thanks in advance... I'm just getting ready to start taping (haven't taped anything yet). I've got my JB3, a pair of at831s (sp-cmc-2) and a battery box (sp-spsb-1) with bass roll off and dual sliders. Tried really cranking the living room stereo just to make sure everything works, but levels are really, really low.
Here's my questions;
1) my menu system doesn't match the manual on the JB3 CD. specifically, I can't find where/how to turn on 'monitor listening' where I can listen with headphones as I tape.
2) everything i've read says don't turn the gain up. is there a different way to increase the levels? or will the levels actually come across higher in a real concert?
3) i see on etree some tapers note the amount of bass roll off they set. How do they know that? my battery box with bass roll off only has sliders for adjustment, but no meters.
appreciate it. i am trying to get everything good to go so i can tape Stephen Kellogg at The Bottleneck on 3/01.
If you have sliders, those are for level control, not bass rolloff. Adjustable bass rolloff is a series of switches. If you know the input impedance of your recorder, you can predict the amount of bass rolloff.
Those sliders are best used to match your mics to each other. Set your least sensitive mic to full volume and back the other off until you get the same levels on both mics when both mics are as close to each other as possible. You can do that by looking at the levels on the JB3 and adjusting only one channel down from the max so that both channels are matched.
Also, bass rolloff is overrated. The guys who make battery boxes like to sell it because they can use cheaper coupling capacitors. The larger values of coupling caps cost more. They use smaller coupling caps in order to roll off the bass (and save on their bill of materials). Now, if you are talking switchable bass rolloff, there is no savings on the bill of materials because they still have to include the larger coupling caps for when you have bass rollof disabled. If you have the switchable bass rolloff, I'd recommend leaving it off unless you have a very good reason to use it. I've only found one venue where I actually need to use bass rolloff and that's The Blue Note in Columbia, MO. That's a big, boomy room with very little sound damping and lots of hard surfaces. The resonances of the room are in the bass part of the audio spectrum and it helps to roll off the bass a bit. Everywhere else I've recorded doesn't need any rolloff. You will not need bass rolloff at The Bottleneck. They've actually done a pretty good job of equalizing that room, both in amplitude and in phase, especially if you record from near the soundboard. The sweet spot is about 8 to 10 feet in front of the soundboard, but it's hard to record from there unless you are wearing the mics. It's hard to protect a stand at that location. There's just too much foot traffic. It can get pretty chatty right there too.
In order to monitor, just plug headphones in and use them. Be aware that using your headphones will decrease your battery life, though. Unless you are using well sealed (barbed) ear buds or some really heavy over-the-ear sealed headphones, you're not going to hear much on the headphones. I've heard people that say they get good results with Eymotics ER-4 or ER-6 earbuds. I've used Sony MDR-EX51LP and MDR-EX71SL earbuds and they work pretty well too, but not quite as well as the Etymotics. If you are looking for full sized headphones, look for ones that claim to be for DJ's or that say they are for monitoring. Open air or vented headphones are useless for live monitoring.
As long as you are going line in on your JB3, just set your gain as high as you can without clipping. You can increase the levels in post processing, but you'll get better S/N if you use the highest levels without clipping at the time you make the recording. If you want to know where to set your levels, stick your mics in your mouth (yes, really) and hum as loud as you can. That's about as loud at the mics as you will ever get in a show setting. If you don't believe me, have someone put their mouth over your ear and hum as loud as they can. That's loud, really loud.
Topic: Some general starting out questions... (Read 3675 times)