Topic: Korg MR-1 and MR-1000 - News DSD Recorders announced at AES

[mandoman]

Korg announced at AES what may become the holy grail
of portable field recorders. These are super high
quality 1-bit DSD (Direct Sream Digital) recorders, This is Sony's
super high quality format used for SACD.

These recorders are portable and surprisningly affordable.
They record to internal 20gb hdd's. The smaller mr-1 is a little
bigger than an ipod, and includes 2 balanced connectors on 1/8" jacks and mini mic,
while the bigger table top version includes 48v phantom with what was
described as very transparant and neutral mic pres. The mr-1 uses
LiIon for ~5 hrs recording time, and the bigger mr-1000 uses 8XAA.
Transfers are done with usb2.0. Both recorders include pc/mac software that will convert DSD to any other
format at any bit depth and sampling frequency.

The best thing is the price. mr-1: Streets for somewhere between $600-800,
and the mr-1000 around $1200. Expected to ship early next year, februrary time frame.

I was at AES to check these out in person
and the protos not only sounded great, but felt very sturdy, professional, and robust.
This product is HOT. I expect everyone on this forum is going to want one or the
other (or both!) of these units. I can't WAIT to get my hands on one.

More details here:
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=MR__Series&category_id=3

Mandoman

[macdaddy]

oh my.


thanks for the info.


these look sweet!!!

[OOK]

Still there is no digi in on either.  The MR-1 would be the shit if it had a digi in and accept 24/96.  It may however be a stealthers dream.....and replace the R9.  If the R9 would just support 4gig cards and higher.....Thats the only thing keeping me from getting one.  But with the MR-1 coming out, I might just have to wait and see.....

[Zaphod]

Wow interesting indeed, did they give any release dates? I didn't see any on the info page...

[johnw]

Still there is no digi in on either.  The MR-1 would be the shit if it had a digi in and accept 24/96.  It may however be a stealthers dream.....and replace the R9.  If the R9 would just support 4gig cards and higher.....Thats the only thing keeping me from getting one.  But with the MR-1 coming out, I might just have to wait and see.....

I don't know of any A>D converters that have the option to output at 1 bit/2.8MHz, so I don't think there is any use for that feature on one of these. I'm definitely interested in these assuming that the analog inputs aren't noisy and depending on how the mr-1000 pres sound. Also, how many GBs would a 3 hour concert be if recorded in this format? With only a 20GB hard drive, taping a festival would probably require frequent dumping to a laptop.

[flintstone]

The Korg web site has a press release that says the new recorders will work
either in 1 bit mode, or in traditional PCM mode at data rates up to 24/192:

http://www.korg.com/service/press_txt.asp?PRID=206

So you can choose which style of recording fits your needs.

Flintstone

[twoheadedboy]

Awesome!

[shruggy1987]

i wonder how much these puppies are going to cost?

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

Still there is no digi in on either.  The MR-1 would be the shit if it had a digi in and accept 24/96.  It may however be a stealthers dream.....and replace the R9.  If the R9 would just support 4gig cards and higher.....Thats the only thing keeping me from getting one.  But with the MR-1 coming out, I might just have to wait and see.....

I don't know of any A>D converters that have the option to output at 1 bit/2.8MHz, so I don't think there is any use for that feature on one of these. I'm definitely interested in these assuming that the analog inputs aren't noisy and depending on how the mr-1000 pres sound. Also, how many GBs would a 3 hour concert be if recorded in this format? With only a 20GB hard drive, taping a festival would probably require frequent dumping to a laptop.

To give you an idea. Just a rough calculation but 3hrs would be about 7.75GB in 2.8224MHz/1-bit DSD or roughly 7.5hrs on a 20GB HD.

Record times on 4.7GB DVD+rw media from the Tascam DVRA1000 manual :

Record time    Bit-Rate

290 mins    44.1/24 PCM
267 mins    48/24 PCM
144 mins    88.2/24 PCM
133 mins    96/24 PCM
109 mins    2.8224MHz/1-bit DSD
72 mins      176.4/24 PCM
66 mins      192/24 PCM

[udovdh]

Still there is no digi in on either.  The MR-1 would be the shit if it had a digi in and accept 24/96.  It may however be a stealthers dream.....and replace the R9.  If the R9 would just support 4gig cards and higher.....Thats the only thing keeping me from getting one.  But with the MR-1 coming out, I might just have to wait and see.....

DSD recorder. Is that compatible with linear PCM?
If it was, why record in DSD anyway?
What would be the reasons for recording in DSD in a `field` setting? (rock concert...)

[twoheadedboy]

Still there is no digi in on either.  The MR-1 would be the shit if it had a digi in and accept 24/96.  It may however be a stealthers dream.....and replace the R9.  If the R9 would just support 4gig cards and higher.....Thats the only thing keeping me from getting one.  But with the MR-1 coming out, I might just have to wait and see.....

The only thing you can't do with a 4 GB card on the R-09 is format it on the deck. Just connect the R-09 to the computer and format it from there.

[udovdh]

Only would-be flaw so far is the internal Li-Ion battery. Would Korg offer replacement batteries?

[twoheadedboy]

Did you see that the tabletop unit can actually do 5.6mhz audio? I.e., 2x SA-CD quality. That's hot!

[udovdh]

Did you see that the tabletop unit can actually do 5.6mhz audio? I.e., 2x SA-CD quality. That's hot!

Do we actually need that resolution and whatever?
Of course it is nice. But for 'our' purpose?

In time storage prices will fall even more so my question will be unnecessary but at this point in time?

[Church-Audio]

Did you see that the tabletop unit can actually do 5.6mhz audio? I.e., 2x SA-CD quality. That's hot!

Do we actually need that resolution and whatever?
Of course it is nice. But for 'our' purpose?

In time storage prices will fall even more so my question will be unnecessary but at this point in time?

Yes you need that resolution its all about the lack of division of a wave form 96k is 96 thousand samples per second of a wave form 2.6mhz is 2.6 million ( I will take 2.6 million) if capturing the event exactly the way your mics heard it is important. Analog does not have this problem because there is no quantization of the wave form its linear = voltage = sound. With digital its the more 0's and 1's you have the closer you are to analog, and the closer you are to a truly linear transfer function.