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(More customer reviews)Years ago when a tape recorder used that thin magnetic oxide coated mylar stuff to reproduce sound, albeit unfaithfully, a microphone had a remote switch on it to start and stop the recording. You'd put a cassette in, plug in the microphone jack and the remote jack, and when the interview started slide the remote switch up.
Nowdays the digital systems like the marantz pmd-661Marantz PMD661 Portable SD Recorder have changed things dramatically. The old recorders may have had a level meter - if you went into the red it distorted but the earth still spun and life was generally good. With digital recording going into the red is like cheating on your tax return! Digital recorders can't handle numbers larger than their maximum resolution, so you get silence, noise, or the recording stops depending on how your recorder works.
This is the reason old analog VU meters had +3 and +5 dB referenced to 0 (called going into the red since that part of the meter was colored red). Digital meters have their highest LED as 0 - there is no +3 or +5 dB because mathmatically it can not exist. So you need to recalibrate your thinking and target for a -6 dB range that peaks around -3 or -2 dB but NEVER goes over 0 (unless you have automatic gain control turned on which helps a whole lot)
With this new recording came the need to convey more information on the mic remote than "running" or "not running" which is why the LED on the strap on remote has 4 states:
1 Green (steady) - your recorder is in standby or stopped
2 Red (steady) - your recorder is recording normally
3 Red (flashing) - your recorder is in rec-pause mode
4 Orange (flashing for 1/2 second to get your attention) - you've gone over 0dB during record or record/pause - it's telling you to dial down the level either with automatic level, knobs, or moving the mic away from the person using it.
You also get 3 buttons instead of a run / stop switch - the top pauses recording, the middle starts the record mode or starts a new file if you are already recording, and the bottom lets you insert markers into the file so you can advance to them quickly later on.
The other nice part is that you can completely lock out the controls on the recorder itself and just use the remote strapped around your mic letting you stuff the recorder in any case you happen to have handy and not be concerned about buttons being bumped since they wont have any effect.
Overall this adds a tremendous level of recording and information control to the operator holding the microphone (which is now most likely an xlr mic instead of the old 1/8" TRS jack). Also the remote's plug into the pmd-661 or 660 is a 4 terminal (TRRS) 1/8" or 3.5 mm plug so it's an oddball. There are other functions you can add if you want to build your own remote like rewind and fast forward, but you need a soldering iron and some resistors to make it work.
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