[RNLD] Hiss and the Marantz PMD670

[David Nathan]

Hi Anna

Adding to Frank's suggestions:

If possible reduce the variables - most of these things should be easy to do:

1. try recording with a different mic (also cable if possible), or 
even the inbuilt ones, and see what difference that makes
2. try recording on battery only - sometimes the power supply will 
pick up or induce noise
3. check levels and impedance setting (if any) - if input level is 
(too) high, there is likely to be a significant level of hiss, 
especially made palpable when listening through headphones. Note that 
you would not expect a recording from this model to be totally 
hiss-free even under quite good circumstances.
4. is hiss the same when simply monitoring (ie not listening back to 
a recording)?
5. check battery in mic (if applicable) is full
6. I think that using a condenser mic or otherwise probably isn't 
correlated with less vulnerability to hiss as you might be assuming 
(I'm not very experienced with dynamic mics but my instinct would be 
that condenser mics might be more susceptible than dynamic all other 
things being equal)

best wishes

David

At 19:42 20/07/2012, Frank Seidel wrote:
>Dear Ann,
>
>I am by no means an expert. But these are the things that I would 
>check and consider. Unfortunately, you are very vague about your 
>situation, so it might be the case that you already excluded these:
>
>1) Does the Marantz' 670 use sd-cards? I do not know that generation 
>of Marantz very well but, maybe it has issue with certain SD cards. 
>Check if the hiss is there even, if you use the SD card that came 
>with the device.
>2) You might have Phantom power on and are running the mic from a 
>battery at the same time (which would be a bad thing anyways).
>3) The mic is damaged or incompatible for some reason with the 
>Marantz. Check if the hiss is there, if you use other microphones. 
>See this webpage by Bartek Plichta on more of this issue: 
><http://bartus.org/akustyk/noise_testing.php>http://bartus.org/akustyk/noise_testing.php.
>4) You are recording with a mono-mic, but still record on both 
>channels owing to the settings you chose on the Marantz.
>
>These are but some possibilities, but you might check these until 
>somebody who knows more about these things answers.
>
>All the best of luck with this.
>
>Frank
>
>
>On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Anna Ash 
><<mailto:MRALC at westnet.com.au>MRALC at westnet.com.au> wrote:
>Dear list members, and recording experts in particular,
>We are having difficulty in recording with a Marantz PMD670 in WAV 
>format. We are using a condensor mic, but are still getting 
>unacceptable hiss levels. We can rule out interference from 
>fluorescent lights and a nearby laptop.
>Thanks in advance
>Anna
>--
>Anna Ash
>Coordinator-linguist
>Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre
>C/- Muurrbay
>14 Bellwood Road
>Nambucca Heads NSW 2448
>Ph. (02) 6568 5695 Mob: 0404 456 992
>Fax. (02) 6569 4295
>web: <http://www.muurrbay.org.au>www.muurrbay.org.au
>email: <http://MRALC@westnet.com.au>MRALC at westnet.com.au (I don't 
>check my google address)
>
>Please consider the environment and use recycled paper if you need to print.
>
>
>
>
>--
>Frank Seidel, Ph.D.
>University of Florida
>Center for African Studies at the University of Florida
>427 Grinter Hall - PO Box 115560
>Gainesville, FL 32611-5560
>Tel: 352.392.2183
>Fax: 352.392.2435

__________________
David Nathan
Endangered Languages Archive
SOAS
djn at soas.ac.uk
http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=davidnathan
http://elar.soas.ac.uk
http://www.dnathan.com
+44 (0)20 7898 4584
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