Topic: just curious about the m1

[discopanic1]

You see, I was thinking about my m1 settings.  I was told to set low, with the MixPre set higher.  I believe this is a good idea know that I think about it.  The m1 will bring room noise when high, like 10, and the MixPre low, like levels on reaching -15 on dBu peak levels, and the m1's levels reaching around -3.  I was just curious if this makes sense?  In my room today I placed the m1 at 6 and the MixPre's levels to about 9 o'clock, causing 0 to +4 on dBu peak levels and the m1 reaching about -4.  I got a real clean sound from the sound in the room, no room noise.  What ya think?

[Brian]

I'd personally set the m1 at 7 and then set the mixpre at levels that will get me peaks of 0dB on the m1.  you are headed in the right direction by using a little more of the preamp IMHO.

[Tim]

you want your levels on your dat deck meters to hover around -4 to -3 and have peaks of -1 though the occasional quick over will not hurt.

the input knob on the m1 is a resistor, at 10 it is completely open and should be causing the least amount of noise. Do whatever sounds best to you and whatever works best for you and your gear but I would try and open up the m1 as much as possible. Theoretically though the m1 should sound better the closer to 10 you can get on the input knob.

I have never run a mixpre but from what I understand the unit sounds best when run low and the gain is extra sensitive when run low and can be hard to control.

my suggestion would be to run the mixpre fairly low and use the m1 to set levels that hover in the -4 range...

just all imho of course....

[discopanic1]

I say my tapes had distortion, but it actually might be from the sound of the room's accoustics.  Meaning I might be using the word in the wrong terms.  I thougt the word distortion meaning a nasty echoey noise in the sound of my tapes.  Now I believe distortion is coming when I see the over in the db slot???  This nasty echoe sound is probably coming since I was close to the right wall (2' , 9 in. from the right wall).  I'm going to a bigger venue on Friday, I guess we'll see....

[Brian Skalinder]

I say my tapes had distortion, but it actually might be from the sound of the room's accoustics.  Meaning I might be using the word in the wrong terms.  I thougt the word distortion meaning a nasty echoey noise in the sound of my tapes.  Now I believe distortion is coming when I see the over in the db slot???  This nasty echoe sound is probably coming since I was close to the right wall (2' , 9 in. from the right wall).  I'm going to a bigger venue on Friday, I guess we'll see....

Running "over" on your M1 levels will definitely sound poor.  But not echoey.  Post a sample and indicate at what timing mark you hear the different problems you're experiencing.  We may then be able to offer possibilities for the cause.

[discopanic1]

you see i've dun learned, but should have really tested earlier....  you have to have the m1 and the mixpre's levels reaching the limit without peaking and going over on the dbu/db levels.  sorry of all the posts without enogh knowledge

[Tim]

no worries man, we're all glad to help

+T