MD for temporary Pre-amp

[funk_pie]

new poster here.  i've been taping a few years with my MD that recently took a turn for the worse.  a happened upon a good deal on a JB3 and I snagged it.  I understand these things don't have preamps in them, and the firmware that allows a mic-in essentially takes the same line in and just allows for a higher boost which I imagine is noisy as hell.  so until i get some more dough for something better, i was thinking of using a buddy's MD for a preamp to drive the line in.   if i were to do so, does anyone know if the signal goes through the ATRAC compression even if it's not recording?  or any info on the signal processing through an MD (particularly a Sharp 702 that doesn't record anymore due to the dreaded TOC error, but should work fine to boost the level).   any insight on running a mic directly to line-in (MS907)?  Thanks, John

[Scuba Jeremy]

Sounds like it would work. What kind of mics are you using, and can you use a battery box to raise the mics to line level for recording via the line input on the JB3 instead of using an MD deck as a preamp? I would imagine the results would be far superior.

[wolfgang]

I did the (almost) exact same thing this weekend. I used the MD as a preamp to an iAudio X5. During testing this method I had a lot of clipping, so I lowered the recording level and ended up not getting any recording at all   

[nihilistic0]

This is a solid idea

Im going to try this with my old MD recorder and see if I can get good results

[CHURCH-AUDIO]

Why not just break down and buy one of my preamps?
I will even give you a discount because I feel sorry for you. The fact that you had to go to this level just to get audio into your JB3 shows me your worthy. What ever preamp you want that I make 15% off the price.


Chris Church
Church Audio

new poster here.  i've been taping a few years with my MD that recently took a turn for the worse.  a happened upon a good deal on a JB3 and I snagged it.  I understand these things don't have preamps in them, and the firmware that allows a mic-in essentially takes the same line in and just allows for a higher boost which I imagine is noisy as hell.  so until i get some more dough for something better, i was thinking of using a buddy's MD for a preamp to drive the line in.   if i were to do so, does anyone know if the signal goes through the ATRAC compression even if it's not recording?  or any info on the signal processing through an MD (particularly a Sharp 702 that doesn't record anymore due to the dreaded TOC error, but should work fine to boost the level).   any insight on running a mic directly to line-in (MS907)?  Thanks, John

[funk_pie]

Well, I used it on the 30th and 31st Galactic shows.   MS907>sharp702>JB3.   I was pretty pleased with the results, although I really don't have anything to compare it to, other than straight to MD recording, which this was better IMO.  If not just because the JB3 made it nice to have a digital transfer and PCM wav.  The 702 seemed to 'remember' the recording level after being turned off, so that was a neat suprise.  I put up the opener's set over here: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=24026 if anyone would like to hear it.  One thing that puzzled me was I got a brief dropout a few seconds into the show.  Not sure why but I'm guessing that adjusting the recording level on the 702 caused it.

Sounds like it would work. What kind of mics are you using, and can you use a battery box to raise the mics to line level for recording via the line input on the JB3 instead of using an MD deck as a preamp? I would imagine the results would be far superior.

My good ole Sony MS907 stereo electret.  Not sure what hooking it up to a battery box would do as it runs on one internal AA battery. 

Why not just break down and buy one of my preamps?
I will even give you a discount because I feel sorry for you. The fact that you had to go to this level just to get audio into your JB3 shows me your worthy. What ever preamp you want that I make 15% off the price.


Chris Church
Church Audio

Wow that is mighty generous of you.  Um, things are tight right now, I'm not going to be comfortable again for a couple months at least but I''ll definately keep you in mind when I'm really ready to get into the market for a decent preamp.  I'll contact you to see if the offer is still available.

I appreciate the feedback folks. -John