What are my options for a temporary recorder?

Well, I consider audio my specialty, but I do video for a living. I'm a musician too, and do lots of jingles(check my youtube page playlist for Jingles and Music) and I really dig going to a show and capturing both audio with the 680 and 2 EX1 cameras (or 3 if the client will pay). It all blends together, especially for me in my small college town of Arcata, Ca, where there is not enough work to feed a lone audio guy. I would love to just show up and get paid to swing a mic around and let the director / camera ops worry about the rest!
 
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Mitch, the line level on the 302 can be adjusted. The 302 can emit a line level tone. You then adjust the output to the appropriate level on the recording device. There are instructions in the 302 manual on how to do this, and it has been posted on this forum several times over the last few years. A very good version was posted by Petrus on Feb 25, 2007. I'm sure a search will bring this up, if not, I'll PM the pdf file to you. He references this to a DVX100 cam, but it is the same thing for the DR100 or any other recorder.

Grant
 
Grant, I read the post from Petrus and he said about the full scale tone at +20, then adjust the output level. The only way I see how to adjust the output level via the setup menu is the limiters which I have maxed at +20. The post said it could be done, just not how. Any tips? Other than rtfm, I've already looked over the manual and cant find another way other than the limiters. Which doesnt get me where I need.
 
Are you saying that with line level not attenuated at all on the 302, you don't have enough gain to record line level on the DR-100? Not sure I can help with that....

Grant
 
Exactly, thanks for trying anyway. I contacted Tascam last week still waiting to hear back. I believe I read in the manual the line signal out from the tape out is -24. I have to crank the gain all the way on the Tascam to get that signal. I assume the issue is the tascam.
 
The line level thing may be you and not thinking the way that SD and Tascam do.

I don't own the 302 so this may be a bit bogus but the MixPre uses dBu my recorder like most digital ones uses dBfs. So zero on the MixPre is around 26dB from clipping where zero on the recorder is right on the edge. Then I tone I send the tone out of the MixPre at "0" (the only choice) and set the recorder to read -20. With the limiters set I am clip proof on the recorder and have a fair amount of gain left on the MixPre. Mix pre levels are usually someplace around 50% to 75%.

Now I think the 302 lets you set the tone level so if you have that set someplace other than zero dBu then that could mess up the gain structure.

The other thing that may be an issue is I'm not sure about that cable. If it's supposed to do what your doing then it shouldn't be a problem but 1/8" jacks are usually a -10 unbalanced stereo on consumer gear. The mini XLR is I assume putting out a balanced mono signal probably at +4. Depending on the gear you may not just bang those together. You need to actually convert one to the other. So that may be part of the problem also.
 
Thanks for the response Noiz. All connections are indeed correct, as Grant said he uses the same setup and no issue there. Also I have used this exact setup with other recorders and I could get my signal where I want it. I get that I have 20db of head room above the 302's 0. As you can see in the video, I am right up around +16 to occasionally clipping on the 302 in order to get a signal of -11 on the DR100. This isn't right, I shouldn't have to push in order to get my level set. I should be able to calibrate at 0db on both machines if I wanted to.*

Tascam got back to me and after a phone call to "try this" "do this", they said it will need to be sent in for repairs.*

Thanks for the help guys.
 
I don't know about that model Tascam but on some recorders, ( the H2 for instance) I use a 0VU= -12dB as a ref level. or.. I'll drop the ref. level tone on the 302 and raise the recorder's gain a few dB to get the desired -20dB ref. level.. (the JVC GY HD series cams for instance) The 302 also has the 'full scale' tone function which comes in handy to check and/or adj. for absolute 0dBFS.
Note: On the Canon cameras, it's normal to have to crank the cam's audio levels all the way to obtain a -20dBFS reading with a 302 mixer. The default unity gain on the 302 is 0dBu. (not +4)
 
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