jamesperrett

If it is important to keep a stable sound stage then you will need to keep both recorders perfectly in sync which is impossible unless you can connect them together with a word clock connection. Without perfect sync you will probably find that sounds move across the stereo spread depending on which recorder's sound arrives first. It would be much better to use a 4 channel recorder which doesn't necessarily have to be that expensive. Something like the Zoom H4 has an on-board stereo mic with the facility to add two additional microphones.

I've no idea about how these work, but I had this symptom on a Teac amp where the relays had their own power supply. The smoothing capacitor on the relay PSU was drying up and had reduced in value so that it was no longer smoothing properly. When measured it was around 10% of the value that it should have been.

I tend to only repair the ones where the fault is fairly obvious and can be diagnosed without powering it up - usually the big input capacitor or one of the output capacitors.

On 10/3/2023 at 1:25 PM, Muller_Light said:

Commercial application (for people who normally wear camouflage kit!) so reliability more important that price!

It would almost certainly have to be JoeCo then. The people behind the company have been involved in professional computer based audio right from the early days.

The CPC charger/cell combination makes no mention of whether the included cells are of the pre-charged type. These retain their charge for much longer than conventional NiMH cells. I've used GP Recyko pre-charged cells which seem to work fine - even if you wait a couple of months after recharging them before you use them again. I've also used the Amazon Basics cells which mention GP on the packaging so they may well be the same as the Recyko cells.

I don't know what the budget is, but there is always the JoeCo Black/Blue Box recorder range which are self-contained multitrack recorders with a variety of options for different inputs. They aren't cheap but have a very good reputation and pedigree. They also include additional timecode, MIDI and 9 pin control inputs as well as Dante and MADI options.

Allen and Heath and Cymatic also sold stand-alone 16 track recorders but these are now discontinued and I don't know if they handle timecode.

If you are happy to use a computer then there are a variety of potential solutions. Something like a Behringer UMC1820 with an ADA8200 would possibly be the cheapest way to get 16 inputs. In my setup I use an RME Digiface USB audio interface with a combination of Audient and Focusrite 8 channel preamps (plus an ADA8000 if I need more inputs) which has been very reliable and a 16 input setup would fit in a 2u rack although I use a 4u to allow for 24 tracks and space to keep the laptop. I've not used an XR18 but I've used the X32 for live recordings with no problems. You would need to use one of the inputs for timecode.

I'm happy with Servisol Super 10 although it has now been rebranded as Kontakt Super 10. I've used it for many years and haven't noticed any problems with pots that I've sprayed it on.

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I've had a search online and there's conflicting information and opinions mainly revolving around 'Deoxit' products, for some it is a miracle product, for some it destroys the faders!

There are a number of different Deoxit products which have to be used correctly to give the wanted results. If you use D5 (their best known cleaner) on faders you must then use Faderlube or some other type of lubrication afterwards as D5 removes all the lubrication. If you don't replace the lubrication you will end up with very noisy faders. Kevin has more experience than I do with motorised faders so I'd go along with his suggestion of trying new belts first.

Only just seen this...

I would suspect that they use balanced power supplies so that the two batteries or two separate supplies are vital. If you want to run it from a single supply you'll probably need to use isolated DC to DC convertors to create the two 9V supplies.

11 hours ago, sandall said:

Interesting; something I hadn't considered. My only direct experience with using Firewire was years ago, editing from DV with Premiere on a Dell Latitude C840.  Just out of curiosity I may have to borrow one of the AudioFire cards to see if my D630 will talk to it. The original problem has now gone away, as they are going to buy another Scarlett to keep as an emergency spare, but thanks for all the suggestions

Good to hear they've taken a sensible route to a solution. According to the page at

https://restore.solutions/dv/laptop/dell/latituded630/

the D630 uses the O2 Micro chipset for Firewire which is one of the ones I tried without success. It would be fine for video work or for mass storage but not for audio.

 

I wouldn't use the built-in Firewire on an old Dell laptop for audio. The one's I've used don't have a TI firewire chip and, while they may recognise the interface, you are unlikely to be able to transfer any audio without strange noises. Older Lenovo laptops are likely to be more successful as they tended to use TI Firewire chips. I also have an old Acer laptop with a TI chip which works well with Firewire interfaces.

I've not encountered an "Australian" amp but I do have an old Rauch amp that has a single speed fan which is fairly noisy when it kicks in every few minutes.

On 6/5/2022 at 4:38 PM, d_korman said:

One reason for staying with v1.5 is that it was a one-time licence purchase whereas after Adobe got their hands on it, it became an annual subscription and much much more expensive.

The subscription thing didn't come in until version 4 and I believe they eventually relented and allowed you to buy it. Version 2 was a complete rewrite that was rushed out without sufficient testing and never updated. Version 3 is far better and Adobe allowed people to download a copy which was protected by only a serial number when they switched off their license servers a few years ago. They may even still have that version available - I haven't looked recently.

That looks like Audition 1 or 1.5 to me. Audition 3 runs fine under Windows 10 here.

Many years ago I had a headphone volume control box that used wirewound pots although this was probably designed for the 8 ohm headphones that were common at the time. Most headphone outputs are around 50mW so I doubt that you need a 1W pot.

I know that I'm a bit late to this but if you are talking about a plug-in then it might be worth looking at Thimeo's Stereo Tool as it aims to be a complete broadcast processor. The basic functions are free but you have to pay for the more advanced functions.

 

If you are talking about normalising a bunch of files then I've found the Loudness section of the SWS extensions in Reaper to be very handy. It allows you to normalise the LUFS of the files to any number you want.

I'd always assumed electronically balanced mean the signal was inverted with an op amp rather than there just being signal on one leg.

 

 

40 years ago you would have been right - just about every electronically balanced output drove both legs. In fact, if you look at the output circuit for an Otari MTR90 Mk2 tape machine, it looks more like a pair of power amplifiers, one on each leg, with some serious line driving capability. I would guess they were designed to drive 600 ohm inputs.

All I hope now is the pics are visible, could someone let me know please.

 

I'm seeing a 404 error here.

If you can spend a bit more take a look at the Line Audio CM4. They're made in Sweden but available in the UK from Pink Noise Systems.

I've been using the cheap ready made DB25 to TRS cable that CPC sell to connect my Audient preamp to a patch bay with no problems so far. The DB25 end is disconnected regularly whenever I take the rig out to do a mobile recording or to use the rig at home.

I've been involved in using audio amplifiers for non audio applications and found that you need something pretty rugged if you want it to be reliable. We ended up using QSC RMX series amps which survived well when other lesser amps only lasted a few days. I would have thought that Crown amps should also be OK given that they are often used for vibrating tables and similar.

The Drake rack sounds interesting at first look, because I started off looking at 8-way mic amplifiers (the various 1U boxes which seem to all be discontinued).

I don't know what your budget is but the Audient ASP800 and ASP880 are still available new. If you don't need the A/D conversion then there's an ASP008 currently on Ebay. I find the ASP008 to be a sensible, clean sounding unit.

IK Multimedia's iRig range also offers various ways of connecting external devices to a phone.

I'm happy with my Sennheiser HD25's with replacement velour earpads. I've had them a good few years and they've travelled all over the world with me.

My tip.

It's much easier to get a license for a programme making special event [PMSE] link in the 48 or 52MHz sections at £2.75 per 12.5KHz as opposed to £8.50 in band 2 and listen to the second harmonic.

Ie 52.3 listen on 104.6 but you wiil of course struggle with clear band2 frequencies with what's available as links.

 

And you'll need 75kHz of bandwidth if you want it to be at the same audio level as regular FM broadcasts.