Well, I was really excited about this McCoy Tyner and Bobby Hutcherson show, but it was also the last day of the ski season at Kirkwood. I thought I could get a half day in and make it down for the show. Everything went great, I was able to pick up an SD card at Costco, get home and change, get the rig ready and I got to the show well before 8:00, which would have been great if the show hadn't actually started at 7:00! Great disappointment and panic.
The little old lady pulling up and tearing our tickets couldn't have been nicer or slower. We missed about half the show.
The good news is that the new rig performed very well. I was not well set up upon arrival, and so had to make some connections and get started discretely in the dark after having drawn attention to myself by arriving in the middle of the show. I did this mostly by feel, and that went fine. The three songs I got sound fantastic, best I've ever recorded. I'm impressed that even with my same little mics, between the higher resolution and the improved preamps, it sounds so much better than what I was getting with the good old DAT deck.
My impressions on using the new 661: The screen is very bright even on the lowest brightness setting. The screen can be set to auto darken, but this is only the upper part of the screen, the strip along the bottom indicating the functions of the buttons and the recorder status never darkens. I think I'll be covering this with a flap of black cardboard, or maybe a dark lighting gel. The XLR plugs being opposite the record level knob is not ideal for recording with the 661 in a bag. I have ordered some right angle XLR extensions to help with this. Otherwise I love it.
This is my first 24/96 source recording. I work in Peak 6 on a Mac. I was presented with about 15 different dithering algorithms, ended up using DCAT15, described as best for high dynamic range music. I'd welcome any input on peoples preferences for dithering, particularly in Peak. I've attached a shot of the EQ settings I used.
McCoy Tyner Trio with Bobby Hutcherson - Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA - April 26, 2009 (partial show)
24/48 version:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=24722916/44.1 version:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=247226Enjoy!