[Warrick Sony]

I was interested to find your piece on the PMD 660. I have had the same problem. I was recording a traditional Xhosa wedding in Lusikisiki, South Africa and found that as soon as there was high volume chanting and singing the sound started breaking up even though I had the -20db pad on.No matter how low I pulled the level down it was totally unusable sound. I thought it was the mic overloading – a Sennheisser 816 long rifle which is usually tough and reliable – so I changed to a pair of AKG 416’s but with no relief.I used to do a lot of professional film sound recording work during the 80’s and 90’s (never came across such a problem) and trust the 816 under any condition so I could only conclude that it was the machine. Basically ruined a very expensive and historic trip. The soft recordings of ambiance and quiet hand held instruments were good but this is a poor design limitation. Good thing I didn’t buy it!