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

[mandoman]

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 sales reps told me that there is no way for dsd to understand a spdif stream. But it still
would have been nice to have for when you record in pcm mode. The sales rep bragged that
the converters are incredible, so there really is no point in using an external AD. If they are
as good as he says, these are going to be sweet units.

[mandoman]

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

If you read my original post more carefully, you would have found the answer.
The units are supposed to ship in Februrary, but I'd take any release date with a grain
of salt.

[mandoman]

i wonder how much these puppies are going to cost?

I gave prices in my original post. The reps told me around $700 for the mr1 and around $1200
for the mr1000, plus or minus a couple of hundred. That's street price.

[mandoman]

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

I asked the rep about the LiIon. He wasn't sure about what the replacement policy would be.
The unit does at least havea DC input on it, so you could easily use an external battery
for extended record times or as a backup when your LiIon starts to not hold it's charge.
If you are that concerned about the battery, than maybe you should go for mr1000.

[mandoman]

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

Yep, they call that WDSD. SWEET!

[mandoman]

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.

This is Korg's whole marketing angle. They say ideal for archiving because it's more future proof because you don't get the quantization when converting to current and future formats.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Cool..  I was just thinking we were due for some good vapor gear to argue about.


From the description of the portable: By recording in 1-bit/2.8 MHz format you are assured that your most important, once-in-a-lifetime moments are captured in stunning detail,

FWIW... Quick math..  1 bit at 2.8 Mhz.. Is that per channel?

One channel of 24/96k is 2.3 Mhz.  So don't let the Mhz freak you that this is huge bandwidth...

Though... As we have discussed many times, it can be difficult to use all of those 24 bits.  Maybe the 1 bit approach makes better utilization of the data density/bandwith..  I doubt dsd will ever be good enough to justify the proprietary and closed format.

[blastroknow]

I was checking these out, too.  Very solid feel and for that money they damn well better be.

Korg wasn't at summer NAMM but they had an AES prime location for these 2 items only so obviously they are proud to be rolling out the portable DSD.  I like the sound of DSD but it really isn't distribution friendly.  They bundle the software to convert to PCM, too.

I look forward to hearing some live recordings on these.

[prof_peabody]

Maybe I will put off that R-09 purchase a little longer.  Joining thread...

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Maybe I will put off that R-09 purchase a little longer.  Joining thread...

Me too. And I just bought a 4GB SD card... 

[flintstone]

Freelunch wrote
"1 bit at 2.8 Mhz.. Is that per channel? One channel of 24/96k is 2.3 Mhz. 
So don't let the Mhz freak you that this is huge bandwidth..."

Just about all modern A/D circuitry starts by converting the voltage from the
mic into a one-bit digital stream.  Then that stream is decimated and filtered
to create the PCM.  So 18% of the information captured at 2.8mHz is discarded
to create the PCM 24/96 file. 

People who are one-bit delta-sigma modulation snobs look down at PCM
the same way PCM fans look down at MP3 and ATRAC  -- who wants the
compressed/reduced/abridged version when the uncompressed file is available?

Flintstone

[62v8]

One channel of 24/96k is 2.3 Mhz.  So don't let the Mhz freak you that this is huge bandwidth...

I'm only trying to recount something I learnt 20 years ago ...

Whilst 24/96 may be 2.3 MBits ... from a freq perspective it is half that ie 1.15 Mhz (max freq is when you have a 101010... bit pattern and you need 2 bits for 1 cycle).

So wouldn't the 2.8 Mhz take it beyond 24/196?

Maybe the more astute types can correct my thinking.

Cheers
 

[eric.B]

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 would imagine that if you had the desire to record DSD, and picked up one of these recorders to do so, you wouldnt need a digital in.

[bgalizio]

Looks cool! Now, where's my portable, affordable, 4 channel DSD recorder

Stupid side question: if you record in DSD, can you burn the DSD to a DVD and have it play on any SACD player? Also, I'm assuming there is software to edit the DSD recording (not just convert to PCM)?

[Zaphod]

Maybe I will put off that R-09 purchase a little longer.  Joining thread...

Me too. And I just bought a 4GB SD card... 

Well I'd buy an R-09 anyway, February 2007 is a little ways away, and we all know not to expect it by then