With the Sony PCM-1610, equal amplitude digital pulses are used to represent all audio signal waveforms. This means that every pulse can be recorded at a level well above the residual noise level and well below the saturation level. Thus, the system’s dynamic range is no longer limited by the parameters of magnetic tape and heads. The Sony PCM-1610 has a remarkably wide 90dB of dynamic range, which is about 30dB better than that of the best analogue tape recorders. And the only technology required to achieve this was to incorporate A/D and D/A converters with a 1 6-bit quantising capability.
The frequency response is flat within + 0.5 dB and -1 dB from 20Hz out to 20,000Hz. Harmonic, distortion is never worse than 0.05%. Wow and flutter are loo minute to be measured. This is because, in the Sony PCM-1610 millions of pulses corresponding to the audio signal are first stored in the short-term memory and then released in perfect, uniform sequence determined by a reference clock. Modulation noise is totally absent for the same reason, and this gives a fascinating inner purity lo the sound.
Obviously, the PCM-1610 is completely free of any performance limitations, and thus can provide a distinctively audible improvement. Even those, who are accustomed to the best possible analogue studio equipment will be astonished to discover how much clarity they have been missing up titi now.
The Perfect Studio Master
The Sony PCM-1610 can instantly replace the existing 2- channel analogue mastering equipment, giving you substantially better sound as well as increased operational convenience. First, the Sony PCM-1610 can operate in perfect synchronisation with professional videocassette recorders. Sony also offers U-matic digital audio recorders, such as the BVU-800DA and VO-5850DA/5850PDA, designed exclusively for use with digital audio processors for improved operational convenience. Second, the PCM’1610 lets you record separate takes and edit them at will, Sony has an advanced editor, the DAE’1100, developed to serve the specialised needs of digital audio.
With this unit, editing can be performed much more easily and accurately than with any conventional analogue system. Electronic editing, as opposed to tape-splice editing, also allows the original recording to be used again and again. Third, direct digital-to-digital dubbing is possible. In professional recording, it is a common practice to make several dubbings from the original master recording. With an analogue system, each dubbing is itself a poorer version of the original with noise increasing each time a copy Is made.
With the Sony PCM-1610 and the BVU-800DA or VO 5850DA combination, however, any number of dubbings can be made with absolutely no deterioration of the signal quality. Each copy, regardless of the generation, sounds as If it is a master itself. In addition, digital recording also eliminates problems such as print-through. Digital recording, after all, can maintain the original high quality even after going through various studio operations of mixing down, adding reverberation 1 repeat dubbing, and so on.
Why Sony Is Your Choice
One aspect of digital audio which seems to make everyone nervous is the problem of dropouts. Tape dropouts can, of course, pose a serious problem in a digital system. In an analogue system, a short dropout is often undetectable, since our ears tend to fill in the gaps If they are sufficiently short. In a digital system, however, dropouts mean an absence of pulses, which the system would interpret not as massing music but as a different bit-code altogether. Accordingly, an effective error correction scheme becomes essential.
Sony, as the leader in digital audio technology, has eliminated this problem. When a word consists of 16 bits, as with the Sony PCM-1610, a professional video tape has approximately 50% redundancy for error correction codes. Using this redundancy, “Cross Word Codes”, which is original with Sony, are built into the basic bit stream of the Sony PCM-1610. These codes not only can detect the data code errors but can also actually correct them. In addition, they can cope with extremely extensive burst errors.
By virtue of interleaving, the Cross Word Codes can perfectly correct burst errors as large as 2,240 bits {11.7 horizontal TV lines) in one interleaved block of 6,720 bits (35 horizontal lines). Errors greater than this but less than 4,480 bits (23.3 horizontal lines) can be compensated for by means of linear Interpolation. Probability of errors exceeding this limit is ail but nil in practical applications, unless a tape of inferior quality is used. This means that the PCM-1610 Is fully capable of offering failsafe reproduction. The effects of code errors by dropouts will never be audible under any conditions.
Main Features
The Sony PCM-1610 has enormous potential benefits in every aspect of quality, operation, and system flexibility. Consider how perfectly and comprehensively it can serve your professional needs.
- Instant VTR Interfacing For the convenience of professional users, the Sony PCM-1610 features the same input/output specifications and connectors as those of professional videocassette recorders. For the interconnections between these units, BNC connectors are used. For analogue connections, the Sony PCM-1610 naturally is fitted with balanced type XLR connectors.
- Synchronised Operation The Sony PCM-1610 can be locked to an external sync, such as the NTSC composite sync signal from a video signal source or the sampling clock from another digital audio processor. This means that it can be operated in perfect synchronisation with video equipment and other digital audio units, giving you the flexibility you need to set up any studio recording arrangement.
- Wide Interchangeability The PCM- 1610 features two built-in sampling frequencies and a serial format for digital input and output, making it perfectly interchangeable with the PCM100, another of Sony’s professional digital audio processors. The Sony PCM-1610 is also capable of reproducing the tape programs recorded with the PCM-1600.
- Digital-to-Digital Dubbing Using the Sony PCM-1610 and a pair of BVU 800DA or VO-5e50DA digital audio recorders, direct digital-to-digital dubbing can be performed with no degradation in signal quality. Even after repeated dubbing, the high quality of the original recording remains true.
- Digital Editing Adding the DAE-1100 digital audio editor to a combination of the PCM-1610 and a pair of digital audio recorders make a fully electronic digital editing system. The edit accuracy of this system is an amazing 363 microseconds, which is equivalent to 16 words with the Sony PCM-1610. The ordinary video editing console, the BVE-800, can also be used in place of the DAE-1100 if the requirements are not so demanding.
- Extraordinary Specifications Because of its operating principle, the PCM-1610 can offer a host of impressive specification figures. Outstanding among them are a dynamic range that is greater than 90dB. undetectable wow and flutter, unusual frequency response flatness from 20Hz to 20,000Hz, and vanishingly low distortion over this entire audio frequency spectrum.
- 16-blt Linear Quantisation To realise true high fidelity recording and reproduction, the PCM-1610 employs A/D and D/A converters with 16-bil quantising capability for each channel. The PCM-1610 also uses a high-performance low-pass filter which steeply cuts the audio frequencies at just below half the sampling frequency to eliminate aliasing noise.
- Effective Error Correction Though the chances of dropouts are minimal when combined with Sony’s advanced digital audio recorder and high-quality videocassette tape, the PCM-1610 employs the Cross Word Codes to prevent code errors from affecting the reproduced sound quality.
- Built-in SMPTE Time Code Generator The Sony PCM-1610 incorporates an SMPTE time code generator. With this new function, il is now possible to address the program contents precisely on the tape. Besides the time code track of the videocassette tape, this code can be recorded on either of the audio track. For this reason, the PCM-1610 has two different connectors, BNC and Cannon XLR^ for feeding out the SMPTE time code.
- Additional Emphasis Switch The Sony PCM-1610 is equipped with a manual emphasis switch to put pre-emphasis on recording. The basic curve incorporates a 50fiS boost, that is. an approximate 10dB lift at around 20kHz in recording. A code that indicates whether a signal has pre-emphasis or alternatively is digitalised as flat is imprinted in the data codes so that it can be extracted in playback and can automatically activate the de-emphasis switching circuitry when appropriate. Emphasis/de-emphasis has the effect of further improving the signal-to- noise ratio in high frequencies.
- Superb Analog Circuit The analogue circuit of the Sony PCM-1610 consists of high-quality components and devices including specially selected IC operational amplifiers and line transformers. The Sony PCM-1610 also has an internal switch which can make the signal bypass the input and output transformers for improved sound quality.
- Muting Facility The REC MUTE switch can be effectively used to provide appropriate no-signal intervals between programs. On the PCM-1610, there is another muting switch with NORMAL and HOLD indications. This can be used in playback to mute dropout errors beyond the correction capability of the PCM-1610. With this switch set to the “HOLD” position, the associated LED lamp will stay lit once such an error has occurred. This is especially convenient because it informs you of the existence of dropouts^ even if they occurred while you were not present, in addition, any of nine muting durations can be pre-set with a switch on the printed circuit board.
- LED Peak Level Meters The Sony PCM-1610 incorporates one of the finest meters for high visibility and accuracy. The scale being vertical and employing as many as 24 LED segments per channel, the levels can be noted with amazing accuracy. For each channel, just below the normal level calibrations, there is also an extra expanded scale designed to facilitate 0dB setting. This scale consists of five segments in 0.2dB steps with the 0dB mark in the centre.
