Kolpak DA-98 manual Setting the power-on message, Lecting dither settings

to INIT

Section 8 – Advanced operations

input bits, as in the case of the DA-98) to a lower number (for instance 16, the DA-98’s tape word length) to improve quantization.

Paradoxically, this technique of adding noise removes quantization noise and distortion at low signal levels and improves the overall distortion figures.1

Though quantization noise is reduced, there is a loss of a few dB in the signal-to-noise ratio. For this reason, the DA-98 does not implement dither as a standard, but allows you to choose between no dither, rectangular or triangular (the shapes refer to the distribution of values in the digital noise). Rectangular gives about 3dB better signal- to-noise ratio than triangular, but there is noise modulation, which may be audible when record- ing and playing back low-level program sources.

NOTES

•We suggest using the confidence mode of off-tape mon- itoring when recording using dither in order to be able to check the effect instantly (see 7.2, “Confidence mode”).

•Dither can be turned on and off while recording is tak- ing place. However, there will probably be an audible

change in the sound quality. We suggest making a test recording before a session using confidence mode. In

s way you will be able to make an instant assessment

of eff cts of the different dither settings on your pro- gram matherialr.

8.13.1 S lecting dither settings

1)DitherSelect menu group 1, move the cursor to and press ENTER.

Rectangular

8.14 Setting the power-on message

You can set a power-on message of up to 20 char- acte s (letters, numbers and some punctuation) whichoillerbe-displayedonMewhenssathegeDA-98 is turned on.

TheRCKJOESdefault message isTUDIOSTASCAM.To set a message

1) PwrOnSelect m Msgnu r up 2, move the cursor to and press ENTER:

other than this:SCLEARINIT

2)To clear the current message, use the LEFT and RIGHT keys to move the cursor to CLEARand press the ENTER key.

3)Use the LEFT and RIGHT keys to move the cursor to the left field, and press the UP and DOWN keys to select a character.

Characters available are: Athrough Z, -, ., [space] and 1through 9(you can use the letter

“O” for the “ 0” (zero) character).

4)Press E TER to confirm the character and add it to the end of the power-on message.

5)Press ESCAPE when all characters have been entered.

NOTE

To reset the message to TASCAM, move the cursor and press the ENTER key. The current

message will be erased and replaced.

2)Use the UP and DOWN keys to select the dither function you want, and press ENTER to confirm the setting.

1A full discussion of dither and other digital audio tech- niques is outside the scope of this manual. However, a good starting point for learning about this, and other aspects of digital audio, is John Watkinson’s The Art of Digital Audio, pub Focal Press.

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