Topic: TEAM Marantz PMD 660 (Part II)

[Krispy D]

^ Doesn't sound right............but I don't have a Busman........I'm always pushing the reds.

yeah i always ran full orange occasional red but that was an oade box

Same

same again. 

I'd call chris or ask someone else with a bussman.  I run my shit really hot and never have that  problem.

[Javier Cinakowski]

I have been told that running past the 1st orange can cause saturation or distorion..  I run in the green and let it light up the orange occationally.

[tfs8271]

I have been told that running past the 1st orange can cause saturation or distorion..  I run in the green and let it light up the orange occationally.

Not sure, but hotter the better. I've had issues only with the pad off. Pad on, i like to see it turning red for sure.

You sure you got a mod? Sounds kind of like no mod??

[Krispy D]

You sure you got a mod? Sounds kind of like no mod??

kinda what I was thinking but didn't want to say it...

[Javier Cinakowski]

I bought it directly from Oade who told me that running it hot was not a great idea.  Another member on this board who had a busman mod had a similar experience...

I always run the pad for PA recordings...  When I run the 660 hot it sounds muddy...  In the orange, crystal clear...

[Krispy D]

I bought it directly from Oade who told me that running it hot was not a great idea.  Another member on this board who had a busman mod had a similar experience...

i wonder if this was Doug's way of saying always use the pad...  I always run hot and never have had a "muddy" or "over-saturated" sounding tape.

[Javier Cinakowski]

That might of been what Doug was getting at, but I am not sure.  I wrote him an email explaining that I was getting some strange saturation. 

He mentioned that I should try being a little more conservative on my levels.  He also said that the ACM has less saturation compaired to the Song Catcher because the line-in circuitry switch is removed from the signal path...

Anyway, it could be a number of variables that were causing these problems for me.  I have switched mics and run my levels lower, problem gone...

[bobbygeeWOW]

Hm, I noticed that the Oaded box, when it clips (red), does so pretty gracefully in terms of kinda smoothing the edges for less of a gnarly popping horror sound during overs. It has to be pretty severe to be audible; however speakers don't like reproducing squared wvase one bit.
I much prefer not rely on those characteristics and simply avoid clipping by running more conservative levels.

If you bust out yer wave editor and zoom in on a peak that hits zero, you'll generally notice the top of the waveform squared off - which is kinda smoothed out (less square) on the Oaded box.

As for the pad, its just a 20 db rolloff, which lets you run the gain knob higher at loud shows than you could without it engaged.
90% of the shows I tape do need the pad. I don't believe it affects the saturation characteristics as such.

[Corbin]

I thought that by running your levels as hot as possible (without hitting the reds), you are getting the "most" out of your mod, or getting the "benefits" of the mod...I really don't know how to word this properly.."pushing the mod?"

But that's another reason I don't run my 660 conservatively in the greens.

[tfs8271]

^Tappin' that mod.

[dennisrtyler]

^Tappin' that mod.

[bobbygeeWOW]

Well higher levels are good! Furthur from the noisefloor and more bits to describe the amplitude.
I mostly record in highly dynamic situations where a 12db spike above normal peaks is not uncommon - but with a loud rock band running full PA through compression/limiting, you might not see that, and I will run my levels higher under those circumstances too.
But I still avoid the red.

[Javier Cinakowski]

I would typically agree that pushing the levels as close to clipping as possible is the way to go.  Unfortunatly I am not sure that is always the case with modified boxes.

After changing op-amps and other circuitry you would think that the gain range might be modified enought to cause the meters to be off..  Even if the meters are the same who is to say that a op-amp performs the best at its maximum?  I don't know any of these answers, just playing devils advocate...

[Krispy D]

Ah Fuck it,  I'm so confused now.  I'm gonna email Doug and see what he says...

[dennisrtyler]

Ah Fuck it,  I'm so confused now.  I'm gonna email Doug and see what he says...

Doug will tell you to run the pad and run it hot, hot as in full orange