Video vs film, why did the HQ Sound let go with the video?

[crimsonson]

no doubt analogue sound is sweet. I play guitar and I think its pretty much required that every guitar player should have Marshall Tube Amps.

However nothing beats an tube amp like the sweet sound of my cheap acousti Yamaha guitar. Even pros have complimented it (I am just a hobbyist - dont even read music - though I like tabs )

To be honest - I like MD but I am not sold on it. I rather not use it for my projects. Since its cheap (but not convinient - no XLRs or manual gain. for more $$$ you might as well go DAT) I do rarely use it.

[S8 Booster]

:?:


Marantz PMD-650

Professional Portable MiniDisc Recorder
Key features

* Frequency Response: 20-20kHz
* Signal to Noise Ratio: >90dB
* XLR mic/line inputs, Digital XLR output
* 48V Phantom power
* SP and LP mode (74 minutes Stereo or 148 Mono)
* One touch recording
* Level Sync Recording (LSR)
* Dual Level Mono recording (Left =0dB, Right=-15dB)
* MiniDisc editing system: Divide, Combine, Move and Erase
* Pre-Rec memory cache
* 20 seconds (40sec mono) audio buffer for shock resistance
* Preset function for customizing settings
* Time & Date stamp
* Pre-UTOC writing at recording start to secure recordings
* 3-way power supply: 8xAA Batteries, Ni-Cad battery or AC adaptor
* Dimensions: 2.2" x 10.4" x 7.3"
* Weight: 2.8 lbs

:?:
This is a Microphone Preamp / AD converter designed to reject noise for high quality sound recording and it fits MD/DAT/PC recorders with optical or coaxial digital inputs.

Unit/converter is designed for XLR microphone inputs but there are several items that interconnects between standard JACK unbalanced and XLR balanced systems.




More info: http://www.posthorn.com/Denecke_5.html
http://www.denecke.com/prod04.htm#AD20
http://www.denecke.com/products.htm (lot of film related products)
:?:

DENECKE
AD-20 MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIER AND A/D CONVERTER

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The AD-20 is a high quality battery operated microphone preamp coupled with a low noise 20 bit ADC. The SPDIF outputs are optical and coaxial and can drive standard consumer DAT machines or computers that accept digital audio I/O cards, such as the Zefiro ZA-2. The main use for the AD-20 is location recording. Most low cost DAT machines have noisy front ends and a good preamp with a higher bit converter can improve the signal to noise by up to 15 dB.

AD-20 Microphone Preampand A/D Converter

FEATURES:

* Long battery life of 8 to 10 hours from one 9 volt battery
* Low noise 125 dB EIN unweighted at max gain (+45 dB)
* Dynamic range at minimum gain (+17 dB) is 97 dB unweighted
* Individual gain pots for left and right
* Low battery indicator LED
* External 9 volt input for studio work
* Optional line input cables with 22 dB pads (10 k input Z)
* 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, specify when ordering


SPECIFICATIONS:
Size 3" x 5.75" x 1.25"
Weight Approximately 1lb
Input Balanced 3 pin XLR at 10 k
Output SPDIF optical and coaxial
Power 5.5v to 25V at 50 ma


Price: $325

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R

[S8 Booster]

no doubt analogue sound is sweet. I play guitar and I think its pretty much required that every guitar player should have Marshall Tube Amps.

However nothing beats an tube amp like the sweet sound of my cheap acousti Yamaha guitar. Even pros have complimented it (I am just a hobbyist - dont even read music - though I like tabs )

Crimson, I have had the experience for many years that price is not nessecarily analog! to HQ sound. System matching is much more important, not to mention guitar strings. I have tried a lot of strings on my (cheap) Epiphone Casino (Natural finish!) but the ones I recently stuck with are cheap Peavy plain steel. They have the best drive and are reminicent of the sound of the 60´s which is what I like. Do not last long though. Loosing the "bite" quickly. Joyful amateur player I am too.

Reqarding sound quality vs price I have had some interesting experiences over the years. My professional manufacturer & supplier of electronics power gear for my daily business designs and builds (in addition to many other products) an ultra powerful 2000W (up to 8000W boost) dynamic powersupply for High-End Hi-Fi systems. The costs for the unit alone is about 2.5 times that of a Mark Lewinson amplifier. What this unit does is to make total noise rejection, AC Sinewave waveform correction and offer an instant dynamic boost at power drain from the amplifier.

Does it improve sound quality? You bet. Proved in blind tests reqularily with Hi-Fi Mags. First time I was able to get the thing demoed at the factory they had set up a gigabuck High-End Hi-Fi system for testing. To me it was a big surprise that this costy spacetech Hi-Fi system could sound so bad initially. (It was set up by experts from a Hi-Fi magazine). The additional powersupply improved the sound a lot, lets assume 50% to give a figure. The sound picture opened up and the details became a lot more "visible". Still I rate my modest but advanced Hi-Fi system over that expensive one except for total power handling.

Now, I bought my modest but High Qualty Advanced Technology Hi-Fi system with a CD player about 10 years ago trying to adopt to the [DIGITAL] era.

Was I satisfied with the sound? No. I bought a matching CD player and amplifier so come the first major problem: Speakers. I brought home and tried a lot but found none I liked. Finally I bought my CD player and Amp to some Hi-Fi shops to test every available speaker and found 1 modern design that I decided "good enough", not really what I was looking for sound wise.

Anyway brought it home and it sounded "trash" compared to my old analog system. Located most of the problem to the wires. Tried almost every "proven" well reputated wire around without really beeing impressed or satisfied.

My second last attempt also failed; it was PURE Silver Wires that I could get hold of from my daily buzz. No good still, squeaky. My final attempt was to try the oldest cables I had from the late ´60s, some flimsy, cheap copper wires with SN coating. Those opened up the sound picture almost perfectly but the BASS lacked somewhat. Some of the other beefy cables I tried had excellent BASS so I connected the 2 in parallell to each speaker. Bingo, close enough to be satisfied after 1.5 years of trial and error. I then gave up making more research on this.

Now, next I put the spikes on the speakers. Helped noticably too. The thing played really good. Now I tested the 2000W "Hypersine" powersupply with my Hi-Fi system too. It improved the sound lot. From a reasonably good sounding combined wedge/dome sound picture it transformed to a magic huge transparent 3-D "dome" like sound picture filling the room with seemless sound from the "dome". It is so precise that I would make a bet on where in the system the guy who mixed the record sat when he did it.

Have to say, for the first time I got this going I had big problems to cut loose from it. It was so good sounding that I, in my personal view, have not yet heard it matched by any other Hi-Fi systems except my old analog one.

What I learned?

High price is not analog to sound quality.
High price is no guaranty for good sound quality.
System matching is the most important factor.
Hearing is very individual. (Knew that from Day 1 though)

Recently I bought a Harman Kardon DVD player that got a 10 out of 10 in everything including CD sound quality in a Hi-Fi magazine.

My biggest disappointment in many years. It plays "nice" but no more rating it 33% to my 10+ year old CD player.

NB!
The Fab Four never seemed to use very expencive gear. Probably Ringo´s drums were the most expencive item. Did that prevent them form delivering magic?



R

[mike]

I think the poor quality of dv sound comes from:
a: the sound is recorded at a generic level, probably with a limiter
b. the microphone placement is for the sound to be recorded in front of the camera
c. neither the mic can not be moved nor another mic added (on consumer models)
d. the videographer myth of one person operating the camera and the mic at the same time (no boom mic operator, ala film or other)

In super 8 sound cameras, the microphone can be detached from the camera and placed closer to the subject or another microphone can be added.

I think when people shoot video or dv they dont take into acount what factors are needed for proper exposure since the all-to-automatic dv and video cameras seem to, but don't, provide a quality picture.

Even though its digital, one still has to record the sound properly.