Topic: Mic In vs Line In

[thespangleman]

Hi all,

I have an Edirol R-09 and SP-CMC-8 cards, together with a battery box. I always tape line in on the R-09. Anyway, recently I taped Madonna at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and I ran mic in by mistake. I didn't realise until after the show and I thought the recording would be awful. However, when I got home and listened to the recording it turned out really well, one of the best recordings I have made.
I have always thought and read on this site that line in was the way to go when using a battery box. I guess my question is should I continue to use mic in for future recordings or revert back to line in.

Thanks guys.

[Belexes]

Line in. There's less noise with that input. 

[lordbelial]

My choice is always line in. Anyway, I'd love to hear the sample if you can.

[Gutbucket]

I have always thought and read on this site that line in was the way to go when using a battery box. I guess my question is should I continue to use mic in for future recordings or revert back to line in.

It depends on how much gain you need.  If you need more gain, use mic-in.  If your line-in jack breaks do the same.  I had one of the first R-09 line-in jack failures a few years back and switched to using the mic-in for a few months until I could send it in to Roland for repair.  I just cut back on the gain a bit on both the recorder and preamp and I don't hear any extra noise on those recordings, many of quiet performances.  I'd use whichever input puts you closer to the center of the available gain adjustment on the R-09 (13-17 range).

[NewTaper]

When you say the 13 - 17 range do you mean the INPUT level when setting the buttons on the side ?

Thanks,
NT

I have always thought and read on this site that line in was the way to go when using a battery box. I guess my question is should I continue to use mic in for future recordings or revert back to line in.

It depends on how much gain you need.  If you need more gain, use mic-in.  If your line-in jack breaks do the same.  I had one of the first R-09 line-in jack failures a few years back and switched to using the mic-in for a few months until I could send it in to Roland for repair.  I just cut back on the gain a bit on both the recorder and preamp and I don't hear any extra noise on those recordings, many of quiet performances.  I'd use whichever input puts you closer to the center of the available gain adjustment on the R-09 (13-17 range).

[Gutbucket]

Yes.
That's what I shoot for.  I set the external preamp gain beforehand and I'm usually close enough that I don't need to adjust anything, but if I was off far enough on my guess I'll make a gain adjustment on the R-09 from that middle of the road setting of 14 or so and end up closer to 10 or 20.  I just try to avoid the extreme settings below 10 and above 20, but if I needed to use those settings to get levels right I would. (well, except 0 which = mute)

[itook2much]

My line jack is broken, and I use mic-in all the time.  Great results, just watch your input gain.  IME, the mic-in runs about 8dB hotter than the line-in.  YMMV.

[thespangleman]

Interesting replies, thanks guys. Even though I used the mic input, I still had the recording level on the R-09 set to 27! Having said that, it did have the gain set to low and use low sensitivity modded mics. Here is a short sample.

[Sunday Driver]

Interesting replies, thanks guys. Even though I used the mic input, I still had the recording level on the R-09 set to 27! Having said that, it did have the gain set to low and use low sensitivity modded mics. Here is a short sample.

The low sens mod on the CMC-8s significantly reduces the output of the mics, acting as an attenuator, so what you are saying is exactly what should be happening.