Topic: So I popped my open taping cherry last night...

[manitouman]

It was truly, a beautiful thing!! But without complications...I taped the Summer Haze Tour featuring: Ozomatli, Slightly Stoopid and G. Love & Special Sauce at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I used the iRiver HP120 that mmmatt (thanks matt) sold me with his UA-5. So I wasn't too familiar with it at all. Followed the FAQ's and did my general recording settings.

Ozomatli-it was raining and was not about to bring the gear out in the rain under any circumstances.

Slightly Stoopid-was able to set up, fired up the equipment and thought the iRiver was recording BUT I failed to recognize that the "recording time display" wasn't moving, or rather it stayed at all 0's. The levels were moving, but it wasn't recording anything. I forgot to hit the record button on the side. Felt like such an ass!! Really wish I could have taped this band. Kinda reggae'ish, rock-ish but a fun band all together.

G. Love & SS-Figured out what I did wrong and was able to capture this show. Turned out really nice with the gear I used. Even the iRiver performed well but looking forward to using my familiar MT and the ability for 24 bit version.


I do however have a question about the UA-5 and the clip light. I had the Peluso's set at 0dB and the L in setting. I had the UA-5 all set to record via the iRiver. When I started to record I set the mic gain at 3/4's of the way or about the 3 o'clock position. It started clipping so I started to turn setting dials to the left. I ended up at about the 10 o'clock position. At this position the clip light might have lit up about once every 5 minutes or so. Is this okay or do you not want the clip light to flash at all? I was about 20 rows back from the stage behind the sound board folks, 9 feet up in the air and using the cardioid caps.

Also, when I transferred the recording to my PC (windows vista ultimate) I opened the file in Cool Edit Pro and it looks as if the left channel is about 4dB different than the right channel. I think that I just didn't have the dials gain dials perfectly aligned, would you agree? Any-who, I will try to do a little post to it and add it to the archives in a few days or so.

Thanks to everyone for all the help in making this possible whether it was advice or equipment: tonedeaf, mmmatt, Nick's Picks, Nick Graham, Church-Audio, kbergend, the Team Peluso II folks, and everyone in-between that I'm forgetting. (Didn't mean to forget anyone but the wife is rushing me out the door!)

 Glad to be a part of this community!!

[sunjan]

+T for using UA5 and H120, a great combo.
I'm feeding the UA5 witrh my AT853RX, and I do notice too that the clip light on the UA5 goes on once in a while.
Normally, my dials are in the 2-3 o'clock position.

Adjust the dials according to the level meters on the H120, not to the clip light on the UA5.
As long as the levels on your H120 are good, that's what matters most.

BTW, did you install the REP pack to Rockbox?! Make sure to do it, for easier overview of the levels.

If you're cautious about brickwalling, just pop in your headphones in the monitor jack (either the UA5 or H120), and check what's being recorded.

/Jan

[china_rider]

+t for getting your feet wet.  It only gets better from here.

Stay Kind,
Dana

EDIT: If I remember correctly from my UA5 days the clip light hits at -3 so an occasional flicker is not a bad thing.  Once it gets to be more than a flicker you want to lower your levels.  As for the difference in channels either your dials were off a bit or the mics are off by a few DB or a combination of both.  You can also get a mismatch if you are not centered depending on your mic setup.

As for the levels between the iRiver and the UA5 you need to find a good combo of both.  The iRiver levels could be fine, but if the UA5 is getting overloaded you will start brick walling.  I'd say make sure the light on the UA5 does not do anything more than occasionally flicker, then adjust your proper iRiver levels according to that.  If the UA5 light ever becomes somewhat steady, even for short periods of time, you are running to hot.

Once you run your rig a few times in the same venue you should get a general feeling of where things need to be set in that environment.  Probably 95% of the time for a venue I know I can set my levels before the show starts and never have to touch them again.

[bgalizio]

And the Pelusos run pretty hot, so you'll need less gain compared to other mics. If it was a fairly loud show, your levels sound about right.

[manitouman]

Thanks for the info everyone, it is really helping me feel like I did the best I could even for using the unfamiliar iRiver and new equipment. Listening to the recording, I really must say I didn't do too bad for my first time. I was able to bring the right channel up a couple of decibels so to the untrained eye they look pretty close, then I just did a little post to bring it up a little but I think I've found something that I like so now it's off to cutting tracks.

I'm not sure if I have the REP pack with the Rockbox software on? When I purchased this from mmmatt, he said he dumped the whole thing and installed the latest version of Rockbox on it so I'm assuming it should be good to go, or is it like a plug-in that I should search around for and install it?

Thanks bgalizio for the info on the Peluso's running hot. NOW I know what you guys meant about mics running "hot", just means you don't have to have the gain up too much as compared to other mics. I was getting worried when I kept turning them down and down until I found the sweet spot. And yes, it was a loud show.

My next project is to research mic setup patterns (if that's what the technical term is). For this show I was about 20 rows back, dead center behind the soundboard folks. So I had the t-bar on the stand, mics about 14" apart with each mic pointed out towards a stack on either end. So it looked like a "W" without the middle point. Does that make sense? I guess dead center would be easy to set-up, what I'm worried about is when I'm off to either side. But I'll do some research, unless someone want to give some secrets out?

Thanks for all the comments!

[chrisdavis]

im a noob.  only been taping about 6 months or so, but:

a peluso owner on this board (that makes badass tapes) told me ALWAYS set the db at -10.  the pelusos run hot.  ive followed that advice, and it seems to work well. 

as for the peak light on the ua-5:  dont be afraid to push it.  you dont want continuous red, but you defintely want to see the red.  i guess i try to run "hot" tapes, but i like to see the red some.  even on nights when i thought my tapes would be saturated because i saw "too much red"; the tapes still came out clean.  just some tall levels in the editor.

as i said, im pretty new, so take my advice for whats it worth....welcome...Cd

[bgalizio]

a peluso owner on this board (that makes badass tapes) told me ALWAYS set the db at -10.  the pelusos run hot.  ive followed that advice, and it seems to work well. 

Meh, just know your gear and you'll be fine. When I ran Peluso > UA-5, I had to use a huge gain range depending on the show. For louder stuff, I would be around 10 o'clock, while for quiter folk shows I may be up to 2 or 3 o'clock. Once you know your gear you'll be fine.

[sunjan]

I'm not sure if I have the REP pack with the Rockbox software on? When I purchased this from mmmatt, he said he dumped the whole thing and installed the latest version of Rockbox on it so I'm assuming it should be good to go, or is it like a plug-in that I should search around for and install it?

Yeah, it's a non-standard patch, you have to add it after installing Rockbox.
The rockbox is good to go, but REP will display the levels and fonts clearer, and give you easier access to the recording screen.
The site for downloading seems offline at the moment:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=2513.msg76385#new

Search the forum for opinions about REP, not everyone likes it...

/Jan

[ljsurfer2002]

congrats on the taping! i heard red rox was amazing. don't forget to upload to the Live Music Archive when you are done!

http://www.archive.org/details/etree
http://www.archive.org/iathreads/uploaded-files/Tyler-Uploading_to_LMA_2007-08-06_final.pdf

[manitouman]

Thanks for the link on how to upload! I will certainly have to do that once I get time. I have a whirlwind of things going on right now planning for my trip next week to the Gorge Amphitheater. Maybe sometime later this week.

The support and helpful information on this board has been phenomenal.

I can't seem to figure out how to load the REP for Rockbox. Anyone want to talk to me like I'm 4 and explain it to me? I really would appreciate it!

[DaveG73]

Thanks for the link on how to upload! I will certainly have to do that once I get time. I have a whirlwind of things going on right now planning for my trip next week to the Gorge Amphitheater. Maybe sometime later this week.

The support and helpful information on this board has been phenomenal.

I can't seem to figure out how to load the REP for Rockbox. Anyone want to talk to me like I'm 4 and explain it to me? I really would appreciate it!

From what I remember when I rockboxed my iRiver, which wasn't actually that long ago but my memory sucks, the REP, or at least most of the more popular features, have been included in the standard rockbox firmware.

I could be wrong, it has happened before.

Try asking on the rockbox forums perhaps?

Dave.

[sunjan]

I can't seem to figure out how to load the REP for Rockbox. Anyone want to talk to me like I'm 4 and explain it to me? I really would appreciate it!

From what I remember when I rockboxed my iRiver, which wasn't actually that long ago but my memory sucks, the REP, or at least most of the more popular features, have been included in the standard rockbox firmware.

I did the patch one month ago, and most of the REP features were not yet added to the standard build.
You can read about the updates here (and also find the download link):
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=18cec4e6579413332881dbcedc5ce864&topic=2513.0

Installation is very straightforward. Download the patch to your computer, unzip it. Drag-n-drop to you iRiver, and make sure that it overwrites the folder structure (some files will be replaced, since they have the same filename - this is intentional).
Reboot, that's it!

I think you can do some manual settings and tweaking (change typeface and font size) but I haven't bothered to figure out how yet...

Good luck!

/Jan