achieve the 24/96 quality or is it just that some are better than others (as is always the case with mics).

next, the rig im planning in my head is AKG C1000s>XXX>laptop
i like c1000 tapes that i have in my collection and hear that theyre good beginner mics and i know their price is good. for the xxx spot, im leaning towards the firewire 410 but i was also considering the edirol m100 because im probably going to be doing mostly small club shows where i know the band and could get sbd feed for matrix. im also looking into the fa101 and the vxpocket routes but my inclination is towards 410 or m100.

as for the laptop, as of right now it looks like its gonna be a IBM T41 1.6 pentium 4m, 512 ram. ill have to buy a modular battery and an extra battery to make it hot swappable and long lasting enough for shows.

the only problem with the t41 is a lack of firewire. if i use a pcmcia firewire card with it, will that be able to power the firewire 410? is the m100 powerable by the USB or only by adapter, in which case is it possible to make a battery pack for it?

in any case, does that rig, c1000s>410 or m100>t41 sound decent or will i be laughed at?

thank you to anyone who has the time to straighten me out a bit. i greatly appreciate it and would love to discuss these questions in greater detail cuz they are certainly not the last or the least of my questions. leave an email address or AIM screenname in the response if your willing to discuss a bit more with me.

thanks again
adam (the big loser newbie who wants to be a taper oh so badly)

[greenone]

Hey Adam - welcome to the board!

There's no such thing as a 48kHz mic. 48kHz is a digital sampling rate - there are 48,000 samples taken per second in a 48kHz recording. Maybe the A/D converter the guy was selling was a 48kHz-only convertor (like the ADC-20 or the DMIC-20, which are fixed at either 44.1kHz or 48kHz)? That's all I can think of...

Can't help on the FW410 vs. M100 but as a general rule I'd opt for whichever will give you the greatest flexibility - if you think that matrixing is something you'll be interested in and able to do, go for it! And I think that whenever possible you'd want to power the XXX separately rather than via the USB/Firewire bus...

Don't worry about being laughed at. I remember going to a show years back when one taper was running a tiny rig and the other had one he'd spent an enormous amount of money on. Taper B ended up killing his battery an hour into the show, and Taper A ended up with the only uncut copy. All ya need is to be happy with the tapes you're making - and if you're not, to figure out what would make it better, and go for it!

--Dave

[Sean Gallemore]

well, there are microphones like the earthwork sr77s that go above the normal 20000htz range up to 40k, but I'm not sure my ears coulf make it out of 15k

[Tall Adam]

thanks for the responses.
one more that i just thought of, i know sometimes when running matrixs you can get funky phase affects between the board and the mics, how is this countered on the spot with matrixs? can tracks be recorded as seperate tracks onto a laptop and then alligned properly later?
thanks for the friendly help, most of my experience with tapers has been with elitists, so you guys are doing alot to counter that image!
adam

[goose]

"Schoeps CMC6XT, sequentially numbered, 6 mos old. These are the ones that have the extended range to 48K, and thus are suitable for 24/96 recording - $1220 new, asking $1000"

from an ad on the Oade site - I believe that is what Adam was referring to in his initial post.  These will make nice 24 bit tapes, but are no special mics are needed just to record 24 bit - to answer one of your questions (some better than others, as you suspected).

[Nicaragua]

I'm pretty sure only macs can supply power to firewire devices such as the 410. I'm not aware of any pcmcia cards that can at least

best of luck!

[sexymexi]

well, there are microphones like the earthwork sr77s that go above the normal 20000htz range up to 40k, but I'm not sure my ears coulf make it out of 15k

even if your ears could make it above 15k, or 20k in the case of most mics, it wouldn't matter.  For one, i beleive if you look at your deck's manual they have a recording frequency responce of 20-20k.  And if you could record any better, would your playback system be able to handle it.  

and welcome adam, the rig doesn't look bad at all.  And as for phase problems you mentioned.  its hard to say, but if you look into some matrix sources, you will see a delay device in there, matching up the mic with the SBD mix.  i've only done a matrix once and noticed the slight delay in the recording.  

One way to cut down on that would be to run your mics on stage through the stage snake, or really long mic cables, this would cut the delay down, as the sound would be traveling roughly the same distance for the ambient mics and the SBD.  

hope that helps, welcome again. +T

matt

[Diggin]

the T41 doesn't have a firewire plug - -nice choice in laptops, I have one too -- so the 410 might not be an option unless you build a battery pack and run it into a PCMCIA card. I don't know anything about the 410 so I could be way off

[greenone]

"Schoeps CMC6XT, sequentially numbered, 6 mos old. These are the ones that have the extended range to 48K, and thus are suitable for 24/96 recording - $1220 new, asking $1000"

from an ad on the Oade site - I believe that is what Adam was referring to in his initial post.  These will make nice 24 bit tapes, but are no special mics are needed just to record 24 bit - to answer one of your questions (some better than others, as you suspected).

Ah...I missed that. Thanks for the quote goose! That's a really misleading ad - I think the 48kHz mentioned here is the upper limit of the frequencies it can record (i.e. the pitch) and has nothing to do with recording in 48kHz (or 96kHz)...

[tradja]

in any case, does that rig, c1000s>410 or m100>t41 sound decent or will i be laughed at?

DO NOT worry about this.  There will always be someone with a sicker rig.  I patched with a MD deck for a long time.   You will be so stoked to get back to the car, plug your laptop into the tape adapter, and listen to your tape!

adam (the big loser newbie who wants to be a taper oh so badly)

Cool!  So tape something!  Welcome Adam!  I was a little intimidated by this board for a long time, but folks here are very cool, and it is a wealth of information.  There's always something to learn.

[greenone]

adam (the big loser newbie who wants to be a taper oh so badly)

Cool!  So tape something!  Welcome Adam!  I was a little intimidated by this board for a long time, but folks here are very cool, and it is a wealth of information.  There's always something to learn.

And money to spend! Be careful with your wallet around here...we're always looking to spend other people's money...

[Tall Adam]

hehe, actually im kinda lucky, im building most of this as graduation presents so its only gonna wind up costing me the price of accessories (mic stand, shock mounts, tbar, cables, batteries). laptop will be one gift on its own,  and mics and AD/pre will be another. so yeah im pumped, so feel free to spend my loved ones money, within reason...

[bush]

so yeah im pumped, so feel free to spend my loved ones money, within reason...

There is no within reason around here