Gemini DRP-1 Issues

[shayward]

Hey everyone,

I just purchased a new Gemini Pro Audio DRP-1 Digital Rackmount recorder to use for live recordings in a rehearsal hall. The unit is being feed by two CAD pencil condenser microphones through a Samson Dual Phantom Power supply then the mic lines are combined into a single feed and inserted into the XLR mic input into the recorder.

When I did a test recording onto the SD card I got a lot of what I can only describe as "digital noise" inserted into the recording. I tried again with a different SD card and got the same result, I also tried the USB slot which gave a slightly better result, but still had some trace noise on the recording.

Does anyone have experience with this unit, or can you point towards something that might be wrong. If I could insert an audio file to the message I could upload the test recording so you could hear what was going on....but I don't know if you can do that here.

 

[FMEng]

The primary way digital noise can pollute the recording would be for it to leak into the mic preamp or A to D converter. It could be bad internal grounding, poor shielding, or insufficient power supply filtering. I think you either have a defective unit or it is very poorly designed. It lives up to Gemini's reputation. I noticed that a reviewer on the B&H site was having the same issue.

It isn't a good idea to use two mics and sum them to mono. If you have to do mono, one well placed mic will sound better. It would be best to add a stereo preamp or small mixer to make the whole chain stereo.