Topic: Tascam DR-07 with CA-9100

[paytoplay]

When using the Tascam DR-07 with the 9100 preamp, what do you think is the best setting for getting the best sounding gain:

Medium gain on the Tascam, and full gain on the 9100 and adjust the level control on the Tascam after this.

or

Low gain on the Tascam, and full gain on the 9100 and let the level control on Tascam be higher.

[Belexes]

The best use of the 9100 with any recorder is to set it at 'unity' and then get any gain needed from the 9100.

[jagraham]

i use ca-11s>STC-9000>DR-07.  usually what i do is do +10 gain on the pre, and adjust accordingly on the dr-07 so as to avoid clipping.  the 9000 also has +30 gain but that is risky in most situations.  not sure about the "internal noise" on the dr-07 but its usually a best bet to get most of your gain from your preamp.  has anyone tried going +30 and turned the dr-07 way down?  im curious as to what the quality difference would be.

[paytoplay]

Whats exactly "unity"?

[rhinowing]

unity is the recording level on the dr-07 where it isn't adding or removing any gain. so you'd get the signal from the 9100 without doing any other modification to it, and the recording would be that much cleaner

[fmaderjr]

i use ca-11s>STC-9000>DR-07.  usually what i do is do +10 gain on the pre, and adjust accordingly on the dr-07 so as to avoid clipping.  the 9000 also has +30 gain but that is risky in most situations.  not sure about the "internal noise" on the dr-07 but its usually a best bet to get most of your gain from your preamp.  has anyone tried going +30 and turned the dr-07 way down?  im curious as to what the quality difference would be.

This would be extremely risky when recording in a high sound pressure situation. My understanding it that setting the ST-9000 to +30 in this case is likely to cause the ST-9000 itself to clip and if it does you would just be recording an already clipped signal at a lower level. The same thing would happen if you turned down the ST-9000's volume control instead of the DR-07's. The ST-9000 would still be "seeing' the full 30 dB of again and would still clip.

[paytoplay]

Is it smart to run the 9100 on full then? And the Tascam on Low gain and then adjust the Tascam record level after that?

[deadahead93]

With my setup, I seemed to have found that my DR-07's unity falls at 6 on the dial... If I'm recording right from a SBD, I knock it on down to 4.

[fmaderjr]

Is it smart to run the 9100 on full then? And the Tascam on Low gain and then adjust the Tascam record level after that?

Should be OK to start with the ST-9100 set at full gain in most cases. It has a clipping indicator to warn you when you need to turn down the gain. Chris recommends running at 100% in most situations and around 85% in very high sound pressure situations.

[paytoplay]

Okay. I've heard around 6 should be the "unity" on the Tascam. Should I also adjust the gain setting (low, medium, high) on the Tascam after this?

[fmaderjr]

Standard setting for any recorder is low gain. If recording a lecture you could try high and maybe medium for acoustic. My recorders offer only L or H and I haven't even tried high for acoustic. I just leave them at low for anything I record (except high for the few lectures I've recorded).

[paytoplay]

I will go Low the next time and the 9100 on full.

[fmaderjr]

I will go Low the next time and the 9100 on full.

If recording something really loud, if you want to set it on full, be sure you know how the clipping indicator works and watch for it.

According to an old post from Chris, Clip light has three brightness levels:
Hi = clip!
Medium = 5 db before clip
Low =10db before clip or signal present.

Try to see how it functions at home (by screaming into your mic, if necessary) before relying on it in the field.

I personally don't rely on the clip indicator because I use less gain from the ST-9100 than Chris recommends in high sound pressure situations. Still sounds great.

[deadahead93]

Should I also adjust the gain setting (low, medium, high) on the Tascam after this?

I actually set mine for medium. That seems to be the default on this recorder. I have liked the results of this setting, but that is just me 

[acidjack]

It seems like a lot of this advice thus far is all over the map.  I don't own a 9100 anymore, but assuming that it doesn't function radically differently from any other preamp, I don't know why you would turn it up to "max" and then take levels from the DR-07.  The preamp itself can overload, and I would think, would, at high SPL if its gain is turned all the way up. 

As I understand it:
You don't want the DR-07 determining the levels - you don't want the DR-07's internal pres doing any work, because (presumably) they aren't as good as the 9100s - that's after all why you bought it, right?

Therefore, you want the DR-07 at "unity" - at whatever level its preamp is essentially neutral, neither providing nor reducing gain - and then you want to set your levels by varying the gain on the 9100.  On my M10 I leave the level knob at ~5 and adjust the gain off of the littlebox.  When I had a CA9100>R-09HR, I left the R-09HR at "40" and varied the gain on the 9100.

If Chris has a different way of operating his gear, it's of course his gear to comment on, but some of what's being said here just doesn't make sense to me.