Topic: New to TascamDR-07X - Have you seen this?

[bigalkeller]

Hey guys,  I'm not an audiophile, so when things go awry, its stressful.  Picked up this tascam unit few weeks back, just in time for Samantha Fish at The Troubadour.  Problem is, turned out like crap.  Hard to describe, so i have pics of the wav files.

I also recorded the opening band with same settings, and the wav files look and sound better, almost good.

Running same inputs as the Sony, Audio technical Cardoid Mini's > battery Box > Line In.    they opening act was solo acoustic, and wav files are full and even, while Samantha was LOUD as fuck, yet the wav files are top heavy and not normal looking?  Sound staticy  and muffled.

Maybe this was just too loud?  I dunno.  Anyone?

[SMsound]

It looks like your first pic of the bad file just clipped horribly. That means your gains were set too high. The second file looks great, but if I were doing it, I would still have turned down the gains some to leave more of a safety buffer.

I don't know your Tascam unit---if you have limiters, you want to use them to prevent this. Also, set your gains lower and watch to make sure they don't clip. I often record with a very large safety buffer (gains set extra low)---on good equipment, there will be almost no downside to doing that and just amplifying more in post.

[seethreepo]

how is your BB battery?  a dead/ dying battery  might give you distorted results. 

[bigalkeller]

Will pop in a new one.  That damn thing has gotten me a few times.

[roffels]

I had similar results as your 2nd photo when my Sound Professionals 12V battery was flipped in the wrong orientation - the positive and negative diagram was flipped on my unit.