Olof

Suberb! Thank you very much!

Hello! Does anyone know of a seller of Schoeps microphones in Rome, Italy? I emailed the Italian distributor in Milan about this, about a week ago, but until now here's been no answer. Thank you! Olof

I really like the Rupert Neve Designs 500 series module preamp. It's called 511. It's pretty clean without being sterile, and well – there's just something wonderful about the sound. The variable high-pass filter is very handy, and – compared to other 500-series module preamps – the price is not too bad. Especially for what you get. It's got a colouring circuit with variable settings. If you're interested in working more with different kinds of colouring of the sound, the TK-audio SP501 and the Cranborne Audio Camden 500 might also be worth looking into. For absolute "clean" there's the Weiss A1. It's pricey, and/but it's got a built in de-esser. If you want to go 19", ELBERG-ELT is a good bet. Elberg used to make the consoles for the Danish Public Broadcaster, before they went digital. He makes a stereo preamp "clean"-style called MP2, and a "mojo" one with a built in EQ called 1073. Great build quality, great sound, and relatively friendly prices. In the field I use my MKH-50 with a Sonosax R4 recorder, with very pleasing results ... and/but for sound quality / versatility / price – the Sonosax M2D2 seems like a very good way to go.

Many thanks Axel for the excellent info. It made it very easy to make up my mind and buy the R4. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I'm incredibly happy with it. It such a friendly little machine. Its low weight is a great advantage compared to the SX-42 /PMD/661 combo I recorded onto before. The R4 is so much lighter, and I'm much more inclined to take it with me. And the batteries seem to last forever!

Many thanks to Patrick and Ramallo for clearing this up. This is what it says in the manual: 8 tracks on HardDisk plus 2 track or Mirroring on a CompactFlash Card Which I obviously got wrong. Thus – this means, I presume, that I can record 8 channels onto the hard drive as well as the CF card. Or 8 channels onto the harddrive and an additional two channels onto the CF card. In any case, if it's 8 or 10 channels do not concern me too much. I'll be happy with 8 (since I come from the 744T), especially if I can record them onto the CF-card. I also noted that I mixed up the development date of the SX-R4 with the SX-42. The SX-42 is from 2003 and the SX-R4 from 2007-2008. Is there anyone who's compared the SX-R4 converters to those of the SX-R4+, or to any of the Sound Devices offerings?

Many thanks Philip! Much appreciated!

I have been offered to buy a Sonosax SX-R4 at a good price. I presume that the preamps will be wonderful. I have two Sonosax SX42 mixers, and much prefer their preamps to the ones in my Sound Devices 744t. I am bit concerned about recording on a hard drive with moveable parts (the SX-R4 only records two channels onto an CF-card), but reckon I can put in an SSD. How about the A-D converters? Considering that it's a machine from 2003? And are there any quirks I should be aware of? The later model, SX-R4+, seems much lauded on this forum. But at the moment, I can't afford it. Many thanks!