Topic: Sony PCM-A10 (Part 2)

[Niels]

I just got another one of these to replace my faulty one from a few years back.


Question on BLUETOOTH.

Are you just pairing this one time with your phone and leaving bluetooth setting ON in the A-10 or switching bluetooth off when not in use?

In what way was it faulty?

Mine had sticky controls out of the box, and a replacement didn’t fix that. My R-07 was better in that regard (But not perfect)

[hipporu]

There was a thunderstorm at night.
https://youtu.be/HVmgoY6gSd4
PCM-A10, internal microphones wide position, recording level 20.
Five minutes of relaxation )
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AR7eiWeX8tC5dgrjQM1KxC8aGaY74NqA/view?usp=sharing

[Ozpeter]

That storm sounds pretty good to me!  A good wide natural soundstage and a balanced frequency response.  Perhaps the very lowest frequencies of the storm are lost but it doesn't sound thin.  Not having been there at the time it's hard to be sure.  It's a great little recorder for such audio "kodak moments" - maybe the name should be "sony moments"!

[rastasean]

What does MNL mean on the display? The M10 didn't have this on the display?

[DavidPuddy]

What does MNL mean on the display? The M10 didn't have this on the display?

Manual gain settings as opposed to auto gain

[hipporu]

That storm sounds pretty good to me!  A good wide natural soundstage and a balanced frequency response.  Perhaps the very lowest frequencies of the storm are lost but it doesn't sound thin.  Not having been there at the time it's hard to be sure.  It's a great little recorder for such audio "kodak moments" - maybe the name should be "sony moments"!

Yes, you are right, the lower end is slightly lowered, which is typical for a cardio microphone. But this is easily corrected in the post 2-3-4 dB plus. It was possible to put the recorder on the floor, like a PZM, but it was already wet there. With external omni on the ground (Clippy EM272), the LF rises more than I can hear with my ears in place.
Quite often they ask whether the PCM-A10 is suitable for nature, industrial and other sound? I think more than. Device from the series "grab and record".

[nulldogmas]

What does MNL mean on the display? The M10 didn't have this on the display?

Manual gain settings as opposed to auto gain

That one puzzles me for a second literally every time I notice it. "Did I accidentally turn on the Mono Normalization Levels? The Midrange Noise Limiter? The ... oh, duh."

[lmgbtapes]

Had a wildly disheartening gear failure tonight.

A10 showed levels, app showed levels, but just played back file, and it's dead silent after about 50 mins (and of course the main act came out an hour into recording).

I was monitoring levels during show and know it was showing as fine.

Appears to be SDHC card issue. I made 5 second recording just now, it shows levels, and I try to play back, this one just returns error overall.

I'm holding out some small shred of hope that maybe I can recover the audio somehow once I get home... but given that the first 50 mins of recording plays fine, and then nothing, I am not optimistic.

Was a ridiculously killer show too. So bummed. Teach me to try off-brand cards. Just can't believe it's possible to SEE LEVELS RECORDING FINE and end up with nothing.

[Ozpeter]

Bummer.  Indeed that does make one regard the whole process with deep suspicion!

[RyanJ]

I thought going digital would alleviate any anxiety I have of phantom tapes that happened to me a few times with Sony DAT recorders!

[unidentified]

One of the reasons I run two rigs at each show.  My condolences!   

[nulldogmas]

Was a ridiculously killer show too. So bummed. Teach me to try off-brand cards. Just can't believe it's possible to SEE LEVELS RECORDING FINE and end up with nothing.

Uggggh, so sorry. That is the absolute worst.

[ideal77dlr]

Just a quick recap if anyone could help as I just got one of these…

Running something like Church Audio mics with a battery box, I assume it’s “audio in” and then I see “Auto Gain Ctrl” defaults to “High”. Do I need to set that to “Low” every time or do the mics/battery override this?

What’s “MNL” on the screen? Manual gain?

Anyone know what Unity Gain is?

Sorry I know some of this is probably scattered throughout these threads….

[nulldogmas]

Running something like Church Audio mics with a battery box, I assume it’s “audio in” and then I see “Auto Gain Ctrl” defaults to “High”. Do I need to set that to “Low” every time or do the mics/battery override this?

I don't know, because I've never used Auto Gain, and can't imagine why you would want to, since auto gain results in horrible wild gain swings. (I ruined my first ever recording that way.) Is there a reason you don't want to use manual gain and do any level fixing in post?

What’s “MNL” on the screen? Manual gain?

Yep!

[ideal77dlr]

Thanks.

I don’t want to use “Auto Gain”.

I assume then that the “MNL” indication on the screen is indicating that I’m not using it?

Therefore the “High/Low” is irrelevent?