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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: victorludorum on May 01, 2012, 09:39:16 AM
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Hello everyone :-)
As the title suggests, I write songs and record them; I only really do guitar/bass tracks and vocals, and then I send them to a keyboard player friend who adds his touches, and then mixes and masters the lot on his Mac. I started recording on a Yamaha MT120 a long time ago, but I bought a Tascam DP-004 a few years ago as it was much easier to deal with the digital transfers etc. I am getting more critical with each recording, and obviously the limitations of the Tascam are really showing now. It's a great tool for songwriting, but for decent recordings it lacks the quality that i'm hearing elsewhere. What i would like to do is to upgrade, but as you can probably tell, i prefer stand-alone machines that are simple. As i am only recording guitar tracks and vocals, i figure I might be better off with a higher quality field recorder. I don't like the idea of being hooked up to the laptop for recording, and i have a fairly decent outboard pre-amp/compressor (safesound audio p-1), so I am trying to find a machine that will record accurately that is at the same sort of quality level as the p-1.
Should i just abandon this search for a stand-alone, bite the bullet and get an interface for my laptop, which may well offer better value for the same quality?
Thanks alot ;-)
Gary.
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You've got good mics (I presume), and a good preamp, so what you need is something to capture the output from the pre, do the A/D conversion, and store it to memory card/hard drive. There are a ton of different boxes that will fit that need. A quick look at the Safesound audio p-1 documentation says it's got balanced outputs, and a maximum output of +21dBu, which is pretty hot.
I'm sure someone will jump in here and recommend the Sony M10, which is a very good small recorder. It has only unbalanced in, but the Safesound doc seems to imply that's OK. If you really like the idea of a small recorder, it's worth a try, but going balanced > unbalanced and cutting back the gain may be part of the reason you have felt the need to move past the DP004.
The next big question is "how much do you want to spend?"
A lot of "reasonably priced decks" don't take balanced inputs with a hot signal, so you will probably end up turning down the gain on the pre, and watching the meters on the recorder. I'm guessing that's what you did with your Tascam DP-004. I'm trying to think of good recorders with balanced line in, that aren't overly expensive. An Edirol R44 will take that hot signal, just turn the gain all the way down. Those go for about $1000, and record 4 channels, so you could bring in a couple of other mics at the same time if you like. A Sound Devices 702 is a great box, but costs about twice as much as the R44. Many of the other recorders that tapers use have unbalanced line inputs (PMD661/671, HDP2, etc)
If you are used to the paradigm of laying down a couple of tracks, then overdubbing more while listening to the first tracks, that is something that 99% of us here have never done with our gear. How well those features work, we can't really tell you. If that's an important aspect, you'll have to research that.
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Take a look at this:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=155313.0
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Take a look at this:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=155313.0
Unfortunately the FR2LE doesn't really like a hot balanced signal either.
http://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/products/FR-2LE.shtml#3
Analog In (L/R)
Connector XLR-Phone Combo Type
Line In
Connector 6mm dia TS Phone Jack (unbalanced)
Input Impedance more than 10k ohm
Reference Input Level -10dBV
Maximum Input Level +2dBV
Mic In
Connector XLR-3-31 Type (balanced, 2-pin hot)
Input Impedance more than 6k ohm
Reference Input Level -50dBu to -10dBu
Maximum Input Level +2dBu
Phantom P48
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You don't need a field recorder. You need a home recorder. There's a board for that.
http://homerecording.com/bbs/
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Thanks for the replies and the suggestions :-)
The Fostex looks like a good option, but I wasn't aware of the balanced/unbalanced issue, which is an interesting one.
I am trying hard to avoid the interface option, but I can't help feeling that all i really need is a good a/d d/a converter. Once the data is on the pc, then the editing can be done afterwards. With pretty much all of the interfaces, you get pre-amps etc, and i don't really want these.
I wasn't sure whether this forum was the right place for my question, but the replies have been really useful, so thanks again ;-)
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A possibility that keeps coming up is the Tascam dr-680.
SmokinJoe, Do you know if this box would suffer from the same issues that you spoke of earlier? It seems to be a higher end product than the Fostex, but I'm no expert :-)
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A possibility that keeps coming up is the Tascam dr-680.
SmokinJoe, Do you know if this box would suffer from the same issues that you spoke of earlier? It seems to be a higher end product than the Fostex, but I'm no expert :-)
For the folks who successfully use a dr680, its great, but it has a myriad of problems with its powering :(
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It seems like the dr680 problems are with battery powering in the field. At home, plugged in, are there complaints?
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A few questions that may help us steer you in the right direction:
- What's your budget?
- What do you find lacking about the DP-004?
- How do you use the DP-004? Do you use the internal mics? External mic(s) (and if so, which)? Guitar plugged in directly to the preamp / recorder via pickup?
- Are you locked into using the P1 (e.g. because you absolutely must do the expansion / compression at time of recording), or are you open to leaving the P1 out of the chain, using a built-in preamp, and applying expansion / compression in post?