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What is "Level Alignment"?


Jeff Leites

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Regarding my Tascam DR-07 MKII -

 

The manual says "If the playback sound is very small and indiscernible, the perceived overall sound pressure can be increased to enhance listenability. (Level Alignment)"

 

:confused:

 

I don't quite understand what they are trying to tell me.

Can someone explain it to me?

Is that a record or playback function?

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It refers to a complex esoteric closed loop process control system wherein the sensors (ears) feeds samples of the sound to a processor unit (brain), which in turn drives an actuator unit (hand) to adjust a rotary control which is capable of increasing or decreasing the proportional gain of the system (volume knob). The adjustments to the proportional gain directly affects the sound pressure level in the immediate environment until a visceral reaction of enjoyment of the musical composition's performance is perceived.

 

Actually, after looking at the manual, it appears to be similar to the 'MP3 boost' functions in a lot of car radios - - I'm not certain what it is, but to my ear it does upward compression on the bass and treble to give a scooped sound to loud passages. Sounds pretty horrible to me, but some people like it.

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In other words, yet another feature NOT to use if you're going to be doing postprocessing!

 

It's not a recording process. As far as I can tell, it's only in line with the analog outputs (line/phones and speaker) during playback. You can't even use it when "remixing" a recording using the recorder's internal mixer. Nor is it in the monitoring path when recording, so even if it's turned on, you won't hear it until you play back what you've recorded. The worst it can do is make you think you made a perceptively louder recording than you actually did when listening to it on the recorder.

 

Basically, it gives you 10 dB more playback level ahead of the volume control. with the compressor preventing it from driving the analog output into clipping during playback.

 

Oh{censored}! Now I've written more about it than what I have in the review. I guess I'll have to add another few sentences. ;)

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Funny. I thought that this meant HEAD alignment. If the head is too high or low the volume may be lower.

 

Yes, head alignment is very important with flash memory card recorders. I have a special on alignment cards this week, only $59.95, post paid in the US. ;)

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With a name like Tascam I thought for sure that this was Analog. LOL

 

 

I haven't checked in the last week, but I don't think TASCAM makes analog recorders any more. The BR-20 was the last reel-to-reel to go and that was two or three years ago. The PortaStudio line is all flash memory cards now.

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