Topic: line in vs mic in on minidisc?

[zhianosatch]

Is there a small 1/8>xlr cable readily available to purchase for such said stealth techniques?

of course. i did this on and off for a year and a half.

[som]

you need a pre-amp to use the Line-In option on MD

When I was using a MD I taped several shows with SP-CMC8's (and before that, low-cost CSB's) going line in with a battery box and was able to get sufficient levels. These were fairly loud shows, and it worked fine.

[silverbullet]

I've been using MD+ 6-9 volt battery box+SP cmc-8 mics for rock shows also. Good results with the Sharp MD levels around setting '4'. Recently switched to soundman mics under the shirt. Mics aren't up as high but you can't see anything. I never needed a bass roll off using the cmc-8's but I will use a bass roll off on the next soundman recording.

[neognosis]

I use CSBs and my Sharp MD only has a line-in, no mic-in, but I've never had a problem.  I usually set the line-in volume to 26, get in front of the stacks, and the levels only go about half way up.  I could probably turn up the volume some, but don't want to risk any overloading.  I always have to crank the volume when I master it to CD, but it turns out nice.

[dklein]

Back to the original poster - the Archos thing doesn't provide plug-in power so you need a battery box to power the mics, and a preamp if you want line level signals.  That's why you didn't get anything from your CSCs.  With a minidisc or some other device that provides plug-in power, the little mics can run without a battery box. 

The battery boxes give a higher voltage than standard plug in power, enabling the mics to handle louder sounds without clipping.  The higher voltage allows the mics internal FET a higher 'swing' voltage.  The lower voltage can 'run out' at extreme levels.

[Mindflayer]

i only use line in on a MD because of the preamps on the mic in. i record extremely loud stuff usually so the fact theres no preamp  makes for a non clipping distortion free recording in my experience. one of the bands i record regularly is deffinitly regarded as one of the loudest bands out there right now and i have never experienced any sort of clipping with them using line in.

another thing i like about line in is that crowd gets cut because its not as loud as the band.

as far as the playback being weak thats true but you can allways turn up the gain after on a computer as opposed to trying to turn it down...

[tms]

another question for the kick ass knowledge base out there:).  I'm currently running coresound cardioids into a sharp minidisc.  I run them 'mic in' and  was recently made aware that running them 'line in' may yeild better results.  I tried this out with my band--loud signal; mics 3 feet from amps----even with levels cranked to the max, the signal was too weak.  Any recommendations on getting better success with this? ...Or is it even worth fucking with?  .............Core sounds has a little batt box powered by a 9v batt......

Line in doesn't supply the mic power, you need a battery box.  The 9V battery box lets you run in higher SPLs than the mic-in power which is probably only ~3v on that MD player. Basically you're sending a hotter signal to the recorder if you use the battery box, it'll be closer to line level (1 volt peak to peak).

Is it worth f'in with?  Depends on your goal.  A cheap way to hear the difference is to borrow a battery box from the equipment loan page and find out!

[poorlyconditioned]

another question for the kick ass knowledge base out there:).  I'm currently running coresound cardioids into a sharp minidisc.  I run them 'mic in' and  was recently made aware that running them 'line in' may yeild better results.  I tried this out with my band--loud signal; mics 3 feet from amps----even with levels cranked to the max, the signal was too weak.  Any recommendations on getting better success with this? ...Or is it even worth fucking with?  .............Core sounds has a little batt box powered by a 9v batt......

Line in doesn't supply the mic power, you need a battery box.  The 9V battery box lets you run in higher SPLs than the mic-in power which is probably only ~3v on that MD player. Basically you're sending a hotter signal to the recorder if you use the battery box, it'll be closer to line level (1 volt peak to peak).

Is it worth f'in with?  Depends on your goal.  A cheap way to hear the difference is to borrow a battery box from the equipment loan page and find out!

Two things to consider:
- make sure mics are getting power, either plug-in-power from the mic input, or battery box + line in.  As said above, line in will not provide power to the mics, so you need a battery box.
- mics have different sensitivities, so that may give you lower or higher levels to line in, *but* the MD units themselves may have different amount of gain as well.  I know my MZ-R37 (older) MD has more gain than my newer 800 model HiMD.  Gain of 30/30 on my newer unit is something like gain of 25/30 on my older unit.

My opinion is that it will sound a lot better if you run line in.  If you can...

  Richard