Sound device mixpre pdf

Step 5. Step 6. On the display, you will see no TC yet because we need to set up the audio recorder for use with an external timecode device first. Step 7. Step 8. Step 9. Now you can see the correct timecode. Step The headphone encoder knob below it controls the volume. The tracks with numbers highlighted red indicate what will be recorded.

Use the front Channel Knobs to set levels. A ring around each knob will glow green, amber, and red to show recording levels. If the 2 Microphones preset is selected, it will record 2-channel WAV files. If the 4 Microphones preset is selected, it will record 4-channel WAV files. Characters are selected via the headphone encoder knob. Time to Record!

The first page of the Channel Menu has a Solo button which will let you hear one channel at a time. All channels will keep recording regardless of the Solo status. When a channel is soloed, its light ring will flash orange. Tap the Menu dots to access the second page of the Channel Menu, which among other things shows the Low Cut filter settings. It can be set up to roll off bass frequencies or reduce mic handling noise, wind noise, and other undesirable low frequency sounds.

Tap the the Low Cut button and turn the headphone encoder to select a frequency. Typically, 80Hz is a good starting point.

On the MixPre, start from the Home Screen. Drag files to an appropriate volume. When file transfer is complete, eject the volume from the computer. Tap Exit on the Transfer Mode screen to return to the previous operating state. Want More? Previous Recording in F Table of Contents. In simple terms, the way it works is that the audio information is contained in a bit chunk of data called the 'mantissa' which is effectively the same as the bit fixed-point format we use for physical interfacing via, say, AES3 or ADAT.

This is all well and good for signal processing inside a DAW, I hear you say, but how is the raw audio coded into this format in the first place inside Sound Devices' new MixPre recorders, given that standard A-D converters only produce 24 bits and most can only code useful audio data onto 22 of those bits anyway!

The answer is a very clever and entirely proprietary technique, for which a patent has been granted. It involves several preamp and A-D converter combinations, each arranged to have different signal sensitivities, and the digital outputs from the different A-D converters are analysed and the relevant data combined in the machine's DSP to create the required floating-point output.

The machine's DSP monitors the outputs from all of the A-Ds to work out the actual signal level range to generate the appropriate exponent value and extracts the bits of useful audio content by combining relevant data from the different A-Ds. Other manufacturers have used broadly similar 'stacked A-D' schemes before, dating right back to the earliest days of digital audio in the s, but perhaps the first significant commercial application in pro-audio was Neumann's D digital microphone introduced in , which uses two A-Ds with different sensitivities to digitise the capsule's output directly.

However, the Sound Devices arrangement involves a fresh and very clever approach — specifically in its novel use of multiple preamp stages as well as multiple A-Ds — which, naturally, the company feels offers a significant advantage over all previous manifestations. Just to put that in context, a Sennheiser MKH50 with its pad switched in will start distorting heavily just before the MixPre's preamp at around dB SPL, while its self-noise will still be captured perfectly above the preamp's own noise-floor!

I've used much earlier generations of 'stacked-ADC' converters — back in the late '80s and early '90s when bit converters were still a real engineering challenge — and I recall issues with moving noise floors causing a kind of noise modulation effect.

In my case, I close-miked a large crystal trifle bowl and tapped it with a spoon to create a sharp transient with a smoothly decaying ring. Listening critically to the recording I couldn't detect anything untoward, so it seems that Sound Device's new technology works very well indeed! However, it appears some DAWs still have a few wrinkles to iron out, particularly in the way they derive and display the waveforms of floating-point files, and unfortunately some still cannot work with floating-point files at all at the time of writing.

They also work in Pro Tools 12 up to a point; the audio sounds fine, but there's currently a problem with the waveform display which can show clipping even when the signal level is pulled back below 0dBFS.

Avid's Media Composer can't currently work with the floating-point format at all, and neither can DaVinci's Resolve. While the introduction of the new MixPre MkII models might be considered to render the original versions obsolete, I don't think that's a fair assessment.

The six first-generation models MixPre-3 and -3M, -6 and -6M, and the T and M all remain superbly capable, high-quality portable digital recorders in their own right, and will continue to provide reliable top-notch service for many years to come. And that's just as well, because there's no upgrade option to convert the original models into their MkII counterparts — the internal differences are just too substantial to permit that.

Nor can the original models be traded-in with Sound Devices in part-ex for the revised versions, although some retailers may be prepared to offer that facility.

However, Sound Devices have stated that they will continue to support the original models with any appropriate or necessary firmware updates arising from their development of the second-generation models, subject to the original hardware being able to support them. These second-generation location recorders improve on the already impressive first-generation models with new features and a few worthy upgrades, most notably a very sophisticated option to record in bit floating-point format to capture a genuine dB dynamic range.

Alternatives The various Zoom models remain the closest competitors, especially the new F6 model, which offers a bit floating-point record option. Floating Free Floating-point is not a new format; most DAWs have been using it in one form or another for several decades. Out With The Old? Pros Preamps sound superb, with massive clean gain and headroom. Still has everything that came before