Re: [microsound] [tech ?] Mic Sensitivity

[derek <derek@xxxxxxx>]

hi phil,

on-board minidisc preamps, espc those from Sony, are notoriously noisy. 
personally, i have to do a hell of a lot of cleanup work on things i 
record with the mic input and my consumer grade stereo condensor. a more 
sensitive mic would increase the signal to noise ratio, but you would 
still have a very high noise floor using the mic input. your best bet 
would be to get an external minidisc mic preamp, such as those offered 
by Sound Professionals, to boost your signal to a level where the 
relatively noiseless line input [you have one of those, right?] could be 
used. costs range from USD 150 to 400+, depending on the amount of gain 
[+35 dB to +70 dB being common], number of channels [mono/stereo], extra 
features [clip protection, "warm tube sound", independent input level 
control...] and types of inputs [minijack, XLR, etc]

further reading on this topic can be scoured from minidisc.org and from 
the phonography list on yahoo.

happy recording,
derek

ph!L @ c e n t i b e l wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I have been using my minidisc recorder a fair bit to do field
>recordings, and notice that the level of my recordings is quite low even
>when the recording level is set to maximum, and the recordings are quite
>noisy (lots of hiss). Is this mostly a function of the microphone? I
>bought it for about $200 CDN (about $132 US), so I know it's not
>super-duper high-quality, but could it really be that bad? If so, about
>how much would I have to pay for a more sensitive microphone that
>wouldn't be too noisy?
>
>Thanks in advance for your replies. Sorry for the tech nature of this
>post. If you want to reach me offlist, pls do. Seems like we've had a
>fair amount of tech discussion on this list lately and some people may
>be getting tired of it.
>
>Phil 
>
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