Topic: Would a battery box give better recordings at 'quiet' gigs

[mrblister]

Hi,

I record almost exclusively 'quiet' (either acoustic or only lightly/medium amplified)  gigs.  I use CA11 mics into the mic in input on a Tascam DR07.  I am reasonably happy with the results but was wondering if a battery box between mic and recorder would give me noticably improved recordings. I realise I could buy an external pre-amp and go via the line-in but my recordings don't appear to suffer annoying noise/hiss. And it is not the cheapest of moves.

Would a battery box give noticable improvements in my results?

thanks in advance!

[Belexes]

A pre in your chain would give you more quiet gain versus a battery box.

[su6oxone]

try a ca9100 pre...

[Church-Audio]

Hi,

I record almost exclusively 'quiet' (either acoustic or only lightly/medium amplified)  gigs.  I use CA11 mics into the mic in input on a Tascam DR07.  I am reasonably happy with the results but was wondering if a battery box between mic and recorder would give me noticably improved recordings. I realise I could buy an external pre-amp and go via the line-in but my recordings don't appear to suffer annoying noise/hiss. And it is not the cheapest of moves.

Would a battery box give noticable improvements in my results?

thanks in advance!

Here is the deal. Some people have been saying that you dont need to run a battery box with my mics.. And under some conditions that is true. But you never know when you are going to need one because you cant anticipate what volumes you are going to be subject to at a gig until you are there. So I always recommend a battery box when ever possible. Any distortion in a recording due to a microphone overloading is not good. So its like a condom better safe than sorry.


Chris

[mrblister]

Thanks for the replies so far.  I understand how the battery box would help for very loud gigs (and I think I am possibly going to get one for those situations) but for the 'quiet' gigs I am talking about if I used a battery box I would still have to go 'mic in'  wouldn't I , because the signal 'line in'  would be inadequate.  So if I used battery box, and mic in  would that be 'better' than purely microphone and mic in?

[su6oxone]

I would guess that you would get plenty of gain for quieter acoustic gigs using a 9100 and going line in on your recorder.  Going mic in is noisier than line in generally speaking, and using a pre like the 9100 allows you to raise the gain level while keeping the noise floor pretty low at the same time.  But it seems that you main question is whether or not adding a battery box but leaving everything else the same will improve the sound, the answer to which should be no it won't.  It won't lower the noise floor or add any improvement in sonic quality.  If your tapes don't have much noise/hiss at the shows you normally attend, then you could just keep doing what you're doing since you sound satisfied with the results with your current gear.  A pre will give you more flexibility in the future though, so you can tape louder shows with less risk of inadequately powered mics. 

[mrblister]

I would guess that you would get plenty of gain for quieter acoustic gigs using a 9100 and going line in on your recorder.  Going mic in is noisier than line in generally speaking, and using a pre like the 9100 allows you to raise the gain level while keeping the noise floor pretty low at the same time.  But it seems that you main question is whether or not adding a battery box but leaving everything else the same will improve the sound, the answer to which should be no it won't.  It won't lower the noise floor or add any improvement in sonic quality.  If your tapes don't have much noise/hiss at the shows you normally attend, then you could just keep doing what you're doing since you sound satisfied with the results with your current gear.  A pre will give you more flexibility in the future though, so you can tape louder shows with less risk of inadequately powered mics.

Thanks - I think that answers my question -

[SmokinJoe]

I know a guy (absnj) who ran CA11's > R09HR mic in for quite a while and was happy with the results.   He was recording mostly Derek Trucks/Susan Tedeschi/Allman Brothers which is probably a bit louder than what you have in mind.   I was skeptical that it would work as well as it did, but it did seem to work just fine.
http://www.archive.org/details/dtb2009-02-08.omni11s.flac16
http://www.archive.org/details/dtb2009-04-04.omni11s.flac16

After enough people told him (like folks are telling you now) that he really ought to get a battery box or preamp to avoid that inevitable "just a little too loud" show, he went ahead and got one.  If you run without it and someday you encounter that one really good show that was just a little too loud and it distorted, and you are all bummed about... then you will see that this is an insurance policy.  Those of us that have made that mistake (and I have) are saying "learn from our mistakes".