*New* Marantz PMD-671 recorder

Monglane

Monglane

Well-known member
Hi all,

I'm looking into this new model for separate sound recording and also sound design, both indoors and outdoors.

I will primarily use a Sennheiser condenser mic, but occasionally an AT shotgun or even a wireless Sennheiser.

I've heard some complaints about the quality of the mic preamps on the earlier model (PMD670), and although Marantz claim to have "vastly improved" the preamps, I see that the S/N ratio on the mic inputs is still 65 dB.

I may be recording some generally fairly "silent" sounds, such as forest sounds, rustling of leaves, and so on... Do you think I might have a problem with the "not so great" S/N ratio ?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Of prices and colors...

Of prices and colors...

While waiting for any input you guys might have regarding my question above, I started looking into US prices for that equipment... Makes sense because of the weak US dollar...

OK, so the general consensus about vendors seems to be that the going price is around 999 $, with shipping costs to France being around 60-70 $. However, one vendor, Abes of Maine, has it for as low as 849 $, which is a huge price difference... but then their shipping costs are quoted at 300 $ !!

Now, isn't this weird or what ?
 
All right, not much interest for this subject, it seems...

So I went ahead and ordered it anyway... Should receive it sometime this week and will keep you posted on my findings.
 
I would be curious to hear a comparison of a recording done with the 671 and then with the DVX... I've been looking at the pmd660... because so far I always just use my camera even if all I want is sound.

The only reason I didn't buy the 660 yet is because I don't know that it would be any improvement on audio... I think it would mainly be for convenience when all I want is audio.

I've been working on a documentary for over a year now (on per diem basis) and the people I'm working with have a pmd670 and GL2 cams... well on the days that I show up they don't even get out the 670 and we just use my cam for all the sound (with proper mic'ing of course)...

The 671 caught my eye also... but it's got to be a significant improvement over the DVX's already superb audio. I'd love to hear that it is.
 
I agree with you completely : the audio on the DVX is great.

However, there are some cases where it's more practical to record sound independently... plus, I've sort of grown tired of using up precious tape space to record only audio (in France the MQ tapes simply aren't available—kudos to Pany France, as always), and then have to capture the whole miniDV stream and extract the audio in Audition, and get rid of the .avi file, and so on...

Anyway, as I said, I'll give you guys my impressions but I'm not equipped to carry out proper benchmarking tests !
 
Monglane said:
I agree with you completely : the audio on the DVX is great.

However, there are some cases where it's more practical to record sound independently...
Click to expand...

Like when you've just become sick and tired of having wires dangling all over the place and would rather have your boom op carry it all. :-)

Dan
 
I've done sound both ways, and find that it almost always is better to record separately. Why? Because I can run completely independent of the camera department. While they're fiddling with the image, I can get the boom op in place, cables set and hidden as necessary, and be ready to go (usually before they are). I haven't done a comparison with audio captured on the camera (as far as quality goes), but it has to be much easier to work with the .wav files I hand over than importing more stuff from a tape. Also, I monitor off of the recorder, rather than the mixer, and this would be much harder to do if running into the camera (learned this lesson the hard way...not my recorder or mixer, but there was a problem with the cable between the mixer and the DAT (yes a real DAT, not PMD), and it wasn't caught until a week later when the director imported the tapes and heard the hiss...oops). Anyway, just my thoughts. HTH.

Phil
 
My group uses the PMD-670 and it has been a great little recorder. My sound recordist does not like running his mic to the camera. Especially when I'm shooting 24p because of the audio delay. He can't stand it. And while it is a time consuming thing to sync up external audio to the video file in post. I could imagine that it's just as much of a pain to capture a clip solely because it contains the 2 minutes of room tone you need to edit audio. The flash cards are much more convienent in that respect. Sound quality is good enough for a production that can afford a 700-1000 audio recorder. Although I've heard that the 4 channel Edirol is a VERY interesting alternative. If you need better sound than the 24bit 48khz setting on the PMD-670 or the 24/96 of the 671, you just need to get a much more expensive solution. Aaton Cantar X, or HHB Portadrive. IMHO.
 
cable solutions for audio monitoring

cable solutions for audio monitoring

ptalsky said:
Also, I monitor off of the recorder, rather than the mixer, and this would be much harder to do if running into the camera
Click to expand...

A simple way of monitoring audio from a camera is to use a ENG Breakaway Cable (when using a mixer) or a Boom Cable System (if not using a mixer or using a mixer, but with a separate boom op).

http://www.remoteaudio.com/cables.htm
http://www.remoteaudio.com/boom.htm
 
My PMD671 was FedExed to my doorstep this morning. I'm currently busy cutting off the US power plug to replace it with a European one. I'll do some sound tests later or this weekend and will post my findings here next week.

The first thing I've noted (which I hadn't noticed before and am not too happy about) is that phantom power can't be supplied to only one of the two XLR inputs, the way it can be on the DVX. It's either phantom power to both inputs, or to none.

This makes it impossible to record sound from a condenser mic and from a dynamic one (e.g., a lav mic) at the same time.
 
Don't you have condenser Lavs over there? Lavalier (lavaliere) IS a French word is it not?

With our 670 we are usually using just the one mic (ME66 K6, MKE618) or we setup a matched pair (Shure SM81s, or AKG C414 XLIIs). I've never considered using a dynamic and a condenser simultaneously.
 
Collink said:
Don't you have condenser Lavs over there? Lavalier (lavaliere) IS a French word is it not?
Click to expand...

Yes we do, and yes it is.

However, just for your information and in case it hadn't occurred to you, the budget for a lav condenser mic is substantially higher...
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound confrontational. I realize that condensers are more expensive. And it's also obvious that, if you are like me and recording with the Marantz, you are on a budget. Everyone here would like to be using a Cantar X, a Holophone, and a pair of UHF diversity Sennheiser wireless lavs, but its just not in the cards.

Comprehensive might have an easy solution for you - Their CPS-PH12v inline Phantom power supply would allow you to use one condenser and one dynamic with the Marantz
simultaneously. I think the website is www.comprehensiveinc.com
 
Don't worry, no hard feelings.

I splurged on a very good UHF diversity Senn system but I just don't have the money right now for a condenser lav mic. I do have a quite good handheld condenser mic (Senn e865) and a shotgun condenser (AT 897). The lav will have to wait a bit...
 
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