An amazing recording

[Irvrobinson]

I just acquired a new Tascam DR-100MKII PCM recorder to record the live performances of my wife's bands. One's a jazz trio, the other a rock and roll covers band. She plays the drums. (I'm her roadie.) The bands like to review their performances, so one of these little hand-held recorders with built-in microphones is just the ticket. The recorder was delivered yesterday. After a few minutes of reading the instruction manual I set the Tascam on a coffee table about 8 feet from my wife's "rock" drum kit, with the mics hanging off the end of the coffee table, and I asked to her to jam for a few minutes.

She's a very a dynamic and powerful drummer, and the peak LED was lighting up on rim shots while she played, so I have some work to do on setting levels, but this was just meant to be a very informal test of how the Tascam sounded.

After she played a couple of sets we went upstairs to the family room, and using just the analog output feeding the analog input of my Benchmark HDR we listened to the recording. Frankly, neither one of us was expecting much.

Wrong. Dead wrong. It is the best solo drum recording we've ever heard. On my Salon 2 / DD18+ system it was 95% realistic. It's amazing. I didn't think my system could accurately reproduce her larger drum kit, and I've said so on AH a couple of times. Wrong again. The recording was absolutely convincing. I think we could still easily tell which were the live drums if they were side-by-side with the audio system, but the sound is so close to real it amazed both of us. And all I did was set a $250 handheld recorder on a coffee table, guessed at the right gain, and pressed the record button. What commercial recordings do to drums should be considered a crime against humanity.

I can't wait to try this out for the full jazz trio.

For now I just have the most amazing demo track I've ever heard.

[PENG]

You confirmed what I have been thinking all along, that technogy changes everything, including hifi. That's why I started that thread to hopefully collect a hundred high quality sound albums. We no longer need expensive electronics to enjoy live like music as long as the recording is done right with hfi in mind and the speakers are decent.

[Adam]

Any chance that you'd be willing to share that recording with us?

[STRONGBADF1]

This is true with lots of recordings. I can't take the crazy amount of effects that gets applied to many recordings. Rock drums especially. Being a hack drummer I can't stand when they muffle the snare and bass drum to the point of thud. The natural sustain and ring of a drum can be so right for a song and so seldom gets to be heard...


BTW, I'm jealous of you having a drummer wife. i wanted my wife to learn to play bass...She just gave me a look.

[markw]

Mapleshade has been keen to this all along. Just good equipment, wise setup, fitting venues, and virtually NO mapiluation of the signal (aside from the level) and they turn out some of the finest recordings available.

Simplicity does have it's advantages. Glad the results were what they were.

[Irvrobinson]

Any chance that you'd be willing to share that recording with us?

Send me a PM.

[Irvrobinson]

BTW, I'm jealous of you having a drummer wife. i wanted my wife to learn to play bass...She just gave me a look.

And she likes my audio system, and lets me take over the entire family room for its set up.

She's also into sports cars, and encourages their purchase, though everything must be in his-and-hers pairs.

Before you ask, she's an only child.

I'm convinced she married me to get a live-in mechanic for the sports cars, although most of my responsibilities fall into the "detailer" category. Well, in addition to the roadie gig.

Overall, I'd say I got a pretty good deal.

[indulger]

So now we have an additional endearment to add to all the nay sayers!

1. Didn't happen without a T-shirt!
2. Didn't happen without photos!

3. Didin't happen without a recording!!!!

Just sayin

[Irvrobinson]

So now we have an additional endearment to add to all the nay sayers!

1. Didn't happen without a T-shirt!
2. Didn't happen without photos!

3. Didin't happen without a recording!!!!

Just sayin

If you want the recording send me a PM with your email address and a solemn promise not to redistribute it. It's a ~38MB WAV file, so I'll let you download the file from a share site.

I didn't measure the loudness of the performance, but it was very loud. It's a big drum kit in a 16x20 room, to give you a feel for the venue. The rim shots are hurt-your-ears loud. The kick drum rattles the glass door on the fireplace. The drum kit is placed about six feet wide, and much to my surprise that size is apparent from the recording.

If you drummers are interested, the drums are DW Collectors Series, with a 22" bass drum, and she was using a stainless steel snare. The cymbals are Zildjian K-Customs, including a dark ride cymbal and various china and crash cymbals.

[Irvrobinson]

You confirmed what I have been thinking all along, that technogy changes everything, including hifi. That's why I started that thread to hopefully collect a hundred high quality sound albums. We no longer need expensive electronics to enjoy live like music as long as the recording is done right with hfi in mind and the speakers are decent.

And given ATDG's comparison with the Phil 3, you might be able to reproduce at least 90% (maybe more) of my experience with $3000 main speakers, a ~$1200 sub (or two), an perhaps an $800 amplifier. I'm guessing such a system could make someone with a $100K high-end rig feel pretty silly.