Topic: PT: 2 - New Marantz PMD661

[bephillips]

Recently posted to Dimeadozen: Allen Toussaint at The Great American Music Hall and David Lindley at the new Freight & Salvage. Both sound very good.

Source: Schoeps MSTC-64 (ORTF) > Marantz PMD-661 (Oade Concert Mod) at 24bit/48 kHz
Transfer: Apple Mac Mini  2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo > Bias Peak v6.0.3 (compression, limiting) > xAct v1.3 > FLAC, tagged including replay gain in Foobar2000 v0.9.6.5

Allen Toussaint - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA - March 3, 2010
16 bit for burning to audio CD: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=297306
24 bit high quality version: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=297307


David Lindley - Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse - Berkeley, CA - April 1, 2010
16 bit for burning to audio CD: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=298256
24 bit high quality version: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=298259

Did you know that Ricardo Montalban was Dave's uncle?

[jbell]

Wondering what the thoughts are on stock vs. Oade PMD661!  I haven't read the thread to see if it has been addressed, but I am going to buy a 661 and wanted to know if I should spend the coin on getting it modded.  Thanks in advanced

[datbrad]

Wondering what the thoughts are on stock vs. Oade PMD661!  I haven't read the thread to see if it has been addressed, but I am going to buy a 661 and wanted to know if I should spend the coin on getting it modded.  Thanks in advanced

Check out the specs on the stock unit, found in the data sheet on D&M's website. Then, go to Oade's site and read the descriptions of the modifications and decide for yourself. I have not heard any direct comps between stock and any of the mods. Suggest you check some of the sources of shows posted on LMA over the last year or so and see what you think. Good luck, it's a great recorder either way. My only complaint is the gain knob is too small for my fingers when trying to adjust R/L balance with good control, but that is the only thing I don't like.

[jbell]

Thanks, I have listened to LMA sources!  I wanted to know if any TS members are running a stock unit that can speak to its performance.  Seems like everyone on TS has a Oade 661

[JasonSobel]

Thanks, I have listened to LMA sources!  I wanted to know if any TS members are running a stock unit that can speak to its performance.  Seems like everyone on TS has a Oade 661

"su6oxone" uses a stock PMD-661 (with a pair of Schoeps ccm's).  he has posted several recordings made with the stock deck.  Do a search and you shouldn't have too much trouble finding some of hsi recordings...

[jbell]

Thanks Jason I appreciate your help!

[su6oxone]

I do have three shows on LMA (GPN, Brett Dennen, TLG) with CCM4 > stock 661 and several other shows on Dime (Cranberries, Rodrigo y Gabriela) with the same setup.  One thing to keep in mind is that the 660 required modding to make it suitable/usable for loud concert taping, but the 661 does not.  So if you go for the mods by Oade, you should do it because you want the sonic difference of the mods and don't mind paying $100-150 more for it (I bought my new 661 for ~$500 on ebay back when they had bing cashback).  Some may argue that the noise floor is lowered by the mod, but no one has objectively measured that so make of that what you will.

What I can tell you from my experience is that the noise floor on the stock 661 is very low.  I've taped shows with very conservatively set levels (peaks between -20dB and -12db) and after normalizing to 0dB the noise floor is still very low.  Unscientifically, I think the 661 has a noise floor comparable to the 7xx series (which is very low), because when recording in 24bit I have a ton of 'room' to raise levels without introducing noticeable hiss.  But listening to tapes out there with modded and stock 661s, although not scientific or definitive, is still the best way to get a feel for how you like the sonics of each.

Either way, I think you'll enjoy the 661, good luck!

[jbell]

Thanks, I appreciate your advice!  I think I might go with a stock unit since I really don't get to tape much except in the summer when I am not working. 

[DigiGal]

I'm really pleased with my stock PMD-661's performance having recorded both loud PA concerts and soft Classical Orchestra sources with it. 

The stock units noise floor is just fine for my ears.   

There do seem to be more users in this forum with modded units.  Some things worth considering about a modded unit; the mod will void the manufacturers warranty and Oade has posted a notice on his website that he doesn't recommend performing software upgrades to units that he has modded.  He does however offer his own service on the units he has modded.

I had considered a modded unit before purchasing as well and I don't have any second thoughts about going with the stock unit.

[datbrad]

Yet, for those of us who have had our modded 661s over a year without any issue, the mfg warranty consideration is now moot. 

Marantz published specs for the stock 661 show a SNR of 65db mic in, and 85db line in, so that means an effective dynamic range less than 16 bit, which is 96db of dynamic range, not even close what 24 bits should deliver. Nature recordists seem to definately favor the Supermod Oade does to reduce preamp noise that would be audible in the background of a recording of chirping crickets, so it must be a good mod for that purpose and within that group of users.

Since it's rare for concert recording to have dynamic range exceeding 60db, I doubt anyone could "hear" a noise difference between stock and mod, concert or warm. I went for the warm mod for the sonic change swapping bipolar transistors with FETs at the XLR inputs to sound more like the old DAT recorders I used in the '90s, plain and simple. No matter what, the PMD661 is a nice 2 channel unit, stock or modded.

[MBHOTAPER]

Thanks. I was leaning towards the concert mod 661 but was looking for another opinion. Somewhere I read mics w/good bass (Schoeps, MBHOs, Neumans) that the warm mod can muddy up the bass where bright mics (AKG, Earthworks) would benefit from the warm mod w/some additional bass. It looks like my deposit will not be untill 4/15 so I'll be testing out the concert mod 661 @ Orange Beach.

V

I think you are on the right track with your assessment of some different brands of mics that work best with each mod. The FET chips in the warm mod do indeed thicken the bass in the upper registers just below the midrange while at the same time sweetening the high end, which is what makes it sound "warm".  The concert mod is transparent, with the opamp chips used being of the same type as the stock unit, bipolar transistors, but with improved noise and distortion performance.

BTW, there is nothing anywhere I can find in Doug's mod description that mentions an option for disabling the RCA outs on the 661, and the RCAs on mine also work just fine.

Hope this helps........

I was wondering that since you are running a similiar set up (SD mp-1s) into line in on the PMD 661 what you usually set your recording levels for? (I'll be running my SD mp-2) to the line in PMD 661.

I was also wondering if you or anyone else have run any stealth set up direct from your mics to the PMD 661?
 Would you suggest -12 db or -18 db attinuator levels and what recording levels that you would suggest?

Thanks for all the help.
Murf/MBHOTAPER

[skaggs]

hey all,

if this has been covered and it probably has, i apologize in advance.  i ran a soundboard last month and left the deck for about 4 hours, i cam back to find a 3.7 gig file i cannot open.  does anyone know where the setting is to do 2 gig splits on my 661?  i just looked and it is not obvious to me.  thanks

richard

[JasonSobel]

it's actually not a split setting for file size, but rather for time.  So you can set it to start a new file every 30 minutes, or every 1 hour, or whatever.  and FYI, CD Wave should be able to open that 3.7 GB file into smaller, more usable chunks.

[jibooer]

hey pholks - just pulled the trigger on a 661 and I am excited to take 'er for a test drive...

was hoping someone could answer a few questions for me in regards to the set-up:

1. Pre-record - should I set this to "ON" or is it necessary;
2. Low Cut - anyone using this feature outdoors ;
3. internal battery - do you pholks leave AA's in the unit when powering externally just in case?

thanks in advance

[tim_k]

I was also wondering if you or anyone else have run any stealth set up direct from your mics to the PMD 661?
 Would you suggest -12 db or -18 db attinuator levels and what recording levels that you would suggest?

Thanks for all the help.
Murf/MBHOTAPER

I have the Oade Supermod, so keep that in mind, but I always run my mics directly in and always use -18. I've stealthed only once and I believe the level knobs were set around 5. Here is the show. It is probably worth noting that in this case I was way up front so the vocals are pretty much missing.