DAT-heads Digest #467

Contents:

Compact Flash recording ("Neil Sturtevant") Battery chargers all the same? ("Danny T") RE:M-Audio Flash Tracker M-Audio Flash Tracker + Large Compact Flash (Phil Thenstedt) Re: Battery chargers all the same? (Wayne Hoxsie) iso Alex Herrera (New Homebrew) Re: Sony SDT-9000 audio firmware and software (Bob Ramstad) Re: Flash Card Taping ("Gary Davis") Firmware forum Sony SDT-9000 and more... (Bob Ramstad) Sony MD Question ("George Rue")
From: "Neil Sturtevant" <esteyes@cox.net> Subject: Compact Flash recording Reply-To: <esteyes@cox.net> Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 08:41:15 -0700 i recently purchased a Marantz 671 http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=3689&CatID=19&SubCatID=180 and tested both the MicroDrive storage method as well as CF cards in the 4G size. 24bit/48k recording puts 1hr of music on 1G of media. i taped Dickey Betts at the coach house on sunday using the microdrive. 8 2400mah NiMH batteries ran only 2.5 hours in my bag (display off) where on the bench at home they ran 3.5hrs with the display on and 5 with the display off - so it appears microdrives and heat and current draw are issues pointing against their use - well at least for me. and BECAUSE a 4G CF card runs 9hrs with the display on in my bag. over and over i tested. one item that might be worth looking into concerning battery life is the MONITOR feature that i had on... in 24bit recording, you lose the ability to have the deck do read-after-write monitoring (like a third head would do on a dat deck - aka confidence monitoring) so i was running the MONITOR feature that purportedly checks the data after writing and then will flash an error message if there is a problem. might be that was just too much work for the drive or the bus. dunno. i also had some glitches in the sunday night recording that were like a record skipping, however the time displayed by the drive never broke sequence or skipped like the music. i have hauled everything from cassette to PCM-beta thru my HHb portadat to shows - i want to get away from mechanical storage methods. i paid $850 for the deck and $300 for the CF card and $200 for the microdrive (which went back yesterday) and can buy 8G CF cards for $800. there are heavy rumors that CF cards will be dropping in price w/in 6 monthes. that would be nice as going to a multiday festival right now w/ only one card requires periodic d/l's to a laptop or something. and i do not want to do that... i will be happy to answer any questions off list - useful topics will get posted to the list. Neil Sturtevant "shadowboxing the apocalypse, wandering the land" -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.0 - Release Date: 4/29/2005
From: "Danny T" <thweatt62040@msn.com> Subject: Battery chargers all the same? Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 11:34:14 -0500 I recently purchased some Energizer 2500mAh rechargeable (AA) which I charged with my old Sony charger that came with the M-1. Light was green signaling fully charged, but when I went to a show and taped I was down to one mark on the M-1 battery bar after about 75 minutes. I assume I either got a bum set of batteries (which seems kind of unlikely), or the Sony charger doesn't have enough power to charge these new batteries. Anyone know anything about chargers? Have a nice day, Danny
From: <gidluck@alltel.net> Subject: RE:M-Audio Flash Tracker Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 11:37:32 -0500 You might be interested in this... on pocket pc's using the Core Sound PDAudio for audio capture, we can do media swapping while recording and record seamlessly using 1gb or 2gb SD media. No samples are lost during the media change. 1gb SD costs about $70 or less now. Gordon Gidluck www.gidluckmastering.com/live2496.html From: Benjamin Scott-Killian <bscottk@gmail.com> Subject: M-Audio Flash Tracker Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 07:12:56 -0400 I did a froogle.google.com search and found that they now have compact flash cards that can store up to 4 GB. Yet I still think this is small for taping a whole show (at 24/96)...it would suck to have to do a "tape flip" during the show. Oh yeah...and the 4 GB flash cards go for about 300 bucks (my 200 GB external HD was purchased for $167). :-( Still think we're going to have to wait to see this technology come around. -bsk
From: Phil Thenstedt <phil.thenstedt@zones.com> Subject: M-Audio Flash Tracker + Large Compact Flash Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:46:07 -0700 There are now 8gb Compact Flash cards. Sandisk has one ==> their part # SDCFH-8192-901 This stuff keeps getting bigger and cheaper! ======= From: Benjamin Scott-Killian <bscottk@gmail.com> Subject: M-Audio Flash Tracker Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 17:09:22 -0400 This is a good concept, but how much of a taping job can you do on a flash memory card? Especially at high sample rate/word length? The largest flash memory card I've seen on the market is 512MB...that is about a 1/2 hour or less. I think this is a great concept, but we are going to have to wait a while to see it fully blossom. -bsk
From: Wayne Hoxsie <Wayne@hoxnet.com> Subject: Re: Battery chargers all the same? Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:18:17 -0500 Danny T wrote: > I recently purchased some Energizer 2500mAh rechargeable (AA) which I > charged with my old Sony charger that came with the M-1. Light was green > signaling fully charged, but when I went to a show and taped I was down to > one mark on the M-1 battery bar after about 75 minutes. I assume I either > got a bum set of batteries (which seems kind of unlikely), or the Sony > charger doesn't have enough power to charge these new batteries. Anyone know > anything about chargers? > Have a nice day, Danny A couple of things... I use the Sony M1 charger to charge AA cells for all kinds of stuff (M1, GPS, CD-Player, etc) and it seems to work well and is a pretty "smart" charger; however, I've noticed that once it signals "green" it no longer cares about the cells and, unlike some higher-end chargers, doesn't seem to have a "trickle" mode. NiMH cells have a short shelf-life and I've had some go low while sitting in the charger for several days on "green." How long did your's sit before using them? On my M1, the battery meter is next to useless. Fresh cells will show four bars, but within 30 minutes, it is down to one bar, but will stay that way until the tape ends. I don't know if this is adjustable anywhere on the deck (I've not bothered to check the service manual) or if this is considered normal variation in the components that make up the voltage detection circuit, a broken or weak component, or something else. I just know that a fresh set of cells will last me a tape or two. Mine has always been this way, so I don't know if it is something that can occur later in the life of the deck or not. Did you run it on out to see if it still lasted a full tape or not? Perhaps they are just bad cells. I've gotten a few from Radio Shack and they were willing to replace them (only after hassling me about not using their approved charger, etc). I really don't think the Sony charger is to blame. Hope some of this is helpful. -- Wayne D. Hoxsie Jr. wayne@hoxnet.com PGP Key ID 138BCEE1
From: New Homebrew <newhomebrew@gmail.com> Subject: iso Alex Herrera Reply-To: New Homebrew <newhomebrew@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:22:37 -0500 Hoping to contact a filmer/taper named Alex Herrera... any info, drop me a line. Last email (superunknown...) is bouncing. --=20 DVD & CDr trading: other artists=3D> http://home.midsouth.rr.com/hardluck/other.htm jeff buckley=3D> http://home.midsouth.rr.com/hardluck
From: Bob Ramstad <rramstad@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Sony SDT-9000 audio firmware and software Reply-To: rramstad@alum.mit.edu Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:23:06 -0700 I'll certainly update the list with anything relevant that I come across. I don't know of any source for the 13.1 firmware and there seems to be extensive discussion by the people who did the 12.2 firmware as to how to get 13.1 out and available to folks. I can't find it now but there's a forum where folks discuss firmware and that's where the discussion was taking place... if I find it again, I'll post the URL. -- Bob
From: "Gary Davis" <g@hoxnet.com> Subject: Re: Flash Card Taping Reply-to: g@hoxnet.com Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:34:06 -0700 For recording at 44.1/16 bits, a 2GB flash card would be the same as a 90 meter DAT tape - ie - 3 hours, or actually, 3hrs 9 mins. --Gary
From: Bob Ramstad <rramstad@gmail.com> Subject: Firmware forum Sony SDT-9000 and more... Reply-To: rramstad@alum.mit.edu Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:38:37 -0700 Here's the URL to that firmware forum... http://forum.rpc1.org/ It doesn't look like this forum is all that active, but it clearly is the place where the 12.2 firmware has been used and discussed and there are some efforts to get 13.1 firmware... -- Bob
From: "George Rue" <bbking_archivist@sbcglobal.net> Subject: Sony MD Question Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:07:33 -0400 Does anybody know about the newer Sony MD's that (finally) have an USB "output". Because of copyright laws, Sony MD only allowed recording onto a disc, without the capability to digitally transfer onto cd. You are only allowed to do an analog transfer out of the headphone jack. and the USB was only an input. It was impossible to make a digital transfer from MD->CD. I'm looking for the new digital out MD's. Or is that only a myth.. Anybody know?? George Rue
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