Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: home recordings using a sony MD


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Posted by Rick Denney on January 02, 2003 at 18:28:37:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: home recordings using a sony MD posted by Mary Ann on January 02, 2003 at 15:33:14:

I don't know exactly what you mean by "cheap stereo." If you are recording at the back of the hall, you might be getting all sorts of ugly echo effects that often exist back there. The optimal location is probably about 15 or 20 feet in front of the group, if you want the room acoustics to be part of the sound.

If by cheap stereo you mean boomy in the mid range with bass that either rings unnaturally or that is not there, then I don't think that's the mike. The AT-822 seems quite linear, with clean response up and down the spectrum. I'd call it a professional-quality location recording mike, as opposed, say, to a studio mike that would cost thousands. There are better mikes, but this one should not sound cheap.

Even though you are not distorting the sound, you may still be overloading the inputs. Digital has lots of headroom, but don't take advantage of it. I still keep my peaks to 3 dB or less, though some people let them punch up to 6dB. When they are that high, the mike preamp is actually overdriving the recording, and that can sound bad.

I would also check to make sure you are really using a microphone input set up for the unbalanced, high-impedance wiring of the AT-822. If the mike input is a balanced, low-impedance input, the impedance mismatch could make it sound like a cheap stereo. You can use an impedance-matching adaptor, but it's probably better to use a decent small microphone mixer with unbalanced inputs, and go to the recorder through line-level inputs. Even the cheap Radio Shack DJ mixers will do acceptably for this, with a reasonably low noise level of -65 dB or better. Digital mixing is better, but even a cheap analog mixer won't make the results sound like a cheap stereo.

Rick "tossing out some ideas" Denney


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