Topic: iRiver 120 taping for the first time tonight - need advice on settings

[daveydave]

hi all,

I always seem uneasy about taping with a new recorder the first time around. 

I'm working with the H-120.  My past experience is with the JB3 - same configuration.  Here's the setup.

AT933's -> Battery Box -> IRiver  (line-in) 
(no preamp involved) - that's coming soon.
Most likely stealth. 
Small Club
Sound Levels - not extremely high - think of an all acoustic john mayer type show volume on a scale from 1 -10 will be in the 3 - 6 range.  10 would be a hard rock show. 

The IRiver FAQ's have a great deal about what each setting is, not a great deal of recommended settings under certain conditions.  What would be perfect is a "recommended settings / first time record / cheat sheet"  that would give you some baseline as to where a particular recorder would be.   I'd be glad to do this for all of the recorders I've used.

1.)  What Gain control setting should this show dictate: 
         AGC - off, safety, live, dj, medium, or voice? 
2.)  Is there a time split length that works better than others, or is more consistent?
3.)  Peak settings.  Any suggestions on:
      a.) Peak Release - i know low is good, but what is a safe setting?
      b.) Peak Hold - I currently have it set to 30seconds.  Anyone against this?
      c.) Range - Due to the show being a bit lower in volume, should I drop from the recommended -30 to   something like -40 to -50.  I'm still expecting to go to between 0db and -2db for the second setting.

Any other advice?  Sorry for the late nature.  You know how it is, we always want to do as well as we can. 

Dave

[petur]

1.)  What Gain control setting should this show dictate: 
         AGC - off, safety, live, dj, medium, or voice? 
2.)  Is there a time split length that works better than others, or is more consistent?
3.)  Peak settings.  Any suggestions on:
      a.) Peak Release - i know low is good, but what is a safe setting?
      b.) Peak Hold - I currently have it set to 30seconds.  Anyone against this?
      c.) Range - Due to the show being a bit lower in volume, should I drop from the recommended -30 to   something like -40 to -50.  I'm still expecting to go to between 0db and -2db for the second setting.

I hope this doesn't come too late but:

1) if you don't know what levels to expect, AGC-Safety is a good bet. Set its timescale long if you don't want shouters to influence it or short if you want gain turned down faster to avoid as much distortion as possible.
2) why would you need timesplit? Rockbox will do a seamless auto-split at 2GB, ther rest you can do at home
3) I wouldn't touch Peak settings (cosmetics anyway). If you're going to use cliplight, Clip hold time influences how long the cliplight stays on.

good luck

[Arni99]

1.)  What Gain control setting should this show dictate: 
         AGC - off, safety, live, dj, medium, or voice? 
2.)  Is there a time split length that works better than others, or is more consistent?
3.)  Peak settings.  Any suggestions on:
      a.) Peak Release - i know low is good, but what is a safe setting?
      b.) Peak Hold - I currently have it set to 30seconds.  Anyone against this?
      c.) Range - Due to the show being a bit lower in volume, should I drop from the recommended -30 to   something like -40 to -50.  I'm still expecting to go to between 0db and -2db for the second setting.

I hope this doesn't come too late but:

1) if you don't know what levels to expect, AGC-Safety is a good bet. Set its timescale long if you don't want shouters to influence it or short if you want gain turned down faster to avoid as much distortion as possible.
2) why would you need timesplit? Rockbox will do a seamless auto-split at 2GB, ther rest you can do at home
3) I wouldn't touch Peak settings (cosmetics anyway). If you're going to use cliplight, Clip hold time influences how long the cliplight stays on.

good luck

petur, where exactly can i set the "time scale" of agc-safety-clip???
thought its a fixed coding number how fast it decreases levels for each of the 5 AGC-options?
thx
arni

[daveydave]

Thanks petur,

I did get it and I'll let you know how everything turns out tomorrow. 

AGC safety = my tests all proved your theory and I appreciate you confirming that.

dave

1.)  What Gain control setting should this show dictate: 
         AGC - off, safety, live, dj, medium, or voice? 
2.)  Is there a time split length that works better than others, or is more consistent?
3.)  Peak settings.  Any suggestions on:
      a.) Peak Release - i know low is good, but what is a safe setting?
      b.) Peak Hold - I currently have it set to 30seconds.  Anyone against this?
      c.) Range - Due to the show being a bit lower in volume, should I drop from the recommended -30 to   something like -40 to -50.  I'm still expecting to go to between 0db and -2db for the second setting.

I hope this doesn't come too late but:

1) if you don't know what levels to expect, AGC-Safety is a good bet. Set its timescale long if you don't want shouters to influence it or short if you want gain turned down faster to avoid as much distortion as possible.
2) why would you need timesplit? Rockbox will do a seamless auto-split at 2GB, ther rest you can do at home
3) I wouldn't touch Peak settings (cosmetics anyway). If you're going to use cliplight, Clip hold time influences how long the cliplight stays on.

good luck

[petur]

1) if you don't know what levels to expect, AGC-Safety is a good bet. Set its timescale long if you don't want shouters to influence it or short if you want gain turned down faster to avoid as much distortion as possible.

petur, where exactly can i set the "time scale" of agc-safety-clip???
thought its a fixed coding number how fast it decreases levels for each of the 5 AGC-options?

AGC Clip Time is what you're looking after in the recording settings. It sets the time a certain situation must persist before the AGC kicks in... I've always set it to the minimum but anyone's free to use it as he/she sees fit

[Arni99]

1) if you don't know what levels to expect, AGC-Safety is a good bet. Set its timescale long if you don't want shouters to influence it or short if you want gain turned down faster to avoid as much distortion as possible.

petur, where exactly can i set the "time scale" of agc-safety-clip???
thought its a fixed coding number how fast it decreases levels for each of the 5 AGC-options?

AGC Clip Time is what you're looking after in the recording settings. It sets the time a certain situation must persist before the AGC kicks in... I've always set it to the minimum but anyone's free to use it as he/she sees fit

thx petur, yes it should be at minimum time to avoid long periods of distortion.
mine was set to 400ms as default.
just set it to minimum which is 200ms.
will try it now .