Topic: Revised: Bake-Off -- Busman PMD-660 vs. Oade WCM Fostex FR-2LE

[Jammin72]

This is interesting.

The thing that would interest me the most is re-doing a similar comparison after finding the "just exactly perfect" trim levels for the mics on the way to the recorder. {edit} on the FR2-LE

Having those set just below clipping and the recorder opened up a bit more can very well be the answer to fattening up the tone.

[newplanet7]

Tone Deaf,
When you recorded with the 660 did you have the -20 pad on?

[stevetoney]

Tone Deaf,
When you recorded with the 660 did you have the -20 pad on?

Absolutely!  At least I can say that with the Busman mod 660, there was no way to run the box without the pad engaged at a normal volume amplified electric instrument show.  

I had a conversation with one member and this bothered him quite a bit.  His feeling was that this meant that he wasn't getting full use of the features offered by his 660.  Frankly I couldn't see that logic because I was getting perfect recordings with the pad engaged.  I guess the other person figured that the gain of the 'normal' setting should have been correct for the volume levels in the clubs.

Anyhow, I figured that with the pad engaged, that gave me plenty of workable range to engage the normal setting if I ever needed to do softer volume acoustic shows, or maybe even nature recording and such.

[newplanet7]

Gracias.
I have the same one.
Did you still run all greens or hit orange with it engaged?
+t

[stevetoney]

Gracias.
I have the same one.
Did you still run all greens or hit orange with it engaged?
+t

I ran it pretty hot, but I had to be careful because I did get some distortion running too high.  I tried to be peaking with an occasional red light, as I recall.  When I wsa peaking with two red lights fairly consistently, that's when I was in trouble.  It didn't ruin the recording, but you can hear some breakup (listen to my Umphrey's show from Riverfest on archive for an example).  Otherwise, my moe. show from last years all good would be an example of what I got when I ran with only an occasional red light.  (can't remember the dates for either of these shows, but you can search 'tonedeaf' on archive and find them).

[newplanet7]

Thanks!