Topic: Pico Gear recorder

[Popmarter]

https://www.picogear.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorTHrKhbAjWBfIEmde2C2JTq6Ws5tTUume0LpQRC_Tseh0EXF41

Curtis video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb3HBVTHyj0

Have a go on this. It is a nice size for 32 bit float. Not really sure if these wireless things add something for us, but there must be people here who have something clever to say.

[goodcooker]

Neat device. Has a ton of features I'd be interested in even though it's clearly marketed towards videographers.

They thought it through very well before the release and included a bunch of things that are lacking in other similar recorders. I especially like being able to convert another mic signal to a wireless signal and then receive it remotely at the recorder. It's smart to build in access to mics you already own and like instead of making it only compatible with their own brand of mic. You have to buy one of their mics to turn it into a transmitter but adding that USB > TRS adapter cable is smart and cheaper than having to buy another piece of the kit.

[TheJez]

It's an intriguing device indeed. Very compact for the number of channels and easy to use, apparently.
I am a bit puzzled and suspicious about the 32bit claims, though. E.g. for the two mono analog inputs on the device, it says '32 bit inputs'. How can an analog input be 32 bits? It's all up to the processing of the inputs (single pre-amp/ADC v.s. multi pre-amp/ADC). As there is no mention whatsoever about multi ADC, I can only assume it's all single ADC, hence likely 24-bit??
Same for the mics: The manual says "Each PicoMic samples the audio in 32-bits directly", but what does this mean? Are these inputs in fact 24-bit ADC, then simply adding 8 zero-bits to make it 32 bit? Afaik, there are no 32bit ADC's yet, if there ever will be...
The manual consistently mentions '32 bit', when talking about the inputs and the transmission between mic and recorder, and only talks about '32 bit float' when talking about storing the recording as wav files on the SD-card. Once you have all the (up to) 8 channels digitally inside the recorder, I can imagine the device first converts to 32 bit floating point before doing all the gain processing and mixing and recording...
A very nice feature is the ability to connect an external mic to the transmitter. This is done by means of a 3.5mm TRS to USB-C cable. As USB-C doesn't carry any analog signals, only digital signals, it means that the mic pre-amplification and ADC has to be done within that little TRS-to-USB cable. It's doable, obviously, but how good can that be? And how truly 32-bit can that be? I don't expect dual pre-amp/ADC + required DSP processing inside those connectors...
No mention of analog gain control anywhere in the manual for the two analog inputs nor the external mic connection on the transmitters... All gain control seems to be in the digital realm, so after ADC... How would it deal with very sensitive external mics? Or very insensitive external mics? There might be a big risk of clipping or noisy recordings in other than average situations...
Another concern for me for e.g. stealthing concerts would be the reliability of the wireless connections when there are many people around carrying phones trying to connect to wifi or cellular networks... It might be a challenge...
Oh, and when reading the manual, I can't find anything about panning the channels left/right in the mix. Unless I'm misreading, this would mean that the left and right channel in the recorded mix and on the analog output would be identical, hence dual-mono instead of true stereo. But maybe this is something they might provide with a firmware update some day, I don't know...
I guess the device could be indeed very nice for creators, but doesn't seem the perfect device for concert recording...