Sound Investment 2

The Marantz PMD661 Mk II came to my possession quite some time ago. A few months ago, if not a year, to be precise. Monisha's ex-boss who now lives in New York brought it over on her request and we paid him here. But I didn't unbox it really. Just opened the package seal to check if the item was there inside and kept it as it is in our room in Metro Park without touching it. 

I cannot explain why it was so. I was perhaps a little overawed by its sophistication and thought my microphone wasn't quite up to it. I was waiting both to move out to my new house on Pratapaditya Road and get the Sennheiser K6/ME66. In my new house I would get the personal space that I need to play with such things. In the old house half the accessories would be lost or mislaid. 

The moving in and Sennheiser happened almost simultaneously. That was quite by chance. After getting the Sennheiser yesterday I unboxed the recorder and did some basic recording to test both the microphones as well as the recorder. It was quite a hilarious experience really. Hilarious because a number of things didn't quite go right initially but in the end it all worked out fine. 

First, I found the Rode NT4 wasn't working. When I opened the battery chamber, to my utter horror I found the Duracell battery that was inside had a greenish copper sulphate like coating on one of the terminals. Luckily there was no leak. Even more luckily I had a spare sealed 9 volt battery with me which I fitted. To my great relief the mic's red light glowed up the moment I clicked the mic on. 

The Sennheiser also didn't work at first. And I found I had fitted the battery inside the K6 in a wrong way. Even though my recorder gives out 48volt phantom power, the battery has to be correctly inserted and the unit has to be switched on for the circuit to be completed. When there is phantom power the battery is not consumed.

I have obviously taken the battery out of the NT4. I will load it as and when required. The battery in the ME66 is still there but even that I want to remove. An idle battery is a dangerous thing. 

After checking the quality of the recording with the NT4 in stereo with XLR cable I am convinced that it is a bloody good microphone. It was Edirol's problem that it couldn't handle the microphone. I think XLR and phantom power are the two major differentiator here. 

The Sennheiser's ability to record distant sounds and reject sounds coming from behind or the sides is amazing. From the 3rd floor balcony when I was trying to point at the road below I could hear two young boys talking but couldn't see them. I couldn't hear them without the mic. Incredible ability. 

My first recording with the Marantz though was Ma's voice, as I always knew that is how it would be. I had hoped I would record a song of her but that is not how it happened. She wasn't prepared to sing at that time last night. Just spoke a few words about coming to the new flat and that was it. 

The recording was done in MP3 with the internal mics in stereo mode. I had still not been able to work out how to change the recorder set up, like sampling rate etc. Finally I worked that out. 

There are three pre-sets. I made preset 1 for MP3 recording at the lowest possible resolution with internal mics in stereo mode. This is for casual recordings at home - like Mampu's blabber or me singing etc. Preset 2 is for external mic in mono at highest possible resolution. This is obviously for bird call recording with the ME66.  Preset 3 is for external mic in stereo. This is for serious recording of environmental sound like on a sea beach or dawn chorus or traffic noise etc. The recording level is set to auto for preset 1 and manual for the other two. If recording noisy environments I might turn preset 3 in ALC mode later.

My First Impressions 
I am not quite the veteran to be able to comment on the quality of a new recorder right away. It will take me some time to get used to it and discover its features and then comment on them.

However, here are my basic impressions. The recorder feels strong and professional to touch. It is not as cheap looking as the Edirol. The battery chamber opens and shuts smoothly. No struggle and no cheap feeling that it might break any moment. This is a difficult area for most gadgets made with cheap plastic. My Garmin Fortrex used to need an American cent to open the battery chamber and you always felt it would break any moment. Subsequently the fine aluminium plate inside the battery chamber broke, making the gadget useless. The eTrex 10 also has an extremely cheap plastic cover for batteries but at least it is easy to open.

The battery chamber of the Marantz even has a black ribbon to pull out the batteries. The batteries needed some effort to slot into position. I am using Varta batteries. I think I will have to get four more batteries. Perhaps Sanyo's Eneloop. They hold charge for a phenomenally long time.

The XLR cable that I procured from Visual Media Systems with the K6/ME66 (in case you are a complete newbie worse than me - these are two different things that make up the total microphone  system together. The K6 is the powering module where there is a battery. This module needs to be attached to the bottom of the ME66 which is the actual microphone doing the recording. One is useless without the other)  goes into the left jack for mono recording. The Rode has a Left and Right split and they went into L&R jacks.

The recording quality is great. There is hardly any hiss. The built-in speaker isn't very loud. It cannot be used to record and immediately play back the call to bring out any bird from the bush. I guess my next target for that should be a pocket speaker. The hunt is quietly on :-)

Sound Investment

God has been extremely kind to me. Things that used to be dreams are slowly but steadily being realised. Last night I had one such long cherished dream fulfilled. The Sennheiser K6/ME66 microphone arrived home. I experimented with it and found it to be more than adequate for my purpose. I am happy with a capital H :-)

Let me write the whole story. 

Ever since I made my first recording of nature sound with my mobile phone in CKBS (that was quite a few years ago) I got hooked to the idea. After a lot of planning and research, I found the Edirol R09HR would suit my purpose just fine. When you are planning to buy such items in Calcutta just deciding on the model is not enough. You have to find out how to procure it also. I hunted down a dealer - Bobby of Fancy Market - who had the recorder in stock. It wasn't a smuggled in product but came with proper documents. I bought it without any hesitation. It is a gem of a recorder for the cost. Roland has discontinued the product for whatever reasons but, touch wood, it continues to serve me well, as on date. 

It is very handy. Very intuitive. It can record acceptably well if you are not using microphones, which is funny. This last point disappointed me a lot. I realised this inadequacy of the recorder much later though. First I bought a Rode Videomic Pro (another round of major time consuming research went into finding the right source for the brand) complete with its deadcat windshield. The result wasn't great. You get very hissy sound. I thought it was probably the problem of the microphone. 

Search meanwhile started for another recorder because I know I am going to be in this for a long time. After reading a lot of reviews and opinions expressed by experts in various forums over the years, I realised that the Marantz PMD661 Mk II would be the ideal buy for me in terms of price and quality. I wanted a recorder that would be able to accept XLR cables as all good microphones come with XLR. But Marantz is just not available in India. And the price was also pretty high.

I had considered the Tascam HD P2 also. It looks very professional and accepts CF cards (which in my notion is safer than SD) but considering its size and cost, I zeroed in on the Marantz.

I don't know if it was my persistence and insistence but Monisha gave her nod for the recorder and sanctioned the budget. That's the power of dreaming, I suppose.

After several months of dreaming and unsuccessfully trying two different sources for bringing it over, Monisha finally found a savior in one of her ex-bosses who now lives in New York City. He was contacted and he said he was due to come in a few months for a family marriage reception and wouldn't mind bringing this over. After several months of wait he came last year but only as far as Bangalore where he left it with one of Monisha's colleagues. An office colleague of mine finally helped me bring it over to Calcutta. 

In the meanwhile, I have sold off my Røde Videomic Pro. I have also got a Røde NT4 for stereo recording. This is when I started having doubts about the Edirol's ability to handle microphones but I was still not sure. Roland's brand equity to me was still stronger than that of Røde. The recording is low and hissy, I found. But I wasn't too sure whether it was Røde's fault or Edirol's. I thought perhaps Røde is not as reputable a brand as it is made out to be.

This is when I thought I must get a Sennheiser K6/ME66 for the Marantz. This is the de facto standard equipment in bird call recording. Even Telinga has its saucers designed with this mic in mind. In fact for almost a year, I didn't even touch the new Marantz. It remained locked in the box. 

After several months of patient wait and another few rounds of dreams, the mic became a reality yesterday. When I finally got the funds for it a few weeks ago, I spoke to the Chennai-based Visual Media Systems (my Rode supplier) who said they had it in ready stock. The price they quoted is more or less the same as the B&H price of New York. I didn't think twice. 

The D-day of arrival was yesterday. Being childishly impatient I personally brought it from the courier company's office. After returning home yesterday (August 20, 2014) the first thing I did was bring out the Marantz and unbox it.

I love playing with gadgets. Learning about its features. But over the years I have learnt that modern electronic gadgets come with lots of features not all of which I might need. That's why I just take out the things that I need to know for my own purpose and start walking, picking up the other things as I go down the path of discovery.

Now, let me write the Marantz review in another post.