Brickwalling with DPA4061 > CA-9100 > Tascam DR-2d (line-in)?

[ilduclo]

ok, roooty, you're a prince

[MakersMarc]

Am I missing something, doesn't the 9100 have multiple gain settings....could this have been the problem, too high a gain setting before trimming?

[ilduclo]

Am I missing something, doesn't the 9100 have multiple gain settings....could this have been the problem, too high a gain setting before trimming?

yeah, MM, seems he had a dead battery. Does it EVERYTIME!

[Church-Audio]

sooooooooo, use the sp battery box with a decent 9v and your dpa's, should be good for all loud shows, for certain!

Thanks about the advice on not letting the mics plugged in. I can't remember whether I did it or not in the past...

Since the 11 o'clock position on the CA-9100 is 0dB, I guess it's just like using a 9V battery box.
Mics were powered by the preamp. No gain added.

I hope my issues were because of the weak battery.

the 9100 does not draw ant power when the preamp is tuned off 12 o'clock is about unity gain my best guess is you had a weak battery. This preamp does not like anything close to 7 volts. The 4060 can overload with loud music especially bass drum and I'm assuming if these are theatre mics they are the more sensitive 4060 version. It could also be you have a bad mic. You can test them by using the preamp to power the mics plugging into your recorder set to unity gain and screaming directly into your mics not very scientific but they should not overload when the preamp is at 12oclock and your recorder is set to unity gain.

[ilduclo]

the 9100 does not draw ant power 

I'm not so sure about drawing ant power, but here's, instead, a drawing of a powerful ant

[Church-Audio]

the 9100 does not draw ant power 

I'm not so sure about drawing ant power, but here's, instead, a drawing of a powerful ant

lol meant to say "any power" not ant power

[fandelive]

It's a shame if DPA4060 were sold for DPA4061. Is there a way to visually tell the difference between DPA 4060 and 4061 ?
I know they came from London musicals. Mics still had some painting marks and actors names on the wires when I got them.

If the band around the cable which has the serial number printed on it is red, its a 4061.
If the band around the cable which has the serial number printed on it is white, its a 4060.

Oh no, that ebay reseller sold me 4060's for 4061's... (see attached pic)
As I chopped the two original LEMO plugs and made the mics terminated with one single mini-jack plug, I don't see the seller taking them back or replacing them with 4061's. I'm gonna ask him if we can set up a deal cos', still, it's a shame... I'm really upset right now.

[Gutbucket]

I still suspect the primary problem was a weak battery.  Have you experienced the same distortion problem again since the original occurrence, using a fully charged fresh 9V in the preamp? 

Yes, of course you should have received what was advertized, and yes the 4061 may be a somewhat better fit for your recording use, but I hesitate to conclude that the 4060 will not work for you.

[ilduclo]

the 4060's should be AOK when powered correctly, the specs for the 4061's are 144 dB SPL Before Clipping, 4060's are 134dB SPL 

both of these are significantly high for LOUD shows like Melvins, Earth, Sunn, etc

again, for loud shows it is simplest to use your battery box rather than a preamp. A lot less can go wrong thataway!

[fandelive]

I still suspect the primary problem was a weak battery.  Have you experienced the same distortion problem again since the original occurrence, using a fully charged fresh 9V in the preamp? 

I've recorded another show 6 days ago and didn't experienced any distortion problem with a fresh battery and the CA-9100 set at ~10 o'clock.
But, I'm pretty sure the show was not as loud as the previous one as it was a semi-acoustic gig and I was standing further away from the speakers.

I taped 4 shows so far with the DPA's. The louder they were, the more brickwalled my tapes are.

the 4060's should be AOK when powered correctly, the specs for the 4061's are 144 dB SPL Before Clipping, 4060's are 134dB SPL 

both of these are significantly high for LOUD shows like Melvins, Earth, Sunn, etc

again, for loud shows it is simplest to use your battery box rather than a preamp. A lot less can go wrong thataway!

I mainly record hard-rock bands like Rival Sons (think led Zeppelin) and do stack taping. It's loud.
I first taped with MM-HLSC-1's (Sennheiser MKE 2's - max SPL: 138dB) and had to made them 4.7k modded to achieve non-brickwalled results.

[Gutbucket]

Okay, close stack taping may reach a level where 4061 are required.

Have you tried running these powered by your battery box rather than the preamp in a loud stack-taping situation?  That would be the next thing I'd suggest trying before concluding that the distortion is actually from the microphones and not the preamp.

[fandelive]

Have you tried running these powered by your battery box rather than the preamp in a loud stack-taping situation?

Ok, I'm going to try this next time. I don't see the ebay seller taking the mics back anyway.
I still have my MM-HLSC-1 backup as I run both... Both tapes from that last semi-acoustig gig I was talking about are great sounding, and I even think the Sennheisers smoked the DPAs on that occasion (even when EQ'ed)

[Church-Audio]

I don't care what anyone says the 4060 will overload at concert levels it's not the preamp unless you have weak batteries. The mics are getting slammed acoustically with very high spl if most of the distortion is in the low end you know it's mic overload.

[ilduclo]

fyi

actual decibel levels of "the loudest" ever recorded

http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/10-Loudest-Rock-Bands.aspx

[daspyknows]

I have run into brickwalling issues running line in to my DR-2D using Schoeps MK4 and RBox twice.  The RBox runs a hotter signal than the NBox which has never had the issue.  The gain on your pre-amp may be the culprit.  BTW the two shows I had the issue were Steel Pulse and Aerosmith, bot extremely loud with lots of low end