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Portable digital recorder recommendation?

andreasmaaan

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Here’s the difference between Zoom digital limiters and Sound Devices analog limiters.


Ok, that demonstrates the difference between two particular limiters, one that happens to be analogue and one that happens to be digital.

What I was asking about was the alleged advantages of analogue limiters in general.

I can only see disadvantages (slower reaction times, less complex signal processing, etc. etc.).
 
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That looks excellent, thank you! There's about a 0.12dB dip from 3KHz to 30KHz, am I reading this right? The drop below 300Hz is due to the measurement set up and not ADC, correct?
Correct. I only cared about the HF performance and started the sweep at 300Hz.
 

andreasmaaan

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This explains quite good ...


Ok, but in those examples we have clipping at the input of the ADC.

This should be perfectly avoidable with an appropriate gain structure, should it not?

I use digital limiters in PA speakers, and so long as the input sensitivity is kept sufficiently low, there is no risk of clipping at the inputs of the ADC. Once that's assured, the quality of the limiting is superior to that obtainable by analogue limiters.

Is there a particular reason when it comes to mic preamps that clipping of the ADC input should be inevitable?
 

eugenius

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Analog limiters prevent clipping by lowering the volume before it happens.
Digital limiters see that clipping happens and minimize it by lowering the volume after it happens.
 
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pkane

pkane

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Analog limiters prevent clipping by lowering volume before it happens.
Digital limiters see that clipping happens and minimize it by lowering the volume after it happens.

What about recorders that claim to simultaneously record two parallel tracks, one at, say, -12dB to be used in case of clipping? How do these compare?
 

andreasmaaan

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Analog limiters prevent clipping by lowering the volume before it happens.
Digital limiters see that clipping happens and minimize it by lowering the volume after it happens.

Yes, this makes sense, thanks.
 

eugenius

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What about recorders that claim to simultaneously record two parallel tracks, one at, say, -12dB to be used in case of clipping? How do these compare?

If the implementation is right, those don't clip as long as the the -12dB track doesn't clip.
Which it can, especially outside (truck goes by, loud horn etc.). Or even inside when somebody slams the door or starts shouting like a liberal at a free speech event. :facepalm:
 

DonH56

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Budget and use (application) drive most field recorder purchases. For basic recording the Zoom's are nice little units, as are several other similar products, but I have not kept up. Zoom units are very popular, small and lightweight, and fairly rugged. They do a great job for basic recording and as I said I use mine mainly for rehearsal and capturing ideas (and in the past for lessons so students could hear what they sounded like "out front"). The user interface is not the best, though that is also true for some high-end units, handling noise and self-noise is not great, etc. The mics are inexpensive but actually do a pretty good job. There are some pattern issues but as a small X-Y pair I couldn't complain. They are good inexpensive field recorders. The larger, much more expensive Sony was pretty much the standard for pro recording, along with another unit or two I have forgotten (this was a number of years ago) that were much more than the Sony. A friend had the Sony 50 and we compared; it was quieter as expected but for live recording the difference was pretty slight and neither of us was sure we'd be able to tell blind (we talked about doing that but never got around to it).

I did find the phantom power struggled to drive larger condensers (AKG, Neumann, etc.) and maintain a low noise floor but since that was not my usual use it wasn't a concern to me (I had a regular recording rig for that sort of thing, i.e. when I was getting paid to record concerts).

FWIWFM - Don
 

artburda

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I could get a new Sony PCM-D100 for 509 Swiss Francs (USD 550). I already have an Olympus LS-11, which works fine. The use case number 1 would be to record interviews for analyzing business processes. I know that the Sony would be overkill for that use case, but the price seems right. What do you guys think? I have to act quickly, the offer expires in 9 hours.
 

Saidera

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"A friend had the Sony [PCM-D]50 and we compared; it was quieter as expected but for live recording the difference was pretty slight and neither of us was sure we'd be able to tell blind (we talked about doing that but never got around to it)."

Based on this, it seems most portable recorders above a certain threshold, sound roughly similar when recording rehearsals and instruments.
 
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