Tascam HD-P2 sample recording available

[Stonewall Ballard]

As requested, I have made a sample available, of a concert I recorded
today with the HD-P2. This is a 3:47 excerpt from Britten's "A Ceremony
of Carols", as performed by the Concord Madrigals. I chose this excerpt
more-or-less randomly, except that I thought that the harp
accompaniment might be more interesting than the piano that accompanied
other songs. The file is 77.1MB.

<http://stoney.sb.org/HDP2Sample.wav>

The recording is unaltered from the original, except for being trimmed.
The audio peaked at -10db elsewhere, so this was a fairly conservative
level setting. 24-bit, 44.1KHz, using an AT825 stereo cardioid mic,
phantom powered from the HD-P2, running on batteries. The mic was about
20' from the center of the chorus (four rows of women), and about 8' up
on a stand. The harp was about 30 degrees to the side.

I found it interesting that the gain was set to 8 for this. When I
recorded this same group in past years with my DA-P1, I set the gain to
5-6, with the same mic (although I tried for less headroom). I think
that means that the mic preamps in the HD-P2 have less gain than the
DA-P1. My crude measurements indicate that the increments on the gain
control amount to about 6db each.

The audience was about 500 people, who were unusually quiet for a Xmas
concert, but you can hear them coughing, as well as the heating system
rumble.

I'm quite pleased with the result.

- Stoney
--
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sb.n...@sb.org http://stoney.sb.org

[Mike Rivers]

Stonewall Ballard wrote:
> I found it interesting that the gain was set to 8 for this. When I
> recorded this same group in past years with my DA-P1, I set the gain to
> 5-6, with the same mic (although I tried for less headroom). I think
> that means that the mic preamps in the HD-P2 have less gain than the
> DA-P1.

I wouldn't be surprised. Built-in mic preamps aren't a strong point for
most recorders nowadays. Probably a cost-saving measure.

I'll give your song a listen as soon as it gets here. Thanks for
posting it.

[Leo Sreto]

Stoney,

Thank you very much for your sharing of your recording. While typing this, I
am downloading you sample and I'm looking forward to hear it. Very nice of
you!

I will comment on my impression later.

Regards,
Leo
"Stonewall Ballard" <sb.n...@sb.org> wrote in message
news:2005121819410416807-sbnospam@sborg...

[Leo Sreto]

Well, now I've heard your recording and MHO is that is sounds great. Very
clear. A bit low-signal though. I had to Normalize in my DAW to get a loud
enough sound. But even normalizing didn't produce any backgroundnoise or
hiss and that's a sign [for me anyway] that HD-P2 is very capable.
Thank you again Stoney for posting this. I think I will push my dealer even
harder to get one ASAP. :-)

Leo

"Stonewall Ballard" <sb.n...@sb.org> wrote in message
news:2005121819410416807-sbnospam@sborg...

[Mike Rivers]

Stonewall Ballard wrote:
> As requested, I have made a sample available, of a concert I recorded
> today with the HD-P2.

I thought it sounded just fine The noise level in the room (and the
noise level in my living room) was greater than any electronic noise
that the recorder may have contributed when I cranked the listening
level up to "normal." It sounded like a live recording, and that's just
what you wanted, wasn't it? <G>

I don't think there's anything noise-wise to worry about here. Your
"silent" test showed that the preamp noise doesn't go up at full gain,
so you could have risked a little headroom and turned up the record
level a tad, but the recording wasn't broken as is, so why not leave
that decision to post-production? Everybody who wants a preview should
know where their volume control is.