Topic: Laptop vs. DAT

[charles]

I'm interested in pro's and con's of using a laptop over a DAT or vice versa.

[Ed.]

if someone spills their beer on your laptop, it could be a lot more expensive to replace.  heh.

laptop can do 24bit.

theres tons of pro's and con's, but i've never used a dat...i've used a laptop a couple of times and always had good success, however, somepeople haven't.

[caymanreview]

depends on alot of variables. ive been to the laptop world and im too paranoid to ahve a 1K$ machine in the field as easily harmed as a laptop

[silverbullet]

I started off with DAT. My PCM-M1 can only record in 16bit 44.1 and 48kHz sample rate. You also have to hit play and then record on a computer for the transfer, a little time consuming.

My lappie allows 16 and 24 bit recordings and up to 192kHz sample rate with my V3. No need for a time consuming DAT>computer transfer. The cons are lots more equipment in the field when lappie recording, A/D converter plus a USB/Firewire hookup to your computer. If I don't mind 16 bit recordings I just bring my JB3 out in the field which is just as portable as a DAT. The firewire music transfer from JB3>computer is a snap.

I still rely on a DAT for SBD recordings

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

My lappie allows 16 and 24 bit recordings and up to 192kHz sample rate with my V3.

How are you getting the hires stream into your laptop from the V3?

[silverbullet]

I used a maudio FWire 410 from my V3 to my lappie via a firewire connection. I've only done 24bit 96kHz computer recordings with WavLab 5 but the V3 does allow 192kHz sample rates although I think I read that it really isn't recommended to set the rate quite that high so I limit myself to 96kHz. WaveLab allows me to burn 24/96 audio DVDs as well. With my home stereo hooked up to my FW410 I can just play the 24/16 wav files straight from my computer without the need to burn cds Makes life a lot easier

[caymanreview]

you would need something besides the 410 to do 24/192

24/192 requires dual AES output to get to 192

[charles]

Looks like I'm goimg to go with...or at least start with...a DAT or JB3.........seems like the better choice for a beginer.

[silverbullet]

you would need something besides the 410 to do 24/192

24/192 requires dual AES output to get to 192

thanks for the heads up.

edit: I know very little about the AES output on the V3. something about a professional line ? What are most people doing with the AES output option. The back of my V3 has a AES 1 and AES 2 XLR jacks. I really have no idea what to do with these options.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

If you put the V3 (or any ADC with AES) into 192/24, you need two ports.  The AES/EBU port allows a certain bit rate.  It will support as high as 2 channels 24/96 or 1 channel 24/192.  So there is one AES/EBU port for each channel at the highest rate on the V3.  There is a spec here if you are interested http://www.ebu.ch/CMSimages/en/tec_doc_t3250-2004_tcm6-12767.pdf

That's why I was wondering about your ability to get 192/24 onto the laptop.  I don't know how one would do that so I thought there might be some new pcmcia card or something.  I've been wanting to try the V3 at a higher rate but I have nothing that will take the signal.

At the lower rates, the AES/EBU channels are just a copy of the datastream on the RCA, so if you wanted to throw out a couple of digital patches withtou splitting your coax signal, you can get an aes/ebu to spdif adapter (it's just a line level and impedence transformer) and those AES ports can feed another couple of decks.

[wbrisette]

At the lower rates, the AES/EBU channels are just a copy of the datastream on the RCA, so if you wanted to throw out a couple of digital patches withtou splitting your coax signal, you can get an aes/ebu to spdif adapter (it's just a line level and impedence transformer) and those AES ports can feed another couple of decks.

Technically there is more to convertering AES to SPDIF. However, as converting the impedence usually works. There are details on both the differences and why just converting the impedence doesn't always work here (there are also schematics on building your own converters):

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/audio/spdif.html

Wayne

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I guess I failed to mention that the V3 can be configured to send the consumer data format over the AES1 port  (I think the other port is fixed at the pro format).  So the line level and impedence is really the only issue if you want to throw a patch from the V3 AES1 port.  I don't recall the V3 manual indicating that they alter the AES1 line characteristics in consumer mode.