Marantz 670 vs 660

[Heidi Johnson]

I say go for the 16 bit recorder. I still haven't heard anything that
convinces

me that 16/44.1 isn't good enough for recording speech, but then I'm a

bit stubborn about it :-). Speech is acoustically pretty simple. I have
heard

a rumor (from Doug Whalen) that 24 bits are needed for click languages,

if you're working on one of those. If you're recording music, the bigger

the better.



The principle behind using the largest bit depth and highest sample rate

you can is that a larger sample will allow for better noise reduction in the


future. So use a good microphone, test your equipment before you go to

the field, stay out of the wind and turn off the refrigerator, and produce a

good clean recording in the first place.



For me, it's a political issue as well as a technical one. I worry about

constantly raising the bar, so that only the most expensive equipment is

ever good enough. That keeps too many people out: they can't make a

good enough recording, they can't start an archive. I feel that archivists

have an obligation to mediate between the capabilities of the people we

serve and the racing edge of technology.



My $0.02.



Heidi

-----------------
Heidi Johnson, PhD
Project Manager
The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
1 University Station C3200
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712

(512) 495-4604
hjohnson at mail.utexas.edu
http://www.ailla.utexas.org

  _____

From: Anna Ash [mailto:MRALC at westnet.com.au]
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 12:11 AM
To: Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity at unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Marantz 670 vs 660



Dear List members,
I followed the very useful  discussion on recording equipment, and we are
now trying to decide between the following, available from Sound Solution in
Lismore:
Marantz PMD660
Marantz PMD670.

David Nash noted that the PMD670 is superior in that it can record 24-bit
wav files, but 16-bit MAY be quite adequate. I'd like to order the 660 as
it's cheaper and more portable. Is it adequate for archival quality?

Thanks
Anna

Anna Ash
Linguist
Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre
C/- Muurrbay
465 Bellwood Road
Nambucca Heads 2448
Ph. (02) 65685695 Mob: 0404456992
Fax. (02) 65694295

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