Topic: M-Audio MicroTracker details **PART II**

[Ed.]

i find it amusing that his response was more or less a commercial for PDAudio and the mic2496 he sells.

[nickgregory]

Only PDAudio with Mic2496 allows for recording at 192 KS/s. Only PDAudio
with Mic2496 allows you to record while passing on a digital signal (optical
or coax) for a daisy chain of other digital tapers.

I guess he doesnt consider the 722/744 competition...

[Ray76]

i find it amusing that his response was more or less a commercial for PDAudio and the mic2496 he sells.

me too

the best commercial the guy could have is if he treated his friggin customers with respect instead of acting like he shouldnt be bothered.  

[Chad817]

i find it amusing that his response was more or less a commercial for PDAudio and the mic2496 he sells.

yeah, I felt like I was listening to an infomercial.  Personally, I just want this to be as reliable as a jb3 with a digital signal and give me those 24 bits I've been craving.  I can't wait to hear the first impressions.

[The Kilted Taper]

i find it amusing that his response was more or less a commercial for PDAudio and the mic2496 he sells.

What gave you that idea???




 Oh, the fact that the last several paragraphs all started with ONLY THE PDADUIO....

[macdaddy]

i wasnt trying to start a flame fest - i was simply trying to bring additional information and another perspective to light...

[Ray76]

i wasnt trying to start a flame fest - i was simply trying to bring additional information and another perspective to light...

Sorry mac, inappropriate on my part. The name len/core sounds though inspires flames on its own.

[nickgregory]

i wasnt trying to start a flame fest - i was simply trying to bring additional information and another perspective to light...

didnt think you were...honestly though, Len makes the same comments that I have in the back of my mind....I look at the size of the Maudio and I have a hard time believing that it will perform as this giant killer given that at the sale price of $399...lets assume that they get a 20% margin...so they sell these to retailers at $299...that isnt alot of money to recoup the costs of materials and manufacturing...much less the sunk r&d costs and overhead contribution that the product probably has to contribute to.

This being said, I am absolutely hopeful that they have "redesigned the wheel" so to speak with some new ingenious way to do things....guess we will have to wait and see when it comes out....

[The Kilted Taper]

I've never viewed it as a giant killer, but as an upgrade/replacement for the JB3. No dilusions of it being anywhere near the 722/744 at 5X's+ the cost. As long as the digi in is decent, and I can use it to stealth, all is good with me. I don't have a $$$$$ playback system, but can play back 24/96 DVD's.

[Ed.]

yeah, i didn't mean to flame, but come on, he said PDAudio like 50 times.

he also brings up good points as well, but the jb3 is far from being pro gear, but it suits many of our needs perfectly.  like everyone else has said, if it can do what the jb3 does, plus solid state media, plus 24/96 successfully, then i think a lot of us have found our future recorder.  no its not a 722/44t, but many of us don't need that, or don't have the cash sitting around to fund one.  personally, i'm not expecting this to compete with the pro 24bit recorders at all, just expecting it to accept the 24bit signal my v3 sends it.

[silentmark]

Just another sales pitch from a company that is flakey to begin with ...

[mmedley.]

I have faith in M-Audio. I am sure they will please. M-Auidio has a bigger budget and can recover the cost of R&D, etc much faster than that half assed PD-Audio crap. I do find it funny that Len goes on and on about the PD-Audio rig and how it can do all these different things. I have only seen a handful of successful 2496 recordings on one, and not a single 24/192 recording. As far as I know there are still no successful Windows drivers for this card. Whats it been 2-3 years? The funny thing is, when you add up all the shit that is required to run the PDAudio 'forever' you are in the price range for a 722. M-Audio has a much bigger fan base, treats their customers with respect, and has a larger market share when it comes to consumer/pro audio. They will most certainly be able to offset any losses within the first few weeks of this things release. I am looking forward to it. I am not on a list for one yet though. I'm gonna wait til it hits the street and see everyones review of it, but for $400-$500 this thing is a no brainer for me. I can personally justify 3 or 4 2gig CF cards too. I can finally ditch the bigass laptop. I am still also courting the idea for a 744 as well though. Someone needs to hurry up and put one in the Yard Sale. I am in no rush. Decisions. Decisions.

[John Kelly]

As long as the digi in is decent, and I can use it to stealth, all is good with me.

That's the thing with the digi in - it either works or it doesn't - there's no margin for recording 1s and 0s. Can't really define it as decent.

Well, maybe a resampled digi in is considered "decent" to a lot of people, but I'd consider that not working.

[Todd R]

I look at the size of the Maudio and I have a hard time believing that it will perform as this giant killer given that at the sale price of $399

I'll echo what has been said already -- I don't think any of the folks who are so excited about the MicroTracker believe it will be a giant killer.  I think the great hope is that this will become a modern replacement to the Sony portable DAT.  That is, it will be a good unit to capture digital bits, particularly 24-bit digital bits.  And it can function as a decent stealth recorder.  I'm sure lots of folks will want to stealth only with the Microtracker if it is any good at all, just like there are plenty of people who stealth with nothing but a D8.  But many other stealthers can still use it paired with a modSBM1 to make high quality 16-bit recordings, without (hopefully) the finickyness of DAT decks or the fragility of optical cables (not to mention the size of the JB3).  If the line-in is any good, a 24-bit DPA 4061> DPA MMA6000> Microtracker could be a very nice, high end, and compact stealth setup.

And many other folks like me will want to run the microtrack as a bit capture device.  I would never think that the microtrack would stand up to the 722, but a V3>microtrack might certainly stand up to it, and may well be better to some ears.  It might stack up as well as V2>722, esp depending on your tastes, and would be smaller and cheaper.  Bottom line, the microtracker I don't think is expected to be a giant killer on its own, but it stands a chance to really open up the field of 24-bit taping.  24-bit stealth taping, and 24-bit taping with a MMe, a V3, a modUA5, or a AD2k+, without the need for a laptop.  That to me is pretty exciting, since it may well mean that 24-bit taping becomes the typical standard, not just done by the few with a 722 or the few that have the stomach to figure out how to reliably record 24 bit on a laptop or PDA.

[nic]

Len makes a basic mistake in that this is not M-Audios first portable DC mic pre/phantom device.

their FW series units are DC powered.
their Recording Guitarist Black-box has everything but DC power(its bigger than the Micro-Track but it has a hell of alot more features).

while I agree that the phantom/pre/adc will not be the best you can get, there has to be tradeoffs in relation to the size of the unit vs cost. I wont be using the phantom/pre/adc, I have a V3 to handle all of that...I just want this as a cheap/small 24 bit solid-state dat replacement and I honestly believe this will be a solid unit for that purpose.

this is a pro-sumer device, no one should be expecting this to be a serious competitor to the 722/744, CantarX, Xeva, etc...it's not and doesnt pretend to be.