Topic: Tascam FR-AV2 new compact 32bit float recorder.

[spyder9]

SMALLRIG NP-F970 << Not a power bank.

[Joop]

Just updated version 102 . last night i had some dropouts on channel 1 First set fine second set about 6 min mar channel 1 had intermittent drop offs then ok then drop offs it finally cleared up about the 8min mark of the second set . last night was with version 1.00 tried to duplicate all good . had DPA 4080's xlr in Linked and ganged . maybe the new firmware will fix this but it maybe something else 128 g Sandisk ultra should be fin e't know what the issue was .

According to the manual you have to format the card in the recorder. You can't use formatted cards by windows or strait out of the package. Next there are  memory cards and memory cards. You have to be keen on the fact if the card can handle the data stream, so you need cards special for this purpose. If not you could experience the effect you wrote about.

[rastasean]

Interesting B&H says new item - coming soon.
Wonder if that's just because of restocking...

[Ozpeter]

The Avisoft site has this device at number 8 (joint with the Portacapture devices) in their noise-ranked table.  Above it, the Zoom F6, above that the F3.  But the differences are neither here nor there. 

[dogmusic]

Interesting that the Fostex FR2LE, a 13 year old recorder, is number 3, above the Zooms.

[heva]

Interesting that the Fostex FR2LE, a 13 year old recorder, is number 3, above the Zooms.

It IS very quiet 

[TheJez]

Boy oh boy, I do feel embarresed. I got a response from Tascam regarding the file split issue...

The problem you describe could not be reconstructed. We have tested with several audio editors.
The FR-AV2 does not write any fade-outs or -ins, when splitting files. It will cut straight into the waveform, even when it is not at a zero point. All our test results were perfectly seemless cuts.
Therefore we believe that your editor app/DAW might automatically create short fade-ins, when encountering files that do not begin on zero point. Please check your app settings to change this preset.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best Regards,

Stupid me... Now I checked the 2nd and 3rd file of a 'splitted recording' separately, so without appending them to the first. And indeed, all files don't have the fade-ins! It turns out it was caused by a setting in Audition called 'Smooth all edit boundaries by cross-fading x ms' (where x can be set by user, in my case it was set to 5ms). See attached picture. After disabling this option, doing an 'append' results in a seamless split! See other attached picture.
So for once and for all, and with my deepest apologies to Tascam and anybody reading this:

There are NO file split issues with the Tascam FR-AV2!

@Kyle: Did you manage to figure out your issues at the end of the files?

[Kyle K]

Interesting. I am not quite sure what setting in REAPER would cause anything like I saw, I have not modified my workflow at all from when I was working with files with splits via A10 pretty regularly. My issue seemed different from yours though. Both my AV2s produced files with identical extreme clipping at the END of the break points, as opposed to the fades. Break points between devices were at different points in the show.

https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=205834.msg2418945#msg2418945

The fact that they report clean splits is interesting. I will see if I can replicate at home but I'm not super optimistic -- as I said, I am pretty sure I didn't see this in home environment testing, only out in the field (SBD/Stage matrix)........ no idea why it would have occurred one place but not the other.

So yeah, I'll see if I can replicate with a closer eye & current settings, and if I can't, I guess I'll just have to pray at next shows!

[heva]

Interesting. Indeed.
Recently found the same in Reaper with a 192/24 file from a dr100mk3 - also not seamless and not having seen that before,  but it wasn’t an issue in that case.

[TheJez]

Interesting. Indeed.
Recently found the same in Reaper with a 192/24 file from a dr100mk3 - also not seamless and not having seen that before,  but it wasn’t an issue in that case.

I downloaded the latest REAPER 64bits for windows (7.27) and opened a couple of files created with the FR-AV2. All of them seem perfectly fine at the end.
Maybe it’s worth mentioning the version and platform where you get the problems? Or maybe share a problematic file to see how it behaves with other software?

[heva]

It has been a few months, if it occurs I'll start a new thread - now back to the FR-AV2 ;-)

[goodcooker]

I was able to use mine last night for the first time when a friend called and offered me a ticket to City and Colour. Used the 3.5 mm input on 5V with CA11 cardioids. It wasn't an ideal taping location being way off to the side but I was within 25 feet of the stack. Turned out nice considering all I had was a SRS XY mount for the mics and how off center I was.

The deck performed as expected, mic power was adequate for a volume level that required earplugs pretty close to the stacks and battery life was far better than expected. I recorded both bands around 2h:45m and used less than half of the AAs (freshly charged but pretty old Eneloop 1900mah).

I'll get the show tracked and on my Soundcloud for sharing in the next couple days. Great show go see City and Colour if you can!

I bought this deck mainly for use with P48 full size mics but it performs quite well with CA11 on the ext in. No better or worse than the Korg MR1 or the Sony A10 I've been using but no battery box required so that's a plus. It's quite a bit larger than the A10 so if I had to be worried about getting it in I'd still go with the A10.

[goodcooker]

Here's a Soundcloud link to the City and Colour show I recorded Sunday - https://on.soundcloud.com/AfuZKqXSHbPJaba39 - no processing other than gain adjustments. I was off to the side about 20-25 feet away from the stack. CA11 cardioids in a SRS XY mount straight into the EXT IN with 5V PIP. On the last three songs I moved around a little - last two songs hugging the stack from about 10 feet away with the mic mount taped to the strap of my shoulder bag.

[unclehoolio]

I'd say yes, there's no analog gain.

For what it's worth--and maybe this has already been fully clarified elsewhere in this thread (which I admit I have not read from start to finish), in which case my apologies for the redundancy--there is no analog input stage gain control whatsoever on this new tascam unit.  I emailed Tascam directly to ask about this (back in September), since the manual's section on 'Setting the Recording Level' was not clear, and their answer was "REC LEVEL is done at the digital stage"

which, to my mind, makes it unnecessary to try to adjust the REC LEVEL while recording, as there is no advantage or benefit to doing so then vs. later, in post.

If anyone else has more current info from Tascam on analog gain control / REC LEVEL domain that contradicts the answer I received from them, please let me/us know!

[Ozpeter]

It seems to me that having analog input level on a 32 bit float recorder does risk undermining the whole point.  I do feel that a key benefit of 32 bit float devices is that the whole signal chain can be optimised end to end - the mic (if built in) can be matched to the preamp, and the preamp matched to the a/d converter, using the maximum preamp gain which the a/d stage can handle, because max preamp gain gives lowest noise. On the very modest 32 bit float devices I have, the chosen level seems to be what I would have chosen myself, if that makes sense.  It's almost as if the device is using auto gain control, but fixed, and set by mind reading and time travel to the correct setting at the outset...