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Jay Norwood
November 1st 03, 05:20 AM
I've been recording several years at a church that has light dimmer noise,
and have tried a bunch of equipment updates to improve the sound. km-184
mics, Grace Designs 8 channel preamp, Tascam 24 bit tape machine was my
setup until two weeks ago. Still some 10khz lighting buzz. Then I added
the RME ADI-8DS as the A-D converter, and there was a great improvement. I
have to conclude that the DA-78HR power supply regulation is not too good
for dimmer buzz situations. Next session I'm adding the PS-Audio 500 power
supply, and hope that improves it a little more.

A couple of notes about the ADI8-DS. I was hoping to run the AUX to the
Tascam digital mixer for recording and playback. It worked ok for recording
monitor, but the setup isn't really wired for passthrough monitoring of
the playback signal... especially awkward to accomplish it if you want to
stay with the ADI's internal clock. I'd prefer to have the AUX TDIF provide
an option as a pass-through from the TDIF recorder outputs rather than
duplicating a-d signal directly.

A second problem was that the DA78HR would not sync to the adi's TDIF
connectors word clock. It required connection of the external word clock
cable to achieve the sync.

A third problem is that the spacing of their connectors for the
multi-channel analog input was too close to the TDIF connector accept the 8
channel balanced cable that Monster Cable supplies as the high-end
substitute for Tascam cables, so I ended up having to run multiple single
channel balanced cables from the preamp to the 1/4 inch balanced inputs.

I really liked the range adjustment inputs to the a/d converters. I didn't
try the ribbon mics at this last session, but it appeared that the lower a/d
range setting would provide a good range for compatibility with a medium
preamp boost of the low ribbon mic levels.

I've been pretty happy with the RME stuff overall. I use their hammerfall
card with Samplitude for input and editing.

Scott Dorsey
November 1st 03, 02:03 PM
In article >, Jay Norwood > wrote:
>I've been recording several years at a church that has light dimmer noise,
>and have tried a bunch of equipment updates to improve the sound. km-184
>mics, Grace Designs 8 channel preamp, Tascam 24 bit tape machine was my
>setup until two weeks ago. Still some 10khz lighting buzz. Then I added
>the RME ADI-8DS as the A-D converter, and there was a great improvement. I
>have to conclude that the DA-78HR power supply regulation is not too good
>for dimmer buzz situations. Next session I'm adding the PS-Audio 500 power
>supply, and hope that improves it a little more.

You have two problems: RF coming up the power line into the equipment through
the power supply, and RF radiated through the air into your mike cables.

Nothing you can do to the power supply will solve the radiated RF trouble,
although transformer isolation at the mike preamp might.

I have had an ADI-8 in my little 8-track field kit for a while, and it's
a decently designed box. I think the analogue section could be cleaned up
a little, but it's pretty amazing for the price.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Kurt Albershardt
November 1st 03, 02:54 PM
Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
> I have had an ADI-8 in my little 8-track field kit for a while, and it's
> a decently designed box. I think the analogue section could be cleaned up
> a little

It can!

Tommy B
November 1st 03, 04:25 PM
Is that the Jim Williams update ?
Tom
"Kurt Albershardt" > wrote in message
...
> Scott Dorsey wrote:
> >
> > I have had an ADI-8 in my little 8-track field kit for a while, and it's
> > a decently designed box. I think the analogue section could be cleaned
up
> > a little
>
> It can!
>
>
>
>
>

Kurt Albershardt
November 1st 03, 06:31 PM
Tommy B wrote:

> Is that the Jim Williams update ?
> Tom
> "Kurt Albershardt" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>
>>> I have had an ADI-8 in my little 8-track field kit for a while, and it's
>>> a decently designed box. I think the analogue section could be cleaned
>>> up a little
>>
>> It can!
>
> Is that the Jim Williams update ?

Yes. New opamps, replaced all the coupling caps and added bypass caps
underneath the board. Also some extra power supply bypass caps.