[Tobiah]

Any one know what the noise level would be like
in this thing?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/FlashMic/

I was thinking about recording nature sounds, which
really requires quiet mics and preamps.

I've been looking at reviews of all of the new
flash type recorders, and the achilles heal always
seems to be the mic pre's, if the unit is under $1000.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[anahata]

Tobiah wrote:
Any one know what the noise level would be like
in this thing?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/FlashMic/
Running on 2 x AA batteries, the "Sennheiser condenser capsule" in it is
certain to be an electret, which means that it's likely to be at the
noisy end of the studio condenser mic spectrum.

I was thinking about recording nature sounds, which
really requires quiet mics and preamps.

I've been looking at reviews of all of the new
flash type recorders, and the achilles heal always
seems to be the mic pre's, if the unit is under $1000.

Your best bet is likely to be a recorder with real phantom powered XLR
inputs, so you can choose an externally polarized condenser for low
noise like a Rode NT1A. The output from such mics is so high that mic
pre noise in the recorder is unlikely to be a problem.

Isn't there a Marantz PMDxxx (xxx=some number) that fits that description?

--
Anahata
-+- http://www.treewind.co.uk
Home: 01638 720444 Mob: 07976 263827

[hank alrich]

Tobiah wrote:

Any one know what the noise level would be like
in this thing?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/FlashMic/

I was thinking about recording nature sounds, which
really requires quiet mics and preamps.

I've been looking at reviews of all of the new
flash type recorders, and the achilles heal always
seems to be the mic pre's, if the unit is under $1000.

You might want to examine the Korg MR1 DSD recorder. It's under a grand.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

[Scott Dorsey]

hank alrich wrote:
Tobiah wrote:

Any one know what the noise level would be like
in this thing?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/FlashMic/

I was thinking about recording nature sounds, which
really requires quiet mics and preamps.

I've been looking at reviews of all of the new
flash type recorders, and the achilles heal always
seems to be the mic pre's, if the unit is under $1000.

You might want to examine the Korg MR1 DSD recorder. It's under a grand.

Considering that you have digital electronics packed in a tiny box,
in close proximity with analogue circuits with 40 or more dB of gain,
it's a wonder these handheld things work at ALL.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Richard Crowley]

"Tobiah" wrote ...
Any one know what the noise level would be like
in this thing?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/FlashMic/

I was thinking about recording nature sounds, which
really requires quiet mics and preamps.

I wouldn't buy one unless I had the option of returning it.
I would NOT have any expectations of either exceptional
sensitivity or good signal-to-noise ratio for such a gadget,
regardless of price. It was just not designed/optimized for
such niche applications as nature sound recording.

I've been looking at reviews of all of the new
flash type recorders, and the achilles heal always
seems to be the mic pre's, if the unit is under $1000.

There are more pitfalls than just the mic preamp. See
Mr. Dorsey's reply.

[Tobiah]

You might want to examine the Korg MR1 DSD recorder. It's under a grand.


It's not clear to me that the 'balanced' inputs have phantom power. The
big brother, the M-1000 looks great, but all I can find on the net is
hype. No sober analysis of the quality of the mic pre's.

Tobiah

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[hank alrich]

Tobiah wrote:

You might want to examine the Korg MR1 DSD recorder. It's under a grand.


It's not clear to me that the 'balanced' inputs have phantom power. The
big brother, the M-1000 looks great, but all I can find on the net is
hype. No sober analysis of the quality of the mic pre's.

Tobiah

See Craig Anderton's comments in his brief _EQ_ review. I can't imagine
the pres in the MR1000 are going to be worse than the ones in the MR1,
and he liked those.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

[Edi Zubovic]

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:19:38 -0800, Tobiah wrote:

Any one know what the noise level would be like
in this thing?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/FlashMic/

I was thinking about recording nature sounds, which
really requires quiet mics and preamps.

I've been looking at reviews of all of the new
flash type recorders, and the achilles heal always
seems to be the mic pre's, if the unit is under $1000.


-- I recieved a Sony PCM-D1 from Japan yesterday (it seems that it
isn't available in Europe still). I haven't tested it fully as yet,
but I did make a recording in my fairly quiet room during the night,
where I could crank the input fully, 10 out of 10. The recording shows
a level of self-noise, but it is not prominent -- kind of a pink
noise -- and in normal use, say 5 or 6 out of 10 for ambient
recordings with predicable levels, the noise shouldn't be of a concern
at all. Handling noise is something to care about, though, but it
should not be a problem with a proper care and decoupling.

As to build and recording quality, I'm very satisfied so far but I
have yet to test it at the first musical event coming. I think I
should have any problems with at all.


Edi Zubovic, Crikvenica, Croatia

[Mike Rivers]

On Mar 20, 10:31 pm, Tobiah wrote:
You might want to examine the Korg MR1 DSD recorder.

It's not clear to me that the 'balanced' inputs have phantom power.

It says nothing about phantom power, so I would assume not. It does,
however, have mini phone input jacks, so these could be TRS jacks and
be balanced as claimed. Here are the "specs" as such:

INPUT 1-2:
Connectors:
Mini Phone Jack (balanced)

Input Impedance:
10 K Ohm

Nominal Level:
LINE -6dBV, MIC -39dBV

Maximum Level:
LINE +6dBV, MIC -27dBV

The 10K input impedance is probably fine for most transformerless
condenser mics (and even most ribbon mics) but wouldn't work well
with, say, SM57s. The fact that the nominal level and maximum level
are only 12 dB apart suggests that they might be pushing up the
nominal level to make S/N ratio numbers look better.

Paul and Arny seem to have relative output levels of microphones at
their fingertips, so perhaps they'll chime in with how loud a sound
needs to be in front of a typical microphone to get -27 dBV (about 45
mV) out of it. There's plenty of sensitivity for recording a band with
most microphones, but maybe not a babbling brook.