Tascam DR-100 questions

A point about battery life. The stamina mode on the H4N is 44.1 ONLY so you don't want to be using that for video work. Also from a number of friends who have one the batt. life with phantom power is about an hour and a half.
 
Hunter5117 said:
The line out on the DR-100 can not go directly into the mic input on your GH1 or you will have terribly over volume sound. This is where you do need a TRS 3.5mm to 2.5mm cable with a (30 to 40 db???) pad in it to drop the line level to mic level. This would be true for any source where you are tapping into line-out to feed a mic-in input.
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This needing the pad cable isnt specific to the GH1 I take it? If I ran into a canon DSLR would I need the same type of cable albeit with a 3.5mm not a 2.5mm on the camera end?

Ok so no 1/4" on the DR-100, this is a big factor. I think I have an XLR to 1/4" adapter cable, would this be useable in the cases where I need to take a line from a desk and only a 1/4" is available, or would I need a padding/more specific type of cable? If I could get away with the 1/4" to XLR I already have then this may not be an issue, although I fancied the idea of being able to record my guitar onto the recorder as well...
 
Noiz2 said:
A point about battery life. The stamina mode on the H4N is 44.1 ONLY so you don't want to be using that for video work. Also from a number of friends who have one the batt. life with phantom power is about an hour and a half.
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is 44.1 too low quality for video work then? I thought it was ok. Obviously not the best but suitable for ambient sound I thought?

The phantom power drain is a problem though if this 1.5 hours is accurate (not that I'm doubting you Noiz2! Thanks for the heads up) does anyone know how this compares to the DR-100? i could just use batteries in my ME66 mic I guess...

Getting this direct battery comparison is proving difficult.
 
tikigod19 said:
is 44.1 too low quality for video work then? I thought it was ok. Obviously not the best but suitable for ambient sound I thought?

The phantom power drain is a problem though if this 1.5 hours is accurate (not that I'm doubting you Noiz2! Thanks for the heads up) does anyone know how this compares to the DR-100? i could just use batteries in my ME66 mic I guess...

Getting this direct battery comparison is proving difficult.
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told ya to check all batteries situations ;)
 
When using the K3/ME-80 with the DR-100, I was getting a little more than 2 hours draining both a pair of AAs and the internal rechargeable.

tikigod19 said:
does anyone know how this compares to the DR-100? i could just use batteries in my ME66 mic I guess...

Getting this direct battery comparison is proving difficult.
Click to expand...
 
Really, just forget about 4 channel recording on the H4n. It's a gimmick IMO. Will you really plug in 2 nice mics to capture something, then blend it with the mics on the recorder, that will probably be a lot further away from the source, and be picking up noise from when you make adjustments. I'm not sure, but doesn't it need to be at 16bit rather than 24bit to do 4 channel recording? I'm a +1 on the DR-100. If you really need 4 channels or more, get a proper recorder like the DR-680.
 
Chadfish said:
Really, just forget about 4 channel recording on the H4n. It's a gimmick IMO. Will you really plug in 2 nice mics to capture something, then blend it with the mics on the recorder, that will probably be a lot further away from the source, and be picking up noise from when you make adjustments. I'm not sure, but doesn't it need to be at 16bit rather than 24bit to do 4 channel recording? I'm a +1 on the DR-100. If you really need 4 channels or more, get a proper recorder like the DR-680.
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I agree with the gimmick part but you can use four external mics with the H4n, but two have to go into the 1/8 jack on the bottom.
 
tikigod19 said:
is 44.1 too low quality for video work then? I thought it was ok. Obviously not the best but suitable for ambient sound I thought?

The phantom power drain is a problem though if this 1.5 hours is accurate (not that I'm doubting you Noiz2! Thanks for the heads up) does anyone know how this compares to the DR-100? i could just use batteries in my ME66 mic I guess...

Getting this direct battery comparison is proving difficult.
Click to expand...

44.1 is fine quality wise but your going to have to sample rate everything because digital video lives at 48 not 44.1.

If run time is your big issue then get a stack of batteries or get/ build an external battery pack. At some point it gets silly trying to get bigger budget features out of a low budget device. It's part of the trade off. You getting a recorder that you couldn't touch (sound quality wise) not many years ago for under a grand. But your cheating it into work it was not designed for. Your not going to get long battery life off of two AA's unless your paying with it some place else.
 
Noiz2 said:
44.1 is fine quality wise but your going to have to sample rate everything because digital video lives at 48 not 44.1.
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That leads into my questions. With the goal of film festival screenings, do I need to record 24bit 96 or is that overkill? Would 24bit 48 be plenty?
 
24/48 is just fine. I challenge anyone to notice the difference, save for a classical concert recording. Your mic technique, preamps and environment acoustics will play a much larger part in your sound quality than adding more resolution to your recording.
 
Thanks Chadfish. Doubling (give or take) the capacity of my SD cards without noticeable quality loss sounds good.
 
t-hill said:
That leads into my questions. With the goal of film festival screenings, do I need to record 24bit 96 or is that overkill? Would 24bit 48 be plenty?
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This has probably been done to death but, There is no reason I can think of to go to 96K for dialog. Your going to have to knock the 24 bit down to 16 eventually (probably) but there is no pressing reason not to record at 24 bit. I would use 48/24. If I get a stack of 96K dialog tracks I would probably bulk convert them to 48. Maybe not, it's hard to say. With storage cheap IF I wasn't getting a hit because of the file sizes I "might" leave them at 96, but probably not.
 
Thanks for the responses to my 24/96 question. I'm working to get up to speed on the audio side. Didn't mean to hijack the thread.
 
Ok sorry I think that has been said already. So if I had a simple xlr to 3.5 mini (and a 1/4" jack to 3.5mini) cable would that be ok to capture via the line in or does the cable need some sort of built in pad/attenuator/another audio term I don't fully understand..?
 
depending on how it is wired up.

the 3.5mm line input is unbalanced "stereo" so there is: shield, Left (tip I believe), right (ring, I believe).

so if your XLR is wired appropriately you should be ok. Shield to pin 3 on XLR and pin2 of XLR to either tip or ring or both (depending on configuration)
 
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