Levels on R9 for daisy chain

[johnnyb]

Hi All am goin to attempt my first SB and would be daisy chaining , is there a happy spot on the R9 level wise incase the board runs hot?

Thank you

[rhinowing]

assuming you mean the original r-09 and not the r-09hr...

8 is the unity gain setting (where the r-09 won't boost/decrease the signal at all)

unless you've got an attenuator in front of the unit though, I'd probably just drop the recording level to 1 and run in 24/48

[Gutbucket]

Almost.
On the original R-09, unity is actually somewhere around 13-15-ish.  A gain setting of 8 is the lowest setting you want to use for anything.  If you need to go lower than that to accommodate a hotter signal the input will begin to overload.  At that point you would need to attenuate the signal before it reaches the recorder's line-input, so that you can set the input gain on the R-09 to 8 or higher. 

[edit]
The sample rate and bit depth settings won't make any difference in regards to input headroom.

[johnnyb]

Thank You

[fmaderjr]

On the original R-09, unity is actually somewhere around 13-15-ish.  A gain setting of 8 is the lowest setting you want to use for anything.  If you need to go lower than that to accommodate a hotter signal the input will begin to overload.  At that point you would need to attenuate the signal before it reaches the recorder's line-input, so that you can set the input gain on the R-09 to 8 or higher. 

[edit]
The sample rate and bit depth settings won't make any difference in regards to input headroom.

Since you have a ST-9100 preamp that is capable of attenuation, you could run the soundboard signal through the ST-9100 and use that to adjust the levels. Setting the R-09 anywhere between 8 and 13 or so would probably be fine, but I would just do 13 since the ST-9100 is cabable of doing all the needed attenation for you.

[adrianf74]

Since you have a ST-9100 preamp that is capable of attenuation, you could run the soundboard signal through the ST-9100 and use that to adjust the levels. Setting the R-09 anywhere between 8 and 13 or so would probably be fine, but I would just do 13 since the ST-9100 is cabable of doing all the needed attenation for you.

I was just going to say.

13 is the lucky number and the 9100 will do the job perfectly.

[SmokinJoe]

I wouldn't plug the SBD into the ST9100.  That's feeding 9V plug-in-power to the board, which probably won't kill it, but it just doesn't seem like a good idea in general.

I believe turning the output on the R09 up to 100 is also recommended to give the patches a full charge.  I believe that is unity gain on the output.

Whenever I have had a hot feed and had to turn my R09 down to 5 or below... it works, but it's not quite as sweet as it might otherwise be.  Generally if that's the case I will politely ask the sound guy "can you please turn down my feed a bit?" and he will.

[Gutbucket]

I believe turning the output on the R09 up to 100 is also recommended to give the patches a full charge.  I believe that is unity gain on the output.

You may be confusing the original R-9 with the HR, Joe.  But neither have unity at 100.
Not sure what you mean by full charge?

R-09 gain maxes out at 30 (noisy), unity is around 13, no-go below 8.
R-09HR gain maxes out at 100, unity around 50-ish (I think, but I don't own one, check the HR thread), no-go below ?.

The information and discussion about gain/level settings is in the early treads on those recorders.  Common guys, what's with posting numbers from all over the map?  The R-09 gain information has been long established at this point.

[fmaderjr]

I believe turning the output on the R09 up to 100 is also recommended to give the patches a full charge.  I believe that is unity gain on the output.

You may be confusing the original R-9 with the HR, Joe.  But neither have unity at 100.
Not sure what you mean by full charge?

Joe is talking about setting the output to 100 for patches. He's not talking about unity gain for the line in. I was puzzled too until I reread his post a few times.

[SmokinJoe]

Yeah, he was asking about daisy chaining, in which case output is relevant too.

The first advice is this... if there are other experienced tapers there, don't be at the head of the chain.  Being at the head of the chain makes you "responsible" for the signal going to everyone else.  They will manage the hot or cold board feed and give you a nice middle of the range signal out of their rig.

When I do have people patched out of me, I generally try to set my output and their input so our levels match on our meters... then as I manage my input gain on my rig their's will match and as long as I don't clip, they won't clip either.

[Gutbucket]

Ahh, 100 as output setting, OK.  Good points about chains & levels.

BTW, with the original R-09 you can also patch out digitally with an optical cable and avoid the extra digital>analog>digital step to the following machine.  Pretty rare, but I did that once and it worked great.