Hello,

We're buying a PMD670 to capture the output of a sound board at a
conference. Typically it will be one speaker at a time, at a podium. The
desired end product is a CD-ROM with conference materials and audio. Around
13-17 hours of audio.

It is a corporate environment so most users will have Windows IE and Media
Player to use with the CD. The thought is to compress the audio into a WMA
file. The first day will also be video'd and parts of that may be included
as WMV files.

Question is, what would be the appropriate settings and file type to use
during the initial capture? The Marantz has a host of choices (see
http://www.marantz.co.jp/eng/pro_asia/pmd670.html) and I want to avoid
artifacts during the conversion to WMA. Sound Forge is available if needed.

Thanks,

Chip Gallo

Chip Gallo wrote:

what would be the appropriate settings and file type to use
during the initial capture? The Marantz has a host of choices (see
http://www.marantz.co.jp/eng/pro_asia/pmd670.html) and I want to avoid
artifacts during the conversion to WMA.

Then record in MP2 or MP3 and distribute in that format rather than WMA.
Or redord as uncompressed .WAV and compress to WMA in post.

Chip Gallo wrote:

what would be the appropriate settings and file type to use
during the initial capture? The Marantz has a host of choices (see
http://www.marantz.co.jp/eng/pro_asia/pmd670.html) and I want to avoid
artifacts during the conversion to WMA.

You should record in MP2/MP3 and distribute in that format rather than
WMA. Or record as uncompressed .WAV and compress to WMA in post.

Hello,

We're buying a PMD670 to capture the output of a sound board at a
conference. Typically it will be one speaker at a time, at a podium. The
desired end product is a CD-ROM with conference materials and audio.
Around
13-17 hours of audio.

It is a corporate environment so most users will have Windows IE and Media
Player to use with the CD. The thought is to compress the audio into a WMA
file. The first day will also be video'd and parts of that may be included
as WMV files.

Question is, what would be the appropriate settings and file type to use
during the initial capture? The Marantz has a host of choices (see
http://www.marantz.co.jp/eng/pro_asia/pmd670.html) and I want to avoid
artifacts during the conversion to WMA. Sound Forge is available if
needed.

Use a Nomad Jukebox 3 instead, can record the entire conference to its
internal 20GB HD in MP3, WMA, or uncompressed WAV format, it timestamps all
the files for you for organization, and nothing's faster for transfering to
a computer (over Firewire at 32x with no handling of CD's). It's also got
many more uses than a dedicated recorder, sounds just as good, and costs
much less, list price $299. I've recorded probably 200 hours on mine, rock
solid stable, not a single glitch.

If I were you I'd record uncompressed since you'll have to decompress MP3 or
WMA to edit the recordings (fade in/out, normalize, etc), then compress
again.

Use a Nomad Jukebox 3 instead, can record the entire conference to its
internal 20GB HD in MP3, WMA, or uncompressed WAV format, it timestamps all
the files for you for organization, and nothing's faster for transfering to
a computer (over Firewire at 32x with no handling of CD's). It's also got
many more uses than a dedicated recorder, sounds just as good, and costs
much less, list price $299. I've recorded probably 200 hours on mine, rock
solid stable, not a single glitch.

I've used the Nomad extensively (over a 1000 hours) and and PMD670
somewhat less (100 hours). I'd have to disagree with you regarding the
Nomad. The Nomad does have greater storage today; however, microdrives
are increasing in capacity.

In any event, transfering from a CF card is quick using a simple $15
reader. Further, CF cards can be transported more reliably than
transporting an entire Nomad (I've had one DOA which luckily had
already been uploaded).

Next the PMD670 timestamps all files as well and not only that but you
can set the clock on it via the PMD670 rather than having to connect
to a PC. Did I mention that CF cards can be read on a Mac but you
can't access the Nomad with a Mac.

The PMD670 has a built in stereo mic preamp, with phantom power.
Adding this to the Nomad bumps the price up to near the price of a
PMD670 (Denecke AD20 == $330).

The PMD670 is a heck of lot quiter than the Nomad. Also you can set
the encoding on a per input basis and the unit remembers the settings
across power-offs, unlike the Nomad that always resets to default
128Kbps (or is it 192Kbps?) each time you go out of record mode.

I use the recorders principally for field recording lectures so that
compression isn't an issue. When recording other material using high
bit rates or straight PCM recording is available.