[RNLD] Hiss and the Marantz PMD670

[Honeyman Tom]

Hi Anna,

These are all good suggestions for getting to the bottom of this, but I also vaguely recall that the Marantz 670 had problems with it's preamps that introduced hiss in certain circumstances. I believe that's why the PMD 671 followed closely after. Or maybe it was the 660? A quick Google should clear this up.

If I remember correctly, pairing the recorder with a (portable) external preamp (and hence bypassing the internal one) may fix the problem.

Good luck with it!

Cheers,
Tom

On 21/07/2012, at 9:05 PM, David Nathan wrote:

> 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
> __________________