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Good as new, practically unused from private original owner.
Sony PCM-F1, Sony SL-F1E, Sony AC-F1E, AC-700E
Legendary portable Digital
recording set: Sony PCM-F1, Sony SL-F1E, Sony AC-F1E, AC-700E, 1 x VMC-330
THIS IS A
PAL Version!!!
This was Sony\'s
second generation digital audio recorder. The first commercially available version was a
6 or 7 unit 19\"
inch housing containing the AD (analog to digital) and DA (digital to analog) converters, and used a a
Sony U-matic video recorder
to record the \"digital signal in video format\" to tape.
Some years later the F1
combination was introduced where the big
19\" inch cabinet was replaced by a small portable unit containing an independent AD, and DA converter (unit on
the bottom). The bulky U-matic
recorder was replaced by sony\'s first portable consumer betamax recorder (the unit on the top) to
record the AD converted signal.
Not only was this a much cheaper solution, it also turned out to be a more reliable set-up than the large
maintenance intensive U-matic solution.
Furthermore it provide the possibility to make digital back-ups, or even overdubs from one betamax to the other
as the AD and DA converters operated totally independent. (The DA converter
could decode one signal,
whilst the AD converter simultaneously encoded a different signal; digital
copies can be easily made using two Video machines, and one PCM).
The biggest detail of this F1 set is that it
sounds better than all DAT recorders. The high end is in a certain way smoother
and more open. This is the perfect recording-machine.
With such a set several great recordings from great
performers have been mastered. Many great well-known recording Studios still
use it because of it’s unreachable sound!!! The set dates from 1986 and still
operates perfectly. It has been serviced regularly and works absolutely
perfect!!!
Some Specs:
- 16 Bit PCM audio-Processor to record
Audio-Signals on any Video Cassette Recorder
- 44,1 kHz Sampling Rate
- 14/16 Bit linear, uncompressed
- high-quality semiprofessional Stereo
Microphone-Input
- Two AC Power Adaptors (model AC-F1E – also
charger for optional batteries)
- AC switchable from 110 VAC – 240 VAC at 50/60 Hz
- Video connecting cord VMC-330 (for Video Cassette
Recorder SL-2000)
- 2 x unbalanced Jack-MIC-Inputs on the front
- Mic/Line switchable
- Line in/line out
- Video in / Video out
- Emphasis indicator switchable
- Tracking Indicator
- Stereo-Headphone-output, with attenuation control
on the front
- Muting and Copy Prohibiting Indicator
- Copy-Switch for Digital-Copies
- LED peak program meters from -60 - 0 dB; Overclip
indicator
- Peak Hold and Reset Level Indicator
- Battery Check Indicator
- Separate Record LEVEL controls
- 14 and 16 Bit quantization linear for Record and
Playback
- best S/N at 16 Bit: > 90 dB
- Frequency response: 10-20.000 Hz
- Distortion: < 0,005%
- Service Manual (original) for
the processor is included!!!
The auction consists of:
- 1 x Sony PCM-F1 Processor
- 1 x Sony SL-2000 Betamax Video Cassette
Recorder
- 2 x AC Power Adaptors AC-F1E (110-240 VAC,
50/60 Hz)
- 1 x Video connecting cord
VMC-330
- 1 x Service Manual (original) for the processor
If you
like - please watch out for my other auctions for more vintage audiophile toys.
Transport charges (Surface post parcel
insured) are:
- Europe: US$ 50
- US: US$ 75
- Other: US$ 110
Thanks
to \"metlay\" for this brilliant essay on PCM:
The Sony PCM boxes have a
fascinating history, about which I\'d like to speak for a moment before I get
into the technicalities of how I use them. But even before that, I\'d like to
explain to the uninitiated (uninitialized? hmmm...) exactly what a PCM box is!
Okay, we all know about DAT, righty
ho? Basically, a rotating head digital recording system using a proprietary
tape format, yes? Fine fine fine. But what precisely IS a DAT recorder, after all? Well,
it\'s a 16-bit D/A and A/D converter on the front end, and a digital storage
medium with error correction and all that other whizbang stuff. The D/A and A/D
aren\'t that innovative with respect to things that\'ve been around for ages,
well, years anyway, but the compact data storage is what really sets the DAT
apart. Digital mastering decks use the same principles, but different data
storage (tape reels), and so will recordable CDs (optical disks). So what are
digital recording devices? Basically an A/D and a D/A with something to store
the ones and zeroes quickly and accurately.
The PCM box, as invented by Sony,
is just such a device. It was designed to do what DAT does, using an
already-extant data storage format that was portable, reliable, and cheap: VCR
tapes. That\'s right, kids: the video track of a VCR has oodles of bandwidth for
recording sound, so all we need to design is a box that has a D/A and A/D
converter and some means for disguising the resulting data as a TV picture!
Voila! Recordings with CD quality, and cheap!
The idea was first tested with a
gizmo called the Sony PCM-F1. It was designed to be portable, for on-location
recordings of concerts with a camcorder tape unit. Plug in two microphones to
the mic inputs on the F1, roll tape, and go. It cost around $2000, plus or
minus, and was welcomed with open arms in the audio world. And that\'s when the
trouble began....
(The following is not STRICTLY
accurate, but close enough to give the reader a feel for the \"flavor\"
of the times....let the credulous reader beware.)
Sony suddenly discovered that sales
of PCM-F1s were going through the roof, and sales of their high-end digital
mastering decks were dropping like a felled ox. They were strangling their own
Pro Audio Division with their own gear! Yikes, went Sales. Off the market, went
the F1.
SSSHHHHHRRRRRIIIIEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!
went the audio industry.
Sony gritted their teeth and held
on for as long as they could, as used F1s became a hot ticket item and people
STILL refused to buy high-end decks. But eventually somebody knuckled under to
outside pressure and sold the plans to the F1 to Nakamichi, who painted it
black, changed two input capacitors for a slightly \"sweeter\" sound,
and marketed it as the Nakamichi DMP-100. Nakamichi stock took off, and Sony
was REALLY screwed. So they did the only thing they could, which was to start
putting out the F1 again, with the addition of the new caps Naka had added
since people liked them.
Since then, other people (JVC,
Technics, etc) have done the same thing, and Sony is now truly caught between
staying enough ahead of their competitors in this little-known but fiercely
competitive field, and throttling their other digital formats, like open-reel
digital and DAT. It\'s a bad situation. Bad for Sony, that is; we get the best
end of the deal, because they have no choice but to supply us with these boxes!
The usual market pattern is as
follows: R&D comes up with new features for the PCM units. A new model is
manufactured. Its production run is limited and only takes place once per
fiscal year. Most units are wired for Japanese power, and are sold to Japanese
users. A select few are wired for US power and exported. The US models are so
rare and costly that they vanish essentially instantly. The Japanese models are
bought by US companies that export them via the grey market, rebuild their
power supplies and RF shielding, and (legally) resell them to voracious
American buyers. (It\'s only illegal if the customer doesn\'t know about the
rebuilding before he buys.) Then the supply runs out, pleas for more from Sony
fall on deaf ears, and there\'s a dearth for months until the cycle begins
again....
(End of slightly popularized
historical note. The following is straight dope.)
The units are occasionally
available used, but they\'re likely to be costly, and one should be damn sure
one isn\'t being sold a grey-market box without knowing in advance who did the
mod and whether they\'ll guarantee their work.
Sony has, in its history, made the
following models:
- PCM-F1: The original. Portable, with mic
inputs. Expensive ($2000 or so?).
- PCM-701: Essentially a line-input, rack
mount F1. Cost about the same.
- PCM-501ES: Freestanding stereo-component
style box. List about $800.
- PCM-601ESD: The current design. Has PCM-1630
digital I/O. List about $1300.
All of the above are essentially
equivalent in design and sound quality, and all will work essentially
interchangeably with one another. They operate in two modes: 14-bit with heavy
error correction, and 16-bit with somewhat less error correction. In the
experience of everyone I know who uses them, including my own, the incidence of
pops and clicks is no higher for 16-bit than for 14-bit. There\'s a noticeable
difference in sound quality, too: as Freff once put it, \"At 14-bit, it\'s
like looking through a freshly washed and crystal-clear window. At 16-bit, it\'s
like removing the glass.\"
The Nakamichi DMP100 is identical
to the PCM-F1 in every way. All of the other PCM boxes on the market, from
Technics, JVC et al., are inexpensive and sound good, but they are all only
14-bit units, so if you\'re a spec-head they won\'t satisfy. That includes the
Toshiba deck everyone\'s been screaming about.
Any VCR can conceivably be used
with a PCM deck, and many users get by with a low-end VHS consumer deck without
any trouble. Remember, the data is stored as VIDEO information! Not audio, not
VHS or Beta Hi-Fi, just a picture. So any deck can be used, no matter how
primitive. Some people use Hi-Fi to add two tracks of almost equal quality to
the PCM tracks. One caveat, though: although most people don\'t have trouble,
there are certain types of decks that give the most flawless results in heavy
use. 3/4\" U-matic is the choice of pros, and audio types who really care
about quality (like me) prefer to use Sony Beta decks, for two reasons: First,
no matter what anyone says, Beta is a mechanically superior format, and second,
Sony decks almost always have a PCM switch, which optimizes the deck for PCM
recording by switching out redundant error correction and doing something
arcane to the data transmission (apparently there are subtle timing differences
between PCM audio and a real TV picture, although I don\'t know the details).
Everyone I\'ve ever spoken to who has had dropout or click/pop problems with a
PCM box was using a cheap VHS VCR, and the people who have used Betas are happy
as larks.
How are they normally used? Simple!
MIDI instruments are set up to play in real time, run by a sequencer. Roll
tape, start sequence, send everything to digital in realtime in one pass. If
non-MIDI instruments are to be added, this can be done live or via multitrack
analog tape synched via SMPTE. The point is to keep analog recording and
bouncing to a minimum, if not at zero. The result is a PCM-box-readable digital
master, 16-bit at 44.1kHz, which most if not all mastering houses can transfer
painlessly to a pro format for next to nothing. The vast majority (99-plus
percent) of users use PCM for either this purpose or for live digital
recordings. The other less-than-1 percent use PCM for infinite digital
multitracking.
As for my PCM multitracking method,
well, let\'s back up a minute. It isn\'t true multitracking, and it imposes
strong strictures on the recording technique of the user. Few people that I
know of use this technique on a regular basis, and no record album has ever
been put together with it to my knowledge (which would make mine a first, which
I don\'t mind). The principle is more of a digital sound-on-sound technique, and
it takes advantage of an odd design quirk in the Sony PCM boxes: the D/A and
A/D converters are two separate entities, that don\'t communicate with one
another directly, so one can be sending one audio signal one way and the other
can be handling a different signal in the opposite direction. So the principle
is straightforward: one VCR is designated for playback, and the other for
recording. They\'re hooked up to the PCM box accordingly in the digital domain.
On the analog side of things, the playback machine is run to two channels of a
mixer, and the recording machine isn\'t hooked up at all, neccessarily. The
procedure goes as follows:
- 1. Set up and record a mix on the record
deck.
- 2. Remove the resulting mix and put it in
the playback deck.
- 3. Play it back through the mixer, and add
more stuff to it.
- 4. Repeat ad nauseam.
Get it? You can do the same thing
with analog media, but the generation noise will kill you in no time flat. With
digital, if your mixer is clean and your sources don\'t have a lot of hash in
them (no low-res digital synths or effects need apply), you can bounce and
bounce to your heart\'s content. I\'ve heard 24-track mixes of guitar overdubs
that sound like they were played live by two dozen guitarists! The
disadvantages, of ourse, are equally obvious: you can\'t edit what you\'ve done,
whether by punching or spot erasing, so everything is live and direct to tape.
You can\'t unmerge data, either, so if you\'re on Tracks 11 and 12 and you
suddenly realize there\'s an unforgivable glitch in your solo that you laid down
on Tracks 3 and 4, you\'ve just lost not only those two tracks, but Tracks
5,6,7,8,9,and 10 as well! Eek!
The idea, of course, is to get a
complete mix down in as few passes as possible. The primary difference between
this method and the \"MIDI setup to digital master\" is that for every
pass you can use your whole setup all over again. So if you own three synths
and four effects, two passes gives you six synths and eight effects, and so on.
Sync is easy: lay down SMPTE on the linear audio of the VCR, and jam sync and
restripe on each pass. It\'s a very demanding way to work: your sequencer holds
all of the data but slelcted bits must be muted, since you can\'t audition
everything at once, and anything you decide to play live immediately takes on
the characteristics of the old direct-to-disk sessions. It\'s rough, but fun,
and I enjoy it immensely.
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