Topic: Potential future JB3 competition...

[zhianosatch]

Spaceman, the AD-20 you get will almost certainly put out 44.1.

[zhianosatch]

thanks Z, as always you come through with the knowledge  

Haha, I don't know much except for what I know. Uh. Yeah.

I'm in the process of a test recording right now(just some mp3's on my pc into the line in).  Good news is that i've recorded over 45 minutes so far and the battery just lost it's first bar(it's got 4) so i don't think power will be an issue.

one thing i do notice is that there are no recording level bars on the ihp - is this bad?

Yes.

i admit i no nothing about this function, or if it is absolutely necessary for a recording

It is. Absolutely.

, but i thought i'd mention it.  i was under the impression i'd need to check these to see how to "set" my ad-20, i hope there's a workaround...

You do need them, and it might just be an issue of the levels being so low that they're not showing up on your meters, or some preference settings. You need to look in the manual deep and hard, because not seeing levels when recording, especially from an analog source, which should be good friends with the recorder, is bad, bad news for live recording.
If this thing is a recorder, there have to be meters somewhere on the display. Scrounge that manual!

[zhianosatch]

I've read the manual a few times actually, it's pretty small and it doesn't have loads of detail.  The recording section is 3 pages long, and there is no mention of recording level meters anywhere, and i also don't see where they would be on the recording display of the actual ihp-100.  

To be honest, I haven't even seen a pic of this thing, as I don't like to go to crazy sites while at work...

so am i screwed?  do i need to return this sucker?  

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet, but we'll see.

can i set the ad-20 to a safe setting or something?

Not really, no...

  i hope there's a way around this, because i really like this ihp and i'd hate to part with it already...

No shit! But there's no way around the complete absence of level meters, either...

[EkoostikMace]

You should be able to control the levels with your mic pre-amp. You can use the headphones on the ihp-100 to hear the level adjustments. Perhaps a firmware upgrade in the future will put a level indicator screen on the unit.

[John R]

you've got the right idea, just set it up and record from any random source (mics in front of stereo, line out from stereo, etc) for as long as you can, see what happens when it gets to the limit...see how long it takes to stop/start a new recording, find out what the limit is as far as time goes, test battery life, etc.  best to do it with your whole rig so you also get practice setting up/tearing down, but will also work with just a line in to make sure it does record satisfactorily, ie. no pops/clicks, dropouts, etc.
keep us informed!  and good luck!

be able to do all this in the dark, well.

jr

[DaryanLenz]

Yeah, I have gotten to the point where I don't even look at the recorder anymore.  I watch the mini-me light show, and as long as they are bouncing yellows and occassional reds, I am hot!

Daryan

[zhianosatch]

see, the problem is, spaceman won't have any level indicators at ALL...

[zhianosatch]

Err... yeah, go for it if you want, but headphones are a really shitty ass way to monitor levels at a show, especially if you're stealthing...
I'd return it if it were me. But that's me. Go for it if you lke!

[zhianosatch]

If you plug everything in and run it, you'll find out soon enough.

[zhianosatch]

hehe, it's still bullshit

[jlykos]

My understanding is that I'll do my best to listen to the recording with some small headphones and then adjust the sound using the ad-20.  

If the music is amplified at all, you will not be able to hear a thing on the recorder with small headphones, even with the volume turned all the way up.  Let alone determining any sort of clipping in the recording.  The only thing you will accomplish is damaging your hearing, quite possibly badly.

If that is all you have and are set on it, leave the knobs on the AD-20 set at around 9:00 - 10:00 and hope for the best.  A small DAT (D100, M1) or pretty much any MD recorder would work out much, much better.  Look on ebay and see if you can get a portable MD recorder for like $50.  Any MD recorder will do if you throw the AD-20 in front of it.

[zhianosatch]

Jamie's words were slighty more eloquent than my "shitty ass way," but take our words for it: you need meters. NEED.

[jlykos]

just the other day i read a long post here about how annoying and crappy minidisc recording is.

Don't worry about that.  I don't think that MD is annoying or crappy; neither do an awful lot of people.  I think that its sonic fidelity is compromised over DAT, but then again, I have a stereo good enough that shows the differences.  If you can't hear the difference, then what is it to you?  Listen for yourself!

As Armen stated, MD is infinitely more useful over the iRiver because it has a level meter.  Set the levels to the suggested parameters (without a solid brickwall) of the MD recorder and you will be golden.

[zhianosatch]

Bottom line, it seems like the iRiver isn't going to serve you well in the long run. MD is damned reliable and has served me well - the only place I had problems was in the fininkiness of my home deck, which is unavoidable for a digital transfer.
Better to have an analog transfer than levels you can't observe, I think.

[joel]

see, the problem is, spaceman won't have any level indicators at ALL...

Kinda pointless now that he has ditched the unit, but for the sake of argument does the AD-20 not have any kind of level indicator?  Running a UA-5 you can just crank the levels til the peak light comes on then adjust down.  You can see the peak light from a mile away if the level goes up on you (as happens frequently with SBD levels when there is not a seperate recording mix on the SBD and the room starts to fill up forcing the soundman to crank up the levels).  The level meter on the JB3 is harder to monitor from afar.