"Dave Plowman" wrote in message

In article ,

Arny Krueger wrote:

Were I to use a portable recorder, I'd stick to stereo, use my Nomad
Jukebox 3 which records .wav files,, a Behringer MXB1002 mixer and a
pair of mics.

Yes. IMHO, the problem with any portable domestic machine is likely
to be the mic amps - far more so than the medium used for the capture.

Clearly true for the JB3 which has SNR around 85-90 dB on its analog input
as I recall. The 16/44-48 .wav file medium is good for 93+ dB SNR. It takes
a pretty clean signal chain to exploit that!

It's a bit like a pickup pre-amp - regardless of how good a cartridge
you use, and power amp and speakers, if this is poor the results will
be poor.

Ironic, given that the JB3 has a simulated mic preamp feature which is just
digital gain. If you use this feature for an application where quality is
important, background noise can ruin your whole day.

Another approach that some have used involves a headphone amp known as the
"Boostaroo" or its Radio Shack equivalent. It is actually a very clean low
distortion, low noise amplifier. Despite the fact that is has only 6 dB of
gain, it can provide an advantage for people who want to record from good
mics but don't want to go with the small mixer.

The internal mic amps might well be ok for recording a voice with a
hand held mic, but are rarely adequate for much else.

In the case of the JB3, there really aren't any internal mic preamps at all.
Just a really-pretty-clean line level analog input.

OTOH, if one were recording head-banging rock at close range with sensitive
omnis like the ECM-8000s, then mic preamps might be optional. However, there
would the phantom power issue. The ECMs only require 12 volts, so a battery
box made up of a couple of 9 volt cells and 5.6 K current-limiting resistors
could do the job.

In article ,
Arny Krueger wrote:
Another approach that some have used involves a headphone amp known as
the "Boostaroo" or its Radio Shack equivalent. It is actually a very
clean low distortion, low noise amplifier. Despite the fact that is has
only 6 dB of gain, it can provide an advantage for people who want to
record from good mics but don't want to go with the small mixer.

I suggested hiring an SQN for the day. In case you don't know them, they
are small very high quality four channel location recording mixers, with
an excellent limiter and powering for either phantom or T power mics. Pan
pots and simple switchable high pass are the only 'extra' controls, so not
too daunting for a first time user. XLR connectors in and out.
They're pretty well the industry standard in the UK, and cheap to hire on
a daily basis being very rugged. They have internal batteries for mobile
use.

--
*If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn