[Audio Empire]

I've been wanting to leave my computer at home when on-site recording for
quite a while now. When I saw a chance to purchase a Korg MR-1 at a fantastic
price ($250), I jumped at it.

I know there are some recording types here (Arnie, for one) so I thought this
might be of interest.

Just before Christmas, I was recording a holiday concert by a local and well
known wind orchestra (euphemism for band). They were accompanied by an also
well known local choir. I arrived at the venue (a huge, modern church with a
40 ft ceiling!) early and set up my microphones: A stereo Evantone CK-40
(looks almost exactly like a Telefunken M-216, except it's FET instead of
tube and the mike body is red instead of sandy/gray) was set in front of the
band in cardioid X-Y configuration and the choir, which was over the
stage-right side of the band in the choir loft, was miked with a pair of
Behringer B-2Pros on a T-Bar, also as a Cardioid X-Y pair. I usually use M-S
for symphonic bands and orchestras, but I wanted to avoid bleed-over between
the band and the choir as much as possible so I used the more isolating
cardioid patterns (with a portable mike baffle behind the choir mikes).

While I was setting up the rest of my stuff, the band arrived and started to
move larger instruments; drums, a harp, glockenspiel, piano, etc., on to the
stage. Meanwhile a local radio personality whom I have know for many years
but hadn't seen in ages showed up (to do a narration) and he started to chat
me up (I bet you can see where this is heading) as I connected things to my
mixer, connected it to my 24/96 ADC and finally, via Firewire to my laptop. I
launched Audacity (which I use to record at 32-bit floating-point and 96 KHz
sampling rate) and I finally was ready just as the conductor started to do a
"sound check". Listening through my Koss Pro-4 As (have still never found a
better headphone for isolating my ears from the direct sound of a musical
ensemble in the same room with my recording equipment) plugged in to the
Allen & Heath mixer I was using, for overall balance between choir and band,
I was ready - or so I thought.

As the music started to play, I noticed that the left and right "VU meter"
bars in Audacity were tracking EXACTLY together as were the right and left
waveforms on the screen as the two tracks were laid down. Jeez! I thought.
I'm recording in MONO! I was hearing stereo on my headphones, what was going
on? It was then, with a real sinking feeling, that I realized what had
happened. While chatting with my announcer friend and moving constantly to
give the musicians way to get their instruments on stage, I had failed to
switch the computer so that Audacity looked at the Firewire port and NOT the
microphone built into the laptop!. Luckily, I always use a Zoom H2 set to
24/96 as a backup and it was receiving the the stereo feed from the mixer,
just fine, so all was not lost.

But this REALLY taught me a hard won lesson. Using the computer as a capture
recorder is much too complicated with too many things to remember to do: Go
into preferences and switch the sound input from the internal computer
microphone to the Firewire input. Launch Audacity (or whatever). Set up two
tracks, set the sampling rate to 96 KHz and the bit depth to 32-bit floating
point, then set the levels with a 400 Hz tone to calibrate the meters on the
console with the meters in audacity, etc., etc. , etc. Get any one of these
things wrong, and it spells disaster.

My next couple of gigs found me using only my Zoom H2. It's a cute toy and an
excellent back-up recorder. But I find that there is something about the
sound that I don't like. It sounds much too strident in the midrange and
grainy in the highs. I mean, it's CHEAP, and while I realize that modern
electronics have made this stuff very affordable with excellent quality, I
suspect that the ADC in the little zoom is simply not up to snuff. I needed
another solution.

Then I stumbled across the Korg MR-1 (actually, I heard Bob Woods of Telarc
raving about the thing at the CES a couple of years ago, but it didn't really
register then as I wasn't doing much recording at that time). Since the
December fiasco with the computer, I had been negotiating with Korg to get
one at an accommodation price (usually half the list price) of about $450.
They were willing, but didn't have any in stock at the moment. Then I ran
across one on E-bay. I bid for it and got it $250 last week.


At 2.5" wide, 4.75" long and about 1" deep, this thing isn't much bigger than
the Zoom H2. But it records to 2.8224 MHz 1-bit DSD (that the SACD "raw"
format) and can hold about 6 Hours of DSD recording. It has a 20 Gig HDD in
it and has Li-ion battery power (which I'll likely never use) for about
two-and-a-half hours. It has low distortion and noise (at least on the
line-level inputs) and will handle a line level of +6 dBv through it's
balanced TRS 1/8" mini jacks, which is, essentially pro level.

The best part is that the MR-1 comes with software that allows one to
convert, using one's computer, this DSD recording to ANY format currently
being used in audio. That's everything from 24-bit, 192 KHz all the way down
to MP3! That should be more than good enough for anything that comes up.


It seems really well made and Bob Woods, who was Telarc's chief recording
engineer and producer, says that he has used one often to capture rehearsals
of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in preparation for recording them for a
number of Telarc SACD release. He said that he and Mike Bishop used both the
MR-1 and the bigger and more feature-laden MR-1000 for "field evaluations"
for lots of Telarc recording sessions, and found the results of both
recorders good enough to release as a commercial SACD (except, of course,
that Telarc SACDs have surround sound tracks, which neither Korg recorder
does, being strictly two-channel).

Haven't played with it much, but I'm set to record a Jazz quintet next
Thursday, and we'll see how it goes. I have connected it to my other
equipment and it certainly seems quiet and seems to work as advertised. We'll
see.

Of course, the biggest downside to this recorder is that although it RECORDS
to SACD format, one cannot easily burn SACDs from the resultant file. This
requires special, software that is EXTREMELY expensive. The cheapest I've
seen is about $5,000. But I can burn DVD-As at 24-bit 192 KHz using the
included conversion software, and I think that's probably more than good
enough.

I''ll let you all know how well the recording turns out. Might even post it
so that you guys can give a listen.

Cheers!