Topic: Sony MZ-R91 mini disc recorder

[danzz1234]

I was going into the h.o.b once and had a security guard feel my sp-6 bb in my pocket. He made me pull it out, (it looks like some kind of detonating device) hes like "what the hell is this? " i say ..." oh, thats just my multimeter to check secondary voltage on high current luminous tube transformers, i just came from work and must have left it in my pocket"  he gives me about the stupidest look you could imagine and says " oh yeah,..okay well haue a nice show"   lol

 
I'm trying to translate that to portuguese so I can use that excuse too lol
+T

[DaveH]

Finally got the recorder in the mail. Still need a battery box and possibly a new mic. I have 3 but the Audio Technica has such a huge cord it's a pain in the ass to stealth. The other 2 are no names but the one was said to use Panasonic components. It seems to sound good on testing but I don't know how it would do on a loud concert setting. One other thing, when you run the battery box and line-in do you still need to manually adjust the volume? This recorder boasts an automatic volume setting and manually adjusting would probably be a pain while stealthing. Any suggestions?
Also decided against building my own B.B. I'm not electronically enclined!

[attheshow]

The ACG (Automatic Gain Control) on your minidisc will ruin your recording. Turn it off. It is designed for recording voice, not live music. Unfortunaltely, unless you get an external pre-amp (which also doubles as a bb), you won't be able to adjust levels once recording starts. Pick something conservative in record-pause mode, then start your recording and forget about it. Changing the level would require you to pause the recording again.

[DaveH]

Just out of curiousity how much does a good inexpensive preamp run? And are there ones availables for stealth recording? The ones I've seen were rather big and pricey.

[attheshow]

I can't speak from experience, but Chris Church here on these forums sells a line of Pres that come highly recommended by users of this board. His latest is a miniature version of his popular CA-9100, listed as CA-UGLY in the retail section for $199. For a bit more he'll throw in mics.

[intpseeker]

I was going into the h.o.b once and had a security guard feel my sp-6 bb in my pocket. He made me pull it out, (it looks like some kind of detonating device) hes like "what the hell is this? " i say ..." oh, thats just my multimeter to check secondary voltage on high current luminous tube transformers, i just came from work and must have left it in my pocket"  he gives me about the stupidest look you could imagine and says " oh yeah,..okay well haue a nice show"   lol

Thanks for the laugh! 

[DaveH]

Got another question concerning the recorder. I'll mostly be doing stealth recordings and am a little concerned on a few issues.
1. I noticed there are two recording settings. One stereo, one mono, how big of a difference in quality would I be sacrificing using the mono setting? The reason I ask is I only have 74 minute discs and when the recorder is stopped it takes forever to edit. (I'd probably miss two songs in a set before I can change discs.)
2. Setting the levels manually has a bit of a few step process. I wonder if I'll be able to see what I'm doing in a darkened room, avoid security etc.
3. I'm curious as to how the recording would turn out using a battery powered mic through the line-in. I plan on getting a battery box in the near future but for now would this render a recording brickwalled?
In case you haven't guessed all my previous recordings have been from a walkman cassette. I'm used to pushing a button and letting the automatic level take over from there.

[attheshow]

I started taping with an MZ-R70. Tried recording in mono for the extra record time once... If the recording is for your personal enjoyment, and you don't mind the lack of stereo imaging, this can be an okay solution. However, unless there's something spectacular about the show and you end up being the only one that gets a recording, it's unlikely that many people will be interested in trading/downloading it. Then again, the ATRAC3 compression in MD may also turn people away.

As for setting levels, I would set them before the show started and just hope for the best. Aim low, as it's better to have low levels (which can be boosted in post) than brickwalling (which simply ruins the recording). Try and go to an open taping band (even if you don't care for the music) and play with your levels there. This will give you some ideas on where to set them.

Battery powered mic > line in should work fine. Just beware that the battery powered mics from Sony tend to be 100hz - 15kHz instead of the full 20hz-20kHz range. This is good, in that it is less likely to overload your MD with BASS, but bad in that you loose a portion of the sound. To hear the difference, listen to my recording with a sony ECM-737 batt powered mic > MZ-RH1 against Jankas recording of the same show, from the same location, with much better gear.

Janka's AKGs http://www.archive.org/details/jwpp2007-10-06.Flac16

The Sony ECM-737 http://www.archive.org/details/jwpp2007-10-06.ats.flac16

[DaveH]

I've been trying out the line-in with my battery box and the recordings are only on one speaker. Is there anything that I can do to get it on both speakers? I've tried three different mics and keep getting the same result.